Joseph Whitaker

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Whitaker 1880

Joseph Isaac Spadafora Whitaker (born March 19, 1850 in Palermo , † November 3, 1936 in Rome ) was a Sicilian - British ornithologist , archaeologist and sportsman . He was best known for his scientific work on the bird world in Tunisia , his excavations on the small Mediterranean island of Mozia near Marsala and as a founding member of the Sicilian soccer club US Palermo .

Life

The Whitakers family came from Yorkshire . Whitaker's father Joseph (1802–1884), but above all his mother's brother, Benjamin (1838–1922), were big in the wine business. Both went in 1820 to Marsala and negotiated successfully with there to - and developed sweet wines . The great-grandfather William Ingham (1730–1769) had already become wealthy with his banking business, but the family became extremely wealthy with the wine business. The Whitakers managed to build a real wine industry. Several family members moved permanently to Sicily. Whitaker's mother was Eliza Sophia Sanderson (1816-1885). He himself spent his school days in London at Harrow School . In 1883 he married Catherine Scalia (1858–1957), daughter of General Alfonso Scalia (* 1828) in Palermo. They had two daughters, Sophia, born in 1884, and Cordelia (1885). In 1922, the elder married Antonio di Giorgio , who was 18 years her senior and became Minister of War under Mussolini .

Whitaker also knew how to expand the wine empire. He stayed in Palermo, probably because Marsala, which is more than 100 kilometers away , seemed too provincial to him, and after his marriage he built the Villa Malfitano near the Castello della Zisa there . This urban residence had a covered area of ​​1000 m² and was built in neoclassical architecture, which partially merged with elements of Art Nouveau. The costs for the purchase and reconstruction of the site, the construction of the building and its equipment amounted to 1.2 million lire .

During those years of the Belle Époque , the house was the scene of lavish parties and was also visited by members of the British and Italian royal families. Catharina Whitaker knew Richard Wagner , Benito Mussolini, the emperor and Edward VII , Eugénie de Montijo , the wife of Napoleon III. and Queen Mary .

Whitaker himself was the founder and president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Palermo. He was also primarily responsible for the establishment of US Palermo in the later 1880s, of which he was the first president.

Ornithological and archaeological collections

Snow sparrow
Bust of Whitaker in front of the museum on Mozia Island

In 1891 the avid ornithologist Whitaker joined the British Ornithologists Union . Expeditions to Tunisia followed in the years 1894–1904. With scientific meticulousness and energy he recorded information about the natural history of birds and other animals and also the flora of Tunisia in notes on sketches . On the ground floor of his city palace in Palermo, he built a collection of birds and nests from Tunisia. In addition, after a few years, an almost complete collection of Sicilian birds and, with the assistance of Edward Dobson , the birds of Morocco and other areas of the Mediterranean region was created there. Parts of these collections can now be seen in the Natural History Museum in London. The Whitakers Sicilian birds are split between the Royal Scottish Museum and the Ulster Museum in Belfast .

In order to be able to study the bird life on the small island of Mozia within sight of Marsala undisturbed, he bought the island in 1888 and was surprised by the historical finds that he found there. His interest in birds turned to an archaeological interest. By 1921 he and his staff were able to recover several thousand finds. He set up a small museum on the island. The island and the larger island of Isola Grande in front of it now belong to the Fondazione Whitaker, which preserves the Whitaker legacy.

In 1963, in Mansfield , Nottinghamshire , a school was named after Whitaker, whose family came from the nearby Rainworth Lodge .

Publications (selection)

  • Technical articles
    • Notes on some Tunisian birds. Ibis 78-100, m. 1894 map
    • Additional notes on Tunisian birds. Ibis 85-106, m. 1895 map
    • Further notes on Tunisian birds. Ibis 87-99, m. 1896 map
    • On Turnox sylvatica in Sicily Ibis 290-291. 1896
    • Description of two new species, Garrulus ornops , sp. nov., and Rhodopechys alicna , sp. nov. Bull. Brit.Orn.Club vol. 8.pxvii 1897
    • Further notes on Tunisian birds Ibis 125-132. 1898
    • On the Gray Shrikes of Tunisia Ibis 288-231. 1898
    • On a collection of birds from Morocco with descriptions of Lanius algieriensis dodsoni, subsp. nov. (p. 599) and of Octocorys atlas (p.xiii) Ibis 592-610. 1898
    • Description of a new chat , Saxicola caterinae , sp. nov., from Algeria and Morocco, and a new crossbill, Loxia curvirostra poliogyna , subsp. nov., from Tunisia Ibis 624-625. 1898
    • Description of a new species of Shore-Lark , Otocorys Atlas , from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club . Vol. 7, p.xlvii (p 432 of Ibis ) 1898
    • On an Abnormal nest of Ardea cinerea Bull. Brit. Orn. Club . vol. 8, p.xxxvii. 1899
    • On the Occurrence of Caprimulgus aeggptius , Palermo Ibis 475-476
    • Recent Archaeological Research at Motya, 1920 pp. 177-180
  • Books
    • The Birds of Tunisia , 2 vols. Xxxii, 294; xviii, 410, 17 full-page engravings, 15 of which are hand-colored by Henrik Grönvold , 2 photo engravings, 1 color folding card; London, 1st edition to 250 copies. Limited edition, 1905 full text
    • Motya, a Phoenician colony in Sicily , G. Bell, 1921, 357 pp.

literature

  • Fabio Lo Valvo, Bruno Massa: Catalogo Della Collezione Ornitologica Joseph Whitaker (1850-1936) ed. by: Il Naturalista Siciliano . S. IV.XXIV (supplement), 2000, 13 figs.
  • Vincenzo Tusa: J. Whitaker e Mozia In: The Whitaker Collection , ed. by Vincenzo Tusa as Scientific Director of the Giuseppe Whitaker Foundation, Palermo 2008, pp. 17–20

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ossett.net
  2. ^ Genealogical site about the Whitaker family ( Memento of January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ rootsweb
  4. ^ Fondazione Whitaker
  5. ^ Homepage of the Josef Whitaker School ( Memento from October 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Whitaker, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spadafora Whitaker, Joseph Isaac (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sicilian-British ornithologist, archaeologist and sportsman
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Palermo
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1936
Place of death Rome