Full text of "Field Museum of Natural History bulletin"

Volume 44, Number 1
January 1973

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Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 1
January 1973

2 Volunteers Lend a Hand

Carolyn Blackmon

they are major contributors to Field Museum's work,
and more are needed

5 Calendar

6 Members

what the Museum means to them and what they mean
to the Museum

8 Capital Campaign

a report on work accomplished and in progress

Appointment Calendar for 1973

Field Museum of Natural History
Director, E. Leiand Webber

Editor Elizabeth Monger; Editorial Assistant Vicki Wilson; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their ow/n and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press, Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster; Please send
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin 1

2 January 1973

Volunteers Lend a Hand

Carolyn Blachrnon

Throughout the history of Field
Museum, volunteers have provided
much-needed and greatly appreciated
assistance. In 1971, for example, 71
volunteers gave 1,732 days of work.
This year the Museum has enlarged its
volunteer enrollment to 115, w/ith the
assistance of grants from the National
Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois
Arts Council. The funds are used in
part to provide administrative and
secretarial support for the growing
program.

What do volunteers do? Their jobs are
as diverse as the Museum's collections.
More than 13 million specimens need
to be cataloged, preserved, and
maintained. Numerous clerical and
technical tasks must be performed to
facilitate the research activities of the
scientific staff. School groups need
instruction, and materials must be
prepared for exhibition.

Some tasks take a short time; others
are long-term. Not long ago the
Geology Department needed someone
to help in the paleontology laboratory
removing the rock that encases fossil
specimens brought in from expeditions.

A likely prospect appeared, and her
eyes sparkled when asked if she would
like to start with a turtle. She thought
that sounded fine — a little turtle should
be an easy beginning. She had been
shown the techniques and how to use
the tools, and the preparator or a
curator would always be around to
supervise and answer questions or
give help. The specimen was brought
in from storage — a giant sea turtle, 40
million years old, his shell five feet in
circumference, weighing fifty pounds.
One and a half years, hundreds of
hours of picking, and innumerable
cups of coffee later, a fine Eocene
specimen emerged to be placed in the
study collection.

Many continuing tasks involve
collection maintenance, such as oiling
rare books, changing faded
identification tags on specimens, or
removing dust from stored artifacts.
Records must be kept as well, since
inaccurate information renders
specimens and artifacts almost useless
for scientific study. With training and
staff supervision, volunteers perform
many of these important tasks. Some
have even developed their Sherlock

Holmes instincts and, through diligent
research, have found new data or
better ways for organizing materials.

Volunteer instructors lead tours for
groups of school children, using
Museum exhibits, specimens, and
artifacts. Since staff and volunteers can
provide tours to only 20 percent of the
350,000 school children who come to
the Museum every year, more volunteer
instructors are needed to help the
Museum expand its educational
offerings.

Who are Museum volunteers? They are
people who have time to give — maybe
one or two days a week, or maybe
even five. They may have a hobby or
interest they would like to put to use,
related to birds, rocks, pottery, history,
flowers, mushrooms, or model-making.
Such a list could go on and on
because a wide variety of skills and
interests are needed in museum work.
Retirees, college students, and mothers
with grown children or easy access to
sitters also serve as volunteers. Almost
any job experience may have some
relationship to museum work.
Librarians, secretaries, doctors,

«»

Field Museum Bulletin

carpenters, bookkeepers, and countless
others have skills that can be utilized.
Most of all, volunteers are curious,
want to learn something new, and have
time and some basic skills to give. The
Museum can offer them an appropriate
niche where, after training in
professional procedures and standards,
they can continue to expand their
interests and knowledge.

How does one become a volunteer?
An interview is held to determine
whether an opening is available that
matches a candidate's skills and

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interests. If an assignment is made,
Museum staff provide on-the-job
training in the areas of science,
administration, and exhibition. For
volunteer instructors, a formal training
■^ program is held one day a week for
twelve weeks, spring and fall.

There are now more than fifty openings
for volunteers. Among the many needs:
a gardener to take care of plants in
Stanley Field Hall, typists and
catalogers in virtually every department,
furniture refinishers, cabinet makers,
photographers, illustrators, upholsterers.

■m-^:,£^

A comprehensive list of volunteer
opportunities is available.

If you would like to arrange for an
interview to learn more about our
volunteer program, please call or write
me. An introductory tour can be
arranged for groups whose members
might be interested in learning about
volunteer opportunities at the Museum.

Carolyn Blackmon, a former Field Museum
volunteer, is Coordinator ot Special
Educational Services in the Department ol
Education, Field Museum.

January 1973

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Through January 21

Paracas Whistling Jar from the lea Valley
of Peru, Ocucaje Phase II (ca. 700 B.C.),
is featured in the South Lounge. The
unique pottery jug, which makes a whistling
sound when water is poured out of it, is
the earliest known of its type. It is the
gift of IVIr. and IVIrs. Raymond J. Wielgus.

Continuing

Greenland: Arctic Denmark, a major
exhibition covering all aspects of the history
and culture of the world's largest island.
The extensive collection of archaeological
and ethnological material is supplemented
by photographs and a daily film program
to illustrate various areas of economic
development and social change in modern
Greenland. The exhibition is sponsored by
the Royal Danish Embassy and is shown
under the auspices of the Smithsonian
Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Through March 8. Hall 27.

A New Spirit In Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit explaining
the "new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through March 25. Hall 9.

Color In Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

Musical Program

Sunday, January 21

Metropolitan Youth Symphony presents
a free concert at 2:30 p.m. in the
James Simpson Theatre.

Film Program

A series of films relating to the "Greenland:
Arctic Denmark" exhibit is shown
continuously beginning at the following
times:

Monday-Thursday: 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

IVIeetings

January 9: 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider

Council

January 10: 7:30 p.m., Windy City Grotto,

National Speleological Society

January 11:8 p.m., Chicago Mountaineering

Club

January 14: 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club

Children's Program

Continuing

Winter Journey for Children, "Dog Meets
Man," a free self-guided tour exploring
the many aspects of man's partnership
with "his best friend" since prehistoric
times. Youngsters are provided with a
questionnaire which routes them through
Museum exhibit areas. All boys and girls
who can read and write may join in the
activity. Journey sheets are available at
Museum entrances. Through February 28.

Coming in February

Opens February 14

Below Man's Vision: Electronic Windows to
Unseen Worlds, an exhibit exploring the
world of details in common objects and
familiar plants and animals, and offering
glimpses into current research activities.
Over 200 photographs, displayed at up to
200,000 times life size, introduce a previously
unseen world. Through July 15. Hall 18.

January Hours

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday,
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday.

Closed New Year's Day.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Field Museum Bulletin

EMBERS

Field Museum Members are a special
group of people. They have special
concern and interest in the world
around them — in learning more about
it themselves and in helping their
children and grandchildren learn about
it. A youngster once informed his
parents that his visit to the Museum
couldn't have been "educational"
because it was fun. The wise parents
knew otherwise — that it was
"educational" because it was fun — but
kept that to themselves.

Field Museum Members are interested
in the diversity of human ways of life.
They like to cross the barriers of time
and distance to learn about other
cultures, or about the very beginnings
of culture itself among the remote
ancestors of us all. They are interested
in the animal life throughout the
world, and in the plant life that is the
ultimate sustenance of all other life.
They are interested in geologic history
and in the physical nature of our own
and other planets.

These are some of the reasons they are
Field Museum Members — because the
Museum brings all these aspects of
the world almost to their doorstep.

Field Museum membership alv^ays
includes all members of the family, so
any or all of them can visit whenever
they wish, free, and bring guests too.
There is so much to see that no matter
how often one comes, there is always
something new — a part of the Museum
not yet discovered, or a new exhibit
to be seen.

Special events throughout the year are
arranged for Members. In the gala
atmosphere of the annual Members'
Nights they (and their guests) are
invited behind the scenes into the
scientific research, education, and
exhibition departments to see what the
Museum staff are working on. They are
invited to special Members' previews
of new exhibits. The children's
workshop programs, soon to be
increased in frequency, offer young
people the opportunity to work directly
with Museum specimens as they learn
about a subject that particularly
interests them.

And even if Members cannot come to
the Museum often, it goes out to them
monthly between the covers of the
Bulletin. Articles ranging from
A(nfhropology) to Z{oology) might give
background for a new exhibit; or
describe the ecological dilemma posed
by use of our park lands; or expose the
destructive and dangerous trafficking
in antiquities; or report some exciting
finds of a fieldwork expedition. The
Bulletin also keeps them informed of
activities and special events at the
Museum.

If you are already a Field Museum
Member, we hope you take full
advantage of all these benefits, and also
invite your friends to share them with
you. We would like them to become our
friends too. We would be especially
pleased if you wished to give one or
more of them a gift membership. An
announcement greeting card will be
sent in your name.

For each new membership we also
send a portfolio of four color
reproductions of bird paintings done by
the distinguished American artist
Louis Agassiz Fuertes on a Field
Museum expedition to East Africa.

If you are not a Field Museum Member,
you are probably one of those special,
concerned people who should be. The
Museum is a private institution whose
activities and scientific work are largely
dependent for financial support on
memberships, contributions, and
endowments from people like you.

January 1973

Photo by Fred Huysmans.

Clip and mail to: Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Rd- at Lk, Shore Dr., Chicago, III. 60605

Please send the lollowing Gift Membership
D Annual $15 D Associate $150 D Lite $500
in my name to:

Gift recipient's name

City

State

Zip

D Check enclosed payable to Field Museum
n Please bill me as tollows:

My name

City State Zip

G Send bird prints to gift recipient
Q Send bird prints to me

Please put information for additional gift
memberships on a separate sheet

Clip and mail to: Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Rd. at Lk Shore Dr., Chicago, III. 60605

Please send the lollowing Gitt Membership
n Annual $15 D Associate $150 □ Lite $500
in my name lo:

Gift recipient's name

City State Zip

D Check enclosed payable to Field Museum
n Please bill me as tollows:

My name

City State Zip

Q Send bird prints to gitt recipient
n Send bird prints to me

Please put information for additional gift
memberships on a separate sheet

Clip and mail to: Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Rd. at Lk. Shore Dr., Chicago, III. 60605

Please send the lollowing Gitt Membership
a Annual $15 O Associate $150 O Lite $500
in my name to:

Gift recipient's name

City

State

Zip

D Check enclosed payable lo Field Museum
n Please bill me as tollows:

My name

City State Zip

n Send bird prints to gilt recipient
n Send bird prints to me

Please put information for additional gift
memberships on a separate sheet

Field Museum Bulletin

.^tm"^.

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We appreciated Jimmy's letter, as we
appreciate all of the thousands of
letters that come in during the year from
people who have enjoyed a visit to
Field Museum. Jimmy raises a good
question — "I wonder how you can keep
it in good shape." So, for Jimmy and
all other friends of Field Ivluseum, here
is an answer.

How we "can keep it in good shape" for
all the different kinds of people who
use and enjoy the Museum is a big
problem. That is why we are conducting
a $25,000,000 Capital Campaign. The
money is sorely needed for many
rehabilitation projects to keep the
Museum a usable facility.

Some of this building improvement and
renovation work has already been
completed. Other projects are now
being started.

Almost $3,000,000 of advance gifts
already received has been allocated for
projects which have just been
completed or are presently underway.
The completed work, representing an
investment of $861 ,000, includes
quarters for the Exhibition Department
and additional space created for the
Zoology Department by filling in a
light well, both on the fourfh floor;
the new Hall of Jades on the second
floor; and the Malvina Hoffman Gallery
overlooking Stanley Field Hall.

Projects in progress, at an estimated
cost of $1 ,920,500, include the
following rehabilitation and
modernization work:

Exterior tuckpointing (partial) $ 77,000
Interior freight elevator 65,000

Fire pump

25,000

Zoology laboratories

375,000

Boiler conversion

145,000

Painting Stanley Field Hall

55,000

Electrical system

980,000

Emergency generator

8,500

Renovation of taxidermy area

45,000

Plumbing, drainage, and toilet

system

120,000

Scanning electron microscope

laboratory

25,000

Other projects also underway to
upgrade the physical plant include a
security survey, a climate control
study, and improvement of ventilating
and lighting in Halls 18 and 19.

Projected further improvements not yet
begun include replacement of more than
1 ,000 large exterior windows;
rebuilding of exterior stairs and
entrances; modernized food service
facilities; installation of sound-
deadening materials in several areas;
air conditioning plus a totally modern
air treatment system; installation of
elevators to the public and non-public
areas of the Museum; and
modernization of the Lecture Hall and
the James Simpson Theatre.

This first Capital Campaign in Field
Museum's 79-year history was launched
in September 1971. The $25,000,000
goal should be reached by September
1974. Half of the funds must be
collected by the Museum from private
sources. The other half will be in
matching public funds generated
through the bonding authority of the
Chicago Park District.

The Museum is seeking to raise its
share through corporate, foundation,
and individual gifts. In its behalf,
corporation executives as well as other
individuals have been explaining the
Museum's needs throughout the
community. To date, gifts and pledges
totaling approximately $8,000,000
have been received.

That leaves $4,500,000 remaining to be
raised by the Museum. This need
presents a once-in-a-lifetime challenge
and opportunity for our friends. We
need their help to ensure that our
building is adequate for the increasingly
important role of Field Museum in the
educational, cultural, and recreational
life of our community.

January 1973

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Volume 44. Num
February 1973

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

„»£'■

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 2
February 1973

Below Man's Vision: Electronic Windows
to Unseen Worlds

Alan Solem

using the scanning electron microscope, the structure
of things can be revealed at magnifications up to
100,000 times life-size

8 The Most Stupendous Earthquake of Them All

Edward J. Olsen

it happened here in the midwest, 162 years ago; could

it happen again?

11 Thismia

Louis O. Williams

an important gift to the botany collections recalls the
mystery of this rare plant

Cover: Scanning electron microscope view of
a fev* of tfie 4,000 facets on tfie compound eye
of a housefly; sfiown 7,550 times life-size on
the cover, 2,100 X here. Specimen preparation
for SEM viewing involves coating it in a high
vacuum with a few-molecules-thick layer of
gold or other conductive metal. Dirt panicles
are pollutants from Chicago air that settled on
the specimen while it was being prepared for
photography.

12 Printing Alexander Wilson's Copper Plates

Richard A. Davis

a print-maker "discovers" some of these early-1800s
engraved copper plates in Field Museum's Library

16 Capital Campaign

gifts from Women's Committee for Capital Campaign
Hearing $1 Million

Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Managing Editor G. Henry Ottery; Editor Elizabetti Munger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions; $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

electronic windows to unseen worlds

Scheduled for mid-February opening,
the exhibit "Below Man's Vision:
Electronic Windows to Unseen Worlds"
presents almost 300 pictures of a
world that is hidden from man's
unaided eye. Whether its focus was on
a common object such as a torn piece
of paper or sugar crystal, or details
from the body of a housefly, a beam
of electrons produced images that
were photographed and then displayed
at 50 to 200,000 times life-size.

The instrument responsible for this is
the scanning electron microscope.
Perfected only in the mid-1960s, it
permits inquiring minds to explore not
only far beyond the limits of light
microscopes, but to perform
photographic miracles. Using this
microscope, one can study objects at

anywhere between 10 and 100,000
times life-size. Clicking a dial changes
the magnification. At the same time,
the specimen can be tilted, rotated,
moved back and forth, and the
"lighting" altered in various ways.
When adjustments are completed, a
photograph can be made. The depth
of field — that part of the picture in
sharp focus — will be 500 times as great
as with an optical microscope at the
same magnification.

Most people have peered briefly
through a microscope in a school
biology class, delving into the guts of
a grasshopper, worm, or frog. Perhaps
they looked at a glass slide with living
protozoans or bits of plant tissue.
A major problem in all these situations
is that only part of the object could be

seen easily at any one time. If a near
section was in sharp focus, the rear
portion was fuzzy in outline, and vice
versa. The problem was that the depth
of field (area in sharp focus) was less
than the thickness of the object
being studied.

Photographers have the same problem.
Everybody has snapshots of family
affairs in which one member near the
camera has a blurred face, those in
the middle of the group can be seen
without difficulty, and a few in the
background also are unrecognizable
blurs. The lenses of cameras and
optical microscopes have a depth of
field that is only a fraction of the
picture width. With electronic viewing,
this problem is almost eliminated. In a
picture area one-fifth of an inch

February 1973

square, for example, the area in sharp
focus is more than one inch deep.

In practical terms, the difference in
depth of field is seen in the photos on
the next page of a one-thirtieth inch
long beetle. The optical photograph,
taken with the best available
microscope equipment, shows only a
small part of the beetle's belly in sharp
focus. Details even on this surface are
obscure and the "halo" effect of the
light is distracting to the viewer.

In contrast, the scanning electron
microscope shows the whole beetle in
sharp focus, the hairs in each pit on
the surface are clearly visible, and the
"lighting" on the specimen Is close to
natural daylight.

This ability of the scanning electron
microscope to illustrate well is causing
as great a revolution as is its ability to
see details that could not be seen
before. Communicating what has been
seen to other scientists always has
been a major problem.

Man first began to use microscopes in
the study of small objects during the

early to mid-1600s. The scientists of
this time had to be artists or else hire
artists to illustrate their studies. A part
of the exhibit "Below Man's Vision"
shows samples of their work. The
anatomy of plants, details of insects,
and glimpses of bacteria by Dutch and
English 17th century scientists are
impressive as art. They become awe
inspiring when one realizes the simple
equipment available to these workers.

An exact copy of a microscope used
by Anton von Leeuwenhoek, perhaps
the most famous of the Dutch
microscopists, was loaned by the
Rijksmuseum voor de Geschiedenis
der Natuurwetenschappen. The whvole
instrument is 2% inches long. The
specimen is mounted on a pin point.
Three screws adjust its place before
the lens, which is a bead of glass
embedded in the brass plate of the
microscope.

Held in a bright shaft of summer
sunlight, this simple looking device let
Leeuwenhoek see bacteria in 1683.
Even the best optical microscopes
today can penetrate but little further
into the world of unseen detail.

Photography partly replaced artists in
communicating details to other
scientists, but the depth of field was
limited, more so with the compound
than the dissecting microscope. The
compound microscope is used in
studying protozoa or other specimens
mounted on glass slides. The light
source is below the object, and waves
of light are transmitted through a thin
specimen into the microscope and
then to the eye of the viewer.

The dissecting microscope uses
another pattern of viewing. The light
source is above the object, and light is
reflected off the surface into the
microscope and then to the eyes of
the viewer.

Electrons can be used for viewing both
transmitted and reflected modes. The
transmission electron microscope
(TEM), in use since the 1930s,
transmits beams of electrons through a
very thin object. The scanning electron
microscope (SEM) hits the surface of
the object with a beam of electrons,
then uses electrons emitted from the
object to form a picture. Thus the SEM
is comparable to the dissecting

Alan Solem

Lett: A lew ol the large rod-like setae and fine
hairs on the edge of a fly's wing, 2,175 times
life-size. Right: Drawing of Musca domestica,
the common housefly, 13 times life-size. Small
boxes over parts of eye. wing, tongue, foot,
and halter (a balancing organism located
underneath wing) show where scanning
electron microscope was focused to obtain
pictures reproduced in this article and on cover.

Field Museum Bulletin

A 1/30-inch-long beetle

seen through an optical microscope.

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Same kind of beetle seen through a scanning electron microscope.

microscope, and the TEM compares
with the compound microscope.

For many scientists, their first use of
the SEM in research ranks as one of
the greatest thrills of their lives.
Scientists continually bump up against
limits in their work. The needed
specimens aren't available, or the
details just aren't quite visible with
their optical microscopes. The SEM
removes this second problem
completely.

My own feelings on first using the SEM
were chronicled in an earlier Bulletin
(March 1969). During the preparation
of "Below Man's Vision" I had the
chance to help several colleagues go
through similar experiences. For the
past two years, the American Dental
Association Research Institute (ADARI)
and Field Museum of Natural History
have had a cooperative research project
on feeding mechanisms and tooth
structures in primitive organisms.
Studies of fish teeth, beetle mouth
parts, and snail dentition were carried

out with the invaluable aid of

Dr. Harvey Lyon, Mr. John Lenke, and

Mr. George Najarin of ADARI.

A growing flood of scientific papers in
all fields began to use scanning
microscope photographs. This fact,
combined with my own missionary
efforts, made it apparent that the
Museum's research program needed
such an instrument. A funding request
to the National Science Foundation
was approved in mid-1972, and
sometime this summer a scanning
electron microscope will be in
operation at Field Museum. This will
allow extending the very preliminary
studies shown in part of the exhibit
and will lead to hundreds of
observations and many research
publications. Nearly all the SEM
photographs in "Below Man's Vision"
were made especially for this exhibit
or during research, with the idea of
using them for both purposes.

ADARI provided one part of the exhibit
and allowed me to photograph a number

of subjects for the section of the
exhibit entitled "Unseen Worlds of the
Commonplace." While the things seen
by scientists in their studies may
include items of beauty and
strangeness, the organisms usually are
unknown to our visitors. Hence a
major part of preparing "Below Man's
Vision" required taking common
objects and well known organisms,
then exploring details of their
structures. In this way we hope to
impress visitors with the wonders in
their surroundings and to demonstrate
the versatility of the scanning electron
microscope.

With nearly 300 photographs displayed,
it was very difficult to select
appropriate pictures for this article. We
could have presented an art display of
spectacular photographs, but thought
that it would be more meaningful to
show several features of one organism.

After a bit of hesitation between a flea
and a fly, the portraits of a housefly
were selected.

February 1973

Top left: The "tongue" or oral disc of a housefly at 92 times life-size.
Top right: Each edge of the "tongue" has a series of projections and
ridges used to soak up food. The photograph is reproduced at 805 times
life-size. Bottom: The balancing organ (halter) of a housefly at 98 times
life-size. It vibrates 200 times a second and acts as a gyroscope.

These were prepared from three
different specimens collected late last
summer and preserved in alcohol. One
fly was given a special treatment
called "critical point drying" so that
details of the soft tongue and foot
pads could be seen. The others were
air dried and then mounted for
SEM study.

The housefly, Musca domestica, occurs
almost everywhere that man dwells.
Few of us have not swatted at a fly —
and missed — or been annoyed with
their buzzing around our dinner, or
idly speculated how they can cling to
ceilings or panes of glass.

The drawing of the fly on page 3 was
made from a pinned specimen, so that
its legs and wings are not in a natural
position. Small boxes over parts of the
wing, eye, tongue, foot, and halter (a
balancing organ) show where the SEM
was focused in making these pictures.

Eighteenth century scientists had seen
that the edge of the wing had many
tiny hairs, but their structure and
variety could not be appreciated. The
picture at the top of page 2 shows the
front edge of the wing with parts of
four large setae (sensory organs set in
sockets) and many smaller trichia
(projections from the surface). These
are sensitive to both touch and
changes in air pressure.

At the top of this page are two
pictures of a fly's tongue. The outer
lobes are used to soak up semi-liquid
or liquid food, which then is carried to
the actual mouth opening. The edges of
the lobes are covered with a complex
set of grooves edged with blunt
projections. The resulting "tire tread"
pattern is highly effective in feeding.
It also makes an interesting design for
the artistic viewer who prefers not to
think about feeding flies!

A peculiar looking club-like structure
at bottom right is the halter. The vast
majority of insects have two pairs of
wings, like butterflies, grasshoppers.

Field Museum Bulletin

and bees. Flies are unique in that they
have only a single pair of functioning
wings. Apparently each of the two
halters is the remnant of former rear
wings. The halter is a gyroscope or
balancing organ that vibrates 160-210
times each second while the fly is in
flight. Its club-like head is covered
with tiny hairs, and the slits near its
base are part of the halter's
chordotonal organ, a sensory device
common in insects.

Equally remarkable is the complexity
of a fly's foot. The three photographs
on these pages show the versatility of
the SEM in seeing finer and finer
details as a specimen is studied. The
lower left photograph shows the whole
foot in front view. For technical
reasons, the leg had to be removed
from the preserved specimen, then
embedded in rubber cement. The
cracks and creases in the background
are in the rubber cement. A look at
the foot shows two large claws, used

for gripping rough surfaces, a long
sensory "hair" in the middle of the
lower side, and two large pads that
extend laterally underneath each claw.

The pad on the left has a piece of dirt
stuck to it. These pads enable a fly to
settle on a smooth ceiling or a
window. The pads are called pulvilli
and are covered with rows of
projections called tenant liairs.

Seen at intermediate magnification in
the middle picture, a pulvillus shows
how the tenant hairs sit in regular
rows. The critical point drying
technique let me see these in extended
position. If the fly had been allowed to
shrivel and dry out slowly, these hairs
would have been distorted. Far less
information would have been available
from the specimen.

When viewed at high magnification (the
largest picture), the reflexed tips of
individual hairs are clearly visible.

Some sticky substance is secreted by
these hairs onto the tips. It is the
adhesive power of these hundreds
upon hundreds of individual hairs that
holds the fly to a smooth surface.
Often it will be a combination of
gripping with the claws and partial use
of these adhesive hairs, but on very
smooth surfaces the hairs are
indispensible.

Flight, feeding, and holding onto
surfaces are only sanjples of the fly's
versatility. In our exhibit we also look
at an organ called the arista. This
feathery, short, branched organ on
each side of the head permits the fly
to escape a swatting hand. Air pressure
in front of the descending hand warns
the fly in advance of the blow.

The cover of this issue shows a small
portion of a fly's eye at 7,550 times
life-size. Each "eye" of a fly has about
4,000 separate facets that form images
separately. A few of these are shown

Left: The foot of a fiousefly at 250 times life-size.
Above: One of tfie pads on ttie underside of a fly's foot
at 825 times life-size. Right: Ttiese fiairs on tfie fly's foot
secrete a sticky substance tfiat enables tfie fly to cling to
smootti surfaces. They are shown at 7,750 times life-size.

February 1973

on the cover. Bits of dirt from the
polluted air of Chicago became
attached to the surface while the eye
was being mounted for study. In life
the surface probably would be very
much cleaner.

Similar peeks at a flea, snail teeth,
Queen Anne's Lace, pollen grains, the
adult "chigger," and even a piece of
paper very similar to that used in this
Bulletin are among the variety of
objects and organisms examined in
"Below Man's Vision."

The idea for this exhibit came out of
my experiences with the scanning
electron microscope during the past
few years. In the process of preparing
the grant proposal for establishing a
scanning microscope laboratory at
Field Museum, research proposals by
other staff members suggested many
possibilities for use in an exhibit.
Hence the idea of "Below Man's
Vision" gradually developed and was

expanded into its present form.
Support received from Kent-Cambridge
Scientific Instrument Co. and
Cambridge Scientific Instruments Ltd.,
plus the cooperation of ADARI and its
staff, have made this project possible.

In years to come the scanning
microscope will be as well known as
is the optical microscope. The latter
has been used by thousands of
scientists since the mid-1600s. In all
this time, the world opened by its
extension of man's vision has been
only partly explored. Optical
microscopes will continue to be used
by scientists in research, by workers
in industry, by students in classrooms.
But the scanning electron microscope
has opened up a world for
investigation that is just as large, just
as marvelous, and just as unexplored.
The first microscopists in the
Netherlands and England explored
with verve and joy the new world
they entered.

