Tales Dead Birds Tell: the historical and cultural context of early avian specimens in the biology collections of Randolph College more

TALES DEAD BIRDS TELL: The Historical and Cultural Context of Early Avian Specimens in the Biology Collections of Randolph College EMILY PATTON SMITH SENIOR THESIS HERITAGE STUDIES ADVISOR: KELLEY FANTO DEETZ PROJECT ADVISOR: DOUGLAS SHEDD SUBMITTED: 16 DECEMBER 2011 FINAL EDITING: 21 FEBRUARY 2012 S mi th |2 Natural history collections serve to teach us about the extent and evolution of biodiversity; they also teach us about the evolution of the human understanding of, and relationships with, the natural world. Early avian specimens in the collection of the Randolph College biology department have direct ties to notable nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scientists and collectors, and derive from important private collections as well as the Smithsonian. By examining the provenance of these early specimens, we may begin to appreciate their significance, not simply as scientific reference material, but also important artifacts of our cultural heritage. They are relevant to understanding issues of imperialism, the westward expansion of the United States, the development of conservation law, and the value of individual appreciation for ecological sustainability. Natural History in Nineteenth Century America The study of natural history has been a prevalent force in the exploration of America since the sixteenth century. Voyages of exploration were expensive and dangerous enterprises, and were not undertaken out of mere curiosity; geographical features were mapped, and newly discovered plants and animals catalogued, as means of assessing a new region's resources and climate and thus determine its potential for colonization.1 The planners of a 1585 voyage to establish a British colony in Virginia instructed that the expedition should include an artist, whose task was to "drawe to life all strange birdes beastes fishes plantes hearbes Trees and fruictes and bring home of eache sorte as nere as you may"2. The resulting watercolors, made by John White on several successive voyages to North Carolina, Virginia, and the West Indies now in the British Museum provided England with its first reliable images of the botanical and zoological riches of the New World.3 As settlements in the coastal American colonies grew in the eighteenth century and resources such as soil and timber were depleted, lands on the western frontier were surveyed and charted to expand the boundaries of settlement and take advantage of virgin resources.4 Simultaneously European scientists, obsessed with identifying the systems by which the universe was ordered, had an "inexhaustible curiosity" in the amazing biodiversity found in the vast American wilderness and the clues Susan Parrish (2006), American Curiosity: cultures of natural history in the colonial British Atlantic world, 9, 70-71. Sloan (2007), A New World: England's first view of America, 42. 3 For detailed information on White and the historical and scientific context of his drawings, see Sloan (2007). 4 Robert McCracken Peck, "Preserving nature for study and display," in Sue Ann Prince (2006), Stuffing birds, pressing plants, shaping knowledge: natural history in North America, 21. 2 1 S mi th |3 each new species offered regarding the "great scheme" of creation.5 The combined interests of economic imperialism and scientific insight led to the establishment of a flourishing trade in botanical and zoological specimens across the Atlantic. An American counterpart to the Royal Society, the American Philosophical Society, was founded in Philadelphia in 1743 to promote scientific discourse and exchange.6 Artists such as William Bartram and John James Audubon travelled extensively on the frontier, collecting specimens and making detailed drawings for patrons in scientific circles abroad.7 With the purchase of the Louisiana Territories in 1803, the new United States government funded an expedition corps to explore and chart the new territory, with explicit directions to collect zoological and botanical specimens when possible8 a practice that would continue with the various United States Geological and Geographical Surveys of the Territories through the end of the nineteenth century.9 It is not accidental that the growth of the study of natural history that occurred in the western world of the nineteenth century coincided with the expansion of European and American imperial power. In his assessment of the cultural phenomenon of the natural history collection, Stephen Asma discusses the argument made by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, who "claims that collecting and arranging is itself an exertion of power or dominance" since it is the collector who determines the place of each specimen in the scheme of the larger collection.10 Systems of taxonomy, as they developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, might be viewed as an extension of this "imperial" practice. However, taxonomy was also considered a necessary tool for allowing people to understand both "natural" and perceived relationships between living organisms.11 According to historian and theorist Discussed extensively in Parrish. Parrish 21. 7 On Bartram, see Michel Gaudio, "Surface and depth: the art of early American natural history," in Sue Ann Prince (2006) Stuffing birds, pressing plants, shaping knowledge: natural history in North America, 1730-1860, 59-61; for an overview of Audubon and the context of early nineteenth-century zoological study, see Dance (1978), The Art of Natural History. 8 Jefferson planned for such explorations as early as January 1793, when he dispatched André Michaux to chart the topography of the land west of the Missouri River to the Pacific: You will, in the course of your journey, take notice of the country you pass through soil, rivers, mountains, productions animal, vegetable, & mineral so far as they may be new to us & may also be useful or very curious . Jefferson expressed particular interest in knowing whether mammoths and llamas or alpacas could be found in the West. See Thomas Jefferson, letter to André Michaux, after January 23, 1793 (Letterpress copy of letter, 4 pp., with transcription), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Papers. 9 Mike Foster (1994) Strange genius: the life of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, 154-55 and 305-322, discusses the succession of surveys, which underwent several title changes before the final organization of the United States Geological Survey in 1879. 10 Stephen T. Asma (2001) Stuffed animals and pickled heads: the culture and evolution of natural history museums, 11. 11 Asma, 85-88; see also Ernst Mayr and W. J. Bock (2002) Classifications and other ordering systems, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Research 40 p. 171. 6 5 S mi th |4 Michel Foucault, "Natural history is nothing more than the nomination of the visible." Following this definition, taxonomy is understood as the relationship between "two irreducible elements: seeing and the naming of that which is seen."12 As practical, effective systems of taxonomy developed, they enhanced the ability of scientists and amateurs alike to describe and classify what they saw in nature. In the eighteenth century, Linnaeus s Systema Naturae offered a logical, comparative method for the classification of plants, which was easily learned and thus helped to popularize the study of botany.13 Charles Darwin s On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, offered nineteenth-century zoologists a basis for a logical taxonomy of animals based on evolutionary relationships, and made the study of biology an attractive and accessible to the broader public.14 The increasing popular interest in the natural world was both a reaction against industrialization and a direct result of imperial expansion and scientific discovery.15 With the growth of cities and increased access to factory-made material goods and "artificial" pastimes, people of the nineteenth century sought a sense of "connectedness" with nature on a very personal level. According to Daniel Carter Beard, a co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, individual interest in natural history was desirable for many reasons: [N]o study affords such opportunities for physical exercise and real healthy enjoyment as that of natural history. It is a study that, by broadening the horizon of thought, enlarges the capacity for pleasure. To the pride of the sportsman in exhibiting the results of his skill and success, the naturalist adds the intelligent pleasure of acquiring a more complete knowledge of the life and habits, nature and anatomy of his trophies, as well as the ability to detect at a glance any unknown genus or rare variety he may capture[.]16 Moreover, unlike many fields of science, the study of the natural history was not limited to men. Popular magazines encouraged women to "collect and preserve specimens" for the adornment of their homes, but also as a means by which they, and their children, might learn to appreciate the natural world.17 The importance placed upon the collecting of specimens with respect to the study of natural history cannot be understated. The founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Quoted in Gaudio in Prince ed., 58. Gaudio in Prince ed., 59; also Asma 118. 14 On the effects of evolutionary theory on taxonomic structure, see Mayr and Bock 169-194. On popularity: Darwin's work was even recommended reading in Godey s Lady s Book, a popular American fashion magazine of the mid-nineteenth century. See Tolini, Michelle. Beetle abominations and birds in bonnets: zoological fantasy in late-nineteenth-century dress, 19th Century Art Worldwide Vol I Is 1 (Spring 2002), www.19thc-artworldwide.org (accessed 29 Nov 2011). Page numbers unavailable. 15 Ibid. 16 Beard (1880) The American Boy's handy book, 232. 17 Tolini. 13 12 S mi th |5 asserted that "Natural History can only be studied by means of natural objects; and in order to render the latter useful, they must be carefully exhibited, arranged and labeled" using systems which reflected the most current scientific knowledge.18 Whether representative plants, animals, fossils, or ethnographic artifacts, "the specimens that tacked eastward across the Atlantic" from the Americas "were a major source for the development of botany, pharmacology, zoology, paleontology, geology, and ethnology, among other sciences."19 Zoological specimens were the representatives of organisms the individual scientist or student might never see alive, in its native habitat; their preservation and organization in a natural history collection allowed for their comparison against other specimens from many sites around the globe. Thus, for "serious scholars of natural history, the variety of specimens and the state of their preservation" were the two most important considerations with regard to specimens.20 The acquisition of specimens for such collections on a large scale was usually the task of professional scientists and collectors sponsored by governments or educational institutions, but for the amateur inclined to start a personal collection of natural history specimens, opportunity abounded. "Field clubs" were popular social organizations which afforded men and women the chance to collaborate in organized field collecting events; they also sponsored lectures and lyceums to educate the public on various aspects of natural history.21 If one wished to diversify his collection beyond the specimens which could be locally obtained, he might trade with friends or associates in other places, or even purchase exotic specimens outright at auction or from a supply house.22 By the nineteenth century, collectors also had access to a vast array of information on how to preserve and maintain specimens in personal collections, as well as the supplies with which to do so. Many of the early recipes for specimen preparation included ingredients such as pepper, arsenic, and tobacco; these were readily available from apothecary shops, which also sold mounting pins and other collecting supplies.23 Taxidermy, which allowed the naturalist to "properly preserve an otherwise Quoted in Peck, "Preserving " in Prince ed., 21. Parrish 8. 20 Robert McCracken Peck, "Alcohol and arsenic, pepper and pitch: brief histories of preservation techniques," in Prince ed., 40. 21 See Michael A. Salmon (2000) The Aurelian legacy: British butterflies and their collectors, 43-47. Many of the early naturalist field clubs still exist today, especially in the United Kingdom. In the United States, they have largely evolved into more specialized organizations such as birding clubs, although the Master Naturalist programs in some states have revived the "field club" approach to involve amateur volunteers in activities pertaining to natural history and ecological conservation. 22 Salmon 365-68. 23 Because physicians ranked among the earliest field collectors, apothecaries stocked collecting supplies beginning in the late seventeenth century. Peck, "Alcohol ", in Prince ed., 28. Late in the nineteenth century druggists were frequently called upon to mix "arsenical soap" for preserving specimens; see Beard 239. 