Dr. Robert Ridgeway was an ornithologist who photographed the trees and forests along the lower Wabash River during the late 1800s. His photographs capture the forests at a time when they were rapidly disappearing as the result of a booming timber industry. Ridgeway recorded the height, crown width, and diameter of many of the larger trees he photographed. Original forests and old growth trees of immense proportions are immortalized through his photographic work.