Althea Sherman

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Althea Sherman 1916

Althea Rosina Sherman (born October 10, 1853 in Farmersburg Township , Iowa ; died April 16, 1943 in National , now Garnavillo , Iowa) was an American teacher, ornithologist, and illustrator . She made a special contribution to describing the bird species in her home state of Iowa.

Life

ancestors

Althea Sherman's birthplace in Farmersburg Township (around 1848)

Sherman traced their ancestry back to the British Sherman family from Suffolk in the 15th century . According to her own statements, her paternal ancestors included William Bradford , Roger Conant and Roger Sherman . She was related to Myron H. Clark and Aaron Clark through her mother .

Sherman's father, Mark Bachelor Sherman, was from New Hampshire but grew up in Essex County , New York , where he trained as a tanner and shoemaker . Shortly after his marriage to Sibyl Melissa Clark, who came from Vermont , the couple headed west in 1842, as Sherman could no longer find enough jobs in the course of increasing industrialization in New York. About the stations Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien , where the eldest daughter Emma was born, the young family reached Iowa in 1845, where they settled in Clayton County . There Mark Sherman had bought land cheaply in Farmersburg Township. The house in which the family would live for the next 21 years was an outpost of civilization on the prairie and was therefore occasionally used as a makeshift shelter. The Shermans' five other children were born there, Althea in October 1853 as the fourth.

Early years and studies

Althea Sherman 1875

After living in her parents' pioneer house on the prairie for her first years, Althea Sherman moved two miles north to the village of National in 1966, which then had a population of about 200. Mark Sherman had farmed the prairie well and had grown to some degree of wealth that enabled all of his children to get a good education. After completing elementary school in Farmersburg Township, Althea and two of her sisters attended Upper Iowa University in Fayette to attend preparatory courses. These preparatory courses were offered by various colleges in the mid-19th century , as there were too few high schools for the rural population . In 1969 the three sisters moved to Ohio and enrolled at Oberlin College . While her two sisters chose medicine, Althea chose art, but also attended courses in Greek and Latin. She received her bachelor's degree in 1875 and then taught for a few years before returning to Oberlin College to receive her master's degree in 1882 . She made such changes between teaching and further training several times in the following years. She first taught at Carleton College in Northfield before she attended courses at the Art Students League of New York and the Art Institute of Chicago from 1885 . In 1887 she moved to Wichita , Kansas , near her sister , where she gave private lessons. This was followed by a shorter stint in her native National, where she took care of the increasingly sick father, as well as another study visit to New York, before she took over the supervision of drawing lessons at the public schools in Tacoma , Washington from 1892 . She held that position for three years until she returned to National to care for her parents in 1895, this time forever.

Back in National

In 1896, a year after Sherman returned to her parents' home, her father died at the age of 80. After that she looked after her mother until her death in 1902. From then on, Sherman continued to run the household together with her older sister Amelia. But the small village of National gave her insufficient opportunities to work as an art teacher, which is why she turned more and more to her hobby of nature observation and above all ornithology. While she still referred to herself as an art teacher at the turn of the century, she already stated ten years later that she primarily studied birds. In 1905, at the age of 51, she published her first scientific article in the Wilson Bulletin . In the following years she increasingly converted her property into an observation laboratory. In the unused barn she placed nesting boxes behind knotholes. She also set up an observation post and a nesting tower for chimney swifts on the property. Her work soon attracted attention: She was a frequent and welcome guest at various scientific conferences and kept lively correspondence with the greats in her field. A special relationship developed with Margaret Morse Nice , whose career she supported considerably in the early years and who became a lifelong friend. From the 1920s onwards, Sherman began to have problems with her health, and arthritis made her writing difficult.

Late years

Her last contribution was published in a specialist journal in 1932, and her private records end in 1936. Two planned book projects never came to fruition. Until recently there was no connection to running water or electricity in her house, so housekeeping was very exhausting. However, she and her sister never hired a housekeeper. In 1940 her sister Amalia died at the age of 90 and she herself three years later at 89. She was buried next to her sister in the National Cemetery.