19 18 S mi th |6 perishable specimen,"24 was described in varying detail in a range of publications, so that almost anyone with an interest in natural history could learn the essentials of the art. A popular art manual for ladies by Levina Buoncuore Urbino and Henry Day, Art Recreations (1860), included basic instruction for taxidermy: Take out the entrails; remove the skin with the greatest possible care; rub over the whole interior with arsenic, (a deadly poison;) put wires from the head to the legs to preserve the natural form, and stuff immediately with tow, wool, or the like. If allowed to dry after applying the arsenic, the skin becomes too stiff to handle. Another, and as we think, a better way for very small birds, is, "after taking out the entrails, to open a passage to the brain, which must be scooped out through the mouth; introduce into the cavities of the skull and the whole body a mixture of salt, pepper, and alum, putting some through the gullet and whole length of the neck; then hang the bird in a cool, airy place first, by the feet, that the body may be impregnated by the salt, and afterward by a thread through the upper mandible of the bill then hang in the sun, or near a fire. After it is well dry, clear out what remains of the mixture, and fill up the cavity of the body with wool, oakum, or any soft substance."25 One may surmise that middle-class ladies of the nineteenth century, who supervised the skinning of fowl and game in their own kitchens, would not have been averse to the added steps involved in cleaning and preparing skins for display. In his Boy's Handy Book of 1880, Daniel Carter Beard, a cofounder of the Boy Scouts of America, described a similar process in more extensive detail, but eschewed the salting method in favor of application of arsenical compounds, presumably for their effectiveness in preventing insect damage.26 Even if individuals were not inclined to skin and preserve specimens for display in their homes, they could still enjoy access to study collections from which to learn the particulars of natural history. Especially in the cities, the demand for public collections grew at an astounding rate. According to Tolini, "The late nineteenth century witnessed unparalleled growth in the number of natural history museums in America and Europe," including the American Museum of Natural History in New York (1869) and the British Museum of Natural History at Kensington (1881). The demand for museums was a direct result of growth in the middle class, which had leisure time at its disposal for the pursuit of education and entertainment. By 1900, Great Britain and the United States boasted 250 natural history museums each; France, 300; and Germany, 150.27 Although the Smithsonian was established in 1846, the National Museum of Natural History as a separate division opened in 1910, in part because of the growth that 24 25 Beard 232. Urbino / Day (1860) 259-260. 26 Beard 233-239. 27 Tolini. S mi th |7 department experienced in the last half of the nineteenth century.28 Numerous world's fairs, such as the 1889 Paris Exposition29and the Columbian Exposition of 1893, also responded to popular interest in natural history, featuring elaborate recreations of exotic ecosystems, populated by mounted animal specimens.30 Natural History Collections in Educational Institutions In addition to the public museums, colleges and universities built collections of natural history specimens for use as visual aids and instructional tools in the biological science departments. Such collections had their beginnings in ancient Greek universities,31 and saw a resurgence during the Renaissance in Europe, when the development of modern methods of scientific inquiry began in earnest. By the eighteenth century, the interest in developing logical, efficient systems of biological classification demanded reference collections of specimens representing each "type", allowing researchers to compare and analyze species based on morphology as well as locality, habit, and habitat. Institutional collections of preserved skins, such as those in the Randolph College collection, are still extremely important in the study of the biological sciences. A recent article in the New York Times32described the collections at Harvard, where drawers of extinct birds allow researchers to investigate the genetics and historic population distribution of lost species. Historic collections also allow scientists to compare past populations with current ones, as tag notations identifying collection sites indicate possible changes in distribution and migration routes due to lost habitat or climatic change.33 Tracking of intraspecific genetic variations in features such as coloration is also possible over the long term using data from historical collections.34 On a more fundamental level, specimens serve as a basis for direct visual comparison and contrast; they function as very tactile teaching tools through which students can examine firsthand the traits unique to each species, at a near proximity which could Smithsonian and NMNH websites, http://www.si.edu/About and http://www.mnh.si.edu/about.html (2 Dec 2011). 29 Boucard (1895). Title page acknowledges Boucard s participation as an exhibitor of natural history. 30 Asma 88-9 discusses also the propagandist aspects of these displays. 31 Edward P. and Mary Alexander (2008) Museums in motion, 3-4, describes the Mouseion of Alexandria and its collections, which included a preserved elephant trunk and animal hides as well as a botanical and zoological park. 32 Dean, Cornelia. A venerable birding club, at the epicenter of all things feathered. The New York Times 28 Nov 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/science/nations-oldest-birding-group-serves-as-a-collectivememory.html?_r=2&hpw 33 Rhys E. Green (2008) "Demographic mechanism of a historical bird population collapse reconstructed using museum specimens," Proc Royal Society B 275, 2381-2387. 34 Dean. 28 S mi th |8 never be attained in the field. For these reasons and more, colleges and universities continue to collect specimens and maintain study collections. An Overview of the Randolph College Avian Collection Randolph College currently holds a salvage permit from the Virginia Division of Game and Wildlife, for the purposes of adding to its collections of specimens for scientific study.35 Over the summer of 2011, the Randolph College avian collections were re-catalogued, with the goal of developing a systematic inventory which would reflect the taxonomic relationships between the birds in the study collection.36 At this date, the collection numbers 303 specimens; of these, one specimen is an osteological skull37, a few specimens38 consist of single wings or tail feathers, and one species39 is represented by a single feather. The remainder of the specimens consists of study skins, with the exception of five full mounts40. The locations of seven specimens41 featured in the early handwritten inventory are presently unknown. In the current collection of birds, 51 families are represented. Much of the history of the formation of the college collections is, to date, unknown.42 A few exotic mounts including a kiwi still in the collection feature in photographs in a 1913 textbook by the longtime head of the R-MWC biology department, J. Irvin Hamaker.43 Prior to the formation of the present catalogue, however, no comprehensive inventory of the avian collection existed. A handwritten catalogue and corresponding loose pages44 identified bird, mammal, fish, and reptile specimens in the The salvage permit allows for the collection of specimens already dead as a result of incidents such as road or window kills, or those specimens acquired from previous collections. 36 Smith, Emily, and Douglas Shedd. Catalogue of the Randolph College Avian Study Collection, 2011. (Excel file, Randolph College Biology Department) All specimens and their corresponding catalogue numbers are derived from this inventory. 37 Cygnus olor, AV3.2.1/1-2011. 38 One Falco sparverius, AV12.1.1/3-2011; two of Strix varia right wing AV22.3.1/6-2011, and tail AV22.3.1/72011; and two of Turdus migratorius left wing AV39.3.3/25-2011, and right wing AV39.3.3/26-2011. 39 Pavo cristatus, AV5.5.1/1-2011. 40 Apteryx sp., AV1.1.1/1-2011; Aptenodytes forsteri, AV2.1.1/1-2011; Aix sponsa, 3.3.1/1-2011; Gavia immer, AV6.1.1/1-2011; and Haliaeetus leucocephalus AV11.1.1/1-2011. 41 Pavo cristatus, AV5.5.1/1-2011; Haliaeetus pelagicus, AV11.1.3/1-2011; Accipitor bicolor, AV11.2.2/1-2011; Buteo lineatus, AV11.3.1/1-2011; Chordeiles gundlachii, AV23.1.2/1-2011; Regulus calendula, AV38.1.2/1-2011; and Passerina rositae, AV47.4.2/1-2011. It is unknown whether these birds were deaccessioned or simply misplaced. In each case the specimen in question is the only representative of its species in the catalogue, though according to subsequent legislation they are largely irreplaceable. This demonstrates the urgent need, expressed by Dr. Shedd, for updated records and the development of a collections management procedure. 42 Individuals, such as former faculty or alumnae, may prove an additional source of information regarding the history of the collections. 43 Hamaker (1913), Principles of biology, 303. Some of the mammal mounts feature on other pages. 44 The handwritten catalogue is a black clothbound composition book and entries appear to have been made in three stages between 1958 and 1968, based on the various handwriting featured; in the first hand, the latest 35 S mi th |9 collection until about 1968, but it appears that this list may never have been comprehensive.45 In addition to this early inventory, archaic tags on the specimens offer some information on pre-1960 additions to the college collections; many of the older tags derive from the Smithsonian collections.46 From these sources, it is apparent that the oldest-known specimen dates to 1866 (predating the college itself)47, and that 80 or more specimens some 29% of the current avian collection may have been in place by 1960. In reviewing the data compiled in the new catalogue, it appears that the bird specimens were largely added in batches: 1860-1912 1898-1907 1934, 1943, 1958 1938, 1945-1947, 1955 1983-1999 Early ex-Smithsonian acquisitions, including National Zoological Park European specimens National Zoological Park Other DC / Maryland Local specimens48 Several individuals are identified as sources for the Smithsonian-derived specimens in the collection. Five birds bear original tags labeled Boucard Museum , as well as subsequent Smithsonian tags; another, Tachybaptus dominicus49, is identified in the handwritten inventory as having been collected by Boucard, but is missing tags which would confirm this suggestion50. Six birds are identified by Smithsonian tags stamped with the name G.F. Gaumer as collector. Chlorostilbon assimilis51 and Calidris mauri52 are identified in the handwritten inventory as having been collected by Ridgway, though they lack original tags which would provide a more solid provenance. The specimen of Cyanocitta stelleri53 bears a Smithsonian tag with the name Dr. Hayden as collector and Colorado as the specimen is dated 1958, while the latest date assigned to a specimen is 1968. The associated two pages contain field notes on rodents and bats taken on a survey of Giles County, Virginia, in August 1972. 45 Douglas Shedd: "There never has been a true curator for the collection, so over the years it has been cared for by various people with many other academic responsibilities and limited time for the collection." 46 One complicating factor is that it appears that some blank tags were appropriated from the Smithsonian, as well as actual specimens; one such tag was found in a drawer of labeling materials. For this reason, only those specimens with former Smithsonian catalogue numbers, or other reliable connections to Smithsonian staff or collectors, will be considered to have derived from the Smithsonian. 47 Randolph College was founded as Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1891, and was opened to students in 1893. 48 Local specimens may have been added throughout the college's history; however, the vast majority of tags for locally-sourced specimens do not specify the date the bird was collected or prepared. 49 AV7.1.1/1-2011. 50 Other older specimens are missing their tags but may also have had Boucard as a source, based on the source location, species, and other circumstantial evidence. 51 AV25.3.1/1-2011. 52 AV15.1.1/1-2011. 53 AV32.3.1/1-2011. S m i t h | 10 location of acquisition. Additional specimens from the Smithsonian have collectors identified as "Dr. E. Palmer", "W. Palmer", "A.H. Jennings," "L. M. Turner," "S. Turner," "McL. Panama," "Victor J. Evans," "E.S. Schmid," "W.H. Ball," "Mrs. R.S.R. Hitt," "J. Stearns & Co.," "H.F. Cross," and "W.M. Perry."54 These names, and the suggestion of a Smithsonian connection, provided a starting-point for my investigation of the originating material in the Randolph College collections. For the purposes of this paper, I will focus on the earliest specimens dated 1860-1912 which have a Smithsonian provenance; more specifically, I will treat those associated with named collectors, with the exception of a few where circumstantial evidence suggests the specimen's association with a particular collector already represented in the Randolph College collection. The specimens in this group are among the most carefully preserved in the entire collection; many remain in excellent condition.55 The skins are generally filled with wool roving, cotton wadding, or flax tow ("oakum"), though a few may have been filled with sawdust. The original tags are preprinted with the name of the originating collection (Boucard Museum or United States National Museum / Smithsonian), with individual details generally handwritten in graphite, iron gall ink, or India ink. The location "Yucatan" and collector's name, "G.F. Gaumer", are stamped directly on the tags of the Gaumer specimens, and the W. Palmer specimen bears a Smithsonian tag stamped in purple ink on the reverse: "Gift of R. Ridgway, to U.S. National Museum. II." At least one specimen, marked "McL. Panama," bears holes in the beak left by the collector's birdshot. In researching and documenting the birds' provenance I found it most effective to group them by collector rather than type or location collected, and to proceed to uncover their history and context by investigating the published materials pertaining first to the collector, then to the collection site, and finally to the species itself.56 The birds "tell" a very human story, about individual and collective efforts to understand the amazing biodiversity which populates the world. These are a few of the collectors whose passion for natural science is visible today in their specimens, which have become part of the scientific heritage of Randolph College and the world. I have listed these individuals as their names appear on the specimen tags, or in the handwritten inventory. I will attempt subsequently to identify each by full name insofar as research has allowed. 55 They may also be among the most toxic to handle; as discussed above, preparation with arsenic was the th preferred method of preserving skins in the late 19 century, based on its effectiveness in the long-term deterrence of insects. 56 This approach is, admittedly, more frequently found in the attribution of art works or historical artifacts than in the study of scientific specimens, but this tactic very rapidly and effectively produced specific results much more so, in fact, than the few instances where I was forced, by lack of collector identification, to trace the history of the species in scientific descriptions. 