Scientists today are using the scanning
electron microscope with the same
sense of anticipation and pleasure.
While a few scanning microscope
photographs now appear in popular
magazines and even newspapers, the
potential of the SEM and the
significance of its advantages are little
known. As both an illustration tool and
a means of seeing whole rough-
surfaced objects, it has added a new
dimension to low magnification studies.
As a means of seeing details that were
below the level of optical microscopy,
it has opened a new world.

"Below Man's Vision" lets you
accompany some of Field Museum's
staff into an uncharted world of detail.
We hope you enjoy your visit as much
as we are enjoying our explorations
with the scanning electron microscope.

Dr. Alan Solem is Curator, Division of
Invertebrates, Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

Edward J. Olsen

The most

stupendous

earthquake of them all

It has been called the most stupendous
earthquake in the recorded history of
the North Annerican continent. It began
in the early hours of December 16,
1811, in and around the small
settler's community of New Madrid, in
the far southeastern corner or Missouri.
About 2 a.m. a series of creaks and
rumblings were felt in a gradually
increasing crescendo. House timbers
cracked and walls broke away from
each other; furniture tumbled around
and shelves were emptied onto floors.
Sharp shock waves shattered the area
at short intervals. Houses tottered and
chimneys fell. By dawn all the
inhabitants stood out in the cold
morning air, away from their houses.

Heavy shocks were repeated and earth
waves were seen to roll across the
landscape, lifting and lowering
everything as they passed, like long
low swells seen on the open ocean.
Trees swung back and forth as the
waves passed under them, frequently
locking together their branches as they
tipped toward each other, and ripping
themselves apart as they then tilted the

other way. Landslides broke loose on
steeper slopes and poured into
adjacent valleys. Ground water,
disrupted from its normal flow
patterns, popped up as instant springs
in unlikely places and filled low-lying
areas. Some large areas sank several
feet while others were bucked upward
into small impromptu hills. Along the
adjacent Mississippi River, high banks
slumped into the water, carrying away
trees and creating huge waves that
smashed the opposite shore,
destroying more trees and swamping
boats in their path. Small islands sank
out of sight under the roiled waters.

On land, long fissures — 600 to 700 feet
wide, 20 feet deep, and up to several
miles long — suddenly opened in the
soil, some people tumbling in, to be
rescued with difficulty. Sand geysers
10 to 100 feet across formed as the
churning dirt ejected underlying sands
and sulfurous decaying organic matter

The rumblings continued, but no more
sharp shocks were experienced — until
January 23rd, over a month later, when

a new shock hit the area, fully as
intense as those in December. Then all
became relatively quiet — until February
7th, when a series of shocks repeated
all the former destruction with, some
thought, greater intensity than the
earlier episodes. The rumblings and
aftershocks continued at moderate
intensities for days, gradually fading,
but not ceasing. Distinct aftershocks,
almost 2,000 of them, were felt for
over a period of a year, and minor
ones up to two years later!

As far as any historical records show
there has never been another
earthquake of such magnitude and
duration on the North American
continent. Compared to large
earthquakes elsewhere in the world, it
was certainly on a par with the
devastating ones in Shensi, China in
1556 and the Tokyo quake of 1923.

The damage created by the New
Madrid earthquakes was large in terms
of the natural environment.
Approximately 150,000 acres of forests
were destroyed. Two lakes were

February 1973

created as land sank and filled with
inrushing river and ground water:
Reelfoot Lake, 18 miles long and 3
miles wide, and Lake St. Francis, 40
miles long and half a mile wide.
Certainly thousands of animals were
drowned by these sudden inundations.
In terms of the settlers, however,
losses were small. In the 1811-1813
period the population of the region was
still low. Many of the dwellings were
log cabins, which became disjointed
by the shock waves, but did not always
tumble. Only one person was known
to have been killed in a falling building.
An unknown small number drowned
when river banks caved in and when
boats were swamped by churned river
waters.

Although the town was damaged badly
enough that the site had to be
abandoned, it was not a major
catastrophe at that time. Perhaps of
greater significance is the damage
suffered in other, more populous areas,
and the great distances at which the
shocks were felt. About 50,000 square
miles were hit the hardest — which
means that points up to 130 miles from
New Madrid could have suffered severe
damage had there been any great
population centers within that radius at
the time. St. Louis lay just beyond this
range. It was then still a small trading
town and suffered mainly from fallen
chimneys and cracked walls. Farther
afield, chimneys also tumbled in
Cincinnati, Ohio, 350 miles awayl

Along the river below Vicksburg,
Mississippi, 300 miles to the south,
river banks caved in. In Charleston,
South Carolina, 650 miles away, some
buildings were cracked and chimneys
fell, and Washington, D.C., 700 miles
away, was severely shaken! Noticeable
tremors were felt in Baltimore,
Maryland, 750 miles away, and in
Boston, Massachusetts, 1,100 miles
away! Weak vibrations were also felt
in Montreal, along the Gulf coast at
New Orleans, and northwestward along
the upper reaches of the Missouri
River. All in all, an area approximately
2,500 miles in diameter, centered on
southeastern Missouri, was affected to
varying degrees depending on local
geological substructures.

created this lake...

Cypress along the shore of Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee.
Photo courtesy of Tennessee Department of Conservation.

Field Museum Bulletin

earthquakes.

A sobering question arises. What if we
were to see a repeat performance
in tfiat area today?

Aitiiougfi the western portion of
California is much publicized as a high
earthquake area, mid-westerners are
probably not aware that a region that
registers a high frequency of weak to
moderate earthquakes includes
southeastern Missouri, western
Tennessee and Kentucky, southern
Illinois, and northeastern Arkansas. The
map here shows, in a much
generalized way, the mam zones of

Chicago lies a bare 350 miles from
this region. Within the past four years,
tremors from two earthquakes have
been felt here. The one September 15,
1972 originated near Amboy in
northern Illinois. The other, a
moderate strength quake November 9,
1968, was centered over 300 miles
south of Chicago near (\/lcLeansboro.
A series of strong quakes from
southern Illinois or southeastern
I\/lissouri could have damaging effects
on so populous an area as Chicago.
This city was not built with earthquakes
m mind.

faults (breaks in the bedrock) along
which earthquakes occur. The most
significant feature is that there are so
many intersecting faults. This is
especially dangerous, for quake
movement on one fault can initiate
movement on others, compounding
the shock effects.

Large portions of the Chicago area
consist of landfill, covering old swamps
and glacial lakebeds that dotted the
region before the city existed. Virtually
all of the smaller business and
residential buildings are constructed
on this landfill or on soil. Even some
of the taller buildings are not built on

piles that go down to bedrock, but
rather "float" on caissons sunk into
the glacial sands and clays that overlie
bedrock to an average thickness of
seventy feet. It has been observed in
other regions — as for example during
the medium-strength earthquake in the
St. Lawrence Valley February 28, 1925
—that buildings constructed on soil or
landfill suffered more damage than
ones built on bedrock.

There is, of course, no way to predict
the effect on Chicago. It would depend
on the magnitudes of the shocks and
the spacing between them.

Nevertheless, a repeat of the New
Madrid episode, which was capable of
causing damage in Cincinnati, Ohio,
and as far away as South Carolina,
would not leave Chicago unaffected.
Closer cities, such as St. Louis and
Memphis, would suffer major
destructive effects.

The geologic substructure of the
western California region is pretty well
understood, and we know with certainty
that a major earthquake will devastate
some portion of California in the near
future. A great deal of current research
in the discipline called geophysics is
focused on measuring and gauging
fault movement activity in California,
hopefully to provide a means to predict
the time of the next major quake, and
minimize the loss of life that will occur.

Far less is known about the midwestern
region. Yet midwesterners cannot
indulge themselves in a feeling of
complacence with respect to their less
fortunate California cousins. No major
quakes have occurred in the midwest
since the area has been built up.
There is no reason to believe that a
repeat of the magnitude of the
1811-1813 earthquakes will ever occur
again — nor any reason to believe
it will not!

Dr. Edward J. Olsen is Curator ot
Mineraiogy, Department of Geoiogy.
Field Museum.

February 1973

LOUIS 0. WILLIAMS

Sixty years ago, in what were tlien
prairies near Chicago, now a suburban
area, one of the nnost curious plants
of the world was first discovered by
Norma E. Pfieffer when she was a
student at the University of Chicago.
It excited the curiosity of botanists
around the world and has been an
enigma to Chicago's professional and
amateur botanists ever since.

The reason is that the plant — Thismia
americana it was named — belongs to
the family Burmanniaceae, which is
almost entirely tropical. There are
about 125 species, found principally in
the tropics of the world. Three or four
kinds reach barely Into temperate
regions. Even today, Thismia americana
is known from only about a dozen
collections, made over a period of six
years by Dr. Pfieffer.

Ttiismia americana is a tiny plant. The
part above ground, the flower, is barely
V2 inch long. It is a saprophyte living
from decaying plant material.

The nearest relative to Chicagoland's
own thismia is Thismia rodwayi, a plant
known only from Tasmania and North
Island of New Zealand. Dr. Fredrik
Pieter Jonker, who described the
Burmanniaceae family in a monograph
in 1938, speculated that the two
species are closely related: "It is very

desirable that 7. americana will be
again collected, no American species
of this affinity is known. The differences
with 7. rodwayi are very small, by
examining more material it will appear
perhaps that the two species are
identical. It is hard to believe that
Chicago is the normal area for this
species, but I cannot give a satisfactory
explanation why it occurs there."

How did a plant of tropical affinities get
into the prairie near Chicago? It was
not a fluke, for the plant is known to
have been present for at least six years
where it was originally found, so it
withstood the cold winters.

How to account for two closely related
species at nearly opposite poles on
the earth? I have no theory. It is
possible that our Thismia americana
was or perhaps still is widespread on
the prairies and similar ecological
areas and that someday an astute
collector may find this tiny little plant
again.

We have in our collection what we
assume is the type specimen, carefully
preserved in liquid. Dr. Pfeiffer did not
specify in her publication where the
type was deposited. We have exhibited
that specimen on Members' Nights
along with a part of the story about it,
so perhaps you have seen the plant 1

Above: A specimen of Thismia americana
collected in liquid by Dr. Norma A. Pfieffer
about 1912 and presented to Field Museum in
1972, along witti its original storage container.
Left: Enlarged drawings from specimen. Entire
plant is at rigtit; its stem-like structure lies
below ground surface, with only ttie flowers
above ground. In circle is a flower dissected
to show the six tepals and six stamens with the
short pistil at the base, plus one stamen drawn
to show anthers on the inner face. Below at
lett is a flower as seen f om above, the tepals
spread to show the ring (annulus) formed by the
base of the filaments.

write about, one of the rarest in
the world.

Recently we received a letter from
Dr. Pfeiffer saying: "There are still in
my possession bits and pieces of the
Burmanniaceous Thismia americana
which I found in the Chicago area
years ago." Would we like to have it?
Would we!

A few days later Dr. Pfeiffer, now a
spry octogenarian, came in with a
carton and two old coffee cans
containing the research material that
had been the basis for her studies
published in the Botanical Gazette in
1914. Her "bits and pieces" are
certainly a grand gift. They increase
the known material available to
researchers twentyfold!

Dr. Louis O. Williams is Chairman of the
Department ot Botany. Field /Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

^I^chard-yt. 'Davis

I first visited tlie Field Museum Library
because tlie Irwin Library of Butler
University hias been collecting early
zoological prints as original source
material for teaching the history of the
biological sciences. The prints in the
Butler Collection are engravings made
for 17th and 18th century books on
natural history. Such illustrations were
printed separately from their textual
accompaniments and were often also
issued separately rather than bound
into the books. Thus, separated from

to America in 1794, was one of those
singular men in the early history of our
country whose deep appreciation of
nature and latent artistic talents bloomed
m the unexplored vastness of the
New World.

Wilson's pioneer work, which paved the
way for Audubon, stands as a unique
and monumental achievement. In fact,
nothing like it in any branch of
science had appeared in America up to
that time.

the first native American botanist, John
Bartram, became renowned as a
naturalist and nature artist and the
author of a book (Travels, 1791) which
influenced English romanticism. Lawsor
was a well known engraver and did 51
of the 76 plates that the completed
nine-volume Ornithology contained. He
has been described as "Wilson's chief
reliance, since he worked with equal
fidelity and facility from the finished
drawing or from mere outlines and the
actual specimen." And, "in time of

Printing ryllexander "Wilsons Copper l^lates

their contexts, in many cases there is
no information identifying the works of
which they were originally a part. Field
Museum kindly granted me permission
to use their resources to try to identify
these prints.

My excitement mounted as
Mr. W. Peyton Fawcett, the librarian at
Field Museum, most accommodatingly
brought me old masterpieces of printing
from the Museum's collection of rare
books. With this help I was able to find
much of the information needed.

A reader's enthusiasm is very
contagious to a librarian, and
Mr. Fawcett responded generously with
the resources of the library. He
disappeared into the rare book room
for several minutes and emerged
carrying some flat and obviously heavy
objects wrapped in brown paper. They
turned out to be ten of the original
engraved copper plates used to
illustrate Alexander Wilson's
American Ornithology.

Alexander Wilson, the weaver and poet
from Paisley, Scotland who immigrated

Wilson wrote in his Introduction in
Volume I of American Ornithology: "As
to the nature of the work, if is intended
to comprehend a description and
representation of every species of our
native birds, from the shores of St.
Laurence to the mouths of the
Mississippi, and from the Atlantic ocean
to the interior of Louisiana; these will
be engraved in a style superior to any
thing of the kind hitherto published;
and colored from nature with the most
scrupulous adherence to the true tints
of the original. ... It is also my design
to enter more largely than usual into
the manners and disposition of each
respective species; to become, as it
were, their faithful biographer, and to
delineate their various peculiarities, in
character, song, building, economy, etc.
as far as my own observations have
extended, or the kindness of others
may furnish me with materials."

Two people who had befriended and
then encouraged Wilson in this work
which was to occupy him for the rest
of his life were William Bartram and
Alexander Lawson. Bartram, the son of

stress he was a most efficient and
faithful friend of Wilson."

Under the imprint of Bradford and
Inskeep, Philadelphia, in 1808 appeared
Wilson's first volume of the projected
ten volumes of American Ornithology:
or, The Natural History of the Birds ol
the United States: Illustrated with Plates
Engraved and Colored from Original
drawings taken from Nature. The
publishers underwrote the cost of
printing 200 copies of this first volume
with the understanding that unless
Wilson could secure that many
subscribers for the series, at $120 a
set, the project would be dropped.

Wilson solicited subscribers with his
first volume in hand and also with a
"direct mail advertising" brochure that
was sent to 2,500 prominent people in
the United States. It included a colored
plate to show the quality of the work.
The names of 450 original subscribers
were listed in the last volume.

Plate 55 in Alexander Wilson's American
Ornithology, "drawn from nature by A. Wilson,'
engraved by J. G. Warnicke.

February 1973

'*"• \~.':r."»"r'«i':

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I ▼ ^M.* r^-

e-"^?'i*L'

Field Museum Bulletin 13

By 1813, the year of Wilson's death,
seven volumes had been published.
The work was completed in two
additional volumes published by George
Ord from Wilson's manuscripts.

The ten Field Museum plates had been
stored in the library for many years.
Realizing the full historical and scientific
significance of this treasure, I expressed

Author cleaning a plate.

a wish to be granted permission to
take proofs from them. I had taken a
Master of Fine Arts degree in print-
making at the University of Iowa
several years ago, and the desire to
make prints from these plates was
overwhelming.

After due consideration, the Museum's
administration approved the idea, and

the project took place in the Print
Studio at Albion College, Albion,
Michigan, with the cooperation of
Professor Vernon L. Bobbitt, Chairman
of the Visual Arts Department, and
Professor Paul Stewart, head of the
Print Studio. Mr. George McCullough,
painter and printmaker on the faculty
of the Fort Wayne Art Institute, assisted
me in the actual printing.

The technique of printing from intaglio
plates has not changed since the 15th
century. Except for a more sophisticated
gearing system and the fact that early
presses were made of wood instead of
steel, the press used by us was
essentially the same as those
used in 1808.

The first step in printing each plate
was to clean it with kerosene and a
toothbrush to remove old ink and
accumulations of grease or any other
substances it had collected over the
years. The cleaned plate was then
placed on an electric hotplate and the
ink applied to its entire surface with a
felt dauber. A twisting motion was used
to make sure that the engraved lines
were well filled with ink.

Ordinarily an inked plate is wiped clean
with a wad of tarlatan cloth and wiped
again with the heel of the hand before
printing. In this case, however, because
some of the plates are so worn, a thin
film of ink was left on the plate in order
to pick up as much detail as possible.
When the surface was perfectly clean,
the printed result was very pale and
watery with much of the delicate
detailing of the feathers completely
missing.

To take a proof, the paper was placed
on top of the heated plate and covered
with two thicknesses of felt to cushion
the pressure of the rollers. I used BFK
Rives paper that had been dampened
several hours before. This preparation
allows the paper to absorb the maximum
amount of ink.

The plate was then rolled through the
press, the felts pulled back, and the

14 February 1973

After the plate is rolled through the press, the felt cushioning is pulled back
and the print is carefully lifted off. Photos by Douglas R. Ensor.

print carefully lifted off the plate and
studied for quality before being placed
between blotters to dry.

Four proofs were pulled from eachi of
these ten Wilson plates belonging to
Field Museum (they are plates 52
through 61). One set was presented to
the Museum; one to the Albion College
Print Collection in commemoration of
the dedication of the W. W. Whitehouse
Nature Center in Albion; one for the
printers; and one was added to Butler
University's Irwin Library Zoological
Print Collection — in which cause I had
sought out the resources of the
Museum's fine library and because of
that "discovered" the plates.

Five of these plates were engraved by
Alexander Lawson; the other five were
done by J. G. Wernicke. There is a
striking contrast between them. Lawson's
work has been accorded much
appreciation, and he has even been
described as "the father of the art of
engraving in this country." Nevertheless,
to me, some of his plates seem stiff

and artificial, the birds appearing to be
stuffed toys arranged in a mere
suggestion of a background. In contrast,
the Warnicke plates are composed and
engraved with great vigor as well as
scrupulous attention to fidelity of detail —
as, for instance, the one reproduced
here, plate 55, showing the "Ring-tail
Eagle" and "Sea Eagle."

It would be interesting to see if the
differences relate to Wilson's original
drawings. Wilson himself said of the
relationship between his drav^ings and
the engravings: "Every person who is
acquainted with the extreme accuracy
of eminent engravers, must likewise be
sensible of the advantage of having the
imperfections of the pencil corrected
by the excellence of the graver. Every
improvement of this kind the author has
studiously availed himself of; and has
frequently furnished the artist with the
living or newly-killed subject itself to
assist his ideas."

The following articles are recommended
for biographical and technical

information concerning Wilson and the
printing and engraving of the original
edition of the American Ornithology.

FOR FURTHER READING

Frank L. Bums. "The Mechanical Execution
of Wilson's 'American Ornithology,' "
The Wilson Bulletin, vol. 41, pp. 19-23,
March 1929.

Robert Cantwell. Alexander Wilson:
Naturalist and Pioneer. Lippincott, 7967.

Bayard H. Christy. "Alexander Lawson's
Bird Engravings," The Auk. vol. 43, pp.
47-61, January 1926.

Richard A. Davis is Head Librarian at
Butler University in Indianapolis.

The copper plates, proofs pulled Irom them
by Mr. Davis and Mr. McCullough, and a
volume ol the original edition ol Alexander
Wilson's American Ornithology, lor which the
plates were engraved, are on display in Field
Museum's South Lounge through May 31.

Field fuluseum Bulletin

^tAjCfl-lta

*^hf^c^

Gifts from Women's Committee for
Capital Campaign Nearing $1 IVIillion

The spirit of Field Museum's "Age of
Renovation" is contagious. Many new
people in private and public life are
daily joining the push toward the
$25 million goal of the Museum's
Capital Campaign.

The Museum's Women's Board, in a
significant departure from its stated
purpose when it was formed in 1966,
has decided that its intangible support
is no longer enough during this period
of great need for renovation of the
Museum's physical plant. As announced
in last December's Bulletin, it has
formed the Women's Committee for the
Capital Campaign, chaired by Mrs.
Corwith Hamill of Wayne, Illinois.

The committee turned first to the
Board's 200 members, to give them
and their husbands the opportunity
to join in the spirit.

Charter Board Member Mrs. R. Winfield
Ellis of Chicago, also a member of the
Women's Committee for the Capital
Campaign, points out that the raising
of funds is not an official Board
project, and that giving is strictly
voluntary.

"We are asking members to consider
whether they will get a true feeling of
happiness from seeing what their gifts
will make possible for the Museum,"
she states. "Board members are being
offered the opportunity actually to see
the Museum's needs and then to
experience a personal joy by seeing
these needs fulfilled."

Mrs. R. Winfield Ellis visits "Pump Room — of Field fvluseum. Cfiester Grenda,
Building Superintendent, sfiows tier ttie fire pump which supplies water under
high pressure for fire protection, installed when building was built 52 years ago.
Whole system, including worn out electrical control board at left, will be
replaced with a modern, larger capacity system with funds from $25 million
Capital Campaign.

The response to date has been
immensely gratifying. As of January 9,
the committee has recorded $812,600
in gifts, including a single contribution
of $365,000.

In stating her philosophy regarding her
very generous gift of $100,000, Mrs.
Ellis probably reflects the thinking of
many contributors:

"The Museum's capital needs are quite
obvious even to the casual visitor — not
only to Women's Board members,
trustees, and staff. My husband and I
are regular attendees of the Saturday
film and lecture programs and are well
acquainted, therefore, with the need for
renovating the Lecture Hall and the
James Simpson Theatre, to cite just
two examples."

Mrs. Ellis also speaks of the more
personal satisfaction she expects to
derive from her gift:

"I made an appointment with our
lawyer, specifically to explore the
advantages of making a gift to the
Museum at this time. I particularly
wanted to see some major project
completed during my lifetime, so when
he pointed out that mainly because of
inheritance taxes one cannot leave all
his money to heirs — whoever or
whatever they may be — my husband
and I saw a gift to the Museum as an
opportunity for deriving not only
immense personal joy, but also the
satisfaction of knowing we will be
helping millions of future visitors,
especially children, experience a sense
of wonder and delight in all that Field
Museum has to offer.

'We feel that our gift will do the
greatest good for the greatest number
of people — now."

February 1973

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Opens February 1

Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology.

Copper-plate engravings made for American
Ornithology (1808), a nine-volume work by
the father of American ornithology, Alexander
Wilson. Also shown are proofs from the
plates recently pulled by Richard A.
Davis, Butler University, and George
McCullough. Fort Wayne Art Institute,
alongside examples of first edition prints of
the same engravings in Field l^useum's
rare book collection. Through May 31.

Opens February 14

Below Man's Vision: Electronic Windows to
Unseen Worlds, an exhibit exploring the
world of details in common objects and
familiar plants and animals, and offering
glimpses into current research activities.
Nearly 300 photographs, displayed at up to
200,000 times life-size, introduce a
previously unseen world. Through July 15.
Hall 18.

Continuing

Greenland: Arctic Denmark, a major
exhibition covering all aspects of the history
and culture of the world's largest island.
The extensive collection of archaeological
and ethnological material is supplemented
by photographs and a daily film program to
illustrate various areas of economic
development and social change in modern
Greenland. The exhibition is sponsored by
the Royal Danish Embassy and is shown
under the auspices of the Smithsonian
Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Through Ivlarch 8. Hall 27.

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

Film Program

A series of films relating to the
"Greenland; Arctic Denmark" exhibit is
shown daily beginning at the
following times;

Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Friday; 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday; 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Sunday, February 4

"The Land No One Wanted," wildlife film
narrated by Buzz Moss, offered by the
Illinois Audubon Society at 2;30 p.m. in
the James Simpson Theatre.

Sunday, February 11 and 18

The 28th Chicago International Exhibition
of Nature Photography projects winning
and accepted transparency materials at
2;30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

February Hours

9 am. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday:
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 9 am. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday and February 12 (Lincoln's
Birthday) and February 19 {Washington's Birthday).

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, mam floor nonh.

Children's Program

Through February 28

Winter Journey for Children, Dog Meets
Man," a free self-guided tour exploring the
many aspects of man's partnership with his
"best friend" since prehistoric times.
Youngsters are provided with a questionnaire
which routes them through Museum exhibit
areas. All boys and girls who can read and
write may join in the activity. Journey sheets
are available at Museum entrances.

Meetings

February 8: 8 p.m., Chicago Mountaineering
Club

February 11; 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club

February 13: 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider
Council

Coming in March

Begins March 1

Spring Journey for Children, "Life in the
Tropical Rain Forest," a self-guided tour
which encourages youngsters to learn about
the inhabitants of the little-known Amazonian
region of South America by exploring
Museum exhibit areas. Through May 31.

Ayer Adult Film Lecture Series, 230 p.m.
Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

March 3; "Golden Kingdoms of the Orient,"

narrated by John Nicholls Booth,

March 10; "Exotic West Pakistan,"

narrated by Renee Taylor.

March 17: "The New Alaska," narrated
by Leo and Dorothy Eckman.

March 24; "All Around Australia,"

narrated by Edgar T. Jones.

March 31; "Yugoslavia," narrated by
Frank Klicar.

Volume 44, Number 3
March 1973

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 3
March 1973

Cover tulips are from an engraving in this 1601
volume in Field Museum's rare book collection

2 When Tulips Were Securities

Max Plaut

the 17th century tulipomania in Holland viewed
from a new perspective

8 International Nature Photography Exhibition

William Burger

some pictures selected from the over 3,000 submitted

12 The Goto Dofiana

Barbara Brown

a vignette of this important European nature reserve

14 Capital Campaign

the Kresge Foundation pledges $1 million to Field Museum

15 Field Briefs

16 Letters
Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Managing Editor G Henry Ottery; Editor Elizabetti Munger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions; $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster; Please send
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

When Tulips were Securities

Max Plaut

Luxurious man, to bring his vice in use,

Did after tiim the world seduce.
And from the fields the flowers and plants allure,

Where Nature was most plain and pure.

With strange perfumes he did the roses taint;

And flowers themselves were taught to paint.
The tulip white did for complexion seek,

And learned to interline its cheek;
Its onion roof they then so high did hold.

That one was for a meadow sold:

"The IVlower, against Gardens," Andrew Marvel!

2 March 1973

Engravings In Livre de Fleurs. by Francois I'Anglois, published in Paris, 1620.
Photos courtesy of Hunt Botanical Library, Carnegie-Mellon University.

According to some accounts, thie
Dutch tulip speculation in thie early
17th century brought the United
Provinces of the Netherlands to the
brink of national bankruptcy. The best-
known account is a chapter in a book
by Reverend Charles Mackay,
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and
the Madness ot Crowds, published in
1841. Bernard Baruch cherished the
book as a classic of stock market
psychology, and thanks to his interest
it was reprinted in recent years.

But too often the Tulipomania story is
retold as a mere anecdote of human
cupidity. Now, thanks to research since
1841, the story can be placed in

historical context. As a result, we can
begin to appreciate how important the
preoccupation with this flower has
been in the making of modern
Western society.

