In my Zoom talk for the Linnaean Society earlier this week, I noted that the ornithologist James Bond also spoke to the group — at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC on April 11, 1944.
Turns out that Bond visited spoke at the AMNH earlier — I just didn’t know the date. Thanks to a newspapers.com search yesterday, I think I found the answer…
Early into my research for the book, I came across a clipping in a scrapbook (in the James and Mary Bond archive at the Free Library of Philadelphia, as I recall) that reported on a Bond talk at the American Museum of Natural History.
I loved the sepia-toned clipping because it shows that Bond was a conservationist way back in the 1930s.
The clipping was marked with “NY Times” and “1936?”
I now believe it was neither. I think it may have been from the Philadelphia Bulletin, though I can’t say for sure.
In my recent newspapers.com search, I came across an article in the Des Moines Register from Nov. 26, 1933.
The article was about a gathering of 400 ornithologists at the AMNH for the Golden Jubilee of the American Ornithologists’ Union.
And there was a paragraph about “Dr.” James Bond lashing out against collectors and so-called scientists for killing so many birds.
The same pitch at the same place, with the same misidentification of Bond as a doctor of ornithology.
By the way, Bond has been criticized by some ornithologists for not collecting enough samples of various species for research.