54 S m i t h | 11 Adolphe Boucard57 (1839-1905) Adolphe Boucard was a French naturalist and collector, who attained an interest in natural history in part due to the extensive travels which he made early in life. Although Boucard described no less than 44 new species of humming birds, 5 insects, and a mollusk, with 13 species and 2 new genera 58 accredited to his work The Genera of Humming Birds (1895), Boucard never seems to have been regarded by his contemporaries as a serious scientist,59 but rather an enterprising enthusiast of natural history, particularly ornithology. Boucard s interest in natural history began at a very early age, but it is uncertain where he attained his education. When he was twelve years old, he spent the year 1851-1852 in San Francisco, at Stockton Street on the edge of what would become Chinatown.60 Like another expatriate Frenchman, John James Audubon61, Boucard appears to have spent his precocious youth engaged in conducting experiments of natural history, often at the expense of his hapless subjects. He later recalled: From March to August [1852], I collected specimens of Natural History. Many were the species of beetles and butterflies that I collected on the suburbs of San Francisco. During my rambles I very often met another Frenchman, the well-known collector Lorquin, who was chiefly searching for insects. I also collected many species of birds, and more particularly Humming-birds. Two species were abundant, Calypte annae and Selasphorus rufus. I found many nests of these two species during the months of March and April, and at one time I had as many as sixty of them alive, all taken from the nests. I fed them with fresh flowers and small insects. My intention was to send them alive to Europe, but even the most robust died at sea, and it was a complete failure.62 Boucard participated in two expeditions to southern Mexico between 1854 and 1867, collecting specimens for other scientists, including Philip Sclater and Osbert Salvin.63 In 1865, during the French political occupation of Mexico, Boucard was associated with a French scientific expedition into southern Sometimes spelled Bouchard. Kofoid (1923) "A little-known ornithological journal and its editor, Adolphe Boucard, 1839-1904," 87. 59 Ibid.: Little bibliographic notice was taken of The Humming Bird or its articles in scientific bibliographies. The Zoologischer Anzeiger records volume 1 and four articles, but omits all reference to later articles or subsequent numbers. It omits all reference to the Genera of Humming Birds. The Zoological Record notes certain parts and the whole of the Genera, but that incorrectly. 60 Kofoid 85. 61 See John James Audubon, "Ornithological Biography," in Writings and drawings (Christoph Irmscher ed., 1999). 62 Quoted in Kofoid 86. 63 Kofoid 86. Philip Sclater, M.A., F.R.S., Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, and Osbert Salvin, British ornithologist. See also Stone (1916) 240. 58 57 S m i t h | 12 Mexico and Central America.64 At this time, possibly at the recommendation of Sclater, he became a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London. He subsequently returned to Paris65, and although little is known of his endeavors between 1868 and 1880, he seems to have remained actively engaged in the business of collecting. By the 1880s he was living in London and assisting with the publication of Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, although he returned to Paris to represent Guatemala at the 1889 Exposition,66 for which the Eiffel Tower was constructed.67 In 1891 he was listed in 225 High Holborn Street, London, where he advertised under the firm of Boucard, Pottier & Co., Naturalists and Feather Merchants. 68 It may be that about this time Boucard began to feel that he was becoming less welcome in academic circles, and therefore sought other avenues through which to promote his ideas and enterprises. From the High Holborn address, between the years 1891-1895, Boucard undertook the independent publication of The Humming bird: a monthly scientific, artistic and industrial review69; the articles ranged topically from the construction of the Panama Canal to the politics of the McKinley tariff, as well as providing a venue for Boucard s zoological researches.70 One of Boucard s protégées, W. F. H. Rosenberg71, recalled that his mentor was a man of great activity and strong ideas on many subjects, and I suspect it was to have a means of expressing some of those ideas that he founded the HummingBird. 72 Boucard s memoirs of his travels are featured in the third and fourth volumes; his groundbreaking Genera of Humming Birds (1895) also appeared first as a serial feature in this magazine,73 with subsequent independent publications later arranged by the author.74 The title page of Genera boldly asserts his diverse qualifications: "Corresponding member of the French Scientific Commission to Mexico and Central America, of the Paris and Madrid Museums, of the Zoological Society of London, of the Royal Geographical Society of Lisboa, member of the Societe Zoologique de France, Author of Catalogus Avium, and Travels of a Naturalist, Editor and Proprietor of 'The Humming Bird,' &c. The Randolph College specimen of the Least Grebe, Tachybaptus dominicus AV7.1.1/1-2011, is dated 1866 and was probably collected on this expedition. 65 Kofoid 86. 66 Leon J. Cole (Nov 1906) "Aves from Yucatan," Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 50: 5 109-10. 67 World Exhibitions, The Paris Exposition of 1889, http://www.worldexhibition.org/worldexpo/1889-paris/ 68 Boucard (1891). 69 Boucard (1891): Edited under the direction of Adolphe Boucard, London, Guaranteed circulation 5000 . 70 Kofoid 87. 71 William Frederik Henry Rosenberg (1868-1957), traveler, naturalist, entomologist, and natural history dealer; Rosenberg's correspondences are located in the archives of the Natural History Museum, London. 72 Rosenberg 39. 73 Kofoid 86. 74 Boucard (1895). 64 S m i t h | 13 &c. &c."75 The laundry-list of memberships suggests Boucard's insecurity in academic circles and a need to prove his merits. Science in the latter nineteenth century was beginning to move beyond realm of gentleman amateurs toward increasing specialization, with emphasis on academic and professional credentials.76 Kofoid suggests that Boucard's success as an academic was overshadowed in his own lifetime by his dealings in the trade of natural history specimens77 and the ethically questionable nature of his commercial interests. As a "Naturalist and Feather Merchant," Boucard dealt in all kinds of Objects of Natural History, Collections of Mammal and Bird Skins, Skeletons, Human and Animal Skulls, Insects of all orders pinned and set, or in papers; Marine, Fresh Water, and Land Shells; Reptiles and Fishes in spirit; Crustaceae and Arachnidae in spirit; Ethnological collections from all parts; Showy Bird Skins and Feathers for Plumassiers and Naturalists; Mammal Skins for Furriers; Bright species of Insects for Artificial Florists; Rare old Stamps, used and unused; Curios of all sorts, Pictures and Works of Art, etc., etc., etc. All possessors of such objects should not dispose of them without consulting Messrs. Boucard, Pottier & Co., who having a large connection with Amateurs in all parts of the world, are able to get the very best prices for them.78 Among the individual collectors from whom Boucard purchased specimens were George F. Gaumer (who will be discussed at length below) and Alfred Russel Wallace79, who with Charles Darwin presented the theory of evolution by natural selection.80 In addition to retailing specimens outright, Messrs. Boucard, Pottier & Co. beg to advise Directors of Museums and private Amateurs that they undertake to stuff from a Humming bird to a Whale at very reasonable prices. Only experienced and scientific Taxidermists are employed by the hour for that work, which will always be of the best class.81 Initially, public and private museums and educational institutions served as the primary repositories for prepared zoological specimens. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, popular interest in natural history spurred another, more ostentatious market for preserved insects and birds: the fashion industry. From the 1860s to the 1890s, the increased availability of exotic specimens led to their incorporation as objects of adornment. Stylish milliners sold elaborate hats "featuring whole, stuffed birds"; jewelers' settings framed not gems, but preserved hummingbirds; and women's gowns were spangled with thousands of iridescent beetle wings. Michelle Tolini suggests, "proliferation of such 75 76 77 Boucard (1895) title page. James G. Cassidy (2000): Ferdinand V. Hayden: entrepreneur of science, xv, 151. Kofoid 87. This suggestion was corroborated by W. F. H. Rosenberg p. 39. Boucard, The Humming Bird Vol 1 (May 1 1891), vi. 79 Rosenberg 39. 80 Asma 23 describes Wallace s collecting as well as his collaboration with Darwin on this theory. 81 Boucard, The Humming Bird Vol 1 (May 1 1891), vi. The Boucard specimens in the Randolph College collection provide evidence of this claim though they are among the oldest specimens they are in outstanding condition, having been beautifully preserved. 78 S m i t h | 14 adornment in middle-class life belied an increasing disengagement from nature brought about by the industrial revolution and the dramatic changes in urban and suburban living."82 1 Cover of Harper s Bazar, 3 October 1885, showing a fashionable hat trimmed with a specimen of an exotic bird.83 The specimen trade in the late nineteenth century was extremely lucrative. Demands from academic institutions, fashionable milliners, and wealthy private collectors allowed Boucard and other dealers to purvey tens of thousands of specimens per year each.84 Walter Burton comfortably asserted that the field collecting of birds and mammals was "an easy way of making one hundred pounds sterling a year."85 Ferdinand Hayden, an American geologist, noted an instance of a "scientific swindler" who impersonated scholars and government researchers in order to con valuable books and specimens from noted collectors, suggesting the potential of these items for profit and the high demand which made Tolini. Image from Tolini, Fig. 1. 84 Tolini. Boucard s estimates of the total yearly traffic in skins are discussed below. 85 Burton, "An easy way of making one hundred pounds sterling a year," in Boucard (1 March 1891) The Hummingbird 1:3, 23. 83 82 S m i t h | 15 resale easy and attractive to con artists. 86 The number of entomological and ornithological auctions in London rose steadily in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the peak of sales between 1880 and 1890. 87 Three other specimens in the Randolph College Collections from unnamed collectors bear nineteenth century tags evidencing connections to the trade in specimens: a common magpie, Pica rustica,88 stuffed with oakum, could be purchased for "1,50" while the more exotic masked parakeet, Prosopeia personata,89 cost "6,50". A blue-crowned motmot, Momotus momota,90 was purchased in the American market for "$1.00" according to its tag.91 From the 1860s to the 1880s, dead birds of exquisite plumage were considered haute couture, and the demand for exotic specimens for use in fashion trades was particularly insatiable. Madame Tilman, a New York couturier with a base in Paris, featured an emporium of such specimens at her millinery showrooms: " 'Among the beautiful flowers we see humming-birds, butterflies and all kinds of brilliant winged insects The birds and butterflies are of course perfect, being the real birds and insects preserved and mounted.' " Godey's Lady's Book of October 1863 predicted that " 'the ornithological and entomological fevers' " in the fashion industry would " 'continue with increased violence throughout the winter' "92 indeed, the trend would persist over twenty years more, with marked devastation to whole populations of species. 2. 19th-century earrings made from hummingbird specimens. 93 Hayden (29 Feb 1884), "A scientific swindler," Science 3:56, 245. Tolini. 88 AV32.2.2/1-2011. 89 Formerly Platycercus personatus, AV19.1.1/1-2011. 90 AV26.1.1/1-2011. 91 The skin of Eutoxeres Aquila AV25.2.1/1-2011, collected by J. Stearns & Co. in Colombia, and Lesbia victoriae AV25.1.1/1-2011 from Mrs. R.S.R. Hitt may also have commercial connections. 92 Godey's "Chitchat" (April and October 1863 respectively), quoted from Tolini. 93 Image from http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/weekend-links/, under the heading "Victorian Recycling" with the ironic theme: "sustainable steampunk." Accessed 1 Dec 2011. Another such pair is found in the V&A Picture Library (Fig. 6 in Tolini). 87 86 S m i t h | 16 With the accelerated trade in specimens, concerns were raised over its implication for the survival of species. To raise awareness, conservation groups such as the Selbourne Society and the Audubon Society were formed; they published literature aimed at eliminating the "traffic in feathers adorning women's hats" which annually "cost the lives of millions of our finest birds."94 According to Tolini, it was as much the methods of collecting as the numbers which appalled ecological activists; one feather harvester attested that "feathers were not gathered from the ground but taken from birds shot while in their nests."95 By 1891, when concerned women began to wear cheaply produced, dyed-feather "imitations" of the exotic birds, Boucard's business was jeopardized, and he responded with vehemence: [I]t will make very little difference to the wingy tribes, if Ladies condemn themselves in not wearing as adorns to their perfections the most brilliant jewels of Creation, such as Humming Birds, blue Creepers, bright Tanagers, wonderful Trogons, and Birds of Paradise, etc. etc., which enhances so harmoniously with their charms. Even supposing that the fashion would continue for ever, it is my opinion that certain species of Birds are so common that it would take hundreds of years before exhausting them. If Ladies don't wear feathers as ornaments from sympathy to the poor birds they must not eat them neither, and they must not wear any furs for the same reason. Are they prepared to that? But as I said before, Nature is so prolific and such a good Nurse that Ladies can make their mind easy on that point, and continue to use the beautiful birds which harmonize so well with beauty, and refuse to wear such poor imitations of the real thing, as what is to be seen everywhere in London this year."96 In the first issue of The Humming Bird, Boucard himself gives some idea of the massive scale of this lucrative trade: As far as my experience goes, the yearly Exportation of Bird Skins is as follows: Colombia . 200,000 Brazil and Trinidad 300,000 Mexico and Central and South America .. 100,000 Japan .. 100,000 India 200,000 Africa ..100,000 Europe .. 500,000 Total 1,500,000 What is that! Nothing when you think of the 100,000,000 which are killed annually for eating purposes.97 Tolini, citing T. Gilbert Pearson, undated pamphlet for the National Audubon Society. Ibid. 96 Boucard (January 1891), article beginning on page 1; quoted Kofoid 88. 