Robert A. Gilbert

{{Short description|American nature photographer (1870–1942)}}

{{Other people|Robert Gilbert}}

Robert Alexander Gilbert (born c. 1870, Natural Bridge, Virginia; died January 7, 1942, Cambridge, Massachusetts){{cite journal|date=July 1942|title=Obituaries|journal=The Auk|volume=59|page=467}} was an African-American nature photographer. Gilbert was a helper{{cite journal|date=June 1920|title=In Memoriam: William Brewster|journal=The Auk|volume=37|issue=1|pages=8–}} and field assistant{{cite news|url=https://library.mcz.harvard.edu/blog/notes-william-brewster-trials-wildlife-photography|title=Notes from William Brewster: Trials in Wildlife Photography|last=Meyer|first=Elizabeth|date=July 26, 2016|publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University|access-date=28 November 2017}} to ornithologist William Brewster from 1896 or 1897 until Brewster's death in 1919 and was later employed at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. His photographic work while employed by Brewster went uncredited until the publication of a book-length biography on Gilbert by John Hanson Mitchell, Looking for Mr. Gilbert: The Unlikely Life of the First African American Landscape Photographer.{{cite news|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-hanson-mitchell/looking-for-mr-gilbert/|title=Review: LOOKING FOR MR. GILBERT by John Hanson Mitchell|work=Kirkus Reviews|date=May 20, 2010|accessdate=28 November 2017}}{{cite news|url=http://ca.audubon.org/news/early-contributor-our-knowledge-birds-and-nature|title=An early contributor to our knowledge of birds and nature|last=Frost|first=Garrison|date=February 10, 2017|publisher=National Audubon Society|accessdate=28 November 2017}}{{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=John Hanson|title=Looking for Mr. Gilbert: The Unlikely Life of the First African American Landscape Photographer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDkRBAAAQBAJ|accessdate=28 November 2017|date=2014-08-12|publisher=Open Road Distribution|isbn=9781497672826}}{{cite journal|last=Lynch|first=Mark|title=The Invisible Man Goes Birding|journal=Bird Observer|volume=33|issue=5|pages=310–313}}