According to Wilfrid Blunt, no classical
author mentions a flower which can
with any degree of probability be
identified with the tulip; and no
Western painting, pottery, or textile
earlier than the end of the 16th century
shows it. It has a much longer history
in the East, and figures in religious
cults from Turkey to Japan.

Its spectacular entry into the gardens
of Western Europe began in 1554. In

that year the Flemish scholar Ogier
Ghislain de Busbecq reported tulips
cultivated by Turks near Adrianople.
He was at the time ambassador to
Suleyman the Magnificent from
Ferdinand I (who then, before he
became Holy Roman Emperor, was
regent for the Empire when Charles V
was in Spain). Busbecq's interpreter
compared the shape of the petals to a
turban {dulban in Turkish), and from
this comparison the various forms of
the name tulip in Western languages
are derived. Although tulips may have
been observed some years earlier by
a French traveler to the Levant, Pierre
Belon, his description makes the
identification doubtful.

Field Museum Bulletin

Busbecq returned to Prague with
seeds, perhaps also with bulbs. And
then, in 1561, appeared the first
description and illustration of a tulip
published in Europe, by Konrad
Gesner, naturalist, bibliographer, and
town physician of Zurich, in his work
De Hortis Germaniae. A cargo of bulbs
from Constantinople that arrived in
Antwerp in 1562 marked the beginning
of a new horticultural industry. By 1565
they were being cultivated in Augsburg
in the garden of one of the Fuggers,
that great merchant-banker family. In
1576 the first monograph on garden
tulips was published, by Charles de
I'Ecluse. His name appears as Caroli
Clusi on the title page of his 1601
book Rariorum plantarum historia, a
copy of which is in Field Museum's
rare book collection. The cover of this
Bulletin is derived from one of his
drawings in that book.

New varieties were soon bred from the
1562 cargo, especially in Holland at
Haarlem and Alkmaar, which became
pre-eminent centers of tulip cultivation.
Demand exceeded supply, and plant
breeding was profitable. Beautiful new
varieties brought high prices. There are
reports of a single tulip bulb being
traded for a brewery, for a grist mill,
or making a rich bride's dowry (the
last a detail that Alexander Dumas
adapted for a poor bride in his 1850
novel The Black Tulip).

Later, people began to speculate in
tulips, before there was a stock
exGhange or commodity exchange or
futures market, and before Europeans
speculated in South Sea islands or
Mississippi real estate. In fact, tulips
came to play a role in the rise of
modern science and in the emergence
of modern social, economic, and legal
life. Our story, therefore, will take us
from the horticultural and botanical
realm into law and economics, but first
we shall interpose some background
of that age.

The frenzied speculation in tulip bulbs
would clearly have been impossible
had there not been a genuine

widespread interest in gardening. But
during the Middle Ages, and even into
the 16th century, gardens enjoyed
an ambivalent position. The two
described in Spenser's Faerie Oueene.
the Garden of Adonis and the Bower
of Bliss, are at times condemned as
too seductive because of their appeal
to the senses (all five!) and at times
favored as reminiscent of Eden and a
place of innocent delight. But by the
17th century gardens had won
acceptance simply as pleasant places.
Bacon wrote about the delights of
gardens, and Rubens painted his
second wife in her new tulip garden.
In 1626 the Jardin du Roi — forerunner
of the Mus6e nationale de I'histoire
naturelle — was founded. In 1656 the
Lutheran German hymn-writer Paul
Gerhardt gave thanks for summer in
the words (translated by Margarete
Munsterberg):

The trees with spreading leaves are blessed,

The earth her dusty rind has dressed

In green so young and tender.

Narcissus and the tulip fair

Are clothed in raiment far more rare

Than Solomon in splendor.

As God's creation, the natural world is
a cause for joy, the tulip along with
the narcissus especially so. And, as if
philosophic justification were needed,
gardens came to be considered the
best place for contemplation — an idea
expressed by Marvell in his famous
poem "The Garden."

Until the Reformation period, botany
was considered part of medicine, of
materia medics, and flowers were
thought to heal by virtue of their occult
meaning. The medicinal garden was
successor of the monastery garden. It
became the botanical garden at the
university, beginning with Padua in
1543 and then Leyden in 1577, which
was where I'Ecluse was professor of
botany when he published the 1601
volume mentioned earlier. With the
arrival of the telescope and the
microscope, plants became a major
object of the measuring, counting,
differentiating, and cataloging mind.

Scientists were universal scholars then,
not specialists, and scientific —
especially botanical — collecting
became part of the high culture of the
great and fashionable. To be a
gentleman one had to be concerned
with botanical problems. Frankfort on
the Main, the city of the book fair,
added a flower market where the latest
acquisitions were exchanged with
learned enthusiasm.

One of the villainies prompted by
jealousy in Dumas' Black Tulip — tying
two cats together and tossing them
into a tulip garden in order to destroy
It — may have been suggested by an
incident suffered by I'Ecluse at Leyden.
He is said to have conducted his
studies of the tulip in great secrecy,
which led to a raid on his bulb garden,
ruining it and breaking his heart. In
any event, though the book is set in a
somewhat later period (1672-73), it
captures the spirit of the earlier half of
the century in the reflection of its tulip-
breeder hero that a man of
competence seeks immortality by
giving his name to a child, a book,
or a flower.

Some writers have wondered that tulip
cultivation and Tulipomania should
have taken place in the Netherlands.
It IS surprising that the moist climate
and the level land near Haarlem turned
out to be so ideal for growing a plant
whose wild ancestors are believed to
have originated in the very different
habitat southeast of the Black Sea and
the Caspian. In other areas of Europe

Photo opposite: The folly of the tulip trade in
Holland caricatured in a black chalk drawing
by Pieter Noipe (b. ca. 1613, d. ca. 1652). Inside
the large fool's cap are a nurnber of men sifting
at tables negotiating tulip contracts; one man
is holding a pair of scales. Behind the cap to the
left Flora is riding on an ass accompanied
by a group of people; two are striking her with
rods. In the right foreground a man is wheeling a
barrow full of bulbs and blossoms towa'd a
muck pile. In the right middleground the devil
is holding an hourglass in one hand and a long
staff in the other, a fool's cap on its end and
bills of sale hanging from it. The laughing man
next to him is supposed to be a landlord who
has done well. Photo courtesy of Epstein
Archive, University of Chicago.

IVlarch 1973

where a rising middle class might
have grown — and speculated in —
tulips, there was war or, as in
Catalonia, great political turmoil.
Stephen Usherwood, a British writer,
sees the Tulipomania as a crowd
reaction of relief after the victories of
Gustavus Adolphus had rescued the
Dutch from being hemmed in by the
Catholic Imperial forces to the south
and east.

As the two I'Anglois engravings
suggest, the tulip had become a
costly fashion flower by 1610, first in
France and very soon in the rest of
western Europe. At that time some
growers accidentally produced bulbs
with swirly yellow and white stripes.
This effect is now known to be due to
a virus disease transmitted by aphids
but then was considered to be of
scientific interest. The striped tulips
were also the costliest and an impetus

to cultivation. Their owners reaped
great profits. As the price rose more
and more, people high and low came
to think of them as investments. The
first mention of the speculation is that
of Velius in his Chronicle ot the City
of Hoorn (1633).

By 1634, the passion for tulips had
caught all social classes of the
Netherlands. Everyone who owned a
few square yards of land grew bulbs.
Before long the bulbs were bought not
so much with the aim of cultivating
them or displaying them in bloom, but
for resale at a profit, and this trade
became the full-time occupation of
many. Large fortunes, some old, some
newly made in the spice trade, were
invested in tulips. Thousands of people
mortgaged their possessions to
buy bulbs.

There also were many who scoffed at

the speculation, among them writers
and artists. Steven Teunisz van der
Lust wrote a long poem enumerating
the occupations of those engaged in
tulip trading: nobles, seamen, peat
diggers, vintners, masons, court criers,
and so forth — at least ninety
occupations. It also describes their
religious range: "Arminians [i.e.,
Remonstrants], Geuses, Papists,
Freethinkers, Lutherans, fVlennonites,
the devout and the indifferent."

Of any man who spent his time dealing
in tulips it was said, "He is in the
Kap" (capuche or hood), and he was
called a Kappist. The significance of
the term is illustrated by Pieter Nolpe's
satirical picture "Flora's Foolscap, or
illustration of the marvelous year of
1637 when one fool outdid the other."
Jan Bruegel the Younger painted a
picture entitled "Persiflage of the tulip
trade: monkeys trading in tulips."

Field Museum Bulletin

A Dutch sail carriage carrying the tulipomaniacs, who are wearing fool's caps
on their heads. Flora, the goddess of horticulture, has tulips in her hands.
Copper engraving, 1650. Photo courtesy of the Bettmann Archive, Inc.

In a book of the time, The Dialogue
between Waermondt and Gaergodt,
who are two weavers, Gaergodt offers
to set Waermondt up in the tulip
business. He will sell him a bulb,
guarantee him a profit, and show him
how to find a tavern in which a tulip-
trading club operates — there was one
in most Dutch towns. Waermondt is to
ask for florists and will be admitted to
their club room. "Because you are a
stranger some will quack like a duck;
others will say, 'I spy a stranger!' But
do not take any notice. Your name will
be written on a slate . . ."

Records of tulip sales and barters are
a mine of information to economic
historians. Tulip bulbs were traded by
variety and weight; the weight unit was
.05 grams. A 200-unit (Va ounce) bulb
of the most precious variety. Semper
Augustus, sold as high as 5,500 florins

(it was one of the striped variants
mentioned earlier); there were only
two bulbs and they were frequently
traded. Barter records list as a few of
the items going in trade for a single
bulb: a silver goblet at 60 fl., a fine
suit of clothes at 80 fl., 12 fat sheep
at 10 fl. each, and a ton of cheese at
240 fl. But the main significance of
such records is that they are the first
"paper transactions," well before the
first stock exchange or commodity
exchange was established.

Tulip prices always rose — until
February 3, 1637, when a purchaser
offered only 1,000 fl. for a bulb for
which the vendor had paid 1,250 fl.
News of this quickly spread through
the United Provinces, creating panic in
its wake. The would-be sellers
attempted to restore confidence by
holding mock auctions, but, with the

market suddenly gone, to no avail.
They then formed a nation-wide
association and elected delegates to
an assembly that was to convene in
Amsterdam February 27. A majority of
this assembly proposed that all
contracts made before November 30,
1636 were to be kept. Those made
later the buyer could cancel by paying
the seller ten percent of the November
price. This was thought to be fair to
the established traders and to penalize
only the late-comers. But the florists of
Amsterdam objected, and this proposal
and the assembly came to naught.

Many sellers then sued their buyers,
but the courts declared the tulip
contracts void. The judges are said to
have considered them illicit gambling.
The sellers with defaulting buyers now
sought relief by petition to the Estates
General of Holland and West Friesland.

March 1973

They remonstrated that there was great
confusion in the country, that the
finding of total invalidity was intolerable
in view of both the present situation
and the toleration of the trade for
several years. There were petitioners
from all over the Netherlands, often
influential nobles and burghers. The
Estates General referred the matter to
the Provincial Council at The Hague
for investigation and report. In a short
time the Council wrote an opinion
which became the basis of the Act of
the Estates General of April 27, 1637.

The preamble of this Act provided that
there was to be no general settlement
of these cases. First, the number of
contracts, the name of each party to
each contract, and the increase in tulip
prices were to be recorded with
precision. The magistrates — who were
not remunerated for their services and
did not have to be learned in the
Roman law — were instructed to attempt
to induce the parlies to come to terms
amicably. Where such attempts failed,
they were to report to the Provincial
Council and further evidence was to
be sought. Meanwhile, it was left to
each seller to make a formal offer of
delivery of tulips to his buyer at the
contracted price. Should the buyer
refuse delivery, the seller could either
keep them or resell them and demand
any price difference from the originally
contracting buyer. At that point the
disputed contracts were due to be
examined further as to equity. Until
then, concluded the Act, the unfulfilled
tulip contracts remained in suspense
et sine praeiudicio.

In most cases the seller had no
promised bulbs to deliver, for he was
in turn a buyer from some other seller.
If he did, he would gain nothing from
simply keeping them. If he sold at the
depressed market price and sued for
the difference, the courts might void
the contract. Most frequently the
parties lost all desire to bring their
transactions to court, and the sellers
accepted between five and ten percent
of the contracted price in settlement.

The Act was a compromise between
two conflicting interpretations of the
tulip transactions under the Roman
law. The first was that aleatory contracts
- — those in which what is to be
performed is contingent upon events
not within the power of the contracting
parties, such as insurance, bottomry
bonds (a kind of maritime lien), futures
contracts, gambling — were under certain
conditions legally possible. According
to the other interpretation, mere paper
transactions in which there was no
exchange of goods or services were
void in private law and not punishable.
The Act of the Estates General of
Holland and West Friesland favored a
free and increasing commerce; it held
any actual exchange of goods — but not
mere speculation — to be legitimate.

It has been said that in the
administration of the Roman law the
judges seek to preserve contracts
made — which, if defective, are to be
improved according to the intention of
the parties. Under Anglo-Saxon law,
on the other hand, contracts are either
binding as written or void because of
legal defects. Rudolf Stammler in his
legal analysis of the Tulipomania
aftermath holds that the application of
the Roman law in the 17th century was
often thus defective in adjudication of
cases of gambling by people of
quality, but that the Estates General
was legislatively and judicially wise in
not legitimizing the tulip contracts, thus
keeping the court dockets from being
overcrowded by litigation over them.

Probably statements that the tulip
craze brought Holland to the brink of
national bankruptcy are exaggerations.
But it did cause the ruin of several

great fortunes. At that time state and
economy were not so closely linked as
they later came to be. The years of the
Tulipomania were also the best of the
brilliant and successful Stadtholdership
of Prince Frederick Henry and did not
take the spotlight from either Dutch
participation in the Thirty Years' War —
the Prince reconquered Breda in 1637
— or colonial expansion — the Dutch
were then establishing themselves in
parts of Brazil and in the West Indies.
The East Indian islands already were
in the Dutch sphere, and trade with
them had enriched many Dutch and
caused the inflation indicated by the
tulip barter records. Finally, the
Tulipomania did not keep the Dutch
East India Company from beginning
the conquest of Ceylon in 1638.

In fact, the most important
consequences of the tulip craze were
much more positive as well as long-
term. The Tulipomania was the first
manifestation of several modern
phenomena: trade associations;
middle-class gardening; adaptation of
the Institutes of Justinian to emerging
conditions; the mechanics of
speculation in commodity futures;
paper transactions; and active
participation of a broad public in
trade and finance.

Max Plaut is Reference Librarian at
Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

international nature photography exhibition

The Nature Camera Club of Chicago and Field
Museum sponsored their 28th International Exhibition
of Nature Photography with the public showing of
about 700 slides on the 11th and 18th of February.
The accepted slides were chosen from a total of
over 3,000 by a panel of five judges. In this way an
amateur nature photographer from anywhere in the
world can see how his or her best efforts compare
with the work of others. A catalog is sent to all
entrants listing the accepted slides and their makers.

The catalog and careful processing of all slides are
not the only services provided for entrants. Fifty
slides are selected and, with the maker's permission,
reproduced to make traveling sets. These fifty-slide
sets are chosen to be representative of the show

and are loaned to individuals and groups in distant
areas who could not see the exhibition itself.

Another service is analysis of slides by those who
request it after having none of their slides accepted.
(Each entry is restricted to four slides.) Club
members who have been photographing for many
years provide these analyses. Often a beginning
photographer will enter slides that are of poor
quality or with obvious flaws in composition. Here
commentary can be explicit and helpful. But there
are times when slides that are technically and
esthetically excellent have not been accepted. Here
commentary is often reduced to, "Well, I guess the
judges didn't like it — try again next year."

William Burger

President, Nature Camera Club of Chicago

March 1973

Field Museum Bulletin 9

Photos; (page 8) "Devoted Mother," by
Laurie Kriz. Apache J jnction, Arizona; (page
9) "Snowy Egret Alerted." by Daniel H. Lee,
Rochester, New York: (page 10, top)
"Polyorchis Jelly," by Mrs. Alice Kessler,
Sacramento. Caliiornia; (page 10. bottom)
"Enhanced with Dew," by Louis R. Paxton,
Zanesville, Ohio; (page 11) "Pacific Wave,"
by Nelson H. Martin. Santa Barbara,
California.

Field Museum Bulletin

The Goto Donana

Barbara Brown

Mrs. Barbara Brown is a Museum Member
and has been a volunteer technical
assistant in the Mammal Division for
several years. She vi/rote to us about her
visit to one of the most important nature
reserves in Europe — an unguided detour
oft the beaten travelers' track.

During a business trip that called us to
Spain, my husband Roger and I
requested and were granted permission
to visit the Goto Donana, one of the
most important nature reserves in
Europe. More than half of all European
bird species stop here during their
migrations between Europe and Africa.

It was too early to witness the spring
migrations, but even so v^/e didn't want
to miss this rare opportunity. The
year-round variety of herons, ducks,
larks, warblers, and particularly diurnal
birds of prey is impressive. Large
animals such as the imperial eagle and
the Spanish lynx, now rare in other parts
of Spain, live protected in the Goto. Many
characteristic North African animals
combined with subtropical vegetation
attest to the proximity of Morocco.

The Goto Dofiana forms a part of the
Rio Guadalquiver delta. The delta has
an area of 620 square miles, of which
120 are sand dunes. These dunes,
called the Arenas Gordas, line the
coast, extending inland from 21/2 to
7y2 miles, and separate the Goto fro
the sea. In the dry parts of the Goto
the soil is sandy with stunted
vegetation. The marshy parts, or

marismas. are flooded semi-annually
by the Rio Guadalquiver, leaving
sticky, slimy sediments that are saline
and barren.

This unique complex of habitats, one
of the two main western European
flyways for migrating birds, had been
the private preserve of the Dukes of
Medina Sidonia for five centuries. In
1934 the World Wildlife Fund in
collaboration with the Spanish Scientific
Gouncil acquired about 25 square
miles of the original Goto Donana for a
nature reserve. The area was then
ceded to the Spanish government for
control and maintenance.

The 300,000 acres of marismas
adjoining the Goto are not protected,
however. Projected large-scale
drainage of these swamps would
drastically alter the ecology of the
entire region, including the parts of the
marismas that extend into the Goto.

We arrived at the locked gates of the
reserve in our rented car and followed

American robin (a thrush)

March 1973

instructions given us by the authorities
for locating the key. It was indeed, as
described, buried in the sand under
the third post. After opening the gate
and driving the car through, we of
course reburied the key. The journey
continued over fifteen miles of
washboard road across the sandy plain
to what was called the Palacio.

Along the way, insect-hunting kestrels
filled the sky, magpies flew from one
shrub to another, and lapwings strutted
along the side of the road.

Martin Brandt, a young Norwegian
naturalist-ranger, greeted us as we
pulled into the cobbled courtyard of
the Palacio. He explained that we
could explore the Goto by Land Rover,
but we assured him we preferred to
make the excursion on foot.

The Palacio is a 300-year-old white
stucco hunting lodge built in the form
of a square. The walls in the entrance
hall are covered with photographs of
hunting parties of Spanish nobility. In
the adjacent courtyard are barns, hen
houses, tool sheds, and the cultivated
gardens of the guardas. or wardens. In
front is a wire enclosure with two
captive ferrets, a desert fox, a few
deer, and a Spanish lynx.

Many small land birds can be found in
the vicinity of the Palacio, the cultivated
gardens, the work buildings of the
guardas, and the thickets of trees
adjacent to the edge of the marismas.
Stonechats, chiffchaffs, chaffinches,
and serins were common. Most
exciting for us, however, was the sight
of a small brown bird with a bright
orange-red breast, the common
European robin. Now we understand
why English colonists in America called
our much larger thrush a robin.

We saw representatives of most of the
reserve's avifauna along the grasses,
sedges, and reeds bordering the edge
of the marismas. Predators were
soaring overhead constantly, hunting
small mammals and reptiles concealed
in the rushes. Fallow deer and red
deer browsed nearby, and feral

descendants of horses and cattle,
escaped from herds on privately owned
estates, grazed unconcerned by our
presence. Cattle egrets accompanied
the herds. Thousands of resident
greylag geese filled the sky above the
flooded marismas. Evidence of the
nightly rooting and digging of wild
boars was seen all along the edges of
the marshes. A snake-eagle was seen
aloft clutching a snake in one of its
talons. This eagle prefers the dry,
sandy areas, where its prey is more
abundant. Trees along the edges of
the sand provide nesting sites. Kestrels
were abundant in all the habitat types
we explored.

Away from the edge of the marismas
is a sandy plain covered with halimium,
gorse, broom, and scattered cork oaks.
The several small freshwater lakes
distributed over the plain are fed by a
stream called Madre de las Marismas.
Small islands, or vetas, which dot the
lakes serve as breeding areas for
ground-nesting birds.

The stunted vegetation and scarcity of
animals on the arid plain contrast
sharply with the lagoons and marshes
teeming with life. Nevertheless, here in
the desert and the depressions between
the sand dunes is where myriads of
migratory birds stop to rest. Until they
come, it belongs to the great numbers
of butterflies, the occasional rabbit we
saw darting behind a shrub, and the
red fox we glimpsed running across
the plain.

Drawings by Zbigniew Jastrzebski.

Field Museum Bulletin

Kresge Foundation Pledges
$1 Million to Capital Campaign

■'One of the greatest institutions of our
country."

That IS how Stanley S, Kresge, chairman of
the foundation established by his father,
described Field tvluseum during a press
conference February 15 to announce the
foundation's $1 million pledge to the
lyluseum's $25 million Capital Campaign.

Museum Director E. Leiand Webber
expressed gratitude for the grant, explaining
that It will be used to help build an
educational center in the Museum's west
wing. Included will be a bus ramp entry at
ground level to serve the more than 350,000
school children who annually visit the

Museum in organized groups, as well as
adequate entry, orientation, checking, and
restroom facilities for them. The entry will
also serve visitors confined to wheelchairs
or otherwise unable to climb stairs.

Dr. Alice Games, coordinator of teacher
training at Field Museum, described how
educational facilities, now scattered
throughout the museum, will also be
centrally located to better serve visiting
school groups and teachers, community
groups, college students, and persons
working on specialized research.

Others participating in the press conference
were William Baldwin, president of the
Kresge Foundation, of Birmingham, Michigan;
Blaine Yarrlngton, Museum trustee and
chairman of the Capital Campaign's
corporate and foundation division; Illinois
Lieutenant Governor Nell Hartigan; and Mrs.
Judith Allen, principal of Harvard-St.
George's Lower School, In Chicago.

The Kresge gift brings the Museum's share
of the Capital Campaign to $9.4 million,
leaving $3.1 million still to be raised by the
Museum before the deadline of September,
1974. This sum of $12.5 million will be
matched dollar-for-dollar by the Chicago
Park District through funds raised by Its
bonding authority, granted by the Illinois
General Assembly. Lieutenant Governor
Hartigan praised the matchlng-funds
concept as exemplifying "intelligent
relationship between the private sector
and government."

Left to right, Blaine Yarrlngton and E. Leiand Webber show Stanley S. Kresge
and William Baldwin plans for educational center in Field Museum's west wing.

March 1973

Natural History Field Trips Offered

Three weekend natural history field trips are
being offered this spring by Field Museum's
Department of Education in cooperation with
the University of Chicago Downtown Center.
One objective of the trips is to investigate
the correlation between the geology of the
areas and spring flowers, especially effects
of the geologic history on flowering plants.
Dr. Matthew Nitecki, geologist, and Dr.
William Burger, botanist, both of Field
Museum, will lead the groups.

May 5 (10:30-12 noon): Introductory lecture.

May 12 (8 a.m.)-May 13 (6 p.m.): Starved
Rock area. Starved Rock, a bluff cut by a
glacial river and standing some 100 feet
above the surrounding glaciated plain,
contains a rich variety of flora characteristic
of our area. Leaders: Drs. Nitecki and Burger.

May 19 (8 a.m.)-May 20 (6 p.m.): Galena
and its environs. In the 1840s Galena was a
major lead-producing district of the U.S. The
area was not covered by glaciers, and
therefore the landscape is much different
from the flat, glaciated topography of the
rest of Illinois. Leader: Dr. Nitecki.

June 2 (8 a.m.)-June 3 (7 p.m.): Devil's
Lake, Wisconsin. The Baraboo Range
supports a unique flora, some of which has
apparently been undisturbed since the end
of the last glaciation. The range, about one
billion years old, consists of quartzite folded
into vertical position. Leaders: Drs. Nitecki
and Burger.

Tuition for the series is $80 ($75 for
Museum Members), or $30 for each trip
($28 for Museum Members), and includes
transportation on a chartered bus. Overnight
accommodations are not included, but
advance reservations at reasonable rates
will be made for all participants. Anyone
interested in joining one or more of the
groups should call Mrs. Maria Matyas for
further information, Fl 6-8300.

Two 30- Year-Plus Staff Members Retire

James R. Shouba joined the Museum staff
in 1939. As Superintendent of Maintenance
beginning in 1947 and Building
Superintendent from 1962, he doctored
every ailment the building, in its advancing
age, succumbed to, and supervised every
structural alteration required by new exhibits
and changing work space needs. Once he
was even called upon to dispose of the
remains of a camel. But more in his line
was overseeing the major construction
projects of filling in two of the building's
light wells in order to add 35,000 square
feet of much needed working and storage
space. Because of his intimate knowledge
of the building's pathology, Mr. Shouba will
continue to serve the Museum as a part-
time consultant to help with the major
renovations being made possible by funds
from the Capital Campaign.

Joseph B Krstolich and "friend" (who
IS now in a diorama in Hall C).

When Joseph B. Krstolich worked at Field
Museum in 1939 on an art project, he was
already a well known animal sculptor with
20 years of accomplishment and acclaim to
his credit. He became a full-time Museum
employee in 1941, and for the next 31
years, as staff artist, applied his talents to
such diverse things as underwater
photography of marine life off Bermuda; a
model of a crocodile brain; a cat carved on
a sheet of plexiglass to show its internal
organs (part of our This is a Mammal
exhibit); the famous gorilla Bushman
(presently in the 75th Anniversary exhibit);
and, most recently, the four new figures in
our Neanderthal Man diorama. An
uncounted number of Museum exhibits have
been enhanced by Mr. Krstolich's creative
skills. He can't say which he enjoyed
working on most because, as he remarked,
"Every exhibit was a new challenge."

James R. Shouba

Training Program in Anthropology
Offered High Schiool Juniors

Twenty-seven high-ability high school
juniors will be chosen to participate in Field
Museum's Student Science Training Program
in Anthropology this summer.

This intensive course offers young people
an unusual opportunity to learn about the
various fields of anthropology and thus test
their career interest in the subject. Monday
through Friday sessions, from June 25
through August 3, will feature lectures by
outstanding authorities, supervised research
projects, workshops, study of museum
specimens, and archaeological field work
at a nearby site.