97 Boucard (January 1891), quoted in Kofoid 88-9. Boucard earlier details the local practice of snaring hummingbirds to be eaten (like shrimp) as a delicacy, 30 or 40 at a time. Kofoid (89) observes that "it is to be regretted that the statistical and commercial data pertaining to the skin and feather trade were not more fully made a matter of record by him" as the inventories and reports of auction sales in The Humming Bird "suggest the great possibilities of significant data in his hands. Could these data have been recorded fully and methodically, they would doubtless have afforded a mine of information on the geographical distribution of humming birds and 95 94 S m i t h | 17 Boucard, however, was careful to temper his criticism of the fledgling conservation movements, although his motives have a decidedly anthropocentric bent: "I should suggest to Governments to prohibit partially the killing of birds in certain seasons and totally the destruction of Eggs; as also the killing of all species of Warblers, and some of the Passeres, which are quite indispensable to Agriculture." Boucard s arguments were ineffectual, as the scientific community also recognized the very real potential for the extermination of species as a result of unchecked collecting. Over the next thirty years, public outcry against such commercial collecting of birds for the specimen and fashion trades eventually led to establishment of protective laws such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 in the United States.98 Whatever may be thought of his large-scale trafficking of specimens, Boucard was unarguably sincere in his enthusiasm for natural history and his high regard for the value of scientific inquiry and understanding. He was also known for his generosity toward others who shared such interests. Rosenberg recalled that any success I may have had, and any services I have been able to render to the cause of Zoology, are in great part due to the interest he took in me and the encouragement he gave to me as a young beginner. The expedition which I made to the Republics of Colombia and Ecuador in 1894-1897, were due to his initiative and support, and resulted in many discoveries in all branches of Zoology.99 Kofoid writes that Boucard's great contributions to the field of ornithology included his expeditions in "Mexico, Central and South America, and Panama" as well as "his superbly prepared skins of the humming birds of the American tropics, and his critical suggestions as to age and sex differences" in the Trochilidae.100 Boucard retired in 1894 to the Isle of Wight, and died March 15, 1905, at his son's home in Hampstead.101 On Boucard s death his collections were bequeathed to the Musée d Histoire Naturelle in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, with the condition that it be kept separately, the original labels attached to the skins, and that the collections would always be accessible to ornithologists and relative frequency of species, and thus a partial picture of the then existing status of the evolution of this most highly specialized and widely diversified group of birds." 98 A good overview of the history and scope of this Act, and similar Acts, is outlined in "Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918" on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918 (accessed 9 Dec 2011). 99 Rosenberg 39. 100 Kofoid 89. 101 Rosenberg 39. S m i t h | 18 specialists. 102 As Kofoid notes, duplicate skins were to be distributed to similar museums in Lisbon and Madrid, and also to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.103 The Randolph College specimens derive from the Smithsonian set. They are: Tachybaptus dominicus104 Malacoptila panamensis105 Troglodytes striatulus107 Thraupis episcopus108 Icteris chrysater109 Cacicus cela110 Least Grebe White-whiskered puffbird House wren Blue-grey tanager Hooded oriole Yellow-rumped cacique Central America 1866 [Guatemala?] (no date)106 Colombia 1886 Venezuela (no date) Panama 1877 Panama 1877 Two other birds in the collections bear noting beyond this list. The first is a Brazilian ruby hummingbird, Clytolaema rubricauda,111an exquisitely prepared older specimen which unfortunately lacked any tag which might have cited its provenance. The species is found only in southeastern Brazil112. Boucard describes the species on pages 209-210 of his Genera of Hummingbirds, stating that he owns the type specimen illustrated in plate 27 of Louis Pierre Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés ou á Reflets Métalliques (1802), which Vieillot allegedly identified as Heliomaster rubineus.113 The extraordinary quality of the preparation of the Randolph College specimen is consistent with that of other Boucard specimens, and as he is known to have had at least one example of this species, the possible connection would merit Kofoid 87. The full extent of the collections at the Musée d Histoire Naturelle has not been determined by the author; the museum website (below) notes numériquement très importante, de A. Boucard´, but as of 30 Nov 2011the ornithology collections were not searchable by collector. http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/foffice/science/science/ColEtBd/collectionsMuseum/collectionSci/FicheCollection.x sp?COLLECTION_COLLECTION_ID=272&COLLECTION_ID=272&idx=61&nav=liste 103 Kofoid 1923, p. 87. Presumably the duplicate items gifted to the Smithsonian were not subject to such conditions, as it is from this collection that the Randolph College specimens were acquired after their deaccessionment. 104 AV7.1.1/1-2011. 105 AV28.1.1/1-2011. 106 collected for Boucard by "Arce". The location is based on that of another skin of this species in the Smithsonian, SI#145245. 107 AV37.3.1/1-2011. 108 AV45.1.1/1-2011. 109 AV48.3.1/1-2011. 110 AV48.4.1/1-2011. 111 AV25.4.1/1-2011. 112 Helmut Sick (1993) Birds in Brazil: a natural history, Princeton University Press. Although the species has a limited distribution, it remains extremely common within its range. 113 Boucard 1895, 209-210. I have been unsuccessful in locating a published use of the name "Heliomaster rubineus" by Vieillot, although Vieillot seems to have been known to eschew the accepted scientific names in favor of his own (see Charles Bonaparte, 1824: "Observations on the nomenclature of Wilson's Ornithology," J Ac Nat Sci Phil, Vol 4 Pt 1, p. 185-6). Plates for Vieillot's work were engraved by Jean Baptiste Audebert (1759-1800). See Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia collections, http://www.ansp.org/library/getty_findaid/vieillot69.xml (accessed 9 Dec 2011). 102 S m i t h | 19 further investigation. As previously noted, the least grebe from the Boucard collection114 was also missing its original tags, and was identifiable as Boucard's based solely on the descriptive entry in the handwritten inventory; therefore it is entirely possible that other Boucard specimens may not retain their original tags, and if the tags were lost or removed before the early inventory was created, the provenance of the specimen would remain unknown. Another specimen worth considering with respect to Boucard is a male black-chested jay, Cyanocorax affinis,115 collected in Panama by a "McL." The reverse of the tag has a former collection number, "53929", as well as the number "87". Alexander Whetmore, in Birds of the Republic of Panama, describes two parakeet skins in the Smithsonian collections similarly labeled "Panama McL." with a collection date of 1862, which were received from a collector named McLeannan. The parakeets "both show holes made by fine shot in the bill"116 a detail also evident in the bill of the Randolph College specimen. Thus, the specimen of C. affinis is easily attributable to McLeannan, who worked as the track master at Lion Hill on the Panama Railway117 during the second half of the nineteenth century, and who collected specimens for Philip Sclater and Osbert Salvin,118 Boucard's early associates in Mexico. Whetmore notes that some Smithsonian specimens from Boucard's Museum identify Arce as the collector, but "from appearance" more probably were prepared by McLeannan. 119 Whether C. affinis was collected for the Smithsonian or for Boucard is unknown, as the specimen lacks tags from either collection; however, that McLeannan collaborated with Boucard and his colleagues in collecting and identifying Panamanian birds is worthy of note. A second bird in the Randolph College collection may have a similar provenance: Colonia colonus120 (long-tailed tyrant) from "Gamboa Canal Zone", subsequently located at the National Zoological Park. Given the vast number of specimens Boucard was responsible for trafficking, the association of Central and South American specimens with Boucard is not, of itself, remarkable. What sets the Randolph College specimens apart from so many others are the labels which identify them as deriving from Boucard s personal museum, via the Smithsonian, from which they were deaccessioned. As we have noted before, Boucard likely saw hundreds of thousands of skins; to preserve them he prided AV7.1.1/1-2011. AV32.1.1/1-2011. 116 Whetmore (1968) 79. 117 Ibid. 118 Whetmore (1968) 67. 119 Whetmore (1968) 466, 477. Unfortunately, Whetmore does not specify the details of the preparation which form the basis of this observation. See also note 105 above: the puffbird also bore a Boucard tag identifying "Arce" as the collector. 120 AV30.1.1/1-2011. 115 114 S m i t h | 20 himself on hiring the most skilled and professional taxidermists, and dealt only in top-quality specimens. The fact that the bird specimens in the Randolph College collections were among those he chose to retain in his personal collection speaks volumes for their quality and importance as individuals of their species. George Franklin Gaumer (1850-1929) 3. G.F. Gaumer and his wife, Virdillia McGee Gaumer, children George J. Gaumer and John Gaumer (infant), and Olivia G. 121 Corel McGee (standing). George Franklin Gaumer was a naturalist and physician122 born in Monroe, Indiana. His family relocated to Kansas in his youth, and he enrolled in the University of Kansas from 1868-1876. 123 Two years later he published a botanical report, "Kansas data [on Rocky Mountain locust] for 1877."124 He travelled extensively through Central America, beginning in Cuba (1878) followed by an extended expedition to Yucatán (1878-1881), collecting specimens of ornithology125, including some for Adolphe 121 122 http://records.ancestry.com/George_Franklin_Gaumer_records.ashx?pid=7061869 Parkes 92. 123 JSTOR Plant Science, http://plants.jstor.org/person/bm000023546 124 Gaumer 1878. 125 Ibid. S m i t h | 21 Boucard.126 Following this he took a post as professor of natural sciences at the University of North Mexico (1881-1884). He spent this period collecting throughout the southwestern United States, residing in Arizona, where his two sons, George J. and John D. Gaumer, were born. The family moved to Yucatán in 1884, settling in Izamal, where Dr. Gaumer practiced medicine; his subsequent collections are largely botanical in nature127, undoubtedly owing to this profession and a need to obtain knowledge of indigenous medicinal plants.128 As his sons grew up they assisted him in collecting. Gaumer obtained his master s degree in 1893.129 Much of Gaumer s personal collection is now housed at the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, where he began sending specimens in 1882.130 Gaumer was highly regarded by his contemporaries as an expert in his field; Leon Coles stated that The most extensive collecting in the [Yucatán] peninsula was done from twenty to thirty years ago by Dr. Geo. F. Gaumer, who is still living at Izamal. Many of his notes were published by Boucard in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1883; and in many cases exact localities are mentioned, so that the records have value from a distributional standpoint. His collections, however, went to various persons, though many of them finally came into the hands of Salvin and Godman, and formed the principal material for the notes on Yucatan birds in the Biologia Centralia-Americana."131 However, the late Kenneth Parkes, former curator of birds at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, noted that although Gaumer was a tireless collector, he was careless and inconsistent about labeling his specimens. Many were apparently labeled from memory months or even years after collecting, which led to certain birds being attributed to collecting sites where they were never subsequently observed by other researchers. To complicate matters further, In Gaumer s day the name Yucatán encompassed the entire area later divided into Yucatán and Campeche and the territory of Quintana Roo. Hence, Parkes states that the scientist cannot assume that old Yucatán specimens necessarily constitute records for the area included in the modern state of that name. 132 Rosenberg 39. JSTOR Plant Science. 128 Described Gaumer 1890, Sinonomia cientifica y vulgar de las plantas Yucatecas. 129 JSTOR Plant Science. Is this a typographical error? The date 1883 would make better sense, as it immediately precedes Gaumer s medical practice. 130 Curry, Cozumel birds http://www98.homepage.villanova.edu/robert.curry/Cozumel/highlights.html; also Thompson 173. 131 Leon J. Cole, "Aves from Yucatan," Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Vol 50, Number 5 (Nov 1906), 109-110. 132 Parkes 92. 127 126 S m i t h | 22 In addition to his works on ornithology and botany, Gaumer published notes on indigenous mammals of the Yucatán133; the spiny pocket mouse, Heteromys gaumeri, was named in his honor.134 The following seven birds in the Randolph College catalogue were collected by Gaumer: Melanoptila glabrirostris135 Chaetura gaumeri 136 Engyptila [Leptotila] gaumeri137 Tyrannus melancholicus138 Campylorhynchus gularis139 Cyanocorax yucatanis141 Euphonia affinis142 Black catbird Gaumer s swift Caribbean dove Tropical kingbird Spotted wren Yucatán jay Scrub euphonia Yucatán Yucatán Yucatán Yucatán Yucatán (Mexico?)140 Yucatán Yucatán The birds were deaccessioned from the collections of the Smithsonian, as all bear Smithsonian tags with the original catalogue numbers, and are uniformly stamped with the name G.F. Gaumer as the collector. Parkes observes that most Gaumer specimens bear only the Museum s labels. This is not necessarily an indication that an original Gaumer label has been removed. Gaumer was apparently in the habit of sending off boxes of unlabeled specimens to various museums, where Yucatán labels would be attached. 