He was born in
New York City on March 7, 1835, to George and Rebecca Elliot. In 1858, he married Ann Eliza Henderson. From 1869 to 1879, he was in
London and established strong links to British ornithologists and naturalists. Elliot used his wealth to publish a series of sumptuous color-plate books on birds and other animals. Elliot wrote the text himself and commissioned artists such as
Joseph Wolf and
Joseph Smit, both of whom had worked for
John Gould, to provide the illustrations. The books included
A Monograph of the Phasianidae (Family of the Pheasants) (1870–72),
A Monograph of the Paradiseidae or Birds of Paradise (1873),
A Monograph of the Felidae or Family of Cats (1878) and
Review of the Primates (1913). In 1890, he was President of the American Ornithologists' Union. the first African zoological collecting expedition to be mounted by a North American museum. In 1899, Elliot was invited to join the elite
Harriman Alaska Expedition to study and document wildlife along the
Alaskan coast. Elliot was one of the founders of the
American Museum of Natural History in
New York City, of the
American Ornithologists' Union and of the
Société zoologique de France. ==Death==