William Henry Phelps

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William Henry Phelps

William Henry Phelps ( WH Phelps ; born June 14, 1875 in New York City , † December 8, 1965 in Caracas , Venezuela ) was an American ornithologist and businessman . He later took on the Venezuelan citizenship.

Origin and school time

Phelps was born in 1875 to the lawyer Dudley F. Phelps and his wife Louise Lander Prince Phelps. He devoted the greater part of his life to his business without losing sight of his passion for ornithology . The interest in birds was present from early childhood. Phelps also had athletic successes while studying at Milton Academy and Harvard . So he was a member of the rowing team , but switched to high jump due to lack of time . He also got involved with underprivileged boys in the Phillips Brooks house. After graduating, he began his career in Venezuela, preparing coffee for the market in San Antonio de Maturín in the east of the country. In San Antonio he met his first wife Alice Elvira Tucker. He married her and soon their first two children, John Prince Phelps and William Henry Phelps, Jr. were born in the same town. Later a daughter named Luisa and another son Alberto completed the family. In 1903 he moved his headquarters to Caracas. Here he diversified his business and became a representative and importer of works of art. He also wrote as the Venezuelan correspondent for the New York Herald and later for the Associated Press . He later expanded his business and was the first businessman to bring American cars into the country, which also led to the expansion of the infrastructure in Venezuela. Other business areas followed, such as refrigerators, stoves and other electronic devices. His social streak was also reflected in the fact that he introduced Saturday afternoons as non-working time. In 1938 Phelps retired and devoted himself only to ornithology. In 1947 he took on the Venezuelan citizenship and donated his library to the city of San Antonio de Maturín.

Phelps as a scientist

He attended Milton Academy in Milton ( Massachusetts ). There he successfully completed his studies in 1872. This was followed by studies at Harvard College , which he graduated with cum laude in 1897 . Between his time as a junior (third year) and senior (fourth year) he interrupted his undergraduate studies in order to set off on an ornithological expedition in Venezuela. He presented the results, which also included new species for science , to the American Museum of Natural History . This trip also resulted in his first publication in The Auk , entitled Birds observed on a collecting trip to Bermúdez, Venezuela. By William Henry Phelps. With critical notes and descriptions of two new species, by Frank M. Chapman appeared. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree , Phelps immediately returned to Venezuela.

Due to his business activities ornithology faded a little. When his sons finally grew up and gradually took over the business, Phelps had more time for his passion for ornithology. He founded the Phelps Foundation and sponsored many expeditions in Venezuela, which he also accompanied himself. The numerous destinations included the Paraguaná Peninsula , the plains and deep forest plains of the Orinoco to the mouth of the Rio Negro , the Paria Peninsula almost to Trinidad , the Sierra de Perijá to the border with Colombia , the foothills of the Andes in the southwest near Mérida and the huge massifs of the remote Tepuis Guaiquinima , Roraima and Auyan . His son William Henry Phelps Jr. accompanied him on the expedition to Auyan-Tepui, which was also funded by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The organization of the expedition was a logistical masterpiece. Phelps organized more than a hundred expeditions. Scientists from other disciplines than ornithology were also always welcome. So he was with the geologist Charles Henry Hitchcock and the botanist Bassett Maguire (1904-1991) on the road. Most of the time he worked with his son and his wife Kathleen Phoebe Deery de Phelps. Together with John Todd Zimmer , he also dedicated the scientific taxon to Kathleen for a subspecies of the breast band kotinga ( Pipreola whitelyi kathleenae ). In their first description they write: We have named this new form in honor of Kathleen Deery Phelps, collector of the type specimen, in recognition of her services to the Phelps Collection. (German: We name the new subspecies in honor of Kathleen Deery Phelps, who collected two bellows of this kind, by herewith recognizing their services for the Phelps Collection.) After his retirement he took care of his 1300 collected bird hides and his library . He published more than 70 articles and two volumes of books under the name Lista de Aves de Venezuela con su Distribución Geográfica (Passeriformes and Non-Passeriformes). In many of his publications, he worked with professionals such as Henry Boardman Conover (1892–1950), Ernest Thomas Gilliard , Alexander Wetmore , John Todd Zimmer, Armando Dugand (1906–1971), George Miksch Sutton (1898–1982) and Ernst Schäfer .