143 It is also worth noting that two of the Randolph College specimens Chaetura gaumeri and Engyptila [Leptotila] gaumeri were named for their collector. Another bird in the collection, the aforementioned blue-crowned motmot (Momotus momota)144, did not derive from the Smithsonian collections but was purchased for $1.00 by a private collector. Although the Randolph College motmot cannot be attributed directly to Gaumer, it is worth noting that Gaumer studied this family of birds, and published a description of the Habits of Certain Momotidae in the Transactions of the Annual Meetings of the Kansas Academy of Science145in 1882. 133 George F. Gaumer. (1917) Monografia de los mamiferos de Yucatán. México: Departamento de talleres gráficos de la Secretaría de fomento. http://www.archive.org/details/monografadelos00gaum 134 JSTOR Plant Science. 135 AV40.2.1/1-2011. 136 AV24.1.2/1-2011. Species described in Ridgway / Friedmann Part 5, 721; also Stone 206. 137 AV18.3.1/1-2011. 138 AV30.2.1/1-2011. Species described in Stone 207. 139 AV37.1.1/1-2011. Another species of this genus, C. bruneicapillus guttatus (cactus wren), is observed in Stone, 211. The original tag for the Randolph College specimen is identified as "Heleodytes guttatus". 140 Location possibly Mexico, based on species range with respect to Gaumer s collecting activity, although tag marked "Yucatán". 141 AV32.1.2/1-2011. Species described in Stone 208. 142 AV49.2.1/1-2011. 143 Parkes 92. 144 AV26.1.1/1-2011. 145 Vol 8, 63-66. S m i t h | 23 Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (1829-1887) Early in the nineteenth century, a precedent for government-backed expeditions was set with the success of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. While other surveys such as the Long Expedition, the Wilkes Expedition, and others were less extensive and ambitious than that of Lewis and Clark, all sought to document zoology, botany, geology, and the ethnography of indigenous tribes as well as regional geography. The parties conducting the expeditions included surveyors, illustrators (later photographers), scientists, military guards, scouts, and servants (cooks, secretaries, baggage handlers, etc.).146 No explorer of the late nineteenth century West attained more renown than Ferdinand V. Hayden. Born in 1829 in Westfield, Massachusetts to Asa Hayden and Melinda Hawley, Hayden achieved success through his own stubborn perseverance and unusual talents. His early life was unstable; his alcoholic father neglected his familial responsibilities and was not infrequently in jail,147 and his mother moved the children between relatives' houses before finally filing for a divorce in 1840. By 1842, when Melinda prepared to remarry, Hayden was sent to live with an aunt in Ohio.148 About 1845/6 he entered Oberlin College, then renowned as a "nursery for social and religious reform"; he was known as a hard worker who read widely and even recommended books for his tutor to read.149 A classmate at Oberlin described him as "coarsely dressed, not overly clean, [with] a kind of downcast, furtive expression as if ashamed of his circumstances in life."150 He did chores and farm work to pay his board and tuition.151 Professor George Nelson Allen introduced Hayden to the study of natural history, and particularly geology,152and encouraged his studies in that field. On graduating in 1850, Hayden attended medical school, all the while taking up correspondence with prominent naturalists and practicing field collecting. In the early years of his career, Hayden formed professional associations with paleontologists James Hall and Joseph Leidy; Hall's assistant, Fielding Meek; assistant secretary of the Smithsonian, Spencer Fullerton Baird; and botanists Charles Christopher Parry and Asa Gray.153 See John Moring (2002) Early American naturalists: exploring the American West, 1804-1900. Foster, Mike, 1994: Strange Genius: the life of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 12. 148 Cassidy 34. 149 Foster 21-2. 150 Manly Root to Professor Albert Allen Wright, 31 March 1888, quoted in Foster, p. 11. 151 Foster 27; Cassidy 35. 152 Cassidy 36. 153 Foster 35-42. 147 146 S m i t h | 24 Hayden's first professional assignment came in 1853, when Professor Hall, Hayden's instructor at Albany Medical College, recommended him as assistant naturalist for a field survey of the White River Bad Lands, where he was to study the region's unique geology and collect fossils from the sedimentary strata. In addition to fossils, Hayden and Meek (the expedition naturalist) also collected insects and plants.154 Geology in the mid-nineteenth century lacked the advantages of chemical dating methods, and because of this, determinations of time could be made solely through comparative studies of the types of fossils found in the various geologic layers. To become proficient, Hayden also had to master the principles of comparative biology, physics, meteorology, climatology, and ecology.155 These were not necessarily regarded as separate disciplines in the nineteenth century, and because of this, Hayden's training in geology served to reinforce his broad-based interest in the natural sciences. The results of the expedition were astoundingly successful: Hayden and Meek filled thirteen boxes of fossils; among the contents were heads of extinct mammals and 34 new species of Cretaceous shells (doubling the number then known).156 Such early success eventually secured for Hayden the attention of Baird, and with it the sponsorship of the Smithsonian.157 Baird was an important mentor, as well, because "he wanted just about anything that moved," and also encouraged Hayden to collect anthropological information such as vocabularies of Native American languages.158 Under his patronage Hayden made several collecting trips on the northern Missouri River, including the 1856-7 Warren expedition; Raynolds Expedition of 1860 all of which yielded important fossils and other specimens, described in Hayden's Geological Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in 1859 1860 (1869). Hayden was so intent on his field research that he could hardly be dissuaded from it, even when threatened by potentially hostile Indians. He reportedly acquired a nickname among the Souix; translated, it meant "Man-who-picks-up-stones-running."159 The approach of the Civil War halted funding for expensive western surveys, and Hayden and Meek satisfied themselves with a small collecting trip to the Cretaceous fossil beds in New Jersey, for 154 155 Foster 41, 47; Cassidy 45. Cassidy 43. Cassidy describes the processes used to collect specimens in the field, 44-50. 156 Foster 52. 157 Foster 56-8. I am not certain I have interpreted this accurately, based on the events described in Cassidy 54-62, which detail Hayden s efforts to gain Baird s patronage. 158 Foster 59-60. 159 Foster 60. S m i t h | 25 which Leidy arranged two months sponsorship from the Philadelphia Academy.160 The enterprise allowed for an informed comparison of Cretaceous beds between the eastern and western United States, but Hayden found he needed more certain employment, and took a position as an army surgeon for the remainder of the Civil War.161 Again Joseph Leidy acted on Hayden's behalf, and in 1865 secured for Hayden a position as professor of geology at the University of Pennsylvania.162 Hayden's friendship with Joseph Leidy was one of the most important and permanent of his career. Hayden was awkward and sometimes abrasive by nature, but Leidy recognized him as a talented and industrious scientist with an eye for making astute observations and the ability to communicate them to the broader public as well as his scientific associates.163 Leidy was a valuable and influential ally who corresponded with Charles Darwin and identified specimens for Sir Charles Lyell, the renowned British geologist.164 Hayden considered Leidy to be his "best and oldest friend";165 the vast majority of the most important fossil specimens in Lyell's collection particularly the vertebrate remains were collected for him by Hayden.166 After the close of the Civil War, the United States government resumed funding for the western surveys. In 1867, Hayden was appointed Geologist in charge of US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, and he headed several major surveys in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana. His 1869 expedition charted the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, from Denver, Colorado, south to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The following year, he secured $25,000 in government funds for an expedition to Wyoming and Montana, which was documented by the famed Civil War photographer, William Henry Jackson. Jackson also accompanied Hayden on his 1871 geological survey of Yellowstone, as did the painter Thomas Moran; their astounding images, with Hayden's Geological Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, were instrumental in the establishment of Yellowstone as the country's first national park on 1 March, 1872. In 1873, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and until 1876 was engaged in a survey of Colorado, which led to the publication of his 1877 Geological and Geographical Atlas of Colorado. Over the summer of 1877, he led 160 161 Cassidy 73. Foster outlines Hayden s various commissions on xiii, ending June 1865 with Hayden s honorable discharge at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel by Brevet. 162 Foster 151. 163 Foster 104-6. 164 Leonard Warren (1998) Joseph Leidy: the last man who knew everything, 32. 165 Cassidy 184. 166 Joseph Leidy (1823-1891): Encyclopedist of the Natural World online exhibit, Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University, http://www.ansp.org/museum/leidy/paleo/collectors.php#hayden (accessed 10 Dec 2011). S m i t h | 26 famed botanists Asa Grey and Joseph Hooker on a naturalist's tour of the West, while his party undertook additional surveys in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.167 4. Hayden and his survey crew at Red Buttes, Wyoming, 1870. "Standing left to right: John 'Potato John' Raymond and 'Val,' cooks; Sanford R. Gifford, landscape painter; Henry W. Elliott, artist; James Stevenson, assistant; H.D. Schmidt, naturalist; E. Campbell Carrington, zoologist; L.A. Bartlett, general assistant; William Henry Jackson, photographer. Sitting left to right: C.S. Turnbull, secretary; J.H. Beaman, meteorologist; Ferdinand V. Hayden, geologist in charge; Cyrus Thomas, agriculturalist; Raphael, hunter; A.L. Ford, mineralogist. 168 Throughout his career, Hayden published numerous articles in addition to his official survey reports, and his writings indicate the broad range of his interests. Hayden was well informed in a variety of subjects relating to natural history, anthropology, and archaeology. In 1868 Hayden published "Brief notes on the Pawnee, Winnebago, and Omaha languages" in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, identifying common words, grammatical forms and phrases, but also demarcating his ideas for improving the field of linguistic studies in general: "The time is past when simple 167 168 Cassidy 149. U.S. Geological Survey Photo Library, http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/, Image file: /htmllib/batch02/batch02j/batch02z/jwh00282.jpg (accessed 10 Dec 2011). S m i t h | 27 vocabularies or lists of words will answer the demands of science. We must know something also of the grammatical forms and idiomatic expressions [and] secure as far as possible the forms of expression peculiar to each language, so that a more critical comparison of the different stocks and dialects may be made."169 The following year, Hayden described a new, "enormous species of hare", Lepus bairdii, collected near Fremont's Peak in the Wind River Range on the Columbia River.170 Also in 1869, he outlined for the American Philosophical Society his observations on the remains of ancient Pawnee villages along the Missouri, where he "gathered about half a bushel of the fragments of pottery, arrowheads, and chipped flints," and made inquiries of area tribes regarding the history and context of the artifacts.171 Hayden and his expedition botanists and zoologists collected specimens of plants, birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, and fish to forward to Baird, as well as numerous dinosaur fossils, many of which are still kept in the Smithsonian.172 In 1883, Hayden was a founding member of the American Society of Naturalists.173 5. W.H. Holmes, "U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (Hayden Survey) Sheet number14. Two sketches of hawk's heads. Colorado, 1873." 174 Although Hayden's surveys largely promoted and enabled western expansion and development, he was also adamant about the conservation of many of the unique landscapes he encountered. After 169 Hayden, "Brief notes on the Pawnee, Winnebago, and Omaha languages," Proc Am Phil Soc Vol 10 No 78, pp 389-421. (page 390 quoted) 170 Hayden, "A new species of hare from the summit of the Wind River Mountains," American Naturalist Vol 3 No 3 (May 1869), pp. 114-116. 171 Hayden, "Notes and queries," J Ethnological Soc of London Vol 1 No 3 (1869), pp.331-332. 172 On Hayden s collection of natural history specimens, see Foster 192-3. 173 Foster xv. 174 U.S. Geological Survey Photo Library, http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/, Image file: /htmllib/btch319/btch319j/btch319z/74480014.jpg (accessed 10 Dec 2011). S m i t h | 28 the successful designation of Yellowstone as a National Park, Hayden recognized the power of public awareness of, and interest in, environmental conservation. To this end he presented a speech at the Geographical Society of New York, entitled "Our great West, and the scenery of our natural parks." His descriptions reveal his interest in the region, on account of its geology but also its astounding beauty: 6. W. H. Holmes, "U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (Hayden Survey) Sheet number 9. Sketch with watercolor added, of rugged mountain peaks with snow. Colorado 1873." 