The program, one of only a few of Its kind
in this country, is supported by a grant from
the National Science Foundation. It is under
the direction of Miss Harriet Smith, lecturer
in anthropology in Field Museum's
Department of Education.

Students interested in joining the program
may obtain application forms from either
high school officials or Miss Smith.
Completed applications must be returned to
Field Museum no later than March 26.
Participants will be selected on the basis of
academic achievement, recommendations
of teachers, and personal interviews.

Ownership and Circulation

Filing date: 9/26/72. Title: Field Museum of Natural
History Bulletin, Frequency of publication: monthly
except combined July/August issue. Office: Roosevelt
Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, III. 60605.
Publisher: Field Museum of Natural History. Editor:
Elizabeth Munger. Known bondholders, mortgagees,
and other security holders: none. Nonprofit status
has not changed during preceding 12 months.

Av. No. Actual No.

Copies Copies

Each Issue Single Issue
. Preceding Nearest to
12 Months Filing Date
Total copies printed 26,666 26,700

Total paid circulation 21,850 22,287

mail subscriptions 21,850 22,287

Free distribution 1,743 2,095

Total distribution 23,593 24,382

Office use, left-over 3,073 2,318

Total 26,666 26.700

1 certify that the statements made by me above are
correct and complete. — Norman W. Nelson, Asst.
Dir., Admin.

Field Museum Bulletin

ETTERS

To the editor:

The story "The Mystery of Maize" by George
W. Beadle in the November 1972 issue
of the Bulletin, about his theory that teosinte
is the wild ancestor of corn, is readable
and entertaining. It does, however, contain
a number of errors of fact, interpretalion,
and omission.

At least four of my own views are
misrepresented in the story. 1) In the
author's so-called "cob quiz" I did not
classify a single second-generation (F2)
cob as that of "good" corn and I have yet
to see one that is. 2) My present idea that
teosinte is the progeny of a corn-like
ancestor is not a "dramatic reversal" but
rather the result of continuing research in
which I have participated with my
colleagues. This work, concerned with the
characteristics of the pollen grains, has
provided convincing evidence that Tripsacum
can be eliminated as one of teosinte's
progenitors, leaving corn as its only
ancestor. 3) There is no "curious
inconsistency" in my idea that teosinte
evolved from corn while doubting that
cultivated corn could have evolved from
teosinte. The former would have occurred
over millions of years: the latter in three
thousand years or less. 4)1 have never
described the earliest cobs from the
Tehuacan Caves as "brittle," a characteristic
of teosinte. Instead they are "fragile,"
which in proper botanical context is quite
different.

The author errs, I think, in placing too
much reliance on the cytogenetic evidence.
This has long been accepted as showing a
close relationship of corn and teosinte but
it falls far short of proving that corn evolved
from teosinte under domestication. His own
experiments, involving 50,000 plants, have
added little if anything to what was already
known from the earlier studies of Collins
and Kempton (1920) and Mangelsdorf and
Reeves (1939). His conviction that the

differences between corn and teosinte are
few and are simple in their inheritance may
have prevented him from seeing what these
earlier workers had obsen/ed: that the
differences between the two species are
numerous and complex and that in their
second-generation hybrids all characteristics
of each parent are associated with one or
more others.

The story mentions, but does not do justice
to, the extensive archaeological collections
of prehistoric corn that have been assembled
during the past twenty-five years through
the congenial and effective collaboration
of botanists and archaeologists. Genetic
experiments can do no more than provide
a basis for speculating about the past;
archaeological remains are the past. I have
had the exciting and rewarding experience
of analyzing, with others, the collections
from fourteen once-inhabited caves in
Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico. Perhaps
the most impressive feature of these
collections is the consistency with which
they all point to the same conclusion; the
earliest corn, except for its smaller size, has
all of the principal botanical characteristics
of modern corn and shows no evidence
of having evolved from teosinte.

Especially significant Is the earliest
prehistoric corn from two caves, San Marcos
and Coxcatlan in the Tehuacan Valley of
Mexico, excavated by Richard S. MacNeish.
The earliest cobs, dated at about 5000 B.C.,
we regard for a number of reasons (six,
not two as stated by Beadle) as those of
wild corn. The resemblances that Beadle
claims to see between this early corn and
teosinte simply do not exist. With these
comments I have included photographs of
an "ear" of teosinte and a cob of the
7,000-year-old corn. The reader need not
be a trained botanist to see that the two
are quite distinct.

Supplementing the archaeological evidence
is the paleobotanical evidence
represented by fossil pollen grains of corn
found in drill cores taken from a site in
Mexico City in preparation for the
construction of Mexico's first skyscraper.

Please address all letters to the editor to

Bulletin

Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605

The editors reserve the right to edit letters
for length.

Lett: An "ear" of leosinle (actual size). Because
of tfie hard, bony sfiells in wfiicfi its seeds are
enclosed and ttie tendency for ttie ears to fall apart
before tfiey can be tiarvested, teosinte fias generally
been considered unpromising as a food plant.
Right: A cob of ttie earliest known corn (actual
size) dated at 5000 B.C. from a once-inliabited cave
in f^exico. Except for size, it fias all of ttie
principal cfiaracteristics of modern corn, and it
sfiows no evidence of tiaving evolved from teosinte.
I regard it as wild corn.

These occurred at depths of more than 200
feet and are estimated to be at least
80,000 years old. They were identified by
Professor Elso S. Barghoorn, one of the
world's foremost paleobotanists. Beadle
does not mention this critical evidence,
which, if accepted, represents a fatal blow
to his teosinte theory, and I find his failure
to do so almost incredible. Certainly It is
an essential part of the corn story. Knowing
the circumstances under which the drill
cores were collected and the pollen isolated
and identified, I regard the fossil corn
pollen as authentic and, like the prehistoric
cobs of the Tehuaccin Valley, showing that
the ancestor of cultivated corn was corn.

Paul C. Mangelsdorl
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

To the editor:

Thank you for permitting me to note
Professor Mangelsdorf's criticism of my
November article. I am not persuaded by the
objections he makes to teosinte as a direct
ancestor of maize, but agree with you that
an adequate response requires technical
considerations and references not wholly
appropriate to the Field Museum Bulletin.
I shall therefore respond elsewhere in due
course.

George W. Beadle
University of Chicago

fviarch 1973

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Closes March 25

A New Spirit in Searcli of the Past:

Continuing

Below Man's Vision: Electronic Windows
to Unseen Worlds, an exhibit exploring the
world of details in common objects and
familiar plants and animals, and offering
glimpses into current research activities.
Nearly 300 photographs, displayed at up to
200,000 times life-size, introduce a
previously unseen world. Through July 15.
Hall 18.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological,
and cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense
of History" presents a graphic portrayal of
the Museum's past; and "A Sense of
Discovery" shows examples of research
conducted by Museum scientists. Hall 3.

Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology.

Copper-plate engravings made for American
Ornithology (1808), a nine-volume work by
the father of American ornithology,
Alexander Wilson. Also shown are proofs
from the plates recently pulled by Richard
A. Davis, Butler University, and George
McCullough, Fort Wayne Art Institute,
alongside examples of first edition prints of

the same engravings in Field Museum's
rare book collection. Through May 31.
South Lounge.

Film Program

Sunday, March 11

"Yosemite: An Ecological Visit," wildlife
film narrated by Eben McMillan, is offered
by the Illinois Audubon Society at 2:30 p.m.
in the James Simpson Theatre.

Ayer Adult Film Lecture Series, 2:30 p.m.

Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

March 3: "Golden Kingdoms of the Orient,"

narrated by John Nicholls Booth.

March 10: "Exotic West Pakistan,"

narrated by Renee Taylor.

March 17: "The New Alaska," narrated
by Leo and Dorothy Eckman.

March 24: "All Around Australia,"

narrated by Edgar T. Jones.

March 31: "Yugoslavia," narrated by

Frank Klicar.

Children's Program

Begins March 1

Spring Journey for Children, Life in the
Tropical Rain Forest," a self-guided tour
encouraging youngsters to learn about the
inhabitants of the little-known Amazonian
region of South America by exploring
Museum exhibit areas. Youngsters are
provided with a questionnaire which routes
them through Museum exhibit areas. All
boys and girls who can read and write
may join in the activity. Journey sheets
are available at Museum entrances.
Through May 31.

Meetings

March 8: 8 p.m., Chicago Mountaineering

Club

March 11:2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club

March 13: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera Club
of Chicago

March 13: 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider
Council

March 14: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society

March 27: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera Club
of Chicago.

Coming in April

Ayer Adult Film Lecture Series, 2:30 p.m.
Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 7: "Michigan Odyssey," narrated by
Edward M. Bingham, Jr.

April 14: "Russia," narrated by Dr. Arthur
C. Twomey.

April 21: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," narrated
by Richard Linde.

April 28: "The Open Arms of Portugal,"

narrated by James Metcalf.

Spring Film Series for Children, 10:30 a.m.
Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 7: Fiesta-Cub Scout Day; "Exciting
Latin America."

April 14: Egypt, pyramids, and mummies;
"Ancient Land of the Pharoahs."

April 28: Museum Traveler Day; annual
presentation of Field Museum Journey
awards and color film.

March Hours

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday thirough Ttiursday
and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Aoril 1973

Education is finding windows to the world;
Field Museum has thousands of them. Cover
photo and design by Clifford Abrams.

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 4
April 1973

2 New Directions for the Education Department

educational programs have always been important at
Field Museum; now they are expanding into new dimensions

14 Capital Campaign

how leadership grants are pushing it toward its goal

15 Field Briefs

16 Members' Nights: The Inside Story

a sneak preview of some of the activities planned for
the annual spring open house, May 3 and 4, 6 to 10 p.m.

Calendar

Managing Editor G.
Fred Huysmans.

Henry Ottery; Editor Elizabetfi Monger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs: Production Russ Becker; Photograpliy John Bayalis,

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions; $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois, f^ostmaster: Please send
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

2 Aorll 1973

New directions for the Education Department

Editor

Robert
Matthai

Ed.

Robert
Matthai

Mr. Matthai, last year the Bulletin devoted
separate issues to the Museum's four scientific
departments. Now we want to focus on the
Education Department. Would you as Chairman
of that department lead off by telling us what
its role is.

Our job is to reach out to the public — children
and adults — and help them learn from the vast
array of scientific information the Museum has
"in stock," so to speak. This means selecting
and organizing information. It also often means
translating what is esoteric and technical into
forms and activities that can be understood —
and enjoyed — by people of different ages and
different interests.

How is the Education Department related to the
others in the Museum — the scientific and
exhibition departments?

They generate the information and help create
background materials for us to work with. We
would have nothing to purvey if there were no
exhibits and no scientific staff. On the other
hand, the fact that the Education Department
has so many special services for students and
adults does help attract public and private
support necessary to pay for scientific research
and new exhibits. The relationship is truly
symbiotic — education, exhibition, and scientific
research are Intertwined in a museum like ours.
Any one part would mean little without the
other two. Our educational programs relate
closely to exhibits; our staff help in the
planning of new exhibits; and the scientific

Education Department staff — Front row: Marie Svoboda, Coordinator,
Raymond Foundation; Marttia Lussentiop, Instructor, Raymond
Foundation; Julie Castrop, Instructor, Raymond Foundation; Priscilla
Byrne, Departmental Secretary. Back row: Ronald Lambert, Preparator,
Harris Extension; Edith Fleming, Instructor, Raymond Foundation;
Nancy Simpson, Research Assistant, Teacher Training; J. L. Williams,
Instructor, Outreach; Alice Games. Coordinator, Outreach/Teacher
Training; Susan Kaye, Assistant to Chairman; Cynthia Mark, Research
Assistant, Outreach/Harris Extension; Robert Matthai, Chairman; Gail
Downey, Secretary, Raymond Foundation; Harriet Smith, Instructor,
Raymond Foundation; James Bland, Instructor, Raymond Foundation/
Outreach; David Pressler, Coordinator, Harris Extension; Carolyn
Blackmon, Coordinator, Outreach/Special Educational Services.
Holding pennant: Mary Talley, Secrela:y, Outreach. Not in picture:
Barbara Young. Secretary, Raymond Foundation, and John Dykstra,
Driver, Harris Extension.

Ed.

Robert
Matthai

Ed.

Robert
Matthai

Ed.

Robert

Matthai

Staff provide the "raw material" for our
programs and help us keep them accurate.

Is museum education different from school
education?

The strong suit of a museum is that it offers
people experience with three-dimensional "real
things," not just two-dimensional representations
of reality. Thus museum education stresses
exposure to objects, both those that are
man-made, called artifacts, and those that are
made by nature, called specimens. These
objects are usually intrinsically interesting to
students because of their high "reality quotient."

Many schools are using innovative teaching
techniques these days. Is museum education
keeping pace?

A major criticism leveled at museum education
is that it often lags behind educational
techniques current in schools. One complaint
is that too many facts are crammed into a brief
visit to a museum. Another is that students'
exploration and curiosity are hampered by
glass-covered cases or rope barriers. Museums,
particularly those of the natural history variety,
also often suffer from a "musty-dusty" image
in many people's minds.

What are you doing about these criticisms?
Can modern educational philosophy fit into an
old and venerable institution?

Yes indeed, educational progress and museum
traditions can be compatible! For example,
even though Field Museum will no doubt
always have glassed-in cases, we have devised
educational activities to be carried out in
classrooms or learning centers, and we are
doing more here in the Museum, and especially
in schools, to satisfy the human need to
explore and manipulate objects. To be sure, it
will always be inappropriate for fragile and
precious objects to be handled by children, or
adults, but there are plenty of sturdy and less
valuable objects that can be made a direct part
of the educational experience. And as new
exhibits are planned, there will be opportunities
to make visitor participation part of the design.

Field Museum Bulletin

Ed.

Robert
Matthai

Making museum teaching techniques more like
methods now used in schools — or on TV, as
represented by Sesame Street, for example — is
a more difficult problem. But having workshops
for our teaching staff, encouraging them to
attend professional conferences, and offering
sabbaticals can close this gap.

Just who are the people the Education
Department serves? You mentioned children
and adults earlier.

Unquestionably the largest group are school-age
children and young people. We serve them
directly at the Museum as well as indirectly at
their schools through their classroom teachers.
Last year, for instance, more than 340,000
student visitors came to the Museum in
organized groups — over 6,700 such groups.
We were able to present a special instructional
teaching program for about 20 percent of them
through the Raymond Foundation division of the
Education Department. Through the Harris
Extension division we circulate small exhibit
cases among almost 450 city schools on a
rotational basis. Just a few months ago we
began an ambitious project which involves
taking a wide range of educational services out
to communities in the Chicago area.

Then there are some special year-long course
programs offered by the Chicago Board of
Education which involve close cooperation and
participation by the Museum. They are held
right here at the Museum. One is the
museology course for gifted high school
students (described in the July/August 1971
Bulletin). Another is an anthropology course for
students of the "Metro High School Without
Walls." And a special art class for talented
public high school students meets here on
Saturdays and uses Museum exhibits and
materials to learn about form and design.

Besides all these student-oriented programs,
there are the film and lecture series for the
general public at the Museum, and we and the
University of Chicago Downtown Center
co-sponsor evening and weekend non-technical
courses. I want to say more about special
programs for adults later when I talk about
plans for the future. But first, the Education
Department staff people who are designing and
carrying out the programs now in progress
want to describe them in some detail.

Ed.

Marie
Svoboda

Ed.

Marie
Svoboda

Ed.

Marie
Svoboda

Marie Svoboda

Programs tor school groups

Let's start with the section of the department
that presently serves the largest number of
young people, through the programs for school
groups. That's your division. Miss Svoboda.
These programs have been operating for a long
time haven't they? I remember special bus trips
to Field Museum from my own elementary
school days in the Chicago area.

The Museum began offering tours and
workshops to the school children of Chicago
in 1925, thanks to a gift from Mrs. Anna Louise
Raymond. Since then the Raymond Foundation
has subsidized the instruction of just under
six million children.

Bob Matthai said that your staff offered
instructional programs to about 20 percent of
the some 6,700 organized groups of young
people who came to the Museum last year. That's
more than 1,300 groups. Who does all this?

Our regular staff are three full-time and two
half-time instructors. They all have a master's
degree in some area of natural history and are
qualified to teach in other areas as well. But we
also have 29 part-time specially trained
volunteer instructors who help conduct tours for
school groups. All these people have in
common a talent for communicating effectively
and spontaneously with children.

Would you describe these instructional
programs?

We offer three kinds — Museum tours, study-unit
programs, and workshops. You could think of
them as increasingly intense exposure to the
particular theme or topic each one is organized
around. And of course the topics themselves as
well as the teachers' presentations are offered
at levels appropriate to the age of the group.
Some of the most popular topics are "Indians
of North America," "Dinosaurs," "Ancient
Egypt," and "Animals Around the World." New
programs are added whenever appropriate and
where Museum exhibits and collections can be
used to advantage. Some new topics added
this year are "Endangered and Vanishing

April 1973

Animals," "Ecology," "Monkeys and Apes,"
"Cultural Anthropology," and "Microscopic Life.

Ed.

How is this instruction handled?

Marie
Svoboda

The tone is always informal in order to
encourage the children to participate. Our
instructors use thought-provoking questions to
focus attention and interest, and that leads into
using exhibits and individual specimens and
artifacts to illustrate key concepts. The children
are always eager to handle the real objects
that are used in study-unit programs and
workshops especially. They are then usually full
of spontaneous questions, and that develops
into the kind of interaction that shows the
experience has taken on meaning for them.

Marie
Svoboda

Ed.

We are always pleased to get these letters, and
we keep every one. Countless teachers have
commented to us on the effectiveness of this
style of teaching. They show their appreciation
also by returning year after year with new
classes.

Another program that your division originated
is the self-guiding Journey for Children, isn't
it? How does it work?

Ed. I have seen many folders of appreciative letters

in your office from both the students and their
teachers. They certainly testify to what you've
just said.

Marie
Svoboda

Ed.

Marie
Svoboda

Ed.

Marie
Svoboda

Top: Students in a workshop led by Edith Fleming try their hand at
reproducing African rhythms on African instruments. Bottom: Students
in the special summer anthropology program learn about archaeological
field work by doing it at a site near Chicago. Photos by Ed Jarecfci.

Every three months a new Journey tour is
written around a theme — such as "Archaeology
in the Midwest" or "Dog Meets Man" — and
printed on single sheets which are available at
the Museum entrances. Questions devised to
stimulate the children's observation guide them
to various exhibits to find the answers so they
can write them on the sheet, which they turn in
when they finish the tour — at their own pace.
Every spring we have a Museum Travelers' Day
and present awards to the boys and girls who
have accurately completed all four Journeys
during the year.

What is the Museum's special summer
anthropology program that so many high school
juniors apply for every year?

This is an intensive, formally structured
program six weeks long, five days a week,
which introduces highly motivated and talented
students to the various aspects of anthropology.
The group hears lectures by outstanding
authorities in different fields of anthropology.
It has seminars and workshops, which involve
direct use and study of Museum collections.
Participants report on an investigation of their
own communities. And they spend a short but
intensive period doing archaeological field work
at a nearby site and make formal reports on
their findings. Harriet Smith and Edith Fleming
organized the program eight years ago, and
we have been able to offer it every summer
since thanks to renewed grants from the
National Science Foundation.

Students usually apply for admission to this
program through their schools, don't they?

They may, or they can get application forms
directly from the Museum. The application
period, which closes in March, is announced
every year in the Bulletin and in newspapers
as well as through schools.

Field fkiuseum Bulletin

Ed.

David
Pressler

Ed.

David
Pressler

Extension Service to Schools

Mr. Pressler, as coordinator of the Education
Department's extension service, would you
describe the program and perhaps some of its
background?

Our basic purpose is to offer school children
and teachers of Chicago materials and
experiences that are not ordinarily encountered
in the classroom. In essence, we extend Field
Museum into the classroom by sending
materials and Information from our own Harris
collection.

Harris Extension was created by Norman Wait
Harris in 1911 through a foundation for this
purpose. In 1912 a committee composed of
school principals, members of the Chicago
Board of Education, and representatives from
the four scientific departments at Field Museum
recommended a unique format which would
permit the safe circulation of materials from
school to school. These are the familiar
mahogany and glass exhibit cases with pull-out
information plaques. The first of these cases,
depicting a variety of animals in simulated
natural environments, were circulated to 50
schools in 1914. Today a different exhibit is
delivered to nearly 450 schools every 20 days,
at no cost to the schools. In other words, we
currently deliver approximately 7,600 exhibits
during the school year.

In addition to these traditional exhibits, we
have some exciting new ideas for changing the
format of our materials to encourage children
to interact more directly with objects.

I had noticed that you were assembling an
interesting array of African artifacts in the
anthropology conservation room.

Yes, those materials are being selected to give
us specific information about artifacts we hope
to purchase from Africa for inclusion in our
new "kits." These will be self-contained
educational exhibit packages which will present
several topics that we believe will be both
interesting to children and useful to teachers.
The presentation will include artifacts,
specimens, and photographs — and possibly
filmstrips and cassette recordings. Each kit will
include concise background information which
will enable the teacher to make maximum use

Ed.

David
Pressler

Ed.

David
Pressler

of the kit, even if he or she is unfamiliar with
the subject.

This sounds like a more complete form of the
so-called multi-media approach that has gained
popularity in the last few years.

The similarity, of course, would be the use of
filmstrips. However, I believe our kits will be
much more dynamic and comprehensive
because they will motivate students to interact
directly with the materials. These materials will
be selected for high visual and tactile appeal.
We also expect to encourage participation
through class discussion and specific activities
designed to promote personal discovery and
creative expression. We want children to learn
about ttiemselves in relation to the subject
matter as well about the subject matter itself.

What are some of the topics that these kits will
be concerned with?

The kits already being developed will stimulate
exploration of a variety of African arts from an
esthetic as well as anthropological point of
view. These will be separate kits on African
sculpture, textiles, musical instruments, jewelry,
leatherwork, basketry, and architecture. They
will stress, for instance, the concept that
African art, besides having great beauty, is
often highly functional and tied to people's
everyday needs as well as their cultural
heritage. They will also demonstrate the
concept that environmental conditions affect
the choice of materials used by the many

David Pressler and Cynthia Mark (center) consult Maude Wahlman
about authentic African specimens that could be photographed (or new
educational "kits" being designed (or circulation to schools. Photo by
Herta Newton.

April 1973

Ed.

David
Pressler

Ed.

Robert
Matthai

different peoples who live on the African
continent. Though these concepts are
developed from the African context, they
obviously have much broader application.
We will suggest that students and teachers
compare objects from different cultures,
including our own, in order to develop a
greater appreciation for the many ways of
doing similar things.

What other exhibits are you planning in this
new way?

A kit based on the Scanning Electron
Microscope exhibit is one — to introduce
children to the exciting microscopic world.
Through observation, discussion, and activities,
we plan to strengthen children's awareness of
and sensitivity to their environment. This kit
will include high magnification photographs and
activities using various magnification equipment
to create a structured but a spontaneous series
of personal experiences. Other kits will be
about man in his environment, based on the
major Museum exhibit now being planned;
color in nature; masks, exploring the use of
masks from cultures all over the world,
including our own Halloween masks; stone
tools, with actual stone implements compared
with hand tools today. We may also design
several different kits about ethnic America,
each representing aspects of the cultural
heritage of ethnic groups in the Chicago area.

Board of Education Courses

Mr. Matthai, you mentioned some Board of
Education courses that involve the Museum.
How do they work?

One is an anthropology course offered by the
Metro High School Without Walls. Metro is an
exciting and innovative idea that took shape in
Chicago in 1970. Its purpose is to utilize
community cultural and business resources for
a kind of alternative education — alternative, that
is, to the traditional high school classroom
education. It is an option that any Chicago high
school student may apply for — and they do
apply from all over the city. The course that
uses Field Museum as its community resource
is called Origins of Humanness. The name
comes from the core materials used, which are
a book of readings plus "evidence materials"
developed by the recently completed
Anthropology Curriculum Study Project that was
sponsored by the American Anthropological
Association. In fact, the director of that project
was Dr. Malcolm Collier, wife of Dr. Donald
Collier, Curator of Anthropology at the Museum.

The Metro teacher for the course is Steve
Everett. This year's class of 15 students come
together every Friday afternoon at the Museum
for discussion, to see films and study exhibits
related to the course, and to learn directly from
Museum curators and preparators.

As for the Museology course, Sue Maxwell,
from the Chicago Board of Education Programs
for Gifted Children, is now teaching it for the
third year. Usually about 12 to 16 students are
enrolled. They become acquainted with all
aspects of the Museum — the research,
collections, educational facilities, and exhibition
techniques — and each student works in one-to-
one relationships with members of the staff.
Maybe the best kind of testimonial for such a
course would be the students' evaluations, like
this one, for instance: "Museology gave me the
experience of learning for learning's sake, not
learning only to pass an exam. It also provided
me with a taste of learning by experience, not
simply taking someone's word for it that this is
the way it is. There should be more programs
of this type open to all students."

Museology students Susan Grobstein, Sullivan High School, and
Sydney Ross, Lindblom High School, working on scientific illustration
of a vi/olf's jaw, get help from Samuel Grove, senior illustrator in
Exhibition Department. Photo by Herta Newton.

Field Museum Bulletin

Ed.

Alice
Carnes

creative ways and learn what they are doing.
This is the idea behind a research project
currently funded by the National Science
Foundation. Barbara Reque at the Howland
School here in Chicago is one teacher we are
learning from. She is curriculum assistant there
for Project Follow-Through, a federal program
to improve the education of inner-city children.
We are making a case study of a project she
is working on cooperatively with two
kindergarten teachers and their classes. They
planned a visit to Field Museum to examine a
series of human habitats, including the King's
House from the Cameroons and the Hopi
apartment. The teachers hope the children will
learn something about how materials at hand
influence the lives of people — the houses they
build, the food they eat. Some of the things
they did in the classroom before the visit were
grinding corn into meal with stone tools and
baking cornbread with it and constructing
houses with materials like sticks and straw and
stones. Then they toured the exhibits — in
groups of just five or six children with an adult
who asked them questions and encouraged
them to record their impressions in on-the-spot
drawings. Back in the classroom the children
constructed model houses and tools with
"modern" materials like metal and cardboard.

What should other teachers who want

to get involved with your workshops or case

studies do?

Just write or call me at the Museum. And let
me emphasize again that we want to learn as
well as teach.

Ed.

Carolyn
Blackmon

Ed.

Carolyn
Blackmon

Barbara Reque, curriculum assistant for Project Follow-Through at
Howland School, works with children on learning projects that prepare
them for a visit to Field l^useum to examine human habitats. Photo
by Herta Newton.

Carolyn Blackmon

Special Educational Services

Mrs. Blackmon, you described our expanded
volunteer recruitment and training program in
the January Bulletin. Would you tell us now
about the other special services you are
working on?