Achievements and positions

As an artist

Althea Sherman: A flicker courtship

Sherman's oeuvre as an artist includes numerous landscape depictions as well as portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Empress Eugénie of France. Her pencil drawings are considered more successful than her oil paintings. Her artistic work was significantly influenced by George Henry Smillie . She also benefited from her artistic training in her second career and many of her items were adorned with bird illustrations. Ornithologist and artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes praised her portrayal of a red-backed mockingbird in 1922 as more vivid than any bird he had ever painted. Her portrayal of a Goldzeisigs persuaded the legislature of Iowa to this bird in 1933 as the official federal state bird ( state bird to explain). Over 200 of her paintings are now in the possession of the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines .

Ornithology

Over the years, Sherman has observed 168 different species of birds on their property, 40 of which also nest. Her meticulous observations on living birds led to new insights and corrections to the common doctrine in various species. She observed some bird species continuously over a period of over 30 years. Birds that she studied more extensively than anyone before include the screech owl , the golden woodpecker , the chimney swift , the white-bellied phoe beast , the red-winged blackbird , the cat thrush , the red-backed mockingbird , the American thrush and the alder-flycatcher .

While birds made up the bulk of her zoological studies, she was not limited to that alone. A treatise on bats that she wrote after 14 years of observation also met with great approval from the specialist audience.

Working method

In contrast to many ornithologists of her time, Sherman hardly researched dead birds, but made almost exclusively observations on living objects. It often began early in the day, around five in the morning, and usually only ended late in the evening. During the long and often uneventful hours of observation, she often did sewing work or other household chores on the side. It was very important to her to keep her notes meticulously every day and for this purpose kept several notebooks in parallel. Each notebook was dedicated to its own aspect of their observations, such as nest building or feeding. She also kept separate notes on different bird species. She also recorded many of her observations graphically in small sketches. Her artistic training suited her very well. About 70 of her closely described notebooks are now in the collection of the State Historical Museum of Iowa. Parts of her extensive records were published in book form by Frank J. Pierce under her name in 1952. In 1996 a new edition of the book was published with the title Birds of an Iowa dooryard .

Journey to the old world

On November 7, 1913, Sherman set out from New York on an overseas journey that took them over several months through a total of 20 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. She had meticulously planned this trip beforehand. Since she wanted to observe the birds of the countries visited in addition to the usual sights, she read several books on the respective avifaunas before leaving . From New York, the trip went to Bombay in India, with short stays in Madeira , Gibraltar , Algiers , Monaco , Naples and Cairo . She crossed India twice by train and visited attractions such as the Taj Mahal and Mount Abu . Then she went to Egypt , where she sailed the Nile from Alexandria to the 2nd cataract. She then continued her journey to Greece via Palestine and the Ottoman Empire . From here she traveled on and visited various countries in Central and Northern Europe. Because of the outbreak of the First World War , Sherman had to cancel her trip early in the summer of 1914. On August 13, she took a ship back to the USA from Copenhagen . She had actually planned to publish all of her travelogues in book form; but that did not happen. Instead, a series of four articles appeared in the Wilson Bulletin entitled Birds by the wayside , in which she mixed travel reports with observations about the birds of the respective countries and made comparisons with species native to America. The articles cover about the first half of their journey (until the end of March 1914).

The great wren dispute

Bird house with house wren

Sherman was picky about her commitment to the birds around her. While she declared the golden woodpecker to be her favorite bird , she was clearly opposed to the house wren . The reason for this was long-term observations that the wren drove other songbirds away from their breeding grounds and destroyed their eggs. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, it became increasingly popular among private individuals to set up birdhouses for the house wren to be able to enjoy his song. In their 1925 article published Down with the house wren boxes ( Down with the House Wren boxes ) called Sherman this behavior as ignorant and narrow-minded . This irreconcilable attitude turned many self-proclaimed bird lovers against her. But it also received some opposition from scientific circles. A series of articles in specialist journals and popular literature followed, in which both sides supported their positions. This debate went on for 15 years now and was later variously as the great Wren dispute ( the Great Debate Wren called). It is reported that Sherman suffered greatly from hostility, some of which was personal. Today the house wren has continued to spread in America and attempts are made from time to time to revive the debate about it.

