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Robert Kennicott (November 13, 1835 - May 13, 1866) was an American naturalist.

Kennicott was born in New Orleans and grew up in Chicago. From 1853 he worked for Spencer Fullerton Baird at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. where he became a leading member of the Megatherium Club. In April 1859 he set off on an expedition to collect natural history specimens in the subarctic boreal forests of northwestern Canada in what is now the Mackenzie and Yukon river valleys and in the Arctic tundra beyond. Kenicott became popular with Hudson's Bay Company fur traders in the area and encouraged them to collect and send natural history specimens and First Nations artifacts to the Smithsonian. He returned to Washington at the end on 1862.

While working at the Smithsonian Institution under Assistant Secretary Spencer F. Baird, Robert Kennicott wrote the original descriptions of many new snake taxa brought back by expeditions to the American West.^[1][2]

In 1865 the Western Union Telegraph Expedition was mounted to find a possible route for a telegraph line between North America and Russia by way of the Bering Sea. Kennicott was selected as the scientist for this expedition, and the party of naturalists sent to assist him included W.H. Dall.

The expedition arrived in San Francisco in April, but disagreements between its leaders meant that little was achieved. The party moved north to Vancouver where Kennicott suffered a period of ill health. After his recovery they moved north again to Alaska. Kennicott died of Congestive heart failure while traveling up the Yukon River.

Robert Kennicott's grave is located in the Kennicott Family plot in Glenview, Illinois at The Grove' a National Historic Landmark Kennicott Glacier, Kennicott Valley, and the Kennicott River were named after him.

• Audubon to Xanthus: The Lives of Those Commemorated in North American Bird Names - Mearns and Mearns ISBN 0-12-487423-1

1. ^ Adler, K. 1989. Contributions to the History of Herpetology. Society for the Study of Amphibians & Reptiles. pp.41-42.
2. ^ Kennicott, R. 1861. On three new forms of rattlesnakes. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 13:206-208.