Initial descriptions

Phelps has scientifically described numerous species and subspecies .

The following new bird species were described by Phelps, partly together with his son and John Todd Zimmer:

Honors

While still a student, he became a member of the Nuttall Ornithological Club . In the club he met luminaries such as William Brewster , Charles Foster Batchelder , Edward Howe Forbush and Charles Johnson Maynard . In 1895 it joined the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). At the AOU meetings that take place every four years, he met other greats in ornithology such as Samuel Elliott Coues , Clinton Hart Merriam , Daniel Giraud Elliot , William Dutcher , Edward William Nelson , Charles Bendire , Frederic Augustus Lucas , Joel Asaph Allen , Frank Michler Chapman, Ruthven Deane and Robert Ridgway know. Phelps was honored by the AMNH as a benefactor of the institution for his services to the Auyan Tepui Expedition. At the Cerro de la Neblina there is a peak that many Venezuelans only know as Pico Phelps . It is the highest point in Venezuela outside of the Andes. In 1939, President Eleazar López Contreras honored him with the medal for public teaching . In 1949 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Central de Venezuela . In 1952 Phelps became a fellow of the AOU. In 1953 he was assigned a seat in the Senate of the Academia de Ciencias Físicas, Matemáticas y Naturales de Venezuela . When Phelps died, his son took over this seat. In 1954 he received the Isidore-Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire medal from the French nature conservation association Société nationale de protection de la nature (then Société d'Acclimatation). In 1955, President Marcos Pérez Jiménez awarded him the Orden del Libertador . In the same year he also received the William Brewster Medal from the AOU.

Wesley Edwin Lanyon dedicated the name of the genus Phelpsia to the entire Phelps family. In his first description he writes: It is appropriate that this unique Venezuelan endemic be named for the Phelps family (the late William H., the father; Billy, the son; and Billy's wife, Kathy) in recognition of their monumental contribution to our understanding of the ornithology of Venezuela, a tribute long overdue. The common German name of the Phelpssegler or sometimes in English Phelp's Swift ( Streptoprocne phelpsi ) (Collins, 1972) was named by Charles Thompson Collins after his father at the request of William Henry Phelps Jr. Chapman described in 1939 a subspecies of Flammenkopfkotinga ( Oxyruncus cristatus phelpsi ). In his article he wrote: I have named this unusually interesting new form in honor of William H. Phelps who has so long been a student of Venezuelan birds, and who collected seven of the Auyan-tepui series. (German: I named this unusually interesting new subspecies in honor of William H. Phelps, who for a long time studied the birds of Venezuela and collected the seven hides of this Auyan-Tepui subspecies.)

Publications (selection)

