Thursday 16 July 2009: A Gift

This is The Book of Birds by Gilbert Grosvenor and Alexander Wetmore. Published in 1937, it contains all the major bird species of the United States and Canada, in full colour (plates).

The bookplate indicates it came from the library of Theodore H Rowntree.

When I came home today it was there as a gift, thank you Heather.

The plates you can see are puffins, and the ivory billed woodpecker (now probably extinct). There is also a B&W photo of the woody, the first ever taken of the bird at the nest.

Just for info: Alexander Wetmore was Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Gilbert married the daughter of Alexander Graham Bell, Elsie May Bell, and he died at the age of 90 the year I was born.

I love old bird books, I love reading the language and in here they give an account of seeing Ivory billed woodpeckers - fantastic

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