175 No one can convey to you the marvelous ruggedness of the surface [of the Rocky Mountains]. As far as the eye can reach, on every side, may be seen high mountain peaks with deep gorges in one continuous succession, while the sedimentary rocks are thrown into utter chaos. The survey under my charge during the past summer measured seventeen peaks in Colorado which reached an elevation over 14,000 feet, and twenty-seven over 13,000 feet I might dwell for hours on the details of the remarkable geographical features of this wonderful country. If the surveys which have been inaugurated by our Government are permitted to continue, we may annually look for fresh and valuable additions to our knowledge of the geology and geography of the little-explored portions of our great West. 176 175 U.S. Geological Survey Photo Library, http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/, Image file: /htmllib/btch319/btch319j/btch319z/74480009.jpg (accessed 10 Dec 2011) 176 Hayden, "Our great West, and the scenery of our natural parks." J Am Geog Soc of New York, vol 6 (1874), p. 211. S m i t h | 29 Although the Colorado surveys were especially desirable because knowledge of the geology and terrain were essential to the development of the railroad and mining in the territory,177 Hayden clearly appreciated and promoted the region on an aesthetic level as well as the practical one, and the conservation of National Parks beginning with Yellowstone owes much to his own appreciation for the unique landscape of the West. 7. Sketch by W. H. Holmes, depicting Hayden's survey party at work on the Summit of Mt. Evans. "James T. Gardiner (left) and George B. Chittenden (right) with notebook and transit, respectively. Handwritten text at right: 'Wm. H. Holmes Colorado 1873'. Printed in another hand: Field Book 1873 W.H. Holmes, Vol. 1. 1873 . Colorado, July 28, 1873. 178 Hayden conducted his final survey in 1878, but for the next seven years continued to serve as geologist for the newly reorganized departments of the United States Geologic Survey. He died in Philadelphia in December 1887. With his natural history surveys Hayden made unique contributions with respect to ornithology. His team collected the first fossil of a bird feather ever found, and Elliott Coues s monograph Birds of the Northwest (1874) was based largely on Hayden s bird skins.179 The Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)180in the Randolph College collection was acquired by Hayden in Colorado, and may have been part of the Cassidy 122-3. U.S. Geological Survey Photo Library, http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/, Image file: /htmllib/btch317/btch317j/btch317z/82230001.jpg (accessed 10 Dec 2011). 179 Foster 193. 180 AV32.3.1/1-2011. 178 177 S m i t h | 30 group studied by Coues.181 Robert Ridgway discussed Hayden specimens of the Rocky Mountain jay, Perisoreus canadensis, from Wyoming / Utah182 but makes no mention of Hayden specimens of C. stelleri. The original Smithsonian tag identifies it as Cyanura macrolopha, but this genus / species combination is one of a list of variations which Ridgway includes under his description of Cyanocitta stelleri diademata (Bon.) 183 Sharpe's 1877 catalogue of Passeriformes in the British Museum collections list two birds of genus / species C. macrolopha , which were stated to have been "purchased" from an unnamed collector(s): a female from Arapahoe County, Colorado, dated 24 Nov 1872, and a male from Fremont County, Colorado, dated 25 March 1876.184 The date of collection for the male bird coincides with Hayden's presence in Colorado, but whether he was at that location in March 1876 remains undetermined.185 8. 1869 illustration of Cyanura macrolopha, the original genus / species identification of the Hayden specimen. From Daniel 186 Giraud Elliot, The new and heretofore unfigured species of the birds of North America. Coues gives a delightful description of this species behavior, which gives some sense of the personal affection for birds shared by many nineteenth century naturalists: 181 Coues (1874) Birds of the Northwest, 215, cites a specimen of Cyanura stellari var. macrolopha collected by Hayden at Spring Creek (near present Fort Collins) on June 27, 1860. 182 Angus M. Woodbury (1944) "Type locality of Perisoreus canadensis capitalis Ridgway." Auk 61: 1, 131-2. 183 Ridgway The birds of North and Middle America, Vol 3 Pt 3, (?) pp.358-61. See also Coues (1874) 215. 184 Richard Bowdler Sharpe, Catalogue of the Passeriformes or perching birds in the collection of the British Museum: Coliomorphae, London (1877); reprinted by Elibron Classics 2005, p. 110. 185 Hayden's published survey reports may give specific information as to the exact location, but time did not permit more than a cursory perusal of these prior to the submission of this work. 186 New York Public Library, Image ID 402423. S m i t h | 31 All jays make their share of noise in the world; they fret and scold about trifles, quarrel over anything, and keep everything in a ferment while they are about. [C. stelleri macrolopha] is a regular fillibuster, ready for any sort of adventure that promises sport or spoil, even if spiced with danger.187 Dr. Edward Palmer (1831-1911) Another early scientist in the southwestern U.S., Dr. Edward Palmer, is cited as the collector of the western meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta188, in the Randolph College collections. This species was collected in the "Mounts of Colorado R. Arizona", and is noted by Elliott Coues in his 1868 "List of birds collected in southern Arizona by Dr. E. Palmer; with remarks."189 From 1863-1865, Dr. Coues was an army surgeon posted near Prescott, Arizona; Palmer, a surgeon's assistant, was Coues' associate field collector.190 Of the list, Coues states: "Although by no means a complete exponent of the birds of Southern Arizona, the list is valuable in clearly indicating some differences between the avifaunas of the southern desert and northern mountainous portions of the Territory."191 However, he identifies S. neglecta as a species which is observed throughout the Arizona Territory192, explaining the tag statement that Palmer collected this specimen in the mountains. The Smithsonian catalogue lists a skull of this genus and species, which was collected by Palmer at Camp Grant, Arizona.193 Like Hayden, Palmer was a man of many interests and abilities. He moved to Ohio from his native England in 1849, served as a collector of natural history specimens for a U.S. Navy expedition to Paraguay from 1852-1855,194 and then participated in the Geological Survey of California, where he collected marine invertebrates.195 Primarily a botanist, Palmer was a pioneer in what would become the field of ethnobotany; his particular interest was plants which were used by Native Americans for food and medicine.196 Palmer served as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army during the Civil War, and was stationed in Arizona from 1865-1868. After this service he focused again on field collecting, sponsored 187 Coues (1874) 217. AV48.1.1/1-2011; former SI #59262. 189 Coues (1868) 84. 190 Troy E. Corman and Cathryn Wise-Gervais (2005) The Arizona breeding bird atlas, 44. 191 Coues (1868) 82. 192 Coues (1868) 84. 193 SI#7477. 194 Marvin D. Jeter, "Edward Palmer" in Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=575 (accessed 8 Dec 2011). 195 Gray Herbarium archives listing, http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/PALMER.html (accessed 8 Dec 2011). 196 John Moring, Early American naturalists: exploring the American West, 1804-1900, 160. 188 S m i t h | 32 by Harvard University and the United States National Museum.197 In 1875 Dr. Palmer became the first naturalist to describe the flora and fauna of the Pacific Island of Isla Guadelupe, Mexico.198 From 18821884, he was one of a team of archaeological field assistants for the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology, assigned to survey Indian mounds throughout the southeastern United States. Following the completion of the survey, Palmer returned to collecting botanical and zoological specimens until his death in Washington, D.C., in 1911.199 Many of Palmer's papers are now kept at the Library of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University.200 Robert Ridgway (1850-1929) 9. Robert Ridgway, from a carte de visite by the Ulke Brothers dated April, 1873. 201 Robert Ridgway was the first full-time curator of birds at the Smithsonian Institution from 1880 until his death in 1929. 202 He was born on 2 July 1850,203 the eldest of ten children, only five of whom 197 198 Jeter. Barton, Daniel C. and Kirsten E. Lindquist. "Landbird and waterbird notes from Isla Guadalupe, Mexico." Western Birds Vol 35 No 4 (2004) p. 186; see also Ridgway, Robert, "Ornithology of Guadeloupe Island, Based on Notes / and Collections Made by Dr. Edward Palmer" 2: 1876, 183-195. 199 Jeter, "Edward Palmer". 200 Gray Herbarium archives listing, http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/PALMER.html (accessed 8 Dec 2011). 201 Smithsonian, Scientific Illustrators: Robert Ridgway, http://www.si.edu/oahp/ScientificIllustrators/robtridgway.html (accessed 15 Nov 2011) 202 To date (2011), the most extensive biographies of Ridgway are: Harry Harris, Robert Ridgway. With a bibliography of his published writings and fifty illustrations. Condor 30:1 (Jan-Feb 1928), and Alexander Wetmore, Biographical memoir of Robert Ridgway 1850-1929, National Academy of Science (1931). The two works follow S m i t h | 33 survived to adulthood. Ridgway's father was a pharmacist in Mount Carmel, Indiana, on the Wabash River;204both his parents were "enthusiastic nature lovers"205 who encouraged their son's early interest in natural history. As Ridgway later recalled, Almost the only recreation of my father was hunting, or on Sundays, when he never hunted, taking walks in the country, especially through the woods, on both of which I usually accompanied him [M]y father was exceptionally well informed on the subject of wild life in general, though he had his own names for many birds, trees and other natural objects."206 Early in childhood Ridgway displayed an extraordinary aptitude for drawing, and made sketches and paintings of wildlife he observed in the woods along the Wabash.207 By age ten, Ridgway was collecting and illustrating birds, nests, and eggs, as well as leaves and other items of botanical interest, with results far in advance of his age, and a growing passion for the study that brooked no interference or discouragement from his parents. At his father s drug store, Robert learned to manufacture his own gunpowder for his shotgun, and ground pigments with gum arabic or tragacanth to make his watercolors.208 The shotgun the first hunting piece he owned had been made for him by his father using parts salvaged from a rifle found on the banks of the Wabash following a wreck. The elder Ridgway cut down the barrel and retooled the parts to be fit on a new stock, which he carved from wild cherry. With his new shotgun, fourteen-year-old Robert promptly bagged three pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus), and made a detailed wash drawing of the birds.209 Ridgway s mother also encouraged her son s interest, and he later recalled that on a shopping trip into Olney, she spent all her savings between eight and twelve dollars on a lavishly illustrated, leather-bound copy of Samuel Goodrich s The Animal Kingdom Illustrated, which Robert had coveted. 210 the same vein, so I have used the earlier (Harris) work as the source for Ridgway material unless otherwise noted. A new biography of Ridgway, The feathery tribe: Robert Ridgway and the modern study of birds, by Daniel Lewis, is due for release in 2012. 203 Harris 7. 204 Harris 6. 205 Harris 7. 206 Harris 8-9. 207 Harris 8. 208 Harris 12. 209 Harris 10. 210 Harris 13. S m i t h | 34 10. Engraving (T. Sinclair & Sons) after Ridgway of male Myiodynates leuteiventris, from Geographical & Geological 211 Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian," 1875. Ridgway's ability to observe and describe birds came to the attention of Professor Spencer Fullerton Baird212 in 1864. Ridgway and two young friends, Lucien and Granville Turner213, were exploring the woods around Mount Carmel that winter when they observed large numbers of a migratory bird with beautiful plumage on the male. When the boys inquired after the bird's name, Mrs. Turner suggested that they write to the commissioner of patents in Washington D.C. Ridgway, following her suggestion, described the bird and its behavior, and attached "a colored drawing representing the male and female" perched upon the "horse weed" (Ambrosia trifida) on which they were observed to feed. The commissioner of patents allegedly "did not 'know a hawk from a handsaw'" and instead forwarded the letter to Baird, who replied that the bird was a purple finch (Carpodacus purpureus). For the next three years, Ridgway continued to send letters and drawings to Baird, who responded with information and encouragement. In 1867, on returning home from a successful day of field collecting, Ridgway found a letter from Baird awaiting him with an extraordinary proposition: What are you engaged in at present, and what are your plans & intentions for the future? How would you like to come to Washington and spend a few months at the Smithsonian helping me, if we pay your travelling and other expenses. Or how would you like to go to the Rocky Mts. and California for a year or two as a collector of specimens. Have you learned to skin birds quickly and well, yet? Let me know at once as to the latter point as the chance may occur very 211 Vol V. Zoology, PI.XIV., Castle Collection, SI.1995.027, H.8 1/2" x W.11 1/2. From Scientific Illustrators: Robert Ridgway, http://www.si.edu/oahp/ScientificIllustrators/robtridgway.html 212 Baird was the author of Catalogue of North American Birds (1859). 