  • with Frank M. Chapman: Birds observed on a collecting trip to Bermúdez, Venezuela. By WH Phelps. With critical notes and descriptions of two new species, by FM Chapman. In: The Auk. 14, 1897, pp. 357-371.
  • La procedencia geográfica de las aves coleccionadas en el Cerro Roraima , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 5 (36), pp. 57-82, 1939
  • The geographical status of the bird collected at Mount Roraima , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 5 (36), pp. 83-95, 1939
  • with Ernest Thomas Gilliard: Six new birds from the Perijá Mountains of Venezuela. Issue 1100 of American Museum Novitates. 1940.
  • with Ventura Barnés: Las aves de la Península de Paraguaná con anotaciones sistemáticas , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 6 (46), pp. 269-301, 1940
  • with Alberto Fernández Yépez and Fulvio L. Benedetti: Las aves de Margarita con anotaciones sistemáticas , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 6 (43): 91-132, 1940
  • Discurso del Señor Willian H. Phelps (en el acto inaugural del nuevo edificio de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales) , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 6 (42), pp. 44-51, 1940.
  • with Ernest Thomas Gilliard: Seventeen new birds from Venezuela. Issue 1153 of American Museum Novitates. 1941.
  • with Alexander Wetmore: Description of a third form of curassow of the genus Pauxi , Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 33 (5), pp. 142-146, 1943
  • Las aves de Perijá. Casa de Especialidades, Caracas 1944.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: New species and subspecies of birds from Venezuela. 1270 edition of American Museum Novitates Volume 1. 1944.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: New species and subspecies of birds from Venezuela. Issue 1274 of American Museum Novitates Volume 2. 1944.
  • A new form of Myioborus from northern South America , Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 57, pp. 11-13, 1944.
  • Bubulcus ibis in Venezuela , The Auk, 61 (4), p. 656, 1944
  • Las aves de Perijá , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 8 (56), pp. 265-338, 1944.
  • Resumen de las colecciones ornitológicas hechas en Venezuela , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 9 (61), pp. 325-444, 1944.
  • Resumen de las colecciones ornitológicas en Venezuela. Casa de Especialidades, Caracas 1945.
  • New species and subspecies of birds from Venezuela , 1274 issue of American Museum novitates, Volume 2. 1945.
  • Contribución del Dr. Frank M. Chapman a la ornitología venezolana. , Casa de Especialidades, Caracas 1946.
  • Descripción de cuatro aves nuevas de los cerros Paraque y Ptri-Tepui y notas sobre Bubulcus ibis, Myioborus cardonal y Platy cichla leuocops. Casa de Especialidades, Caracas 1946.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: Twenty-three new subspecies of birds from Venezuela and Brazil. Issue 1312 of American Museum Novitates. 1946.
  • with Henry Boardman Conover: La distribución geográfica de las subespecies de la Pava de Monte Penelope granti , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 10 (68), pp. 321-325, 1946.
  • with Armando Dugand: El status geografico de las aves de Maipures (Columbia). , Caldasia 4 (18), pp. 243-276, 1946.
  • Two new wood-hewers of the genus Dendroplex from Venezuela and Colombia , Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 59, pp. 63-66, 1946.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: Seven new subspecies of birds from Venezuela and Brazil . In: American Museum novitates . No. 1338 , 1947, pp. 1–7 (English, digitallibrary.amnh.org [PDF; 973 kB ]).
  • Descripción de seis aves nuevas de Venezuela y notas sobre veinticuatro adiciones a la avifauna del Brasil. Tipografía La Nación, Caracas 1948.
  • Notas sobre aves venezolanas. Tipografía El Compás, Caracas 1948.
  • with Armando Dugand: Aves de la ribera colombiana del río Negro (frontera de Colombia y Venezuela). Editorial El Grafico, 1948.
  • with George Miksch Sutton: Richmond's swift in Venezuela. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, 1948.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: Three new subspecies of birds from Venezuela , 1373 edition of American Museum novitates. 1948.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: Four new subspecies of birds from Venezuela. , 1395 edition of American Museum Novitates. 1949.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: A new name for Basileuterus culicivorus roraimae. 1412 edition of American Museum Novitates. 1949.
  • with William H. Phelps Jr .: Lista de las aves de Venezuela con su distribución, Part 2. Passeriformes. In: Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales. 1950.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: Three new Venezuelan birds. 1455 edition of American Museum novitates. 1950.
  • Las aves de Bonaire. Tipografía La Nación, Caracas 1951.
  • Las aves de las islas Los Roques y Las Aves y descripción de un nuevo canario de mangle. Tipografía La Nación, Caracas 1951.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: New subspecies of birds from Surinam and Venezuela. 1511 edition of American Museum novitates. 1951.
  • with John Todd Zimmer: New birds from Venezuela. 1544 edition of American Museum novitates. 1952.
  • with John Todd Zimmer, Ernest Thomas Gilliard: A new race of the honey-creeper, Diglossa cyanea , from Venezuela. 1603 edition of American Museum novitates. 1952.
  • with William H. Phelps Jr .: Nine new birds from the Perijá Mountains and eleven extensions of ranges to Venezuela , Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Vol 65, pp. 89-105, 1952
  • Discurso del Dr. William H. Phelps en el acto de incorporación , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 17 (50), 1953
  • El posible hundimiento parcial de isla de Aves. Litografía del Comercio, Caracas 1953.
  • with William H. Phelps Jr .: Eight new subspecies of birds from the Perija Mountains, Venezuela . In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . tape 66 , 1953, pp. 1-12 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • with Jacques Berlioz: Description d'une sous-espèce nouvelle de Trochilide du Venezuela . In: L'Oiseau et la revue française d'ornithologie . tape 23 , no. 1 , 1953, p. 1-3 .
  • with John Todd Zimmer, Albert Mocquerys: A new flycatcher from Venezuela: with remarks on the Mocquerys collection and the piculet, Picumnus squamulatus . 1657 edition of American Museum novitates. 1954.
  • with Ernst Schäfer: Aves de Rancho Grande. Tipogr. la Nacion, 1954.
  • With Ernst Schäfer: Las aves del Parque Nacional "Henri Pittier" (Rancho Grande) y sus funciones ecológicas. , Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, 16 (83), pp. 3-167, 1954
  • with John Todd Zimmer, George Kruck Cherrie, Stella M. Cherrie: Three new subspecies of birds from Venezuela. 1709 edition of American Museum Novitates. 1955.
  • Las aves de la isla de Patos, con algunos documentos sobre la historia y la geología de la isla. Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, Caracas 1958.
  • with William H. Phelps Jr .: Lista de las aves de Venezuela con su distribución, Tomo 2. Part 1. No-Passeriformes. In: Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales. 1958.
  • La aves de la isla La Orchila. Editorial Sucre, Caracas 1959.
  • with William H. Phelps Jr .: Two new subspecies of bird from the San Luis Mountain of Venezuela and distributional notes. In: Proceedings of de Biological society of Washington. 72, 1959, pp. 121-126.
  • Night migration at 4,200 meters in Venezuela , The Auk 78 (1), pp. 93-94, 1961

