He was born in
Middletown,
Connecticut in 1858. He received a
B.S. from the
University of New York in 1878, when he entered the U.S. government service. He was expert special agent on fisheries for the
10th census, 1879. That year he became librarian and acting curator of mammals, which positions he filled until 1883. True was curator of mammals at the U.S. National Museum (1883-1909), curator of comparative anatomy (1885-1890), executive curator (1894-1897), head curator of biology (1897-1911) and assistant secretary in charge of the library and international exchange service (1911-1914). He started his career studying
invertebrates,
True's vole and
True's shrew mole were named by him, and have vernacular names in his honor. ==Works==