In addition to the house wren, Sherman also had aversions to other bird species, primarily to birds of prey such as screech owls and crimson glaciers . After observing these birds for several years, in later years she consistently killed any specimens she encountered on her property. In addition, she offered a reward of a few cents for killed birds of these species.

The chimney tower

One of the species of birds that Sherman studied in particular was the chimney-swift , which got its name from the fact that it prefers to nest in chimneys. In order to be able to study this nesting behavior thoroughly, Sherman built a nine meter high tower with a simulated chimney shaft in the immediate vicinity of her house in 1915, which, surrounded by a spiral staircase, could be observed from inside the tower. After three years the first sailors actually nested and built several nests in the following years. In addition to Sherman, many other amateur ornithologists also used the tower to make observations.

From 1936 onwards, Sherman's arthritis no longer allowed climbing the tower. Her plan to write a book about her observations remained unfinished, but some of her notes were published posthumously . After her death in 1943 the family property was sold. The chimney tower was moved to Harpers Ferry in 1962 , where it stood until 1992. It was then dismantled and stored in pieces before being rebuilt in 2013 near Buchanan , Cedar County . Since 2014, sailors have been nesting in the tower again.

Sherman's chimney sail tower proved to be a complete success and has found numerous imitations to this day. Towers of this type are viewed as a valuable contribution to species protection and there are various instructions on how to build such facilities yourself.

Local lore

In addition to her scientific studies, Sherman also dealt with the local history of her home region and wrote a monograph on this in 1919 . In this she made an arc from the original inhabitants, the Sioux , Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Ioway , Meskwaki (Fox) and Sauk (Sac) to the early pioneers around Joliet , de la Salle and Perrot in the 19th century and the Prairie du Chien agreements in which various indigenous tribes ceded land to the United States. Sherman combined the report of historical events with observations on geology, flora and fauna Sherman regretted it very much that their ancestors had not created this connection and that the changes in nature due to the settlement of the prairie were consequently never documented. Through interviews with older neighbors in combination with her own experiences, she tried to reconstruct some of the change processes.

However, her interest in her homeland extended not only to the past, but also to the present and future. She watched the continuing decline of her hometown National with regret. The post office closed in 1902, and a few years later the Methodist Church degenerated into a barn. More and more houses were empty. Sherman bought some of these houses and saved them from demolition. When the Congregational Church was to be converted into a tavern in 1937, it bought it too. But the decline of Nationals could not be stopped in the end. Ten years after Sherman's death, only a few uninhabited, dilapidated houses and the cemetery were reminiscent of the former location. Today there is a fairground for western fairs at this point. Plans from Sherman's will to set up a bird sanctuary on site were never implemented.

Memberships and honors

Sherman was a subscriber to numerous professional journals and a member of various scientific organizations. These included:

The American Ornithologists' Union, which she joined in 1907, raised her to member status in 1912 . Only three other women had this honor before her. In 1921 it was included in the third edition of the American Men of Science . In addition, it was temporarily listed in the personal encyclopedias Who's who and Who's who of the Women of the Nation . Iowa Bird Life magazine devoted a special issue to her after her death.

Publications

Articles in trade journals

Only multi-page articles by Sherman are listed. In addition to these, she published numerous brief observations (so-called field notes or general notes ), as well as various letters to the editor and book reviews. So it came to a total of over 70 publications.