Before I do I'd like to get another plug in for
the volunteer program, because there was such
gratifying response to that article from
prospective new volunteers. For those who are
interested in volunteer teaching for school
groups, a 12-week training program will be
given this fall. There are still many opportunities
available in all departments. We especially
need volunteers with specialized skills, such as
translating, woodworking, and cataloging
specimens. Master craftsmen such as weavers
and potters and carvers are needed to give
demonstrations for the public. These
demonstrations will be part of new programs
we are developing for Museum visitors to show
how materials in our exhibits were made. We
also have plans for mini-festivals that will
present crafts, music, and dances of various
cultures and ethnic groups. And more weekend
film programs that relate to permanent as well
as special exhibits and programs are being
planned.

What's the new format for the Ayer film-lecture
series that Bob Matthai mentioned? Customarily
there have been a spring and a fall series
every year. In fact, 1972 was the 50th year of
continuous programming for the Ayer series.

For the 1973-74 season there will be the usual
October-November and March-April programs
(depending on the availability of the James
Simpson Theatre because of possible
rehabilitation work in spring 1974). Some
programs will be given both Friday evening and
Saturday afternoon, and additional programs

April 1973

Ed.

will be presented during the winter.
Distinguished speakers will lecture on natural
history topics. This new format will allow
greater variety of programs and also opportunity
for more people to take advantage of them.

Carolyn, since your plug for recruiting
volunteers was so productive in January, let's
note your fvluseum phone number this time —
922-9410, extension 361.

Ed.

James
Bland

^*>^=

r-^^7^^--esLmam^^^i^^

James Bland and some of the materials he uses in his environmental
workshop. Anthropologists and archaeologists frequently use the
garbage left by particular cultures to reconstruct what that culture was
like. In this case, some garbage of a modern culture is compared
with that of a Neanderthal site to demonstrate modern man's
enormously greater demands on his environment.
Photo by George Olson.

Ed.

Workshops for City Children

Mr. Bland, would you tell us about the
environmental workshop you have developed?

This particular workshop, designed for students
from the sixth grade through high school, is
thematically related to the major new "Man In
His Environment" exhibit and program that the
Museum is working on. Actually, "Man in His
Environment" is being called a "program"
because so much more than an exhibit will be
involved. The purpose of the workshop is to
acquaint students with the complexity of
ecological problems and get them iriterested
and involved in solving the problems. I start off
by showing what an ecosystem is. Then we
examine Neanderthal stone tools to discover
what they can tell us about Neanderthal man's
adaptation to the environment. Next we
examine a selected sample of modern garbage,
which leads us into considering our own
impact on the environment — and its reciprocal
effect on us. We learn about lung capacity and
other anatomical details as they are affected by
various pollutants. I'll be offering this workshop
at schools and community centers as well as
at the Museum. I find that kids who live in the
inner city come up with some provocative
thoughts about their own environments when
we try to define the dimensions of the problem
for city-dwellers. Questions like "What exactly
is the urban environment?" "Does it include
poverty as well as air pollution?" "Should an
environmental 'casualty count' include the
number of people killed by handguns as well
as the deleterious effects of carbon monoxide
in the air?"

You've been talking about your pilot workshop.
Are there other environmental education
programs planned?

James
Bland

I have presented a workshop for teachers in
conjunction with the Chicago Board of
Education, and for this summer a workshop on
ecology is being planned jointly with the Shedd
Aquarium. Julie Castrop and Martha Lussenhop
and I are working on this together. Something
I would especially like to do is organize a
program to teach urban school children how to
monitor air and water pollution in their own
communities.

Field Museum Bulletin

J. L. Williams

Ed.

J. L.

Williams

Ed.

Ms. Williams, you are working on very different
workshops for city cfiildren — built around
Nigerian games and songs and dance. Would
you describe what you do?

I start with a story about the well known
African folk tale character Anansi the Spider,
who thinks he knows it all. The children mime
the actions of the characters in the story as I
read, using things I have brought along, like
authentic African hats, rooster feathers,
sheepskins, horsehair fly whips, and woven
fabrics. Almost all kids love to act out stories,
especially with real props. Then I teach them a
game and a song from each of three Nigerian
tribes — Yoruba, Hausa, and Ibo — and also the
contemporary dance called the High-Life, which
is so popular in urban Africa. Playing games,
singing, and dancing are things children
especially respond to.

How do you learn these games and songs and
dances?

J. L.
Williams

Ed.

J. L.
Williams

From interviews with Africans living in the
Chicago area. I'm workmg on a Zulu program
now for the grade schools. I would like to offer
an eight-week summer workshop of African
dances and songs for high school students at
the Museum.

Your own special talent as a dancer is
certainly an apt background for these
programs. Dancing has always been your
avocation, hasn't it?

I started to dance in college. Five years ago I
joined the Julian Swain Inner City Dance
Troupe. We perform Afro, modern, and Afro-
Cuban dances at schools, jails, clubs, and
concerts around the city. I have also studied
Flamenco and East Indian dance, Tai-Chi-
Chuan, and Yoga. And I'm presently teaching
Arabian dance at Central YMCA Community
College (under my professional name, Djalal).
I have always been fascinated by the ways
different cultures emphasize different parts of
the body, different movements, and different
rhythms.

Children at Louis Wirlh School in Chicago
became so excited about Ms. Williams'
workshop that they put on an African festival
for parents and friends. Photo by Ed Jarecki.

12 April 1973

Ed. Mr. Matthai, these descriptions of the

beginnings of the Education Department's
workshops for city children sound exciting —
especially because they are designed to go out
to the youngsters as well as bring them into
the Museum. Could you just mention some of
the others that are still in the planning stage?

Robert
Matthai

Two other workshops we plan to develop will
focus on American Indians and Latin cultures.
For the latter, we'll have presentations in both
English and Spanish. And I'd like to say more
about other future plans and prospects for the
whole department now.

Ed. What has already been said clearly shows that

the Education Department has entered a period
of dynamic growth and development. The floor
is yours now to give us a glimpse of what else
might be happening in the next few years.

Roben Matthai

Robert
Matthai

Future Prospects

The $1 million grant from the Kresge
Foundation will provide a consolidated physical
facility with adequate and contiguous office
space and a fine variety of classrooms,
laboratories, and other areas where educational
innovations can be carried out.

Meanwhile, the next two or three years will see
expansion and refinement of the programs that
have been described here plus development
of some others that I'd like to list.

One is a "sense gallery" where sighted and
non-sighted people can explore the worlds of
natural history through sound and touch.

Another is a series of radio and TV programs
on natural history topics — perhaps on the

Sesame Street model — directed particularly
toward young children.

A third is a series of evening courses for
adults, on such subjects as anthropology,
nature photography, natural science, and the
arts and crafts of various cultures.

We are also going to design a research project
to discover how people learn from various
types of exhibits.

We have even more new educational programs
in store, but my great enthusiasm must be
tempered by a dose of reality. The Kresge
grant will take care of the necessary new and
expanded physical facilities that these
programs must have, but the costs of
developing and establishing the programs are
something else. Most of my new staff and our
new educational programs are currently
supported by grant money that must be
renewed each year. And all of the future
programs I've just mentioned will require new
funds as well. I'm optimistic that the money
can be found because I have such confidence
in the quality of our educational ideas and the
resources of knowledge and expertise in the
Museum's scientific and exhibition departments.

The creative interrelationship of these three
parts of the Museum is, after all, what the
Museum is all about. The products of our
combined efforts are what attract public interest
and public support.

Field Museum Bulletin

Members' Nights

May 3 and 4, 1973
6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Annual spring open house featuring
Field Museum: The Inside Story

Just as surely as May and balmy weather roll around
each spring, so do Field Museum's Members' Nights.

A once-a-year occasion, this is an opportunity to go
behind the scenes and meet members of the
scientific, education, and exhibition departments and
become acquainted with their work.

Focusing on the whole wide scope of Field Museum,
this year's program also includes many special
events, films and slides, entertainment, and a preview
of a new temporary exhibit, "The Seventeen-Year
Cicada: A Strategy for Survival."

Here are just a few of the things you can do:

Learn about Nature's plant dispersal methods.

Participate in an educational contest, "Spot the
Fake," designed to help develop a critical eye in
authenticating an artifact.

Tour the Department of Exhibition and see the extent
and variety of artistic skills and processes utilized
to prepare exhibits and graphic projects at
the Museum.

Appreciate "We ShEII Overcome" (hundreds and
thousands and millions of specimens!)

View "Glimpses of an Unknown World," a slide
presentation, and hear the story behind "Below Man's
Vision," a photographic exhibit exploring minute
details in familiar plants and animals and common
objects.

See "The Web of Life in a Gallon Jar — How to
Construct a Balanced Terrarium or Aquarium."

Explore plate tectonics, a revolutionary geological
theory explaining drifting continents, earthquakes,
volcanoes, and the formation of mountains and
minerals through a display and film.

Among the activities
the Department ot
Education is
planning is a self-
guiding tour for
youngsters, which will
include a surprise at
the finish line.

Roberta Carnagio.

Jane Lamlein, and

Alfreida Rehling,

Department of Botany,

working on their

project, "The Garden

of Eatin'," which

will show the large

variety of attractive

and useful plants that

can be grown from

kitchen cast-offs.

Keith Carson,

tanner. Department

of Zoology, will

demonstrate the

preparation of large

mammal skins.

April 1973

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Opens April 11

Adaptations of Amphibians and Reptiles,

an exhibit of pliotograplis portraying the
natural beauty and esthetic qualities ot
these animals, as well as illustrating some
of their often remarkable and unique
adaptations which help them survive. They
were taken by Dr. Nathan W. Cohen,
Chairman, Department of Continuing
Education in Sciences and l^athematics.
University of California, Berkeley. Through
September 30. Hall 27.

Continuing

Below Man's Vision: Electronic Windows
to Unseen Worlds, an exhibit exploring the
world of details in common objects and
familiar plants and animals, and offering
glimpses into current research activities.
Nearly 300 photographs, displayed at up to
200,000 times life-size, introduce a
previously unseen world. Through July 15.
Hall 18.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological,
and cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense
of History" presents a graphic portrayal of
the Museum's past; and "A Sense of
Discovery" shows examples of research
conducted by l^useum scientists. Hall 3.

Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology.

Copper-plate engravings made for American
Ornithology (1808), a nine-volume work by
the father of American ornithology,
Alexander Wilson. Also shown are proofs

from the plates recently pulled by Richard
A. Davis, Butler University, and George
McCullough, Fort Wayne Art Institute,
alongside examples of first-edition prints of
the same engravings in Field l^useum's
rare book collection. Through l^ay 31.
South Lounge.

Film Program

Saturdays

Ayer Adult Film Lecture Series at 2:30

p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 7: "Michigan Odyssey," narrated by
Edward IVl. Bingham, Jr.

April 14: "Russia," narrated by Dr. Arthur
C. Twomey.

April 21: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," narrated
by Richard Linde.

April 28: "The Open Arms of Portugal,"

narrated by James Metcalf.

Saturdays and Sundays

"Patterns for Survival" (A Study of
Mimicry), motion picture presentation at
1 p.m. and 3 p.m. in the second floor
North Meeting Room

Children's Programs

Continuing

Spring Journey for Children, "Life in the
Tropical Rain Forest," a self-guided tour,
encourages youngsters to learn about the
inhabitants of the little-known Amazonian
region by exploring Museum exhibit areas.
Journey sheets are available at entrances.
Through May 31.

Spring Film Series for Children at 1 030

a.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 7: Fiesta-Cub Scout Day; "Exciting
Latin America."

April 14: Egypt, Pyramids and Mummies:
"Ancient Land of the Pharoahs."

April 28: Museum Traveler Day; annual
presentation of Field Museum Journey
awards and color film.

Coming in May

Opens May 5

Seventeen-Year Cicada: A Strategy for

Survival, a multi-media exhibit describing
and interpreting the adaptive significance
of the unusual life cycle of these strange
insects. Millions of cicadas (locusts) are
scheduled to make their noisy appearance
above ground in the Chicago area in late
May or early June of this year. Through
July 29. Hall 9.

Meetings

April 8: 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club

April 10: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera Club of
Chicago

April 10: 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider
Council

April 11:7 p.m., Chicago Ornithological
Society

April 11: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society

April 12: 8 p.m., Chicago Mountaineering

Club

April 20: 7:30 p.m., Chicago
Anthropological Society

April 24: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera Club of
Chicago

April Hours

Saturday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.;
Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Museum Library Is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

olume 44, Number 5
lay 1973

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

^>-i

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 5
May 1973

Cover: An adult 17-year cicada. Photo and
design by Clifford Abrams.

2 It's the Year of the Cicada — in These Parts

Henry Dybas

our local 17-year periodical cicadas are due

to do their thing this spring

9 Animals, Earthquakes, and Eruptions

Caroline J. Anderson

according to folklore — and some documentation — ■
animals have early warning perceptions of
impending geologic disasters

12 A Showcase of Adaptations in Amphibians and Reptiles

Joyce Marshall Brukoff

some choice facts and photos from a new temporary exhibit

16 Field Briefs
Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Managing Editor G. Henry Ottery; Editor Elizabetti Munger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs: Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions; $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form 3579 to Field Museum of
Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. ISSN: 0015-0703.

Field Museum Bulletin

It's the year of the cicada

Henry Dybas

One warm night in lafe May or early
June ttie cicada nymphs of Brood XIII
will emerge from the ground in
enormous numbers to enjoy a few
short weeks of adulthood as they mate
and produce offspring they will not
live to see hatch. A cicada emergence
is a busy, noisy affair that attracts a
great deal of popular attention and
interest.

Brood XIII is the name by whidh
entomologists identify our local
northern Illinois population of 17-year
cicadas, thereby distinguishing it from
other populations of periodical cicadas
in the United States. Periodical
cicadas are found only in the
deciduous forest areas of the eastern

third of the country and their
extensions into the plains states.
Though all 17-year cicadas have the
same long lifespan from egg to adult,
different populations are on different
calendar-year schedules. In northern
Illinois, including the Chicago region,
there is only one population, or brood,
of periodical cicadas. We saw the
previous generation of them in 1956.

Periodical cicadas should not be
confused with the annual "dog day"
cicadas (also called harvest flies),
which produce their own characteristic
buzz-saw sound in the tree tops on
hot summer days. These are
predominantly black and green and
do not have the red eyes and orange

wings of the periodical cicadas. They
are annual in the sense that some
individuals appear every year but
require a number of years, presently
unknown, to develop underground.

It is easy to predict the year of
emergence of 17-year cicadas in any
one place because each brood has
remained precisely on its own particular
17-year schedule as far back as the
records go. Thomas Jefferson
mentioned the appearance of the
Virginia brood of 17-year cicadas in
1775 in his account book for that year
and recalled their earlier emergence
in 1758, also referring to previous
emergences in 1741 and 1724 on the
testimony of a Dr. Walker; "it appears

Author went into the field last winter to dig up
cicada nymphs and study their preparations
for emergence this spring.

Sliced-open view of a nymph escape tunnel capped by a turret.

May 1973

in these parts

then that they come periodically once
in 17 years," he concluded. Nearly
two centuries later, Professor Monte
Lloyd of the University of Chicago and
I planned field studies of this same
brood of cicadas in Virginia for 1962
with absolute confidence that it would
still be right on schedule — and of
course it was.

The distinctively colored adult 17-year
cicadas are large as insects go —
about IVz inches long. They begin
as eggs which the adult female lays
in slits that she cuts in twigs of trees
and bushes with a blade-like organ
called ovipositor. There may be as
many as 15 to 20 eggs deposited in
one slit, and the female continues to

lay throughout her short-lived maturity.
The eggs hatch in about seven weeks,
and the tiny white nymphs crawl out
of the slit and drop off to the ground.
Each nymph is only about 1/12-inch
long at this stage.

Once on the ground the nymph works
its way into the soil and attaches its
beak to a tree rootlet to sustain itself
by sucking the sap as it grows slowly
in its solitary underground cell for the
next 17 years. If the root dies, the
nymph must make its way to another
site. It does this by scraping soil with
its powerful front legs from one side
of the cell and plastering it on the
other side. Thus the nymph
perambulates its intact cell as a

mobile home until it encounters
another root.

Late in its 16th year the nymph begins
to construct a vertical escape tunnel
which by early spring of the 17th year
has reached the ground surface.
Sometimes the tunnel is capped by a
turret one to three inches high. In any
case, the tunnel remains closed until
some warm night in May or early
June, and then the nymph crawls
out of the ground about dusk along
with thousands of others.

Each brown nymph climbs up a
nearby tree trunk or other plant stem,
leaving a smooth round exit hole in
the ground about y2-inch in diameter.

Nymph emerging from the ground

"■*• — -J

~*u:

,)k^

'Ji^^ \^

/-^,

The cicada escape holes shown here represent a moderately dense emergence.

Field Museum Bulletin

The cicada nymph begins its transformation by fixing its claws
firmly in the plant tissue.

Its skin splits down the middle of the back and a soft white adult with red eyes
begins to emerge.

The nymph fixes the claws of its legs
firmly into the plant tissue, its skin
splits down the middle of its back,
and a soft white adult with red eyes
begins to emerge. It pulls its head
and legs out of the nymph skin first,
then the abdomen. Meanwhile, blood
pressure pumps up its crumpled wing
pads until they are fully expanded.
This entire process of ecloslon, as
entomologists call it, takes place in
about 30 to 90 minutes. It is one of
nature's commonplace miracles. The
body gradually colors and hardens,
and in the morning the newly matured
adult seeks a sunny spot on a leaf
to bask until its body is warm, and
then it flies up into the tree tops.

A few days later the males begin to
form large singing choruses. Females
are attracted to these choruses and
mating and egg-laying follow. Adults
live only about three weeks even if
birds and other enemies don't get
them, so by late June or early July
they have disappeared almost as
quickly as they appeared. Only exit
holes, empty nymph skins, and
browning twigs from egg-slit damage
remain as evidence of the emergence.

The fact that adult cicadas are
commonly called "locusts" invites
confusion with the true locusts, or
grasshoppers, which chew green
leaves. Cicadas do not. Cicadas feed
by inserting their beaks into thin bark
on tree trunks and sucking the sap,
which causes no detectable harm to
the plants.

The damage attributed to cicadas
comes from the egg-laying activities
of the females. If a lot of slits are
made in a twig, the twig may die.
Thus an oak-hickory forest which
hosts a dense emergence of cicadas
may acquire a scorched appearance,
but this kind of natural pruning does
not seem to harm larger trees.

Some twigs may die as a result of egg-slit damage but this kind of natural pruning does not seem
to harm larger trees.

May 1973

It pulls its head and legs out of the nymph skin first.

The cicada then reaches forward, grasps the nymph skin by its
legs, and pulls the rest of its body out of the skin.

However, newly planted tree saplings
or small shrubs can be severely
damaged if there is a dense cicada
emergence nearby. Plantings can be
protected by covering them with
netting to keep out egg-laying female
cicadas. Cicadas are also responsible
for a problem called "orchard decline."
In some heavily sprayed apple
orchards there are so many cicada
nymphs sucking sap from the roots
underground that the trees do not
produce much fruit and they put on
little new growth.

The numbers of cicadas in
an emergence can be astonishing.
After an emergence is completely
over, the numbers can be quite
accurately estimated by counting the
characteristic smooth, round exit holes
of the nymphs in a unit area and
applying proper statistical procedures.
The walls of the holes are tightly
compacted and remain intact for
months unless obscured at the surface
by mole activity or some other
disturbance.

Professor Lloyd and I have made
censuses of a number of different

areas and broods in this way over the
years. The record density was in a
floodplain forest near Chicago in the
1956 emergence of our local brood.
At peak chorusing in mid-afternoon
the sound was so intense that two
persons face to face in this woods
could not hear each other talk. We
found an average of 311 holes per
square yard, or about 1,500,000 per
acre in this habitat. (For purposes of
visualization, there are about SVb
acres in an average city block in
Chicago. However, cicadas do not
emerge in the city proper to any
extent. One must go out to the
suburbs or forest preserves to find
them.)

The weight (biomass) of this density
of cicadas was calculated at about a
ton per acre, which appears to be the
highest recorded per unit of habitat
for a terrestrial animal under natural
conditions. Herds of African game
animals temporarily achieve greater
biomass per unit area, but of course
they need much larger areas to
support them over a full year. Indeed,
the weight of cicada protoplasm
produced in that floodplain compares

Blood pressure pumps up the wings of the new
adult until they are fully expanded.

Field Museum Bulletin

ABOVE-GROUND PREDATORS

Adults mate- lay eggs-die

Eggs hotch-

tiny nymphs enter ground

Temporary build-up of

"**••. above-ground predotors

NYMPHS

UNDER«ROUNO PREDATORS

*CA. 2-MONTM pehk

ct*5^''

^-"■i

17 YEARS

Above; In a forest opening, a screen cage is
being constructed around living trees for
an experiment involving cross-mating of 17-
and 13-year cicadas. Leit: Diagram of
predator-prey relationships ttiroughout life
cycle of 17-year cicadas; linear distances are
not in proportion to time spans represented.

May 1973

favorably with the best annual yield
in weight of beef cattle that man can
produce on carefully managed
pastures.

In the adjacent upland forest, the
density of cicadas was about 27 per
square yard, or about 133,000 per
acre. These numbers are more like
those usually encountered in a cicada
emergence. They are much less than
in the floodplain but still represent an
enormous population for insects of
this size.

During a periodical cicada emergence
all kinds of predators turn from their
normal sources of food to cicadas.
Crows, grackles, skunks, raccoons,
copperhead snakes, caterpillar-searcher
beetles, and a host of other animals
appreciate and feast on them. One
night when I was working on cicadas
in the woods I noticed my dog gorging
himself on emerging nymphs to the
point where I became concerned for
him. It was impossible to make him
stop eating, and I finally had to lock
him up in the car. Cicadas are
reported to have been eaten by
Indians also. Those of us who have
tried them describe the taste as
something like that of a raw potato
with a touch of avocado or clam juice.

Even though periodical cicadas are so
palatable and easy to capture, their
appearance is so sudden and in such
great numbers that the birds and other
predators can eat only a part of the
population before the rest have
reproduced and died a natural death.
Even after flocks of grackles scour the
woods at the end of an emergence,
there always are left on the ground a
lot of spent, intact bodies of cicadas
that have lived out their full natural life.

All this suggests that the 17-year
cicadas have evolved a very successful
strategy for foiling their predators and
perpetuating their species — by the
combination of their overwhelming
numbers and their extraordinarily long
life cycle. Seventeen years represent the
longest life cycle by far of any insects.

Cicadas spend about 99 percent of
this 17 years in a highly protected
environment underground, and then
when they emerge their numbers
swamp the consumption capacity of
the predators.

This pattern is quite unlike that of any
other insect species, especially the
many which have specialized enemies
whose life cycles are synchronized
with those of their prey. We do not
know of a single predator that is
synchronized with periodical cicadas,
probably because none has been able
to evolve a 17-year life cycle.

One can speculate that periodical
cicadas did have synchronized
predators in their early history, before
the cicadas evolved their present long
life cycle. If so, those cicadas that
possessed the ability to delay
emergence — by one year, say — would
emerge above ground after their
predators had come and gone, and
thus they would be favored by natural
selection — at least until the predators
caught up. This could have initiated
a contest as to which had the
physiological ability to extend
dormancy the longest — an evolutionary
race that the cicadas won and the
predators lost, with consequent
extinction of the latter. This speculation
may be too neat, and the hypothetical
predators too conveniently disposed
of, but it is hard to imagine any other
plausible reason for the evolution of
such an improbably long life cycle.

Incidentally, the precise timing of
emergence at the end of 17 years is
not due to a uniform growth rate of
the nympths. We have dug up nymphs
at intervals and found that by the
5th or 6th year some may be as much
as eight times bigger than others.
Most nymphs reach their full growth
the 12th year and mark time till the
17th year, which in effect allows the
laggards time to catch up. The
synchronized emergence, therefore,
is very probably due to some
physiological mechanism which
"counts" 17 years (perhaps 17 winter

periods when no sap circulates in
the roots).

Whatever the timing mechanism is, it
is unusually precise, but it is not
infallible. Almost every year there are
some stragglers, though these
constitute a trivial fraction of the main
population. But in 1969 there was an
extensive premature emergence, four
years too soon, of periodical cicadas
scheduled to emerge in 1973 in the
Chicago region. Nothing of this
magnitude had ever been reported
before in the writings on these insects.
There are 13-year periodical cicadas
in the southern states that are the
same as the 17-year cicadas (as far
as anyone can tell by looking at them
or listening to them) except for the
length of the life cycle. (No 14-year,
15-year, or 16-year cycles have ever
been reported.)

Lloyd and I had earlier postulated, on
theoretical grounds, that 17-year
cicadas evolved from 13-year cicadas
(or vice versa) by a quantum jump of
four years somewhere back in the
evolutionary history of the group.
However, we never expected to have
a ringside seat to observe a repeat
performance of such an evolutionary
event.

Three facts may explain this event.
One is that 13-year cicadas live in
warmer climates than their 17-year
relatives. Another is that all the
premature cicadas reported in 1969
came from a ring of suburbs around
the city of Chicago. The third is the
well-known fact that large metropolitan
areas form "heat islands" with a
climate appreciably warmer than the
surrounding countryside. Could we
have observed a natural "experiment"
by which 17-year cicadas, having been
in effect "transplanted" to a warmer
climate, thus became 13-year cicadas?
We made sample census counts of
the premature cicadas on certain plots
in 1969 and have kept these plots
under observation since then for signs
of stragglers. Therefore, when the
1973 emergence is over and

Field Museum Bulletin

Colored plastic spoons are useful in a cicada field study to show density and spacing of emergence
holes in the forest floor.

censused, we shall have a good idea
as to what percentage of the
underground population was involved
in the "mistal<e."

We will also repeat our censuses of
the upland and floodplain sites we
studied 17 years ago. No one has
ever censused periodical cicadas
through two successive generations
before. We expect to learn more about
the differences between the three
distinct species that are now
recognized. Two will be very abundant
in the Chicago area this year.

All three species not only have the
same long 17-year life cycle, they
mostly inhabit the same region and, in
a given locality, come out of the
ground together the same 17th year.
The three are similar in appearance,
but each has distinctive markings,
each prefers a different kind of habitat,
and the songs of the males are very
distinct. Once one is attuned to the
song differences, it is possible to go
into a woods and identify the species
present just by listening. The "upland
cicada," Maglcicada septendecim, is
the largest species — about 1 V2 inches

long from head to tip of closed wings
— and has a reddish stripe between
the eye and base of wing and yellow
cross-banding on its belly. It prefers
upland oak-hickory forests like those
in the Cook County Forest Preserves
around Chicago. The "lowland
cicada," Magicicada cassini, about
1 'A inches long, has no stripe and its
belly is either dark or has only traces
of banding. It is found mostly in
floodplain sites. The "upland dwarf
cicada," Magicicada septendecula,
also about IVa inches long, has no
stripe, does have a yellow-banded
belly, and is usually associated with
hickory trees. It is almost always much
less numerous than the other two
species.

Shortly after our original census and
study in 1956, Dutch Elm Disease
entered this area and began to kill off
the elms, which were the dominant
trees in the floodplain sites. The
nymphs from the 1956 emergence
which were then feeding on the
rootlets of those trees were very small
when the trees began to die, so it will
be interesting to see what end effect
this disaster — as another natural

"experiment" — has had on the cicada
population. Such a disaster is
comparable to other naturally
occurring phenomena like forest fires,
tornadoes, land slides, and so forth,
and most natural populations have had
to evolve the ability to cope with them.
Since the upland habitats look exactly
the same, they will in effect be the
"control" for the "experiment."

