In the Field, Among the Feathered: A History of Birders and Their Guides

252 Pages·2011·6.75 MB·English

by  Thomas R. Dunlap

In the Field, Among the Feathered
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In the Field,
Among the
Feathered
A H i s t o r y o f B i r d e r s
& T h e i r G u i d e s

Th omas R. Dunlap

3
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Copyright © 2011 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dunlap, Th omas R., 1943–
In the fi eld, among the feathered : a history of birders and their guides / Th omas R. Dunlap.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-973459-7
1. Bird watching—United States—History. 2. Bird watchers—United States—History.
3. Birds—United States—Identifi cation—History. I. Title.
QL677.5.D83 2011
598.072′3473—dc22 2011009169
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For my brother Dave and my sister Martha,
my constant family readers
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Contents
Acknowledgments · ix
Introduction · 3
Part I
Gett ing Started
ONE Shooting Birds with Opera Glasses · 13
TWO A Book for a Hobby, 1889–1920 · 37
Part II
Th e Mature Guide & the Popular Hobby
THREE Knowledge & Skills · 67
four Th e Field Guide Comes of Age · 91
five Birds over America · 117
Part iii
Environmental Birding
six Birding in a Silent Spring · 147
seven Environmental Birding · 175
Conclusion: Th e Gyre · 201
Notes · 207
Bibliography · 227
Index · 237
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Acknowledgments
Th e History Department and the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M
University provided me a fi ne situation in which to work, and I thank
them, and my department head, Dr. Walter Buenger. For an uninter-
rupted year in which to write—a precious commodity indeed—I thank
the National Science Foundation for its support under SES grant
0550268, and Dr. Ronald Rainger, the project offi cer who steered the
proposal from rough idea to clear application. During the writing I had
what I have come to think of as my usual conversations with Bill Cronon.
Th is book would not have been the same without his friendship, advice,
and analysis. I shared birding fi eld trips with Kurk Dorsey at the Ameri-
can Society for Environmental History, and he reviewed the manu-
script. I tried out my ideas on far too many friends to mention each by
name, but they all have my deep thanks.
Like all researchers I rely on archives, and I thank the following not
only for permissions but also for staff assistance, invariably friendly and
helpful: the Wisconsin State Historical Society for a copy of my taped
interview with Joseph J. Hickey; the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in
Jamestown, New York, for access to Peterson’s extensive correspon-
dence, library, and specimen collection; the Museum of Vertebrate Zo-
ology in Berkeley, California, for its correspondence fi les, which I have
been using for research for more than twenty years; the American Mu-
seum of Natural History in New York for the correspondence of Frank
M. Chapman; the Cornell University Library for access to the Ludlow
Griscom Papers; and the Th omas J. Dodd Research Center at the Uni-
versity of Connecticut for the Edwin Way Teale Papers. I also thank the
editorial team at Oxford University Press for the alchemy that turns
manuscript into book, with my special thanks to Susan Ferber, whose