Terence Michael Shortt
Terence Michael Shortt was one of Canada's most distinguished ornithologist artists. He dedicated his life to the depiction of birds in their natural surroundings and influenced many others, including Robert Bateman and J. Fenwick Lansdowne.
He worked at the Royal Ontario Museum from 1930 to 1976 and was made in charge of display from 1948 on which accounts for the accuracy of the ROM's dioramas and exhibits.
Shortt led more than 30 expeditions to Alaska, Mexico, the Galapagos, India and East Africa.
Work
Shortt was born in Winnipeg and attended the Winnipeg School of Art, studying with LeMoine FitzGerald and R. Keith Gebhart. He travelled to the Arctic on RMS SS Nascopie in 1938 as the resident ornithologist and shared a cabin with Frederick Varley for three months. Varley coached him on painting, stressing he should be more of an artist than a scientist. He began to work for the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in 1930 as a field artist and gallery assistant. In 1933 he became artist-ornithologist for the museum. His career there spanned 46 years. In 1948 he became Chief of Art and Exhibits and in 1959, head of the Biology display. He created many world-class dioramas for the museum as well as leading many expeditions to places such as Galapagos, India and East Africa to gather specimens. He retired in 1976 as Head Artist.He had numerous exhibitions of his work, among them a retrospective in 1977 with over 100 works, organized and circulated by the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa along with Pagurian Press.
Shortt was a member of the Brodie Club, and a member of the American Ornithologists Union from 1931. He was elected a life member of the Union in 1943. He also was elected a member of the Explorers Club of New York.
The Terence Michael Shortt Field notebooks, illustrations and photographs are in the Academy of Natural Sciences Archives, Drexel University, Philadelphia.