We also hope to find out whether
cicadas achieve an equilibrium that
remains relatively constant between
successive emergences in a particular
area or whether populations fluctuate
widely from generation to generation.
We will be assisted in these and other
studies by Jo Ann White, who is a
graduate student in the Department of
Biology at the University of Chicago
and in Field Museum's Center for
Graduate Studies. She will also
conduct radioactive tracer studies to
see whether the eggs absorb nutrients
from the sap in their twig slits. In
addition, Drs. Thomas Moore and
Richard Alexander, of the Museum of
Zoology at the University of Michigan,
plan to come to the Chicago region to
continue their interesting studies on
the remarkable acoustic behavior of
17-year cicadas.

The combined results of all these field
studies should allow a few more
pieces to be fitted together in the
puzzle of the unique life history of
17-year periodical cicadas.

Henry Dybas, Curator and head of the
Division of Insects at Field Museum, is one
of the country's leading experts on
periodical cicadas.

Come and tune your ear to the
distinctive chorusing of the different
species of periodical cicadas in a multi-
media exhibit opening May 5-The
Seventeen-Year Cicada: A Strategy for
Survival.

tvlay 1973

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^ancicKC (^. ;4HcUn4<m

The dogs of the Nanawale Ranch on
the Island of Hawaii were acting
strangely on February 26, 1955. They
ran around excitedly, dug holes in the
ground and^sniffed in the holes as
though in pursuit of some burrowing
animal. Dr. Gordon A. MacDonald, then
director of the Hawaii Volcano
Observatory, was called. For months
he and his colleagues had suspected
that a volcanic eruption might be
immanent, although they couldn't
predict exactly when it would occur.
Each day there were increasing
numbers of earth tremors at the
Nanawale Ranch, and now this unusual
behavior of the dogs. The scientists
spent most of the day February 27th
investigating the area. No cracks could
be found. No odor of volcanic gases
could be detected even when they
sniffed in the holes made by the dogs.
Yet the following morning the eruption
began just a quarter-mile from where
the dogs had been digging.

This puzzling story of animal behavior
is not surprising to geologists, for they
are well aware of the very persistent
folklore which says that animals can
predict earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions. This folklore often appears
in popular accounts and even in
textbooks, but the discussion is usually
limited to an anecdote or two. I began
to wonder just how many such
anecdotes there are and whether

anyone had ever taken them seriously
enough to investigate.

Certainly there is evidence that for
generations men around the world have
been interested in the behavior of
animals prior to earthquakes and
eruptions. Deodatus De Dolomieu, for
example, wrote of this interest in 1784
when he visited the Calabria Ultra
district of Italy in the year following a
destructive earthquake. He commented
that animals seem to have some
warning of such geologic disasters,
although people do not:

The prescience of animals of the approach
of earthquakes is a singular phenomenon,
and is more surprising to us from our
ignorance by what sense they receive the
intimation. It is common to all species,
particularly dogs, geese, and domestic
fowls. The howlings of the dogs in the
streets of Messina were so violent, they
were ordered to be killed.

About fifty years later, in quite a
different part of the world, another
story of unusual behavior preceding an
earthquake was documented by Robert
Fitzroy, captain of the Beagle, during
Charles Darwin's famous voyage. The
ship was in the vicinity of Concepcion,
Chile at the time of the 1835
earthquake, and Fitzroy hurriedly
returned to that port to survey the
damage. He recorded in his diary this
account of an observation told to him:

At ten in the morning of the 20th of
February, very large flights of sea-fowl
were noticed, passing over the city of
Concepcion, from the seacoast, towards
the interior: and in the minds of old
inhabitants, well acquainted with the
climate of Concepcion, some surprise was

excited by so unusual and simultaneous a
change in the habits of those birds . . .
At forty minutes after eleven, a shock of
an earthquake was felt . . .

Fitzroy's diary also recorded that dogs
fled from the city of Talchuano prior to
the destruction of that city in the same
earthquake.

There are several other animal-
earthquake stories from the nineteenth
century. Many are summarized in a
review entitled "Can Animals Predict
Earthquakes?" published in a 1909
issue of the Scientific American
Supplement. Included among those
incidents are the following: roosters
crowed before the Java earthquake of
1867; the earthquake in Iquique in
1868 was announced several hours
earlier by screaming gulls and other
sea birds that flew inland; and in 1887
the horses of the Riviera appeared
very anxious prior to an earthquake in
that area.

Probably the best known of all animal-
earthquake stories dates from the
beginning of the twentieth century. The
dogs of San Francisco were reported
to have barked the night before the
great earthquake that struck that city
in the early morning of April 18, 1906.
This observation was recorded in the
official Report of the State Earthquake
Investigation Commission and is
derived from an informal survey made
by Finette Locke. She also noted
several cases in which horses and
cows snorted or stampeded a few
seconds before observers knew there
was anything wrong. And cats were
reported to perceive the aftershocks
before people did.

Field Museum Bulletin

Cattle were reported to have left their grazing
grounds on Mt. Arenal in Costa Rica just before
its disastrous surprise eruption in 1968 — but
many were still scarred by it. Photo courtesy
of Center for Short-Lived Phenomena.

Geologists in Iceland uncovered
another anecdote when they set out to
piece together the antecedents of the
surprise 1947 eruption of Mt. Hekla.
The scientists were told by a man and
his wife that they were awakened
between two and three o'clock one
morning and the wife went into the
kitchen. "When she turned on the light
she found their old dog, which used to
sleep out by the kitchen door, standing
in the middle of the floor, apparently
greatly frightened by something . . ."
The eruption occurred at 6:40 that
morning.

Eloise Engel's book Earthquake! The
Story of Alaska's Good Friday Disaster
contains more such animal stories.
Rancher Louis Beatty, for example, had
gone up to the hills at three in the
afternoon when his cattle unexpectedly

left their low-lying grazing grounds
hours before their usual time. Late that
afternoon there was an earthquake,
and a great sea wave (tsunami)
covered the low-lying area.

Author Engle also tells of animals
being uneasy before the 1965 volcanic
eruption of Taal in the Philippines. She
wrote that the residents of Taal were
awakened at 2:30 in the morning by
the noise of frightened dogs, cats, and
cattle. Some of the people heeded the
animals' warning and fled. The volcano
erupted, spewing lava, ash, and mud
over their homeland.

Tom Simkin, a geologist investigating
the 1968 Mt. Arenal eruption in Costa
Rica, reported hearing that cattle
moved down off that volcano just
before it erupted. This surprise

eruption was the first for Arenal in
about four hundred years.

Finally, there's an interesting animal-
earthquake report from the People's
Republic of China. Robert S. Coe, an
earth sciences professor from the
United States, visited that country
recently and wrote of their new
earthquake prediction program initiated
following a large earthquake in 1966.
Along with modern physical devices,
peasant volunteers have been recruited
to observe anomalies in animal
behavior. According to Coe: "Before
the 1966 earthquake and its largest
aftershocks there were reports of
strange behavior, especially of rats. No
anomalous behavior has been
observed before the smaller
earthquakes that have been
characteristic of the period since then."

May 1973

All of these anecdotes are references
to specific earthquakes or eruptions.
In addition, several of the geologically
active countries are said to have
generalized beliefs about animals.
Vitus B. Droscher, in his book The
Magic of the Senses, gives this
example: "In the villages on the slopes
of Mount Etna the peasants keep cats
because they believe these animals
can anticipate volcanic eruptions: when
all the cats leave the houses at once,
men will rush out after them." John
Milne and A. W. Lee, in their book
about earthquakes, give a similar
example from another part of the
world: "It used to be said that several
of the natives of Caracas possessed
oracular quadrupeds, such as dogs,
cats, and jerboas, which anticipated
coming dangers by their restlessness."
Those authors also mention the
Japanese belief that pheasants crow
before earthquakes.

It was this last legend that prompted
one of the few systematic attacks on
the question of whether animals could
in fact anticipate earthquakes or
volcanic eruptions. This work was done
by a famous Japanese scientist, F.
Omori. In the period 1913 to 1916 he
worked in the evening in a quiet house
where he could hear pheasants
crowing in a neighboring garden. He
took upon himself the task of noting
the time of every perceptible
earthquake and comparing it with the
crowing of the pheasants and also
later checking the tromometer, an
instrument for recording minute earth
tremors. In eleven out of the twenty-
three cases recorded, the pheasants
were actually better than Omori. That
is, in those cases the pheasants either
crowed before the scientist felt the
quake or crowed when he felt no
quake but found that one had been
registered by the instruments. Passing
vehicles which shook the ground did
not cause the pheasants to crow.

A more extensive attempt to explore
the ability of animals to predict
earthquakes was a study published in

1964 in German by Ernst Kilian. His
work followed the large 1960
earthquake in southern Chile. The
report involved mostly anecdotes which
he solicited by advertisements in the
local papers. But he also made direct
observations of the behavior of
animals associated with aftershocks in
the days and months following the
major quake. He found that the horses
at the university experimental farm
always reacted by neighing and
trembling five seconds before a quake
was felt by people. This agrees well
with the stories which came out of the
San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

Kilian also reported that pheasants
crowed ten seconds before shocks
were felt by people. There was one
anecdotal account of a dog which
became quite upset by the rumbling
sounds which preceded the major
quake, but otherwise no reports of
either dogs or cats behaving strangely
until the quake occurred. Kilian
summarized his paper by pointing out
that the number of observations was
small and often laden with the
emotionality of the observer. He had
not found definite proof that animals
could predict earthquakes.

There are apparently no other major
scientific studies of animal behavior
prior to earthquakes or eruptions, but
there are undoubtedly many other
anecdotes. It is evident that it is these
occasional, intriguing incidents, not
proven performance, which have given
animals their reputation as predictors.

While horses, dogs, pheasants, and
sea birds seem to be implicated most
often, there are of course countless
earthquakes and eruptions where no
anomalous behavior of animals was
noted. And, as Kilian suggested, the
human element cannot be dismissed.
From the reports of people who have
lived through major quakes, it is
apparent that few experiences are
more unnerving. It would not be
surprising If the observations of such
people are inaccurate or incomplete.

Still, one is left wondering about the
many isolated stories of animals
seeming uneasy preceding an
earthquake or volcanic eruption. Since
both earthquakes and eruptions
originate within the earth and both
involve earth tremors, it would seem
natural to assume that the earth
movement in some way stimulates the
animals' unrest. Many experts would
agree. For example, it is the judgment
of renowned seismologist Charles
Richter that if anything other than
coincidence is involved, it is likely that
the animals notice small foreshocks to
which people are insensitive. Sigurdur
Thorarinsson, a famous Icelandic
geologist, has a similar opinion. He
has said that, while studying the
aftershocks of an earthquake, "I had
several opportunities to ascertain that
domestic animals, and especially cats
and dogs, felt tremors that were
imperceptible to me and other people."
Several changes in addition to earth
movement which might possibly cause
anomalous animal behavior have been
discussed by Kilian. Such stimuli
include increased air pressure and
changes in the electric or magnetic
field. Still another theory, explored by
Baxter Armstrong in 1969, is that in
some cases the high frequency sounds
of preliminary fracturing may
disturb animals.

There are no definitive answers yet. A
greater understanding of both geologic
events and animal sensory systems
may solve the mystery. Until then we're
left to puzzle over the fascinating
folklore which says that animals can
predict earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions.

Mrs. Caroline J. Anderson is a psychologist
and is married to a geologist, whom she
has accompanied on Held trips to many
volcanic areas.

A copy ol the bibliographic citations lor the
several published accounts referred to in
this article is available on request. Please
address such request to the Bulletin. — Ed.

Field Museum Bulletin

A showcase of adaptations in amphibians & reptiles

Joyce Marshall Brukoff

Reptiles especially have been long
misunderstood, thanks to the mythology
of human origin embedded in the
Judeo-Christian traditions of our
culture. If for no other reason than
that, one should see a new temporary
exhibit of fine photographs now on
display at Field Museum. It reveals
many esthetic as well as unique
qualities of these much maligned
animals and of their relatives the
amphibians. The photographs were
taken by Dr. Nathan W. Cohen,
Chairman of the Department of
Continuing Education in Sciences and
Mathematics, University of California,
Berkeley. His exhibit is designed to
give us some insight into the often
remarkable adaptations for survival of
these two great classes of animals as
well as an appreciation of their real
beauty.

Although amphibians and reptiles are
sometimes confused because both
groups belong to the "cold-blooded
fraternity," there are many easy ways
to tell them apart. The most obvious is
in the nature of the skin. Lizards and
snakes, turtles, crocodilians, and tautara
all have a dry skin type which is made
up of a tough integument composed of
plates or horny scales. The amphibian
group — which includes frogs, toads,
salamanders, and the caecilian — have
a comparatively smooth skin. It is moist
and laden with mucous and poison
glands.

The evolutionary history of these two
great classes of vertebrate animals far
exceeds the history of mammals.
Amphibians represent the beginning
step from an entirely aquatic existence
toward a terrestrial one. Reptiles
represent the next step. Both groups
evolved striking adaptive features which
reflect their respective environments.

Most of the photographs in the exhibit
illustrate one or more of these
adaptations — for defense, for obtaining
food, for locomotion, and many other
categories. At times an adaptive
mechanism will serve two functions.
This is true of the potent poison utilized
by the rattlesnake. It serves as a
defense against other predators and
also enables the snake to kill its prey
quickly without engaging in a bruising
battle.

Probably one of the most interesting
adaptive qualities belongs to the
reptiles — the shedding of skin. They
must get rid of their essentially inelastic
skin periodically in order to grow. In
snakes this shedding usually begins at
the head end, with the animal gradually
moving out of its old skin, turning it
inside out in the process. Even the old
eye covering comes off. Lizards usually
flake off dead skin in patches,
sometimes in nearly one whole piece.

Adult lizards molt every month or so,
mostly in patches, sometimes a scale
at a time. The industrious banded
gecko rips off the old skin with its
mouth and proceeds to swallow the
strips. In snakes the process begins
several days before actual shedding.
The animal's eyes cloud over and the
skin takes on a dull and lifeless
appearance. When the actual shedding
is about to begin, the snake helps
things along by rubbing its mouth
against a rough surface. The skin
comes off like a glove, with the entire
operation sometimes over in as little
as half an hour.

Another fascinating adaptive quality,
limited to just a few types, is
subterranean living. Like the well
known blind fish shown to tourists in
Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, some
snakes and lizards also have become
adapted for underground existence.
Such existence can vary in degree,
from burrowing and sand-swimming to
a totally underground life.

May 1973

Flat-tailed horned lizard. Its nostrils are
encrusted with salt excretions.

Portrait of yellow-eyed salamander showing his
"naso-labial grooves."

Field Museum Bulletin 13

Armadillo lizard in defensive posture: its tail in
Its mouth.

Pacific rubber snake in defensive stance: its
vulnerable head buried under its coils and its
tail above as a decoy. An enemy invariably
bites the w/rong end, as evidenced by the scars
on the animal's tail.

Gila monster

Surinam toad

African clawed frog

14 May 1973

Some common adaptations to this type
of environment are loss of vision,
reduction or loss of limbs, and loss of
body pigmentation. Animals also adapt
in other, more specific ways which
vary in each type. The silvery legless
lizard, for instance, has a shovel-shaped
snout and an underslung lower jaw,
which prevent sand from entering his
mouth. The Florida worm lizard has no
legs or ear openings and has a soft,
ringed body which bears resemblance
to an earthworm. The sand viper of
African deserts covers itself with sand,
leaving the black tip of its tail protruding
from the surface as bait for prey.

Of course, some of the most important
adaptations have to do with obtaining
food and with defense. For food, some
species sit and wait for prey to come
to them. Others trick their victims into
the danger zone. The Surinam toad is
a rather strange looking amphibian
who chooses to sit and wait. When the
intended meal comes close, the toad
surges forward, opens its cavernous
mouth and, with the help of star-like
fingers which push, sucks in the prey.

In the reptile family we have a variety
of mechanisms for dealing with prey,
from the needle-like fangs of the red
diamond rattlesnake to the tricky
system used by the alligator snapping
turtle. The latter lures prey into striking
distance of its open mouth by wiggling
two red, worm-like appendages on its
tongue.

All species must not only obtain food,
they must defend themselves from their
predators. Some of these adaptations
are quite elaborate. Perhaps the most
well known defense of reptiles and
amphibians is the famed rattle of the
rattlesnake. To achieve its menacing
sound, the snake merely wiggles his
tail — "vibrates" would be more
accurate — about 60 times per second.
The segments within the tail are very
loosely articulated with each other. As
the tail vibrates, the segments hit
against one another, producing the
unforgettable buzzing sound of a snake
about to strike.

Different species use many different
types of locomotion, which are also
very specialized adaptations. The
zebra-tailed lizard, who can spurt along
at a full speed of about eighteen miles
an hour, has a long, flat tail which
allows it to use only its hind legs. With
its forelimbs lifted off the ground, the
tail acts as a counterbalance, curled
over the back.

The deadly poisonous cottonmouth
snake was named for a defensive
adaptation. When threatened, the
gaping mouth reveals a startling white
interior which, set off by the black
exterior color of the snake, serves as
a very adequate warning. The yellow-
eyed salamander uses the poison
glands in its tail to quell enemy attacks.
When danger nears, the animal swishes
this deadly tail, threatening an encounter
from its poisonous secretions.

A rather bizarre defensive posture is
employed by the armadillo lizard. When
pursued, this wily fellow runs into a
narrow crevice and takes its tail in its
mouth. Protected on either side by its
position in the crevice, it protects its
soft-skinned underbelly with the array
of sharp-pointed scales on its back,
which usually discourage an attacker.

The flat-tailed horned lizard has an
interesting trait that adapts it to its
desert environment. It excretes
unwanted body salt through its nostrils
with insignificant water loss. A watery
urine to carry off excess salts would
certainly be a much less efficient
method in such an environment, where
conservation of moisture is crucial.

The well known gila monster, another
desert inhabitant, stores food (fat) in
its tail during times of abundance and
uses it later in periods when food and
water are scarce. The gila monster is
one of only two venomous lizards in
the world, the other being the beaded
lizard of Ivfexico.

Like any other animals, amphibians and
reptiles have sensory systems which
are adapted to their respective
environments. A particularly interesting

one is that of the lungless salamanders:
they breathe through their skin. The
Sierra Nevada salamander and the
yellow-eyed salamander, both lungless,
are shown in the exhibit. They have
"naso-labial grooves" which extend
from the upper lip to each nostril. This
structure alerts the salamander to the
presence of odors, principally those
pertaining to food or danger. The
lungless salamanders have a tendency
to live in moist or damp places, but for
obvious reasons they seldom enter the
water.

Unique, stitch-like bumps on the
African clawed frog make him look as
if he had been sewn together with a
rather inept hand. They are not seams,
however; they are believed to be
highly developed sensory organs which
alert the frog to the movement of prey
or predators.

The famed Colorado desert sidewinder
shares with other pit vipers a
remarkable "pit" organ which is
actually an infrared detector, extremely
sensitive to heat. This useful organ
detects warm-blooded rodents either
above ground or snuggled in the
supposed safeness of their burrows.

When we realize that amphibians and
reptiles once were the dominant forms
of life on earth, we must marvel at the
seemingly curious and extraordinary
adaptations that enabled their
contemporaneous descendants to
persist into our time, many relatively
unchanged since long before mammals
came to dominate the earth. The
current exhibit of photographs of
amphibians and reptiles presents a
tantalizing and informative glimpse of
this world of animals with mechanisms
and behavior quite remote from ours.

Joyce Marshall Brukoff is a Chicago-area
naturalist and Iree-lance writer.

Field Museum Bulletin

Archaeological Expedition to
Indonesia

Bennet Bronson, Assistant Curator of Asian
Arctiaeoiogy and Ettnnology, is on his way to
Java and Sumatra to direct a new
arctiaeological research project for several
months. The project will involve training and
aid for Indonesian archaeologists as well as
extensive exploration in Sumatra to
identify sites for future excavation.

The Sumatran rain forest is, according to
Bronson, "one of the last unexplored
archaeological frontiers." He is especially
hoping to locate two sites: the capital of the
historical sea kingdom of SrivijaVa, and
Angkor, one of the two great empires of
early Southeast Asia.

became dormant in 1953, its speakers came
to include such greats of the anthropological
world as Franz Weidenreich, Claude Levi-
Strauss, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Raymond
Dart, Raymond Firth, and Monica Wilson.

The dormancy ended this year when several
young anthropologists at local institutions,
including Field Museum, discovered they
shared a sense of need for more
communication and community among their
colleagues. Membership is already about 100.

The new C.A.S. is indeed a continuation of
the original because three members of the
new council (to advise and assist on matters
of policy and programs) were among the
early members of the old C.A.S. They are
Drs. Martin, Eggan, and Donald Collier.
Joining them are Drs. Charles Reed,
University of Illinois Circle Campus, and
Francis L. K. Hsu, Northwestern University.

Three of the five young anthropologists
constituting the society's guiding
administrative committee represent Field
Museum's Department of Anthropology. They
are John Terrell, Bennet Bronson, and Maude
Wahlman. The other two are Don Perrill,
Loyola University, and Margo Smith,
Northeastern University.

Dr. Reed spoke on "Problems in the

Beginnings of Agriculture" at the April
meeting, and May 18 Professor William
Sumner, Ohio State University, will discuss
"Malyan Tepe: developments leading to an
early urban center in the Kur River Basin
of Iran."

Anyone living within (or beyond) the
Chicago area who is interested in further
details is invited to get in touch with John
Terrell, Department of Anthropology, Field
Museum.

Plans for Exhibit of Contemporary
African Art Move Ahead

Maude Wahlman, Consultant in African
Ethnology, is spending a month touring many
parts of Africa to collect additional materials
for the planned new exhibit "Contemporary
African Art," now scheduled to open at the
Museum in early 1974.

Mrs. Wahlman is also placing orders for a
wide range of contemporary African art
products to be concurrently offered for sale
through the Museum's book shop. Authentic
contemporary expressions of the rich art
traditions of Africa occur in many forms,
including textiles, pottery, jewelry, painting,
block printing, etching.

The New Chicago Anthropological
Society

A revivified Chicago Anthropological Society
arose last March and celebrated its first
meeting at Field Museum. Most appropriately,
this inaugural program was a dialogue
presented by Dr. Paul Martin, Chief Curator
Emeritus of Anthropology, and Professor
Fred Eggan, of the University of Chicago —
"Revitalization; the changing course of the
anthropological sciences, a retrospect and a
prologue to the new Chicago Anthropological
Society."

The original C.A.S. was said to have been
founded in 1944 by Drs. Martin, Faye-Cooper
Cole, Melville Herskovits, and Sol Tax
when Martin, at a dinner event, suggested
that Chicago's anthropologists ought to get
together regularly. Tax, now Professor of
Anthropology at the University of Chicago,
was thereupon appointed secretary-treasurer
and charged with the responsibility of
collecting 25c dues from all new members.

The membership rose to over 100 by the
following year, and before the society

Women's Committee Keeps Working for Capital Campaign

Following a luncheon hosted by the Women's
Committee for the Capital Campaign, committee
member Mrs. Hermon Dunlap Smith (center) and
Virginia M. Slraub visit with Hymen Marx, Curator
ol Amphibians and Reptiles. This Divison of the
Zoology Department, housed on the ground floor

of the Museum because of its weight, consists of
over 200.000 specimens It is one of the world's
largest and most comprehensive collections and
is used extensively by research scientists and
graduate students.

May 1973

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Opens May 5

Seventeen-Year Cicada: A Strategy for
Survival, a mulli-media exhibit describing
and interpreting the adaptive significance
of the unusual life cycle of these strange
insects. Millions of cicadas (locusts) are
scheduled to make their noisy appearance
above ground in the Chicago area in late
May or early June of this year. Through
July 29. Hall 9.

Closes May 31

Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology.

Copper-plate engravings made for American
Ornithology (1808). a nine-volume work by
the father of American ornithology,
Alexander Wilson. Also shown are proofs
from the plates recently pulled by Richard
A. Davis, Butler University, and George
McCullough, Fort Wayne Art Institute,
alongside examples of first-edition prints of
the same engravings in Field Museum's
rare book collection. South Lounge.

Continuing

Below Man's Vision: Electronic Windows
to Unseen Worlds, an exhibit exploring the
world of details in common objects and
familiar plants and animals, and offering
glimpses into current research activities.
Nearly 300 photographs, displayed at up to
200,000 times life-size, introduce a
previously unseen world. Through July 15.
Hall 18.

Adaptations of Amphibians and Reptiles,

an exhibit of photographs portraying the
natural beauty and esthetic qualities of
these animals, as well as illustrating
some of their often remarkable and unique
adaptations which help them survive. They
were taken by Dr. Nathan W. Cohen,
Chairman, Department of Continuing
Education in Sciences and Mathematics,
University of California, Berkeley. Through
September 30. Hall 27.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological,
and cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense
of History" presents a graphic portrayal of
the Museum's past; and "A Sense of
Discovery" shows examples of research
conducted by Museum scientists. Hall 3.

Special Events

Sunday, May 6

Peggy Harper, Senior Research Fellow in
Dance at the University of Ife, Nigeria,
Africa, presents a film lecture "Nigerian
Team Dances," at 1:30 p.m. in the
James Simpson Theatre.

Saturday, May 12

Sunto Suso of Gambia, West Africa,
21 -string kora virtuoso, presents a program
of traditional and modern Mandinka music
and historical narrative at 1:30 p.m. in
the Lecture Hall. He will be assisted by
Dr. Klaus Wachsmann's students from
Northwestern University.

Children's Programs

Through May 31

Spring Journey for Children, "Life in the
Tropical Rain Forest," a self-guided tour
encouraging youngsters to learn about the
inhabitants of the little-known Amazonian
region of South America by exploring
Museum exhibit areas. Youngsters are
provided with a questionnaire which routes
them through Museum exhibit areas. All
boys and girls who can read and write may
join in the activity. Journey sheets are
available at Museum entrances.

Coming in June

Begins June 1

Summer Journey for Children, "Nature
Invented It First," a self-guided tour
highlighting animals and plants which
possess "innovative" features duplicated
in human inventions.

IVIeetings

May 6: 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club

May 8: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera Club
of Chicago

May 8: 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider Council

May 9: 7 p.m., Chicago Ornithological
Society

May 9: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society

May 10: 8 p.m., Chicago Mountaineering
Club

May 18: 7:30 p.m., Chicago Anthropological
Society

May 22: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera Club
of Chicago

May Hours

Saturday through Thursday, 9 am. to 6 p.m.;
Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Volume 44, Number 6
June 1973

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

f *-^i| -^ J'^h'*^'^-3-il^

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 6
June 1973

"m^

Sketches, such as this one by Field Museum's
Chief Taxidermist, Ernst A. Gramatzki, help the
taxidermist determine the most effective
attitude, or pose, of the aninaal to be mounted.

