Robert Parr Whitfield was born on May 27, 1828, in New Hartford, New York.

He was a paleontologist and the first curator of the American Museum of Natural History. He was self-educated and possessed tremendous drawing skills. He collected fossils and began to assist the New York State Survey in 1856. In 1858, he became assistant to Professor James Hall in Albany, New York. In 1870, Whitfield was appointed curator of the New York State Museum. During his twenty-year association with Prof. Hall, Whitfield prepared thousands of drawings of various fossil groups, e.g., graptolites, crinoids, and brachiopods. He was appointed Professor of Geology at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York (1872-1878). In 1877, he was hired by the American Museum of Natural History to curate and care for the James Hall Collection. He started as a Curator of Geology, and by 1885, his title changed to Curator of Geological, Mineralogical and Conchological Department. Whitfield helped found the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History and published many papers and articles. He received an honorary M. A. degree from Wesleyan University in 1882. He was an original Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

In 1847, he married Mary Henry (1827-). He died on April 6, 1910, in Troy, New York.