The Don and Virginia Eckelberry Endowment for nature artists was established in 2000 to honor two distinguished artists who devoted their careers to celebrating the diversity of the natural world through art.

The Eckelberry’s legacy endures through the superb quality of their own creations and through their lifelong commitment to helping others pursuing careers in this vital field.

Jessup funds are awarded competitively to students wishing to conduct studies at the postgraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral levels under the supervision or sponsorship of a member of the curatorial staff of the Academy. Such studies may be in any specialty in which these curators have expertise.