2 The Fine Art of Taxidermy

Ernst A. Gramatzki

a disappearing art flourishes at

Field Museum

6 Members' Nights — 1973

see what you missed? — or did you?

8 The Botany Dept. — A Short History

John R. Millar

for the first time, botany became

a museum's major scientific division

13 Capital Campaign

14 Field Briefs

16 Book Reviews
Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Managing Editor G. Henry Ottery; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Ptiotograptiy John Bayalis, Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum ot Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscnbe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicitied manuscripts are welcome. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form 3579 to Field Museum of
Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. ISSN: 0015-0703.

Field Museum Bulletin

the very fine art of

TAXIDERMY

By Ernst A. Gramatzki

Chief Taxidermist

Department of Exhibition

A mounted mourning dove sits

under "wraps" to ensure ttiat the

feattiers stay in ttie proper

position while the skin dries.

During the Museum's Members'
Nights last month, a colorfully
unconventional man was pondering one
of several skulls sitting around the
Taxidermy Division. He looked up and
into my eyes — which sil beneath a
balding head — and asked, "How do
you clean your skull?" It broke me up,
and as the visitor puzzled at my
reaction I was tempted to reply, "With
a washcloth and soap." He finally
recognized the ambiguity of his inquiry,
and joined in my laughter.

But his interest in what goes on in
this room on the Museum's fourth floor
is shared by many. The layman finds
that what happens behind the scenes
is not only interesting, but mysterious:
interesting because, somehow, dead
creatures are made to look so alive;
and mysterious because the visitor
begins imagining how exciting it
must be to go on collecting trips to
far corners of the globe. While
collecting trips abroad were quite
common at the beginning of the
century, when museums obtained most
of the specimens they currently display,
one is more apt to find today's
taxidermist at the local zoo skinning
a recently deceased giraffe than on
safari in Africa. This is not to say that
modern taxidermists never go on field
trips, but to point out that many of
the Museum's large specimens are
much appreciated donations from local
sources. The world-famous gorilla,
Bushman, is a former attraction of
Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, and the
Giant Panda, Su-Lin, is a donation of
the Chicago Zoological Society.
Obtaining animals this way helps to
conserve the diminishing numbers of
live animals in their natural habitats.
I hope the day never comes when the
only "wildlife" to be found is in the
dim halls of a museum.

Taxidermy has a long and exciting
tradition, especially in the Field
Museum. In 1896 Carl Akeley was
appointed the Museum's first Chief
Taxidermist. His work is known not
only through numerous habitat groups

June 1973

still enjoyed by everyone, but also
because of the very up-to-date basic
techniques of taxidermy that he
employed. His best known contribution
to the Museum is probably the
Museum's "centerpiece" — the fighting
African elephants in Stanley Field Hall.
Leon Pray worked with Akeley on
many projects, and other past
members of the staff, whose works
are still on display, include C. J.
Albrecht, Julius Friesser, F. C. Wonder,
and Arthur G. Rueckert. The Museum's

taxidermy studio was the scene of
the development of the celluloid
reproduction process of taxidermy, or
the "Walter's process" in honor of
Leon C. Walter. Today, in addition to
myself, the division includes Richard
Berndt, Assistant Taxidermist and two
volunteers, Gertrude Silberman and
Louva Calhoun.

Many of us began to work in taxidermy
as a hobby, attempting to mount our
own hunting and fishing trophies. The

more inventive became skilled enough
to open their own shops where their
sons and other persistent novices
picked up the trade by just hanging
around and absorbing as much as
possible. Some of the most skilled
taxidermists were hired by museums
where the opportunity to study in
detail a vast number of animals helped
to further refine their skills. For them,
the continual study of the anatomy
of freshly skinned mammals, birds,
fish, and reptiles is a must. They must

The mounting of larger mammals begins by fashioning a wire mesh frame
and molding a clay body around it . . .

. . . but since the clay sculpture is too soft to be used as the animal's
body, a plaster mold is made from the clay figure.

Using the plaster cast, a papier-mache process is imployed to form the
hollow body of the animal. Here the author is seen cleaning the plaster
cast after its removal from the clay figure.

The skin of the animal is fitted over the papier-mache form, then sewn
closed.

Field Musoum Bullslin

Using both a cat and a raccoon to demonstrate
the main steps in mounting small mammals,
the taxidermist begins by fashioning a body
with excelsior, attached to the animal's skull,
then wrapping the excelsior with twine.

The skeletal bones of the limbs are reinforced
with wire to keep them in the desired position,
and wrapped with twine.

Before the animal's skin is sewn around the
limbs, the limbs are covered with a glue that,
in the photograph, resembles putty.

know what muscle moves which part
of the skeleton; how skeletons function;
and how each movement not only
changes the outer physical appearance
of the animal, but its attitude — its
mood — as well.

The taxidermist must also have an
in-depth knowledge of how an animal
looks and behaves in its natural
environment. He can learn this from
direct observation in the wild and
from spending many hours at the zoo
making hundreds of drawings,
photographs, and sculptural sketches.
It takes constant practice and much
time in addition to the regular workday.
Most of the taxidermists I know were
fortunate to have grown up in the
country where the presence of farm
animals gave them a basic attitude
towards all animals.

Necessary to taxidermy, of course is
the handling of a large variety of tools
and equipment, and the knowledge of
many trades and materials. In spite
of this, the taxidermist is still often
called a "stuffer," even though the
process of "mounting" an animal has
nothing to do with stuffing. But there

have been people who would use just
about any material to stuff their trophies
with. There is the story of an amateur
who was proud of his first mounted
squirrel — until his sister examined the
job closely and recognized one of
her socks in the open-mouthed
creature and demanded that it be
returned to her.

Today the taxidermist is required to
skin the animal; tan the hide (if it is a
mammal); sculpture a clay body; take
a plaster mold of the clay model;
cast the final form in papier-mache,
plaster and burlap, or fibre-glass; and
sew and glue the tanned hide around
this hollow lightweight but strong form.
These are only the main steps.

A method quite different is adopted for
small mammals. Parts of the mammal's
skeleton, such as leg bones and skull,
are used. Excelsior is wrapped around
these bones to simulate the muscles
and body. This is then covered with a
special paste to glue the hide tightly
onto the mannikin. Birds are prepared
similarly. Wire, cotton, and hemp are
used to anchor parts of the legs, wing
bones, and skull into a wrapped

excelsior body. Fish and reptiles, for
the most part, are fibre-glass
reproductions, made in a mold taken
from the actual specimen. The most
tedious part is then painting every
scale to match the specimen. But no
matter what the animal, they are all
fitted with hand-painted glass eyes.

A new method of preservation is by
freeze-drying in a vacuum chamber,
which extracts the body moisture while
the animal is in a frozen state. This
method has been satisfactorily applied
to insects, plant material, invertebrates,
and various reptiles, but 1 have yet to
see a good specimen of a bird or
mammal preserved by this method. Yet
many museums have had to rely on
this method in presenting fauna in
their exhibits because of the general
absence of trained taxidermists
in this country.

l\yiost of the taxidermy profession's
finest "artist-naturalist-craftsmen"
developed in museums. For the
museum taxidermist the art aspect of
his training (drawing, sculpture,
design, and the ability to visualize) is
important as he creates his life-like

The skin is sewn around the four legs and tail.
The artificial body is ready to be anchored into
position.

With the body in position, the legs and tail are
firmly attached to it. The skin is then sewn
closed around the body.

After a few finishing touches, the animal looks
as alive as though he was preening in
someone's living room. This cat, however, is
sitting encased in Hall 15.

models and as he relates them to the
total exhibit. He often works closely
with designers and must be able to
visualize how the model fits into the
overall scheme of the case or hall.
Often his work includes making
botanical models to complement his
zoological ones, such as plants for
birds to perch on. Thus the area of
taxidermist and preparator often
overlap. The final installation of most
groups in the Museum was done by
very few people. There were, obviously,
a background painter, and one or two
taxidermists — one concentrating on
animals while the other handled the
foreground and needed accessories.
Sometimes one person did the
entire display.

Today the changing nature of museum
exhibits makes the art aspect of
taxidermy even more important than it
was in the past. Many of the older
halls in Field Museum contain
collections or groupings of related
creatures, or have cases of the
"picture postcard" variety. Halls which
illustrate a broad overall concept are a
modern trend in museum design:
"Color in Nature," currently on display.

is a step in that direction. Planning
this kind of exhibit calls for more
imagination and cooperation by script
writer, scientist, exhibit designer, and
taxidermist than was necessary in the
past. Gone are the days when a stuffed
duck was just a stuffed duck, placed
with so many other stuffed ducks, or
set in a case silhouetted against the
sunset. Today that duck can be used
to illustrate any number of concepts:
concealed coloration, sexual plumage,
food chains, seed dispersal, etc.

Once the concept has been chosen,
the taxidermist must do more than just
make the animal look alive; he must
decide how to arrange it so that it best
illustrates the concept, or message. He
must be aware of the visual potential
in a proposed display. His training as
an artist, plus his sense of the
dramatic, tell him that a cheetah in
action, in pursuit of its prey, will make
a far more interesting display than the
big cat just sitting there with its kill.
Furthermore, it will demonstrate speed,
the cheetah's unique characteristic.
Thus it is very important for the
taxidermist to examine the many

design possibilities, such as setting
and pose, for a creature before
mounting it for a specific display. The
animal must be arranged in an
interesting and artistic, as well as
realistic, manner.

Perhaps it is this versatility required,
plus the long training time, the lack of
places to train, and the hesitance of
some "old-timers" to share their
knowledge, that account for the current
lack of highly skilled taxidermists. To
my knowledge there is no place in the
United States where a prospective
taxidermist can get the type of training
outlined in this article. Museums and
commercial firms are seeking good
taxidermists. If a comprehensive
training program were to be organized
the prospect would brighten that
museums and other institutions would
be able to find qualified taxidermists.
Until such time the field for the skilled
taxidermist is wide open.

Oh — and as to that question about how
to clean a skull: remove the flesh from
the bone (dermestid beetles will finish
the job for you), then bleach and
degrease it. Any more questions?

Field Museum Bulletin

Were you among the 6,933 who
enjoyed the exotic entertainment,
refreshments, demonstrations, and a
look "behind the scenes?"

MAY 3 & 4

6 June 1973

Field Museum Bulletin 7

The Dotany oept-
A :hort History

By John R. Millar

With this article we complete our
presentation at the histories ot the lour
scientific departments. John R. Millar, former
Deputy Director ot the Museum and Chiet
Curator ot Botany, has olten been
considered the Museum's unofficial historian
because his tenure began before the
Museum moved to its present home in
1921. In tact, all indications are that the
initials ot the "young preparator" he
mentions who used roller skates to help in
the move were J. R. M. Millar is now
enjoying his retirement in Florida.

The Department of Botany, like the
Museum itself, arose Phoenix-like from
the ashes of the World Columbian
Exposition in 1893. It was the
composition of those ashes that
determined the nature of the Museum
at first. Never before that time had
any museum considered botany as a
major division of its organization. Men
of diverse interests and backgrounds
were the prime movers in promoting
and organizing the exposition. In 1835
the directors of the Chicago Industrial
Expositions met and passed a
resolution, "that it is the sense of this
meeting that a Great World's Fair
should be held in Chicago in 1892, the
four hundredth anniversary of the
landing of Columbus in America." It is
safe to assume that the authors of the
resolution were thinking in terms of
industrial enterprise and materials to
sustain it. However, there were at the
same time in Chicago a number of
wealthy, traveled persons who were
collectors of art and cultural things
who recognized the merit of an
international exposition and the

opportunity it afforded to establish a
great museum with selected exposition
exhibits.

An oft-mentioned article by Professor
F. W. Putnam of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, printed in the
Chicago Tribune ot May 31, 1890, is
generally regarded as the first
published account advocating the
creating of Field Museum. Actually,
he, being an anthropologist,
proposed the establishment of a
great ethnological museum that would
be a world center for the study of
native peoples of the western
hemisphere. Other persons of other
interests also envisioned a permanent
museum as an aftermath of the
exposition. Three directors of the
exposition took it upon themselves to
call a meeting of leading Chicagoans
for the purpose of incorporating a
museum. This was accomplished in
September 1893 just before the close
of the exposition. It triggered energetic
efforts to solicit gifts of materials from
various nations and individuals
exhibiting at the fair.

Dr. Frederick J. V. Skiff, in the
Museum's first published report in
Volume I of the Historical Series, said,
". . . while no great public acts nor
unified labor were apparent, many
men, each in his own field, largely by
his own volition, were sincerely
enlisted; [to the end] that there was
generous and energetic cooperation in
gathering material, making purchases
and securing funds."

Collecting begins

Dr. Charles F. Millspaugh, a
homeopathic physician by formal
training but an avid botanist and
naturalist by avocation, who in 1887
published his work on American
medicinal plants, served as
superintendent of the West Virginia
exhibits at the fair and also on its
jury of awards. W. G. Buchanan, chief
of the exposition's departments of
agriculture and forestry, which
included the West Virginia exhibits,
appointed Dr. Millspaugh to solicit
donations of collections to the Museum.
The response was most gratifying.
Collections of gums, resins, fibers, oils,
waxes, tannins, dyes, starches, cereals,
sugars, spices, medicinal plants,
timbers and cabinet woods were
generously offered by twenty or more
countries. Many artifacts and industrial
products were included. In some
instances exhibitors had made earlier
commitments to give others "portions
at least" of certain valuable timbers.
Dr. Millspaugh saved the situation by
obtaining a bandsaw to divide the logs
so that promises to all could be kept.
In this manner the Department of
Botany began with one of the largest
and finest collections of woods and
forest products extant anywhere. This
resourcefulness and energy
characterized Dr. Millspaugh's
subsequent activities when he became
the first appointee to the scientific staff
of the Museum as Curator of Botany.
Donated and purchased materials were
moved to the Palace of Fine Arts
building as they were released by
exhibitors.

Museum organization at first included
not only the present-day departments
of anthropology, botany, geology, and
zoology but also ornithology, as
separate from zoology, and industrial
arts, including transportation and the
Department of Columbus Memorial.
The Department of Botany was
assigned space on the galleries, or
balcony, that extended around the great
courts on the second floor level. The

June 1973

courts can be visualized as two Stanley
Field Halls intersecting at right angles,
the midpoint marked by a large domed
rotunda. It was on these second floor
galleries that Dr. Millspaugh quickly
installed his exposition loot, much of it
still in the cases in which it had been
exhibited at the fair. Many large items,
timbers and artifacts were on open
display. Because gifts of botanical
specimens had been donated by
particular countries, it was most
expedient to arrange exhibits on a
geographical basis. This led to much
duplication of specimens because the
same kind of thing occurred in, and
was exhibited by, each of several
countries. After the rush to open the
Museum on June 2, 1894 was over, it
became evident that an arrangement
based on plant family relationships and
by category of material would be
preferable, but not much could be
done about effecting the change until
1900. In the interval three styles of
exhibition case had been designed by
Dr. Millspaugh to meet his by then
experienced approach to the problems
of botanical exhibition. A few

prototypes were delivered for use in
the first revision of botanical exhibits,
a process that keeps repeating. These
are the kinds of cases in which
botanical exhibits are now housed;
strong, well-built, solid birch furniture
intended to last forever to
accommodate exhibits in the fashion in
vogue in the early 1900s. The original
natural blond birch finish was to be
changed a score of years later after
the move to the present building.

Inherent problems

Exhibition cases were only one of a
multitude of difficulties that confronted
the Department of Botany. The building
had no heat during the winter of
1893-94, when exhibition materials
were being moved in, since it was
never intended to be a permanent
structure. Before the next winter set in,
three 100-horsepower steam boilers,
seventy radiators, and electric
generators capable of operating forty
1,200-candle-power arc lamps were
installed — the last intended only for
use in patroling the building at night.

Dr. Skiff noted in the Museum's first
Annual Report, for the year 1894-1895:
"It was found impossible to heat the
four great courts with their height of
seventy-eight feet and it was an almost
hopeless undertaking to warm the
eighty spacious doorless halls. But
necessity compelled a means. The
entrances to the halls leading from the
courts and leading in and out of the
long narrow annex passages were
fitted with large movable partitions
filling the entire space in which doors
were constructed. By this means all
the exhibition halls were enclosed, and
being provided in each case with ample
radiation, a minimum temperature of
55 degrees was ordinarily maintained
throughout the building. The courts are
treated as streets and visitors seem to
readily adapt themselves to this
condition of affairs. This arrangement
practically closes the Department of
Botany during the colder months of the
winter season; it is impossible to view
the collections there with any
satisfaction."

Adapting a temporary structure to

The exceiient wooden herbarium cases designed by Dr.
Millspaugh are still in use. This 1909 photo was taken in the
Museum's first home, the Palace of Fine Arts of the 1893
Columbian Exposition.

The Museum's first herbarium specimens were collected by Dr.
Millspaugh during an 1894 expedition to the Yucatan. This mode
of transportation is still necessary today in some otherwise
inaccessible parts of the world.

Field Museum Bulletin

In 1918 the author (left, eating Sbydv-ano, and three other members of the Mrs. Stanley Field
Plant Reproduction Laboratory, spent the winter in Florida among subtropical exotic plants. Others
making the trip in this 1917 Model T touring car were Homer A. V. Geib (center). Museum
Preparator; Mr. Charlesworth. a glassblower; and the man who snapped this rare photograph,
Dr. B. E. Dahlgren, then the Museum's Assistant Curator of Economic Botony.

permanent use as a museum brought
to the surface another chronic and
incurable museum ailment — lack of
space where and when it is needed.
"The small rooms ... in the second
galleries [third floor] of the courts have
by force of circumstances been
preempted by the Curators of Botany,
Zoology and Ornithology for
laboratories, by a poisoning and
disinfecting laboratory, by guards and
by departments of printing and
photography. These twelve rooms are
already inadequate . . . and more
room for working is already one of
the great needs of the Museum."
At this time a warehouse was acquired
at the corner of 56th Street and
Jefferson Avenue "to provide room for
storage and for carpentry, modeling,
plaster work, and for taxidermy, three
kinds of labor which could not be
permitted within the Museum building
as at present arranged."

Early field trips

Although no herbarium specimens
were included in material received
from the exposition, no time was lost

in starting a collection. The first
specimens were collected by Dr.
Millspaugh on a trip to Yucatan as the
guest of Allison V. Armour in 1894.
How the herbarium grew to become
one of the world's major collections
of Central and South American plants
was related last year in the April
issue of the Bulletin. I will add here
only the following statement from the
Museum's Annual Report for 1899-
1900 because it records a prophecy
that has turned out to be all too true:
"... Preparator Lansing . . . has
continued his collection of plants of
the Chicago Basin. This work is
particularly important as not many
years hence nearly the whole
distinctive plant life of the section
. . . will become extinct through
drainage and reclaiming of land and
the extension of the City of Chicago
and surrounding suburban towns."
Such changes are now recognized as
national and international concerns;
both plant and animal species are
vanishing at an accelerating rate.

Displays of dried plant materials can
be most uninteresting and dreary if
they are not relieved by some

The coconut palm from which the Museum's
model in Hall 28 was made was collected by
Millar during the expedition in Florida in 1918.

semblance of realism and life. This is
especially true when characteristics
of a plant family are to be portrayed.
Dr. B. E. Dahlgren, a doctor of
medical dentistry, gave up a practice
in orthodontia to become Assistant
Curator of Invertebrates at the American
Museum of Natural History, where
his superior skill in making models of
lower invertebrates, insects, and
plants earned high praise. In 1909,
he was induced to join the staff of the
Department of Botany to undertake to
illustrate each of the major plant
families by means of life-like models
of representative plants and enlarged
models of their flowers to show
important anatomical details. This
enterprise, which was largely financed
by Museum President Stanley Field,
eventually produced what is often
acclaimed as the world's finest
botanical exhibition in a museum.

Money problems caused a hiatus in
the program for about three years
prior to 1917. in 1918, a year after
operations resumed, a shortage of
coal during World War I required the
Museum to curtail its use. So in
October the Mrs. Stanley Field Plant

June 1973

Reproduction Laboratory staff of four
persons moved to Miami, Florida in a
Ford touring car. Dr. Dahlgren, ttie
leader, had by then acquired the title of
Assistant Curator of Economic Botany.
Sleeping and working quarters were
provided by the Bureau of Plant
Introduction of the U. S. Department of
Agriculture at its station and garden
on Brickel Avenue, since sold and now
occupied by residences. The sojourn
in a winter vacation land was sheer
delight for the four Chicagoans but
living on the job resulted in a greatly
lengthened work day and week which
made the escape from frigid working
quarters highly productive of useful
studies, molds, finished models, and
pickled plants for later use. Subtropical
exotic plants such as the banana,
pineapple, coconut, natal plum, silk
cotton tree, and many others were
obtained for exhibition purposes.

Moving to new quarters

On return to Chicago at the end of
May 1919, the immediate task of the
staff was to prepare or pack all
exhibition material for moving to the
new Museum building. Procedures
were carefully worked out to assure
that all items were identified and
designated as to placement in their
new home. This included exhibition
cases, which because of their great
size and weight required four-man
moving teams and hopefully, therefore,
could be placed precisely in their
permanent positions to avoid later
moves. Martin Kennelley, later to
become Mayor of Chicago, was a
partner in the firm that was given the
moving contract. In the actual move
botany exhibition cases were lowered
from the second floor gallery to the
main floor by means of an inclined
tramway powered by windlass and
muscle. From there they were loaded
into freight cars on a spur track of the
Illinois Central Railroad and taken to
the new building where another spur
track had been constructed. Botanical
exhibits were to occupy five halls on
the east half of the second floor, which

required the use of the freight elevator
on the south side of the building to
get them there. Unrecorded history has
It that the young preparator who v^^as
given the task of meeting teams of
movers coming up the elevator with
cases, directing them to the proper hall,
then going to the hall and indicating
the exact location, used roller skates to
go back and forth quickly. Elaboration
of this circumstance had the young man
speed around a corner, bump into the
director, who was on a tour of
inspection, and nearly knock him
down. This was supposed to have
resulted in an official order to cease
the use of roller skates in the Museum.
Actually tfie cases had all been placed
before, and the order was issued
because of a lack of confidence in the
skill of the skater and the danger of
breaking glass in exhibition cases
through collision.

Early in the development of botanical
exhibits the question of properly
labeling the economic collections was
resolved and led to a unification of

". . . It was decided that ttie best background
to form a general setting for the contents of a
case should be dead black and the label the
same, printed in some ink just off the contrast
that while would make. This ink proved to be
aluminum." It took years of effort to overcome
administrative opposition to a change to more
cheerful background colors.

style throughout the botanical section
and eventually the entire Museum. Dr.
Millspaugh said, "From observation at
various times of the movements of
people who were examining the
collections, it would seem the first
impulse ... is that of curiosity, the
second of interest and the third, a
desire for education. It was decided
that the installation of a case should
be such as to attract attention to it as
a whole. The principles in such an
installation are, as I take it, a neat and
well ordered arrangement of specimens.
... It is important that labels should
be of such character as to invite
reading; plainly typed and condensed;
comprehensible to the average citizen
rather than abtrusely scientific; short,
pithy and direct. Having arrived at
these conclusions ... it was decided
that the best background to form a
general setting for the contents of a
case should be dead black and the
label the same, printed in some ink
just off the contrast that white would
make. This ink proved to be aluminum."

When the botanical exhibits were
placed in their bright, clean, new home
It became very apparent that case
interiors and labels were in truth "dead
black" and contributed greatly to what
has been called the "gloom of the
museum." Stanley Field in
later years said that the decision to
adopt black for case interiors and label:
stock throughout the Museum had
been reached at a conference of the
heads of departments and the Museum
architect in his office in spite of his
misgivings about the matter. However,
the move to change to more cheerful
background colors met with
administrative opposition and trial
revised installations had to be made
surreptitiously with materials obtained
at personal expense. When the merit
of less somber installations was finally-
recognized and approval given, it took,
a tremendous amount of time and
labor to effect the change.

Firm establishment in permanent, new,
uncramped quarters seemed to
motivate the staff to meet the challenge-

Field Museum Bulletin

of a bright future. The next few years
saw growth and development in all
phases of departmental operations.
Expeditions to collect material for
exhibition went to British Guiana (now
Guyana), to Brazil, to the Rockies, to
the eastern seaboard, the Pacific Coast
States, to Florida and to Michigan.
Outstanding habitat groups showing
alpine flowers, midwest forest plants,
intertidal marine vegetation, and some
Amazon River plants were produced
with material thus obtained. In addition
many models of individual plants such
as the cannonball tree were made to
represent certain plant families in the
systematic series.

The early collectors

These were accomplishments that
could be seen and appreciated by
Museum visitors, but perhaps the most
important achievements of the
department have been in the field of
taxonomy and floristics. From the very
first year of its existence, members of
the staff seized every opportunity to
collect plants for study and deposit in
the herbarium. Beginning with Dr.
Millspaugh's collections from Yucatan,
and the persistent work of O. E.
Lansing in collecting plants of the
Chicago area, each member of the
staff made his contribution according
to his own talents and special
interests. Dr. Jesse M. Greenman left
the Gray Herbarium of Harvard
University to become Assistant Curator
of Botany. From 1904 to 1912 he
collected extensively in Mexico and
Central America and published in the
Fieldiana: Botany series. He resigned
to join the staff of the Missouri
Botanical Garden. Huron H. Smith, who
from 1911 to 1914 diligently
photographed and collected North
American trees from the southeastern
United States to the Pacific Northwest,
did most to create the Museum's fine
exhibit contained in Hall 26. J. Francis
Macbride joined the staff in 1922. He,
too, came from an internship
at the Gray Herbarium. His field work
in Peru led to one of the department's

Backed by the old herbarium cases. Dr. Paul C.
Standley makes notations on recently mounted
specimens. Photo was taken about 1940.

major floristic works, the Flora of Peru,
which already consists of several
thousand printed pages and will have
many more when completed by others.
(Macbride retired in 1963) As
mentioned elsewhere, he also selected
and supervised the photographing of
type specimens of American plants in
European herbaria. His bibliography
lists more than fifty titles.

Dr. Paul C. Standley came from the
U.S. National Herbarium in 1928 to
join the staff as Associate Curator of
the Herbarium. His extensive field work
in Mexico and Central America
resulted in a number of Museum
publications. Among the more notable
are the Flora of Lancetilla Valley
(Honduras), Flora of Costa Rica,
Studies of American Plants, The
Rubiaceae of Colombia, also of
Ecuador, of Bolivia, and of Venezuela
for a total of 2,881 printed pages. Then
in 1946 he began the Flora of
Guatemala, which, by the time of his
retirement in 1950, had been issued in
four parts totaling 1,868 pages. A
prolific author, Standley's bibliography
lists more than 250 titles. The energy.

competence and productiveness of
Standley is almost legendary. It earned
him the profound respect of his
colleagues and an enduring place in
the history of American Botany. He
was small, thin, a chain smoker, quick
in his movements, incisive in his
thinking and decisive in his work. He
died in 1963 at age eighty in
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he had
gone to live after his retirement.
Dr. Julian A. Steyermark joined the staff
as Assistant Curator of the Herbarium
in 1937. He did extensive field work in
Missouri and later wrote the Spring
Flora of Missouri. Further field work in
Guatemala and Venezuela led to his
collaboration with Dr. Standley on the
Flora of Guatemala and later to his
1,195-page work Contributions to the
Flora of Venezuela. In 1959 he joined
the faculty of the Institute Botanico of
the Ministerio Agricultura y Cria at
Curacas, Venezuela.

