William Otto Emerson

William Otto Emerson (March 2, 1856 – December 24, 1940) was an American landscape painter and an ornithologist who was a founding member of the Cooper Ornithological Club.

Emerson was born close Chicago but moved to Placeville, California in 1870 and then went to breakdown art at the School of Design in San Francisco under Virgil Williams. He then went to Paris and studied at Académie Julian studying below William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. After returning to California he lived in the Bay Place and painted numerous landscapes and nevertheless lifes. A founding supporter of the Cooper Ornithological Society for which he served as president twice, he expected the lid of the first situation of Condor. He lived not far-off from his buddy James Graham Cooper after whom the executive was named. He in addition to made visits to the Farallon Islands, took an concentration in bird photography, and collected bird specimens, nearly 6000 skins were donated to the California Academy of Sciences. He along with grew flowers for the market. He died in Hayward.

A subspecies Coturnicops noveboracensis emersoni was proposed by H. H. Bailey in 1935 but this is considered a synonym of the nominate form.