213 Lucien M. Turner later did field studies in Alaska and Ungava while working for the United States Signal Corps. He was the collector of a snow bunting in the Randolph College collection, as described later. Granville Turner also went west, and died in Washington (state). See Harris 16. S m i t h | 35 soon to go in a few weeks. There would probably be a salary of about $50.00 per month and all expenses necessary.214 In the next month, Ridgway received a more detailed proposal from Baird, who described in detail the planned expedition: The object of the expedition is to make a thorough exploration of the Geography, Geology, and Natural History of the country near the 40th parallel of latitude from the Sierra Nevada region of California to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The Survey will probably last three years... It passes through the alpine district of California, the rich mining region of Nevada (Comstock lode), and will explore an alpine region in Utah never before visited. It offers more novelty than any other part of North America; while in ornithology it will afford a chance of completing the information respecting the habits of the western species. The party will probably leave New York for San Francisco, via Panama, early in May, perhaps the 1st, and if you go you had better come on here a week or two earlier, so as to get fully posted in your work. Your duties will be to collect fully in all branches of Zoology, and take notes in regard to the habit of the animals seen.215 Ridgway accordingly received from Clarence King, the geologist for the survey, an official offer of the position of Zoologist, with "pay authorized by the Secretary of War fifty dollars per month in U.S. currency with transportation and subsistence in the field."216 That the survey was funded through the War Department is telling; the United States government, no longer hindered by the expense and instability of the Civil War, now channeled money toward the exploration and development of its western territories as it sought to unify the country through a sense of optimism in its potential.217 Ridgway was seventeen years old when he arrived in Washington, D.C., where he spent the next few weeks at the Smithsonian honing his skills at preparing skins and familiarizing himself with the known species of western birds. On the tenth of May, Ridgway and his colleagues boarded the mail steamer Henry Chauncy, bound for Panama out of New York.218 After crossing the Isthmus of Panama, the survey party proceeded to San Francisco and Sacramento, where they received a cavalry company escort for their journey to Salt Lake City and the Uintah Mountains. Most of the travel was on horseback, and the party set up camps regularly, where the geologists explored and charted the area while Ridgway collected specimens and made notes regarding the animals' habitat and behavior. At the close of the survey the party returned by stage coach to Washington D.C. to report their findings. By the 214 215 Harris 16, 18, citing Baird's letter to Ridgway of 27 Feb 1867. Harris 18, citing Baird's letter to Ridgway of 30 March 1867. 216 Harris 19, citing King's letter of 28 March 1867. 217 See Cassidy 81-9 for a description of the surveys resumed after 1867. 218 Harris 19. S m i t h | 36 time Ridgway returned to Salt Lake for a second survey in May 1869, the last spike had been driven to connect the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines of the Transcontinental Railroad.219 Harris observes that although Ridgway was young and new to scientific scholarship, his reports of the survey, which were published on his return to Washington, were thorough and professional, and reflected his deep interest in subjects of natural history.220 Around 1870, Ridgway was offered the position of ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History, which he declined, staying instead in Washington. Although he made only $600 a year at the Smithsonian $900 less than he was offered from the AMNH221 Ridgway preferred to continue working in the company of Baird and other colleagues, including Dr. Elliott Coues and Ridgway s longstanding friend, José Zeledón.222 He had an unfettered enthusiasm for his new profession, and nearly every day bounded up the 87 stone steps to his tower office two at a time . He remembered a day in his office with Lucien Turner and some of his other friends, when another visitor arrived at his office; invited inside, the burly German who was [b]reathing heavily stopped, mopped his face, then placing his right hand over his heart, as his chest heaved visibly, exclaimed: Shentlemens, my heart bleeds for you . 223 11. Photograph of Ridgway in his office on fifth floor of the South Tower of the Smithsonian, August, 1884. 224 219 Harris 21. Harris gives a fuller account of Ridgway's experiences on this survey, pp. 22-27. Harris 22; Harris describes a copy of Ridgway s first survey report from the library of Alfred Russel Wallace. 221 Harris 27. 222 Harris 32. 223 Ibid. 224 Smithsonian photo # 91-2158 , Scientific Illustrators: Robert Ridgway http://www.si.edu/oahp/ScientificIllustrators/robtridgway.html. 220 S m i t h | 37 Although Harris claimed that Difficulty has been encountered in securing authentic data illustrative of the highly developed Ridgway sense of fun, many of Ridgway s acquaintances recalled that he enjoyed playing occasional pranks225and sometimes (to Dr. Coues annoyance) whistled when busy.226 In his work he harbored an "aura of self-effacing reserve and silent modesty", and in his personal life, a "boundless capacity for friendship".227 In October 1875, Ridgway married Julia Evelyn Perkins, the daughter of an engraver who cut the blocks to illustrate The History of North American Birds.228 Julia had grown up in New York City in a house overlooking Central Park, where she enjoyed observing birds. She also had an interest in art, and assisted her father in pulling proofs of his engravings.229 After her death, Ridgway remembered that Mrs. Ridgway s love for birds never flagged, nor did her efforts in their behalf ever cease. When we lived in a suburb of Washington, she often returned from a visit to the city with one or more bean-shooters taken from boys who had been using these juvenile implements of destruction with birds as their targets.230 Mrs. Ridgway served as the local secretary and a charter member of the newly-organized Audubon Society, and was active in persuading proprietors of millinery and department stores in Washington to cease dealing in bird skins and feathers.231 Ridgway acknowledge his great fortune in her sympathy with his work; the only part of it which she did not approve being the collecting of specimens the result of her extreme tenderness of heart toward all living creatures. The Ridgways had one son, Audubon Audie Whelock Ridgway, who was born in 1877. He was cheerful, lively entertaining a good imitator and impersonator. 232 Like his father, he was a very talented artist, and shared his parents interest in natural history. As a small child, he once saw a wasp, and asked to know the name of the funny-looking bee with a tail like a Motmot ! He died of pneumonia in 1901 in Chicago, where he had been working as an assistant in ornithology at the Field Museum.233 225 226 Harris 31. Harris 32-33: Ridgway related that Henry Henshaw, one of his associates, was also given to whistling, and once was threatened by a professor across the hall: Young man, if you don t stop that whistling there will be a vacancy in the geological survey! 227 Harris 4. 228 Authors Baird and Brewer, with contributions by Ridgway. 229 Harris 33. 230 Ibid. Particularly ironic, given that her husband had been guilty of the same offense! 231 Harris 35. 232 Harris 35-36. 233 Ibid. S m i t h | 38 Ridgway was involved with the founding of the American Ornithologists Union beginning in 1883,234 of which he was later (begrudgingly) vice-president and then president.235 The following year he began an inventory of the bird collection at the Smithsonian; he wrote to J. A. Allen that in two weeks he wrote [the] report for December, [the] annual report for 1883, and unpacked, classified , and entered 2000 birds . 236 In 1886, perceiving a need for standardization in descriptions of color variations by scientists and illustrators,237 Ridgway drew upon his artistic expertise to produce his Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists, a work he continued to expand, revise and refine until its second publication in 1909.238 Ridgway's system may have influenced the work of Dr. Albert H. Munsell, whose scientific system of color analysis continues to be employed in multiple fields and industries, such as forensic pathology, soil analysis, cosmetics, and brewing.239 Mrs. Ridgway assisted with the production of the work, pasting in the hand-colored swatches, attending the business correspondence, and wrapping and mailing out every copy ordered. Ridgway tried to dissuade her from the undertaking, as he realized fully the amount of labor it would involve but she could not be convinced and continued the tedious task until 1921.240 Of the revised work, Ridgway wrote: The new work will present nearly 1350 colors, arranged scientifically, and reproduced by a method which guarantees a faithful copy of the originals as to hue and tone, absolute uniformity throughout the entire edition, and at the same time as great a degree of permanency as is now possible with pigments now known to colorists. In short, the work has been so carefully planned and executed, that I have no doubt as to its adequacy to meet all the demands of naturalists and others who have use for a comprehensive color nomenclature and standards. 241 Harris 46. Harris 53. 236 Harris 50. Considering that it has taken the author four weeks to complete this paper and over six months to catalogue 300 specimens, one can appreciate Ridgway s achievement! The summary of his catalogue is found in Ridgway (28 Nov 1884) "The bird-collection of the U.S. National Museum," Science 4:95, 496-7. 237 Harris 42. 238 Ridgway, Robert. 1886: A nomenclature of colors for naturalists. Boston: Little, Brown and Company; republished as Ridgway, Robert. 1912: Color standards and color nomenclature. Washington DC: published by the author. 235 234 Wikipedia, "Munsell color system." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsell_color_system, accessed 10 Dec 2011. The speculation that Ridgway's work may have influenced Munsell is based on my own examination of both systems, but to date I have not found direct reference to such a connection. 240 Harris 35. 241 Ridgway, Robert (Oct 1909) "On the new edition of Ridgway's 'Nomenclature of Colors'." The Auk 26: 4, 450. 239 S m i t h | 39 Ridgway s younger brother, John, also an artist, assisted him in the preparation of skins and the illustration of plates. Another brother, Joseph, became a taxidermist under the employ of several Midwestern museums, including the Field.242 Despite the adventurous beginning to his career, Ridgway disliked travel, especially by train.243 Still, he conducted several important field investigations in the middle of his career: three in Florida with William Palmer244 and E. J. Brown from 1895-98 (where he acquired, among other specimens, the nowextinct Carolina parakeet, Conuropsis carolinensis, and ivory-billed woodpecker, Campephilus principalis); the Harriman Alaska Expedition in 1899; and expeditions to Costa Rica with José Zeledón in 1904 and 1908.245 Ridgway also assisted Samuel Pierpont Langley in his efforts to develop an airplane, providing calculations and drawings showing how avian anatomy could be used as the basis for the mechanics of artificial means of flight.246 12. The Condor, published by the Cooper Ornithological Club of California, published many articles by Ridgway, as well as his biography by Harris. Harris 41. Harris 29. 244 See below. 245 Harris 55. 246 Harris 63. The study of bird flight and its influences on aeronautic design is now among the most well-known example of "biomimicry." 243 242 S m i t h | 40 Some sense of the nature of early twentieth century collecting expeditions may be gained from Ridgway's description of a collecting foray to Costa Rica,247 undertaken by Ridgway in the winter of 1904-1905. Accompanied by a few colleagues and his wife, Ridgway and his collecting party hiked into the backcountry jungle of Panama, documenting rare birds as well as other fauna and flora. Of the hardships of months spent collecting, he writes: The real terrors of Tropical collecting are the absence of comfortable shelter and palatable food, when one is once away from the towns, and the limitations upon travel and transportation. Off the carreta roads only horse trails occur, and these [are] excessively rough, stony, hilly, and often slippery ground. On this account one's outfit must be restricted to what can be carried on horseback, unless the collector be sufficiently provided with funds to be able to hire pack animals and packer. The certainty of getting wet every day when one goes into the mountains (or even elsewhere during the rainy season) is also a serious matter, and the collector should be provided with several changes of shoes and clothing, since once wet they cannot, as a rule, be dried. Another thing worth mentioning is the physical difficulty of collecting on account of the dense vegetation and rough nature of the ground, rendering it often practically impossible to recover a specimen after it has been shot."248 Throughout his career, and especially in the latter years of it, Ridgway suffered, as he put it, "forty-five years of homesickness, which only interest in my work under favorable auspices enabled me to endure."249 He also had "an ardent interest in botany and horticulture" and attempted the planting of a botanical garden at his home in Brookland, a suburb of Washington D.C.250 Eventually in 1915 the Ridgways settled in Olney, Illinois, on eight acres in a house known as "Larchmound." On numerous visits to Illinois, Ridgway had become increasingly concerned over the effects of development on the ecology of his home state. Furthermore, no extensive research had been done on the native flora of certain areas of the state especially Richland County. Ridgway undertook a botanical inventory, and discovered many species of trees and shrubs not before observed in Illinois, including two species of trees "new to science." The importance of this result consists in the fact that a few years hence it would have been impossible to ascertain what originally occurred here, for constant clearing and occasional burning and draining are destroying the original flora so fast that before many years have gone scarcely more than a vestige will remain.251 247 248 Ridgway 1905: "A winter among the birds in Costa Rica." Ibid., 160. Ridgway notes that in some areas, two out of every three birds shot were unable to be recovered on account of the difficult terrain. 249 Harris 28. 250 Harris 66. 