  • Some Observations at Weedseed Inn. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 17 , no. 1 , 1905, pp. 1-4 , JSTOR : 4153983 .
  • My neighbors' homes in Clayton County, Iowa. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 18 , no. 3 , 1906, pp. 81-83 , JSTOR : 4154089 .
  • August notes from a watering place. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 20 , no. 3 , 1908, pp. 146-150 , JSTOR : 4154212 .
  • Stop migration. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 21 , no. 1 , 1909, p. 38-40 , JSTOR : 4154226 .
  • Five notes from the upper Mississippi valley. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 21 , no. 3 , 1909, pp. 155-158 , JSTOR : 4154255 .
  • An acre of birds. In: Bird-Lore . tape 12 , no. 6 , 1910, pp. 230-232 .
  • Effects of weather in north-eastern Iowa, spring, 1910. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 22 , no. 2 , 1910, pp. 117-118 , JSTOR : 4154300 .
  • At the sign of the northern flicker . In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 22 , no. 3-4 , 1910, pp. 135-171 , JSTOR : 4154314 .
  • Nest life of the screech owl . In: The Auk . tape 28 , no. 2 , 1911, p. 155-168 , doi : 10.2307 / 4071432 , JSTOR : 4071432 .
  • The keeping of notes. In: Bird-Lore . tape 13 , no. 4 , 1911, pp. 203-204 .
  • Diurnal activities of the great horned owl ( Bubo virginianus virginianus ). In: The Auk . tape 29 , no. 2 , 1912, pp. 240-241 , doi : 10.2307 / 4071377 , JSTOR : 4071377 .
  • Relative numbers of birds in 1912. In: Bird-Lore . tape 14 , no. 6 , 1912, pp. 347-348 .
  • Moments with the LeConte's sparrows ( Passerherbulus laconteii ). In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 24 , no. 1 , 1912, p. 18-21 , JSTOR : 4154380 .
  • The brown thrasher ( Toxostoma rufum ) east and west. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 24 , no. 4 , 1912, pp. 187-191 , JSTOR : 4154439 .
  • Carolinian avifauna in northeastern Iowa. In: The Auk . tape 30 , no. 1 , 1913, pp. 77-81 , doi : 10.2307 / 4071896 , JSTOR : 4071896 .
  • The nest life of the sparrow hawk . In: The Auk . tape 30 , no. 3 , 1913, pp. 406-418 , doi : 10.2307 / 4071671 , JSTOR : 4071671 .
  • The extermination of the wild turkey in Clayton County, Iowa. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 25 , no. 2 , 1913, pp. 87-90 , JSTOR : 4154480 .
  • Experiments in feeding hummingbirds during seven summers. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 25 , no. 4 , 1913, pp. 153-166 , JSTOR : 4154504 .
  • The great destruction of warblers : an urgent appeal. In: Bird-Lore . tape 17 , no. 5 , 1915, pp. 375-377 .
  • Birds by the wayside, in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 27 , no. 1 , 1915, p. 243-271 , JSTOR : 4154599 .
  • Birds by the wayside, in Egypt and Nubia. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 27 , no. 3 , 1915, p. 369-393 , JSTOR : 4154632 .
  • A peculiar habit by the house wren . In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 28 , no. 2 , 1916, p. 94-95 , JSTOR : 4154704 .
  • Birds by the wayside, in Palestine. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 28 , no. 3 , 1916, p. 106-122 , JSTOR : 4154716 .
  • Birds by the wayside, in Greece. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 28 , no. 4 , 1916, pp. 157-171 , JSTOR : 4154729 .
  • Bird conservation. In: Iowa Conservation . tape 4 , no. 3 , 1920, p. 72-74 .
  • A national bird day. In: Iowa Conservation . tape 6 , no. 2 , 1922, p. 26-28 .
  • "Animal aggregations": a reply. In: The Condor . tape 26 , no. 3 , 1924, pp. 85-88 , doi : 10.2307 / 1363102 , JSTOR : 1363102 .
  • The problem of the house would be . In: Bird-Lore . tape 27 , no. 2 , 1925, p. 97-100 .
  • Down with the house wren boxes. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 37 , no. 1 , 1925, p. 5-13 , JSTOR : 4155262 .
  • Additional evidence against the house was wren. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 37 , no. 3 , 1925, p. 129-132 , JSTOR : 4155311 .
  • Are birds decreasing in numbers? In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 40 , no. 1 , 1928, pp. 29-38 , JSTOR : 4155591 .
  • Summer outings of bats during fourteen seasons . In: Journal of Mammalogy . tape 10 , no. 4 , 1929, pp. 319-326 , doi : 10.2307 / 1374119 , JSTOR : 1374119 .
  • The old ornithology and the new. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 42 , no. 1 , 1930, p. 3-10 , JSTOR : 4155812 .

