Parker GH at Audubon Community Nature Center Jamestown, NY

[Sara LeFever]

As I was scrolling through Facebook this evening, a shotgun caught my eye…

My local Audubon Center posted:

ACNC recently renovated the Simpson Bird Room, a historic collection of birds that dates back 100 years or more. Join Katie Finch, Senior Nature Educator, for this Friday's First Lunch Bunch to learn more about Ralph Simpson and the bird collection housed at Audubon. Register online at https://auduboncnc.doubleknot.com/event/first-friday-ralph-b-simpson-birdwatcher-and-collector-adult/3015124

Ralph Simpson was a Warren, Pennsylvania native who studied and collected birds, contributed to the field of ornithology. Learn more about him and his collection, some of which is housed at Audubon.

Audubon Community Nature Center houses a collection of over 150 birds created during a time when bird collections, rather than field guides, were an important resource to learn more about birds. This First Friday presentation by Senior Nature Educator, Katie Finch, will explore the story of the Simpson collection, as well as the Warren local who collected and mounted the birds.

Ralph B. Simpson was a passionate and skilled naturalist. He explored the wild places in Warren County, Pennsylvania and Presque Isle in Erie, Pennsylvania. With a license from Warren County, he collected birds, nests, and eggs, preserving them himself. He also contributed to the larger scientific community in the late 1800s through his writing, record keeping and photography.

Post on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/iYtPnWJ6wYQMxc6g/?mibextid=HqNPNq

[Russell E. Cleary]

Sara:

That is super that the Jamestown New York Audubon Nature Center is not "hiding under a bushel" the role that a Parker GH played in collecting those birds.

There is an impressive collection in Pepperell, MA, and your post has inspired me to seek any available info. on how the birds in the Lawrence Library, in Pepperell, MA were collected.

Not only did Sidney Shattuck collect and mount these birds in the display case depicted in the photo below, he built the case!

Additionally, the larger birds Mr. Shattuck collected and mounted, i. e. herons and raptors, are too tall and numerous to be accommodated by the case, and they are displayed atop book cases in other rooms of the library.


Here is an official description:

"Lawrence Library Special Collections & Gallery
15 MAIN STREET, PEPPERELL, MA

The centerpiece of the special collections at the Lawrence Library is the Shattuck Bird Room: a showcase of over ​​100 unique bird specimens that Sidney M. Shattuck (1876-1917) collected, preserved, and mounted. All species were reportedly found within a 5-mile radius of Shattuck’s Pepperell, MA home before the collector was 20 years old. The collection was donated to the library by an unknown group of townspeople."

Amazing. All done before Shattuck was 20 years old. Reminiscent of the young Teddy Roosevelt.

[Dean Romig]

Interesting that the Audobon Society would even display, much less to allude to the fact that the shooting birds played a major role in these collections, despite the fact that that's exactly how John James Audibon collected birds for his world-famous paintings.

Thanks Sara for this thread.

Do you have a picture of the entire caption with the Parker?





.

[Sara LeFever]

Russell: Thank you for sharing that! It made me think of our library in Westfield, NY, which has a large collection of taxidermy birds. There are glass cases of smaller birds, and the larger ones are displayed around the library.

Their website says:
Our Victorian bird collection features 255 varieties from North and South America from 1845 – 1872 which have all been cleaned, classified, and identified by Dr. John Rapple om 2018.

In the early 1900s HW Mossman preserved and donated most of the taxidermied mammals in the Patterson Library, with the help of taxidermist Arthur Becker of Brocton. Mossman was a student of Westfield Academy at the time and later became a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin. He was also a contributor to the Encyclopedia Americana. We have a red squirrel, a red fox, a raccoon, an albino squirrel (from Ed Besch), a skunk, a chipmunk, two golden eagles, two loons, an Albatros, 2 pheasants, a white owl, a white dove, four ducks and a seven foot sailfish.
Link: https://www.pattersonlib.org/birdcollection/


Dean: I do not have any more photos of the Audubon display. I won't be back home until late Winter/early Spring, but I can put it on my list to visit. I'll see if I can email them to get some more details, and maybe ask to see it up close.
Jamestown also has the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, which I need to see again.

Sara

[Sara LeFever]

I did take a look at that photo again, and I thought this little snippet was nice.

[Chris Pope]

I have a friend that swears by #10 shot to take woodcock and snipe! Thanks for pointing out that snippet.