251 Ridgway, quoted in Harris 30-31. S m i t h | 41 Ridgway was not overstating the problem. He wrote of a huge cypress swamp in the floodplain of the Wabash, with cypresses "as large as those growing in the Gulf States, and hardwoods of more than a hundred species." Near to his parents' home was Monteur's Pond, a wooded swamp filled with aquatic plants. The region was remarkably rich in life of all kinds; several southern species of reptiles never before obtained so far north were taken there. A colony of Yellow-crowned Night Herons were nesting in the large timber at the edge of the swamp, and Prothonotary Warblers abounded among the large willows[.]252 The pond was drained in 1887, as were the cypress swamps; "an area of some twenty thousand acres" was replaced by cornfields, leaving "only pitiful remnants" of the "miles upon miles of unbroken virgin forest." The impact to the environment was so profound that another member of the Biological Survey, observing from the train window, described it as "a prairie-like region".253 In 1906, Ridgway purchased a tract of eighteen acres of abandoned farmland in Richland County that would become the grounds for his last, and possibly most insightful, major project: a nature preserve which Julia named "Bird Haven." Ridgway's goal for Bird Haven was an arboretum, featuring every species of woody plant indigenous to Illinois; seventy-four species and varieties of trees were already growing on the small property. At Ridgway's gradual and growing expense, additional native plants, trees, and shrubs were reintroduced and allowed to become reestablished to create "the ideal conditions within the sanctuary for attracting and supporting all forms of wild life, especially birds"254 that had been displaced by the habitat lost to development. Sadly, much of the sanctuary was destroyed after Ridgway's death with the construction of the East Fork Lake, but a small tract at Bird Haven remains a protected park.255 Ridgway published several definitive volumes and a vast array of scientific articles relating to American bird species. At least twenty-three separate species and one genus have been named for Ridgway256 in acknowledgement of his extraordinary contributions to American ornithology. Two birds in the Randolph collections are directly attributed to Ridgway. The first is a female Western Sandpiper, Calidris mauri (formerly Ereunetes mauri).257 Fred Ryser notes that Ridgway collected three of these birds at the Humboldt marshes in the Great Basin on 26 August 1867, but 252 Ridgway, quoted in Harris 39. Harris 39. 254 Harris 69. Ridgway also recalled humorously that Julia did not "entirely approve of my activities concerning Bird Haven, for she thought I was spending more on the place than we could afford, which was entirely true." (Harris 35) 255 City of Olney, "Parks in Olney," http://www.ci.olney.il.us/Visitors/Parks.htm#Bird Haven (accessed 15 Dec 2011) 256 Listed on Harris 70. 257 AV15.1.1/1-2011. 253 S m i t h | 42 mistakenly identified them as juvenile Ereunetes pusillus [now Calidris pusilla]. The mistake was corrected later by Jean M. Linsdale, based on one of Ridgway's specimens which remained at the United States National Museum in the 1930s.258 Ridgway's recollections of his experience at the Humboldt Marshes are worth recounting. The survey party had been trekking across the Humboldt Desert. Ridgway was far ahead of the others when "near noon [and] feeling sick and 'queer' I dismounted, tied my mule to a sage-bush, and lay down in his shadow" while waiting for the rest of the party to catch up: I never knew when they picked me up and placed me in the ambulance, nor was I conscious at all until camp was reached. On arriving at the Humboldt Marshes, where we remained for a week, I was down with malarial fever and so weak that no collecting could be done. It was the most uncomfortable camp in all my experience; the water used for drinking and cooking was so charged with sulphur that it smelt like ancient eggs and at night we suffered the torment of millions of blood-thirsty mosquitoes.259 Presumably the specimens caught at Humboldt Marsh, therefore, postdate Ridgway's recovery, or else were shot for him by another member of the survey party. The Western Sandpiper, according to Ryser, is "a common and often abundant migrant in the Great Basin; stragglers are occasionally seen here during the winter and summer."260 It is described in Ridgway and Friedmann, where it is noted to have a broad distribution range: "North and Middle America and northern South America; breeding along Bering Sea coast of Alaska, from mouth of Yukon River to Kotzebue Sound; migrating southward, chiefly westward of Rocky Mountains, but not uncommonly along Atlantic coast, from Massachusetts southward; wintering from North Carolina and southern Lower California" to Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, and Trinidád.261 The second bird attributed to Ridgway is Chlorostilbon assimilis, allegedly collected in Panama. It is worth noting that this bird, and the sandpiper, are likely two specimens collected by Ridgway on his first Western Survey, at the age of seventeen. Although the skins are fragile they have been carefully and delicately prepared, a fact all the more remarkable since Ridgway had only just learned this work.262 258 Ryser (1985), p. 191. The specimen Linsdale identified was SI #170293. Another of this species in the Smithsonian catalogue, collected by Ridgway in Alaska, has two associated numbers: USMN #84640 and Field #178. It is unclear from the catalogue whether this refers to the Field Museum in Chicago. It is interesting to note that the original tag of the specimen in the Randolph College collections has been removed from the bird, and the attribution to Ridgway is dependent upon its identification in the handwritten inventory. 259 Harris 25. 260 Ryser (1985) 191. 261 Ridgway / Friedmann 215-6. 262 Harris 21: "[Ridgway] spent about two weeks at the Smithsonian learning to make a bird 'skin'." S m i t h | 43 S. Turner and Lucien M. Turner At least four other birds in the Randolph College collections have associations with Ridgway. The first is a specimen of yellow-rumped warbler, Dendroica coronata,263 collected at Mount Carmel, Illinois, by S. Turner. To date, no biographical information has been found on S. Turner, though the location of Mount Carmel cited on the tag of the Randolph College specimen suggests that he or she was somehow related to Ridgway's childhood friend and early collecting associates, Lucien and Granville Turner. Ridgway (with Baird and Brewer) cites another bird (Anas h. nivalis) collected at Mount Carmel by S. Turner.264 Dendroica coronate, like other warblers, is a migratory bird; although S. Turner's specimen was collected in Illinois, Witmer Stone noted that in late March (1890) the species was "common among the Mangroves" in the Yucatán.265 Another specimen associated with Ridgway was collected by Lucien M. Turner: a female Plectrophenax nivalis, or snow bunting, collected at Fort Chimo, Ungava, on 30 September 1882. This appears to have derived from a large collection of birds skins in the Smithsonian "collected at Fort Chimo and along the Koksoak by Lucien M. Turner between June 18, 1882 and October 3, 1884."266 As Gabrielson and Wright discovered in 1950, "Many of the skins [described by Turner] are no longer in the [Smithsonian] Museum, having been traded or donated to various collections"267 presumably including that in the Randolph College collection. Turner was an industrious naturalist; he collected in the Yukon and Aleutian Islands.268 Fort Chimo was his headquarters while on assignment with the Signal Corps, where he was charged with maintaining records of weather data. However, during his stay at Fort Chimo he collected and prepared some 1623 bird specimens,269 which were then submitted to his friend Robert Ridgway at the Smithsonian. A letter of April 1884 from Ridgway to Dr. J. A. Allen of the American Ornithologist's Union reveals that Ridgway made a drawing of one of the specimens Lucien sent: 263 264 AV44.1.3/1-2011. In Baird, Brewer, Ridgway (1884) The water birds of North America. Vol. 1, 440. See also Ridgway (1889) The ornithology of Illinois Vol.1 Pt. 1, 155, 339. 265 Stone (1890) 210. 266 Ira N. Gabrielson and Bruce S. Wright (1951) "Notes on the birds of Fort Chimo Ungava." The Canadian fieldnaturalist 65: 4 www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/90126, 128. "This collection had been reported on briefly by Turner (Pro. Nat Mus. Vol. 8, 1885, pp. 233-254), but no careful study of it had been made." 267 Gabrielson / Wright 128. 268 Harris 41. 269 Ibid. S m i t h | 44 I have a very beautiful new Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax hyperboreus) which I wish we could publish a plate of. The [plate] is already made, and I will furnish it (the original drawing) free of charge if it can be published.270 According to Gabrielson and Wright, "Turner called [the snow bunting] abundant at Chimo and stated that it bred on the islands in Ungava Bay and occasionally on the mainland. There are twenty-five of his skins from this area still in the collection taken between September 17 and May 3."271 Interestingly, a third specimen, Spizella arborea,272 identifies no collector or location on the tag, but is very close in date to the specimen of P. nivalis, having been taken on 23 September 1882. The preparation of the two birds is also nearly identical, suggesting that S. arborea was also collected by Turner at the Fort Chimo site. This specimen was previously labeled "S. monticola" on the Smithsonian tag, and it would be interesting to note whether this misnomer appears in Turner's own lists and descriptions another clue which would aid its eventual attribution. Of S. arborea, Gabrielson and Wright observed that "Tree sparrows, including newly-fledged young and adults, were the most common bird in the willow and alder patches. They were present in numbers at Chimo, Whitefish Lake, the head of False River, and about the air base. Turner found it breeding commonly and took both skins and eggs. Seventeen skins, secured between May 22 and September 5, are still in the collection."273 William Palmer The final specimen with a definite Ridgway connection is a marsh wren, Cistothorus palustris 274 from Fairfax County, Virginia. The original Smithsonian tag, which identifies William Palmer as the collector, is stamped on the reverse "Gift of R. Ridgway, to U.S. National Museum. II." Harris, page 54, shows a photograph of William Palmer and E.J. Brown in front of the cabin occupied on a collecting trip with Ridgway in Florida in 1895.275 Palmer made a written account of the trip, with a list of birds seen or collected, which was published with Ridgway's account of the Ivory-billed woodpecker.276 Quoted in Harris 51. The plate was apparently published in the Auk in the 1885 edition, 291. Gabrielson / Wright 140. 272 AV46.1.1/1-2011. 273 Gabrielson / Wright 140. 274 AV37.2.1/2-2011. 275 Harris 54, Fig. 32. 276 Both articles are in The Osprey (1898): Ridgway's is in volume III while Palmer's is in volume V. 271 270 S m i t h | 45 Other Smithsonian Specimens The provenance of other Randolph College specimens will require more research, possibly in Washington archives.277 These include the skins marked A.H. Jennings, Victor J. Evans, E.S. Schmid, W. H. Ball, W. M. Perry, H. F. Cross, J. Stearns and Company, and Mrs. R.S.R. Hitt. Jennings published a "List of birds observed at New Providence, Bahama Islands, during March and June, 1887" in the Johns Hopkins University Circulars the following year,278 but little else is known of him to date. The Smithsonian secretary's report for 1924 stated that "Mr. Victor J. Evans, of Washington, D.C., [patent attorney?] who has taken a great interest in the National Zoological Park for many years, continued his contributions of carefully selected animals of the rarer and more unusual varieties. Among the specimens received from him during the last year were such valuable specimens as the agile gibbon, gelada [b]aboon, Tasmanian devil, crimson-winged paroquet, Australian catbird, and long-necked turtle. Altogether, Mr. Evans contributed 55 animals to the park during the year."279 The same report notes a gift of a barred owl from E.S. Schmid of Baltimore, Maryland.280 "W.H. Ball," "W. M. Perry," "H. F. Cross," and "R.S.R. Hitt" yielded no information to date. "J. Stearns and Company" may have had some connection to Dr. R. E. C. Stearns, who worked in the Conchology department of the Smithsonian during Ridgway's early years there.281 Undoubtedly, more may yet be uncovered. Two other specimen sets from the Randolph College collection should also be investigated, namely those acquired from the National Zoological Park between 1911 and 1958; and the anonymous European specimens, which appear to date from 1890-1907. The mounted specimens of birds and mammals, many of which were present during Hamaker's tenure at least from 1913, present a third grouping which is worth research. Archival sources might be deaccessionment records, letters of transfer etc. as kept by the Smithsonian. (1888) 7:63, 39. 279 Smithsonian (1924) Report of the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1924, 89-90. 280 Ibid. 91. 281 Harris 33. 278 277 S m i t h | 46 Conclusion Initial research on the provenance of early avian skins, deaccessioned from the Smithsonian collections and subsequently acquired by Randolph-Macon Woman's [now Randolph] College, yielded surprising and valuable results. The collectors of these skins traveled uncharted and dangerous regions of the Western Hemisphere to acquire the specimens, and their adventures and discoveries added greatly to the scientific understanding of evolution and biodiversity. Some of these activities led to the large-scale depletion of populations or the loss of whole species; others led to legal means of conserving birds and also their unique habitats. The men who shot and carefully prepared the beautiful birds in the collection had roles in the construction of the Panama Canal, the creation of the Migratory Birds Act, the mapping of the western territories of the United States, the founding of Yellowstone Park, and the exploration of Alaska. Some explored the commercial potential of scientific knowledge, while others set extraordinary examples by their individual efforts to preserve the astonishing landscapes and ecologies they encountered. Thus, the Randolph College avian cabinets contain more than merely dry flesh and fading feathers. They hold the fragile remains of creatures with stories to tell about the limits and potential of our own understanding, and our scientific heritage as Americans. S m i t h | 47 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to thank several individuals for their assistance and input into the research and writing of this paper. First, thanks are due to Dr. Douglas Shedd, the supervisor for the collections inventory project, who encouraged me in this field of research, supplied clarification with respect to scientific discrepancies in the catalogues, and never failed to make time (even at the last moment) to review my work and offer suggestions. Second, I would like to convey my thanks to Dr. Kelley Deetz, my academic advisor, who helped me to refine and develop various angles of research and who maintained professional composure and eager encouragement to counter my own frustration. Thanks are also due to Dr. Ronald Gettinger, for allowing me to interrupt him in his office to rifle through the ornithological literature on his shelves; and to Professor John D'Entremont, whose classes formed the foundation of my abilities in historical research. 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