Books

  • Historical sketch of the park region about McGregor, Iowa, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin . Torch Press, Cedar Falls, Iowa 1919, ISBN 978-0-344-47320-3 ( online ).
  • Birds of an Iowa dooryard. University of Iowa Press, 1952, ISBN 978-1-58729-219-4 . (Edited posthumously by Fred J. Pierce.)

Web links

Commons : Althea Sherman  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Rose (Mrs. HJ) Taylor : Iowa's woman ornithologist Althea Rosina Sherman 1853–1943. In: Iowa Bird Life . tape 13 , no. 2 , 1943, p. 19–33 (English, online ).
  2. ^ A b Althea R. Sherman: Birds of an Iowa dooryard. Ed .: Fred J. Pierce. University of Iowa Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1-58729-219-4 , foreword by Arthur J. Palas to the 1952 edition, pp. 13-22 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Sharon E. Wood: Althea Sherman and the birds of prairie and dooryard: a scientist's witness to change. In: The Palimpsest . tape 70 , p. 164-185 (English, online ).
  4. ↑ Realto E. Price: History of Clayton County, Iowa: from the earliest historical times down to the present. Robert O. Law Co., Chicago 1916, p. 376-382 (English, online ).
  5. ↑ a b c d e Barbara Boyle: Sherman, Althea Rosina . In: David Hudson, Marvin Bergman, Loren Horton (Eds.): The biographical dictionary of Iowa . University of Iowa Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-58729-724-3 , pp. 458-460 (English).
  6. ^ * Althea R. Sherman: The keeping of notes. In: Bird-Lore . tape 13 , no. 4 , 1911, pp. 203-204 (English, online ).
  7. ^ Althea R. Sherman: Birds by the wayside, in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 27 , no. 1 , 1915, p. 243-271 (English).
  8. ^ Althea R. Sherman: Birds by the wayside, in Egypt and Nubia. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 27 , no. 3 , 1915, p. 369-393 (English).
  9. ^ Althea R. Sherman: Birds by the wayside, in Palestine. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 28 , no. 3 , 1916, p. 106-122 (English).
  10. ^ Althea R. Sherman: Birds by the wayside, in Greece. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 28 , no. 4 , 1916, pp. 157-171 (English).
  11. ^ A b Marcia Bonta : American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women Naturalists . Texas A&M University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-89096-634-1 , pp. 62-74 (English).
  12. ^ Althea R. Sherman: Down with the house wren boxes. In: The Wilson Bulletin . tape 37 , no. 1 , 1925, p. 5–13 , JSTOR : 4155262 (English, online [PDF; 559 kB ]).
  13. ^ Witmer Stone : Miss Sherman on the house wren problem. In: The Auk . tape 42 , no. 3 , 1925, p. 460-462 , doi : 10.2307 / 4074424 (English).
  14. ↑ The wren house debate revisited. In: bbne.org. Bluebirds Across Nebraska, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Happy 165th birthday to Althea Sherman! In: iastatedigital.wordpress.com. Iowa State University , October 10, 2018, accessed April 14, 2020 .
  16. ^ Orlan Love: Cedar County bird observatory upright again. In: The Gazette . Gazette Communications, Inc., May 8, 2013, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Orlan Love: Birds nest in historic chimney swift tower. In: The Gazette. Gazette Communications, Inc., August 7, 2014, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  18. ^ Paul D. Kyle: Chimney swift towers: New habitat for America's mysterious birds . Texas A&M University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1-60344-590-0 (English).
  19. ^ Althea R. Sherman: Historical sketch of the park region about McGregor, Iowa, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin . Torch Press, Cedar Falls, Iowa 1919, ISBN 978-0-344-47320-3 ( online ).
  20. ↑ Cornelia Fleischer Mutel: Althea Sherman resurrected. In: isis2.cc.oberlin.edu. Oberlin Alumni Magazine, 1997, accessed April 14, 2020 .
  21. ^ Pageant to feature centennial event at McGregor, Ia. In: The Billboard . July 24, 1954, p. 45 (English).
  22. ^ Clayton County Fair. Retrieved April 14, 2020 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Sherman, Althea
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sherman, Althea Rosina (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Farmersburg Township , Iowa
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1943
Place of death National , Iowa