literature

  • Kathleen D. de Phelps: Memorias de misia Kathy: Primera Expedicion Phelps al "Cerro Jime", actual Cerro de la Neblina, enero-febrero. Tecniproven, 1954, ISBN 978-980-265-446-8 .
  • Ramón Avelados Hostos: Phelps, William Henri ”, 1966, Diccionario Multimedia de Historia de Venezuela, Fundación Polar. Caracas.
  • Robert Cushman Murphy: In Memoriam: William Henri Phelps. In: The Auk. 87, 3, 1970, pp. 419–424 ( online (PDF; 384 kB), English)
  • Hernández G. Diajanida: Phelps tenía una pasión exacerbda por lo que hacía. El Nacional, 2007, B. 5. Edición Aniversario 64
  • Guillermo José Schael: Apuntes para la historia. El automóvil en Venezuela, Gráficas Armitano, Caracas, 1982.
  • Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins: Whose Bird ?: Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate. Yale University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-300-10359-5 , p. 269.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Auk Article 14 Birds observed on a collecting trip to Bermúdez, Venezuela (English; PDF; 637 kB)
  2. ↑ Homepage Fundación William H. Phelps Fundación William H. Phelps (Spanish)
  3. ^ American Museum novitates; No. 1270 New species and subspecies of birds from Venezuela (English; PDF; 2.8 MB) Original article
  4. ↑ Academia de Ciencias Físicas, Matemáticas y Naturales de Venezuela Individuos de Numerofallcidos ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Spanish) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / academiasnacionales.gov.ve
  5. ↑ American Museum novitates No.2797 page 24f PHELPSIA, NEW GENUS (English; PDF; 10.3 MB) (original article )
  6. ↑ American Museum novitates No. 1047 The riddle of Oxyruncus (English; PDF; 489 kB) Original article
personal data
SURNAME Phelps, William Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Phelps, WH
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ornithologist and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1965
Place of death Caracas