These were staff members of the
Department of Botany who in their time
made important contributions to our
knowledge of plants of the New World
tropics. There were others who for
shorter periods and in different ways
used their special talents to make the
department a viable, effective part of
the Museum organization. One of
these. Dr. Theodor Just, Chief Curator
of the Department from 1947 until his
death in 1960, was especially well
known for his numerous publications in
the field of paleobotany.

This leads us up to the present staff of
equal competence who are continuing
to focus attention on the neotropics.
Why? one may ask. The answer seems
to be because of the challenge of the
unknown, because our ignorance of
the vegetation of that part of the world
was abysmal and is less so now
because of the Museum's research
program. Nevertheless, it still remains
great. It is also believed that some of
the larger problems of plant
systematics, phytogeny, and evolution
may find answers as our study of
particular plants progresses.

June 1973

Where is the Money Going?

Like ants putting their "homes' In order,
workers can be observed inside and outside
the Museum as efforts to update and
improve the building and services continue
at an accelerating pace. These activities are
being made possible through the generosity
of old and new friends of the Museum, who,
to date, have contributed just short of SlO
million to the Museum's S25 million Capital
Campaign.

The campaign, launched in September 1971
by the Museum's Board of Trustees, has as
its goal the generating of SI 2.5 million from
private gifts, to be matched by SI 2.5 million
through the bonding authority of the Chicago
Park District. It is the first such campaign in
the Museum's history. Previously, the
Museum has elected to use its income
principally in meeting the growing demands
of collection, research, exhibits, and
educational services to the public.
Consequently, repairs are needed and
Improvements have always taken a back
seat. These problems, related in past issues
of the Bulletin, can no longer be ignored.

A portion of the funds already raised Is
being employed to satisfy several of the
Museum's needs. Tuckpointing of the
building's exterior was begun last year,
discontinued through the winter, and begun
again In April. The job Is expected to be
completed by fall.

Visitors to the Museum's exhibit. "Below
Man's Vision: Electronic Windows to Unseen
Worlds," have discovered the marvels of
scientific photography made possible by the
scanning electron microscope. Soon Field
Museum scientists' research will benefit from
this microscope. The southwest corner of
the third floor, currently being remodeled,
should be ready to receive the new
instrument in June. Parts of the microscope
have already arrived at the Museum.

During Chicago's spring cold spells, some
Museum work areas have found themselves
without heat. But employees have consoled
themselves with the knowledge that this
temporary discomfort was due to a major
improvement that has begun, the conversion
of the present coal-fired boilers to a
gas or oil capability. The conversion Is
expected to minimize air pollution, and the
system should be ready for the first cold
spell of the fall season.

Another project, due to begin momentarily,
is the rehabilitation of the north and south

exterior stairs, which will take about one
year to complete. The rebuilding will result
in less costly maintenance and the
prevention of the stairs' eventual collapse.

Concurrent with this project, eight new
emergency exits will be built to meet a
building code requirement. There will be
four each on the north and south sides of
the Museum, on the stairway landings
between the ground and first floors.

As Members' Nights attendees already
know, the Department of Exhibition is
enjoying renovated quarters that better
accommodate its staff and ensure efficient
and expanded operations.

These are just a few of the many projects to
be undertaken that will permit the Museum
to better serve all of its visitors and at the
same time enhance its scientific endeavors.
They will ensure that Field Museum will
retain its position among the world's leading
scientific, educational, and cultural
institutions.

Workmen are making seams watertight by filling them with a waterproofing
several projects Capital Campaign funds are making possible.

It's one of

Field Museum Bulletin 13

m'A m a.^ '

&«<,v.w^.. . A & %^« m w a

180 Cited on Traveler Day

Field Museum honored 180 youngsters on
Museum Traveler Day, April 28, for
successfully completing the various
categories in the Museum's Journey
Program. Of the 180, 123 participated in
the awards ceremony in the James Simpson
Theatre, where, after the presentations, a
color motion picture. "Kenya-Uganda
Safari," was shown.

Fifteen children were eligible for membership
in the Museum's Discoverers' Club after
participating in 16 journeys and a special
"Voyage of the Beagle" journey. Club
membership entitles them to free admission
to the Museum until age 18. In other
classifications, 19 became Beaglers after
completing 16 journeys; 19 were named
Explorers for 12 journeys; 40 were
designated Adventurers for 8 journeys: and
87 were recognized as Travelers for 4
journeys.

The program, featuring four journeys each
year, is organized by the Museum's
Department of Education. The self-guided
tours are designed to acquaint children who
can read and write with a variety of exhibits.

Hummer Named Project Manager

Paul Hummer has joined the Museum's
staff as Project Manager of the "Man in His
Environment" program, tentatively scheduled
to be ready for presentation to the public in
Fall 1974. Hummer, who received his
Master of City Planning degree from the
University of Pennsylvania, was most
recently with the Pittsburgh Model Cities
Program. There, he was concerned with
research in urban programs, especially in
education and community arts.

Turtle Named for Zangerl

A land Tortoise, extinct for 110,000,000
years and first discovered only a few years
ago by a joint Polish-Mongolian fossil-
collecting expedition in Mongolia, has been
given the scientific name Zangerlia
testudinimorpha. to honor Dr. Rainer Zangerl,
Chairman of the Museum's Department of
Geology. The turtle was named by Dr.
Marian MIynarski of the Polish Academy of
Science in recognition of Dr. Zangerl's
international reputation as a student of
fossil turtles.

25 Years Ago: June 1948

Newspapers were having a field day (no
pun intended) with photographs of the
Museum's "terror bird," a 5-foot, life-size
reproduction of Mesembriornia, a
nightmarish and carnivorous extinct bird. It
had been recently placed on display, and
today is found in Hall 21. . . . Marie Svoboda,

now Raymond Foundation Coordinator in
the Museum's Department of Education,
delivered a lecture-tour on "What to Wear —
Unusual Materials Used in Clothing." ... A
model of the earths interior was placed on
exhibition in Hall 29, where it still receives
visitor interest. . . . Gifts to the Museum's
Department of Zoology included 25 frogs,
10 snakes, 14 fish, 87 salamanders, 5
lizards, 8 crabs, a black bear cub, a
Chinese turtle, and a tree shrew.

Stanton R. Cook Named Trustee

Stanton R. Cook, publisher of the Chicago
Tribune, was elected Museum Trustee at
the April meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Cook, who joined the Tribune in 1951, is
also President and Chief Executive Officer
of the Chicago Tribune Co. and Vice
President of its parent organization. Tribune
Company. Born in Chicago, Cook was
graduated in 1949 from Northwestern

Environmental Program Gets Financial Boost

Financing of the Ivluseum's "l^/lan in His Environment" program, to begin in fall 1974, got an added
boost witti a $60,000 grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Viewing one of the program's future exhibit inhabitants and a display model are Foundation
President Charles F. Murphy Jr., senior partner of the architectural firm C. F. I^flurphy Associates,
and l^useum Director E. Leiand Webber. The public education program will consist of a major
museum exhibit, a traveling version of the exhibit, publications, films, and lectures.

June 1973

Stanton R. Cook

University. During World War II he served
as a navigator with the United States Army
Air Corps. He is also a trustee of the
University of Chicago and a member of the
Board of Directors of the Bureau of
Advertising of the American Newspaper
Publishers Assn. He served as President of
the Chicago Newspaper Publishers Assn.
for two years.

Archaeology Program To Begin

The prehistory of the American Southwest
will be the focus of attention by 12 college
sophomores and juniors for 10 weeks
beginning June 8, when the [yiuseum's
"New Perspectives in Archaeology" program
gets underway at its field station near
Vernon, Arizona. The tuition-free course
emphasizes practical and theoretical
archaeology, and includes the excavation
and reconnaissance of sites that are
estimated to have been inhabited from
about 1000 B.C. to 1500 A.D.

Under the direction of Dr. Paul S. Martin,
Chairman Emeritus of the Museum's
Department of Anthropology, each of the
participants will be asked to devise and
execute an independent research project.
This involves the generation of an
hypothesis, the collection and testing of
data, and the preparation of a paper
covering the research topic. The program
is being financed for the ninth consecutive
year by the National Science Foundation.

African Music, Dance Offered

Programs centered around the music and
dances of Africa were presented at the
Museum during May. On the 6th, Peggy
Harper, Senior Research Fellow in Dance
at the University of Ife, Nigeria, Africa,
presented a film, "Nigerian Dance Teams,"
followed by a discussion period and lecture.
She also conducted a workshop for dance
groups later in the day.

On the 12th, Sunto Suso of Gambia, West
Africa, who is a virtuoso of the 21 -string
kora, presented a program of traditional
and modern Mandinka music and narrative.
The kora, a combination of a harp and a
lute, was developed to its present form in
West Africa. It is usually played singly or
in groups, but not in concert with other
instruments.

Women's Board Elects Officers

The election of officers, a luncheon, and a
panel discussion were among the events
that took place during the annual meeting
of Field Museum's Women's Board, May 8.

The election of officers was conducted in
the President's Room of the Museum. The
following were elected: Mrs. B. Edward
Bensinger, President: Mrs. Frank D. Mayer,
Mrs. Joseph E. Rich, and Mrs. Harold F.
Grumhaus, Vice Presidents; Mrs. Thomas

E. Donnelley II, Recording Secretary: Mrs.
Carroll Sudler, Corresponding Secretary:
Mrs. Robert E. Straus, Treasurer; Mrs.
Edward F. Blettner, Assistant Treasurer;
and Mrs. James W. Alsdorf, Mrs. Edward
McCormick Blair, Mrs. Frank O. Wetmore,
Mrs. Henry P. Wheeler, and Mrs. Philip K.
Wrigley, Board Members at Large. Mrs.
Elliott Donnelley was Chairwoman of the
Nominating Committee.

Following the election of officers. Museum
Director E. Leiand Webber moderated a
panel discussion on the subject of "The
Museum as a Center for Scientific
Research." Participants included Dr. Robert

F. Inger, Assistant Director, Science and
Education; Dr. Rainer Zangerl, Chairman,
Department of Geology; and Dr. Rupert L.
Wenzel, Chairman, Department of Zoology.
The luncheon was then held in one of the
Museum's handsome botanical halls.

The chairwomen of the board's standing
committees have also been named. They
are: Mrs. Bowen Blair, By-laws; Mrs.

University Club Cites Webber

A highlight of the annual Women's Board
meeting was the presentation to Museum
Director E. Leiand Webber (left) of a citation
from the University Club. Frank A. Reichelderfer,
President of the club, congratulated Webber
for his "outstanding contribution to the cultural
life of Chicago." The award is given annually
by the club for exceptional community service.

Frencfi Paleontologist Visits

A French flag flying in Iront of the Museum
recently greeted visiting paleontologist
Dr. Cecile Poplin, who with her husband.
Dr. Francois Poplin (right), an anatomist,
visited with Dr. Rainer Zangerl. Chairman
of the Museum's Department of Geology.
Drs. Poplin, from the National Museum of
Natural History in Paris, were here to study
some of the Museum's collections.

Edward Byron Smith, Liaison with Building
Committee; Mrs. Corwith Hamill, Liaison
with Capital Campaign; Mrs. Edward F.
Swift, Lists and Files; Mrs. J. Harris Ward,
Membership: Mrs. Gaylord Freeman,
Nominating; Mrs. Wallace D. MacKenzie,
Program; Mrs. William Wood-Prince,
Publicity; Mrs. Cameron Brown, Social;
Mrs. Richard Oughton, Volunteers; Mrs. A.
Watson Armour, III, Plants; and Mrs. Arthur
S. Bowes, Special Events.

Field Museum Bulletin

"T- V n ■■

lL j

American Indian Art

By Norman Feder. New York: Harry N.
Abrams, Inc., 1969. (Printed and bound in
Japan.) 445 pp.; illustrations; map. $35.

A notable recent ptienomenon in the art
world has been widespread interest in art
from all regions of the world. Ethnic art has
been the subject of steadily increasing
attention on the part of both art museums
and private collectors and examples now
bring fabulous prices from dealers or at
auctions where formerly such objects were
either ignored entirely or could be obtained
very cheaply. Interest in the art of North
American Indians has been an important
aspect of this new enthusiasm and has
resulted in the publication of numerous
books, most of them of coffee table size and
design, on the subject. Many of these are
organized in an unimaginative manner and
discussion of the objects chosen for
illustration is superficial. These are
criticisms that cannot be leveled at this fine
book by Norman Feder, Curator of American
Indian Art at the Denver Art Museum,

The scope of Feder's book is restricted to
historic art from North America north of
Mexico and there are 242 black and white
illustrations together with 59 color plates.
Although the author believes that Indian art

can be judged and appreciated by Western
standards, he also stresses the fact that
knowledge of the cultural context of an
object greatly enhances one's appreciation
as well as understanding.

In his introductory chapters, Feder discusses
the difficulty of identifying tribal styles
primarily because of lack of documentation
for specimens in museums and private
collections. He also notes the importance of
copied European styles and introduced
European tools and materials. Other subjects
dealt with briefly but with considerable
insight include motivations for artistic
decoration, the relationship of ecology to
art, the artist as a specialist, and the
commercialism that is characteristic of most
recent American Indian art. Unlike many
contemporary observers, Feder believes that
the prospects for a viable Indian art in the
future are good and will, under the most
favorable circumstances, result in a vigorous
development of new forms based on old
traditions.

The largest part of the book is devoted to a
consideration of Indian art by culture areas.
The major styles of each area are discussed
in some detail with illustrations keyed to
these discussions. Feder's treatment of the
cultural and economic resources of the
various areas is, of necessity, less detailed
and there are some inevitable over-
generalizations. The author's culture areas
include the Plains, Southwest, Great Basin
and Pacific Plateau, Northwest Coast, Arctic
Coast, and Woodlands. As might be
expected, heaviest emphasis is on the
Plains, Southwest, and Northwest Coast
areas where Indian art was highly developed
and examples are abundant in museums
and private collections. In addition to the art
objects, black-and-white photographs
include some historical scenes of Indians
and their lifeways. Feder illustrates 16
specimens from Field Museum collections,
12 of which can be seen by visitors in the
American Indian halls on the main floor.
These include a beautiful Tlingit Chilkat
blanket in Hall 10, a Cheyenne painted
parfleche (Hall 6, case 22), and an elaborate
Arapaho Ghost Dance dress
(Hall 5, case 32).

The quality of objects selected for
illustration in this excellent book is so high,
the scholarship so sound, and the work so
beautifully produced that criticism somehow
seems out of place. There are, however,
so.Tie minor errors (at least one wrong

catalogue number), and, inevitably, a few of
the provenience attributions are
questionable. In a work of this kind, it is
always possible to question the author's
selection of objects to be illustrated. My
own particular preference would have been
for the inclusion of the art of Northern
Athapaskan Indians with illustrated examples
of their quillwork designs, the most intricate
in North America.

In an era of expensive and ponderous
coffee table books, this one is likely to
make both your pocketbook and the table
groan. Nevertheless, it is a marvelous book
both for the sophisticated student of art and
the novice seeing for the first time the
superb achievements of North American
Indian artists.

by Dr. James VanStone, Chairman,
Department ot Anthropology, Field Museum.

The Colorful Mineral Identifier

By Anthony Tennissen, Photographs by
Werner Lieber. New York; Sterling
Publishing Company. 120 color plates. $3,50

Amateur mineral collectors repeatedly ask
why it is not possible to have a book
published on mineral identification that just
simply tells how to identify minerals — no
fancy stuff — just straightforward facts. They
frequently cite any of the numerous good
books on bird identification as examples of
the kind of book they seek but do not find
on the bookstands. Why no such book has
appeared is simple — it is impossible. The
reasons are numerous and can't be gone
into in detail here. Suffice to say, if minerals
were like birds then it would be possible.
Each species of bird has, within pretty
narrow limits, relatively constant adult size,
coloration, body form or shape, habits, and
habitat. This is not true of any mineral.

Because the mineral collector constantly
seeks such a cut-and-dried book, publishers
are constantly attempting to supply it — they
themselves unaware of the difficulties. The
result is a plethora of books on the market
that promise a great deal, but fail, in varying
degrees, to satisfy the demand. The Colorlul
Mineral Identilier is unfortunately [again]
just such a book. Any untutored amateur,
armed with this book, will find it hopeless
as a means to identify most of the minerals
he encounters.

One of the main complaints of amateurs

June 1973

with books already on the market is, "I
never collect minerals that look anything like
the pictures in the books." The reason is
simple. Most amateurs are able to collect
mainly fairly run-of-the-mill specimens of a
few dozen of the very common minerals.
When specimens are chosen for book
illustrations, however, authors almost always
choose nice-looking to fabulous-looking
specimens; and in order to offer enough
pages they usually include minerals the
amateur is never likely to encounter in the
field. The specimens shown in this book
were clearly chosen for these same reasons.
The text, on the other hand, is weak. Each
page of text is a strict, rigid format of: name,
composition, crystal system, hardness,
specific gravity, etc., etc., ending with a
generalized list of localities that is useless
for an amateur collector. What the text does
is to touch all bases; it duplicates the
descriptive texts of hundreds of mineral
books and mineralogy texts of several
previous generations.

Thus, as a book for the beginner to use in
mineral identification it is. in the estimation
of this reviewer, a flop. This is not to say,
however, that it is totally without any merit.
The 120 color photographs by Wernei Lieber
are excellent. Although not printed on
glossy stock, the color rendition is sharp,
bright, and the hues quite true — a tribute to
an unnamed professional who prepared the
color separations with pride and obvious
skill. The specimens illustrated consist
mostly of small, down to microscopic, size
crystals. In each case they are attractive,
well-crystallized, and of the best color
known for each mineral.

It is unfortunate the author and publisher
chose to call this book The Colorful Mineral
Identifier. Had they simply called it The
Colorlul Mineral Book, without the implied
promise of help to the noyice, and included
a text that pointed up distinctive features
(not necessarily the same routines ones) of
each mineral, it would have received an
unqualified recommendation from this
reviewer. Even at that, if you are deeply
interested in mineral collecting, at any level,
it is a worthwhile purchase for the 120 fine
color photographs at an unbelievably low
price of S3. 50. Even though the plates are of
fairly small size, ZVt inches by 4 inches,
they are well worth the price. In these days,
such bargains are few.

by Dr. Edward Olsen, Curator ot Mineralogy,
Field Museum,

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Continuing

Below Man's Vision: Electronic Windows
to Unseen Worlds, an exhibit exploring the
world of details in common objects and
familiar plants and animals, and offering
glimpses into current research activities.
Nearly 300 photographs, displayed at up to
200,000 times life-size, introduce a
previously unseen world. Through July 15,
Hall 18.

Seventeen-Year Cicada: A Strategy for
Survival, a multi-media exhibit describing
and interpreting the adaptive significance
of the unusual life cycle of these strange
insects. Millions of cicadas (locusts) are
scheduled to make their noisy appearance
above ground in the Chicago area around
June 1. Through July 29. Hall 9.

Adaptations of Amphibians and Reptiles,

an exhibit of photographs portraying the
natural beauty and aesthetic qualities of
these animals, as well as illustrating some
of their often remarkable and unique
adaptations which help them survive. They
were taken by Dr. Nathan W. Cohen,
Chairman, Department of Continuing
Education in Sciences and Mathematics,
University of California, Berkeley. Through
September 30. Hall 27.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75tfi Anniversary Exfiibit

Children's Programs

Begins June 1

Summer Journey for Children, "Nature
Invented It First," a self-guided tour
highlighting animals and plants which
possess "innovative" features duplicated in
human inventions. Youngsters are provided
with a questionnaire which routes them
through Museum exhibit areas. All boys
and girls who can read and write may join
in the activity. Journey sheets available at
entrances.

Meetings

June 10: 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club

June 12: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera Club
'of Chicago

June 13: 7 p.m., Chicago Ornithological
Society

June 13: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society

June 14: 8 p.m., Chicago Mountaineering
Club

June 26: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera Club
of Chicago

Coming in July

Children's movies at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on
Thursdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

June Hours

9 a.m to 6 p.m. Saturday through Thursday;
9 am to 9 p.m. Friday.

Beginning June 23 and continuing through September
2. the Museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
on Wednesday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410

Volume 44, Number 7
July/August 1973

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 7
July/August 1973

2 Spiders — The Ingenious Predators

John Kethley

the curious ways of some ol man's

closest neighbors

5 Welcome to the Stone Age

the Museum's Hall of the Stone Age of
the Old World revisited

12 Our Botanists Scour Latin America

a review of recent field work

15 Capital Campaign

$10 million-level reached

16 Field Briefs
Calendar

century German-Swiss naturalist Konrad Von Gesner.
Cover design by Cliftord Abrams.

Field Museum of Natural History
Director, E, Leiand Webber

Managing Editor G Henry Ottery; Editor David M. Walsten; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs: Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum ot Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History.
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive. Chicago, Illinois 60605, Subscriptions: $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form 3579 to Field Museum of
Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Illinois 60605. ISSN: 0015-0703.

Field Museum Bulletin

mers

the ingenious predators

By John B. Kethley

Assistant Curator of Insects

The fisher spider (Dolomedes), shown about twice natural size, eats small tish as well as tadpoles
and insects. About a dozen species are found in the United Stales and Canada. Photo courtesy of
John H. Gerard.

Although they are among the most
bashful of creatures, spiders occupy
an important place in man's ecological
sphere. Compared to their close
relatives the insects, spiders are
relatively inactive and retiring; most are
well camouflaged in dark or dull colors,
thus they are seldom conspicuous in
nature. It has been estimated, however,
that in some grasslands the spider
population may exceed 2.2 million per
acre. Since all spiders are predators,
such an abundance of them has a
significant effect on other animals (and
plants) in their communitlee.

As predators, many of the 30,000-odd
known species of spiders depend in
one way or another on their silk for
capturing prey (all possess silk glands).
Relatively few spin webs. The beautifully
intricate, wheel-shaped webs of the
orb-weaving spiders are familiar to
everyone. Unlike many of its relatives,
the orb-weaver has poor vision. It
locates insects or other creatures that
have become entrapped in the sticky
web by means of vibrations imparted to
the web by the struggling victim. The
so-called ray-spider also spins an
orb-shaped web. This spider lashes
several "spokes" together with a
central thread, then perches above the
web on a twig, holding the central
thread and pulling the web into a
funnel-like shape. When an insect
touches the web, the spider releases
the thread and the wetD snaps free,
ensnaring the victim.

Purseweb and pirate spiders

For many years spider experts could
not determine how the purseweb spider
captures her prey. This spider constructs
a tubular web with the base sunken
into the earth, about three inches of
tube extending above ground. The
mystery lay in the fact that the upper
end of the tube was sealed and the
spider was always found inside.
Eventually it was observed that when
an insect comes in contact with the
tube, the spider strikes through the
silken tube from the inside. The prey
IS then pulled through the wall of the
tube. Before the spider eats her victim,
however, she repairs the damage to
the purseweb.

Pirate spiders of the family Mimetidae
feed exclusively on other spiders. They

. July/August 1973

"\"»A^#r"» "i^.T't-t-r/' .^^■%"-:r •■•■•••- «, • «.

"-~» «T.T.ryi 1 k k.-\-%-*-W y^'^'rjK^

r*'*' .. ■ — ."^ - "• >» v.v# ^■.~»~i"VT.'k'»»'^

THE ORB-WEAVING SPIDER
begins its web (1) by letting a
strand of silk drift over to another
twig. (2) The connection is
reinforced by nnore strands. (3) A
vertical strand is dropped from the
middle. (4) A horizontal strand is
pulled down to form a triangle.
(5) The web takes shape, with
spokes being added. (6, 7) Spokes
completed, spiraling strands are
laid outward from the hub.

do not make their own webs but invade
the webs of orb-weavers and comb-
footed spiders, killing the rightful owner.

Some pirate spiders of the genus Ero
quietly enter the web of an intended
victim, clear a space among the threads
and then pull on the prey's web in the
same manner as a courting male. The
aroused occupant scurries out, hoping
to encounter a new mate, only to
become a meal for Ero!

Versatility of silk

In addition to making webs, spiders
use silk in a variety of other ways.
Once a victim is ensnared in a web,
the spider may completely wrap it with
silk and save it to be eaten later.
Males make silken packets in which
they transfer sperm to the female.

Eggs are often protected by special
sacs constructed of silk. Some young
spiders use a strand of silk as a "sail."
They crawl to the top of a leaf or
twig, spin a trail of silk, then are blown
aloft. When the wind catches the
thread, the spider may be carried for
hundreds of miles on wind currents.
This is one of nature's unique ways
of species dispersal.

Jumping spiders of the family
Salticidae do not make webs but
search for prey on the ground or in
vegetation. When a jumping spider is
above ground and spies an insect
below, she first secures a drag line to
the twig and then jumps. If she misses
her prey, the drag line stops her fall,
and she scampers back up the line to
try another time. Stories of such
persistence, patience, and industry

among spiders are legion. Scottish hero
Robert "the Bruce" (1274-1329)
allegedly was inspired to renew his
struggles against the English by
watching a persevering spider.

Spitting spiders of the family Scytodicae
capture their prey in a more sedate
manner. When a potential victim is
about half an inch away, the spider
shoots a blob of sticky silk onto the
prey, pinning it to the surface. She
then leisurely strolls over to her meal.

Some of the cribellate spiders actually
carry their webs to the victim (usually
a moth). The spider constructs a small
rectangular web and attaches the
corners to her four front legs. When
an insect lands nearby, the spider
leaps on the victim and covers it
with the net.

Field Museum Bulletin

The notorious black widow has a painful bite,
but victims usually recover within several hours.
Actual body size is about V2 inch Photo
courtesy of John H. Gerard.

Cannibalism

Nearly all of the social or gregarious
spider species are cribellates. Male
cribellates have a less precarious
marriage than males of most other
groups. During mating, the female
allows him to remain in the same web,
and will tolerate his presence there
for several months afterward.

The killing and eating of the male by
the female spider after mating is one
of the common misconceptions about
spiders. Actually, the fate of the
male depends upon a great many
highly variable conditions. If the female
has recently eaten, or if the male
gives the proper identifying cues, he
stands a very good chance of escaping
after mating.

Giants and midgets

One of the largest spiders found in the
United States is a species of tarantula,
or hairy mygalomorph, Dugesiella
hentzi, common to the southwest. It
easily covers the palm of the hand
with its outstretched legs. The tarantula
also holds the record for longevity
among spiders. Some captive females
have lived almost 30 years. Most true
spiders, however, live only 12 to 18
months, producing one or two batches

The bite of the brown recluse spider ulcerates
and IS slow to heal. Actual body size is about
Vi inch.

of young. Dwarf spiders (Linyphiidae)
are the midgets of the spider world.
Several would fit comfortably inside
this letter 0.

Venomous spiders

Although most spiders are quite
harmless, the entire group is often
eyed with suspicion because of a few
notoriously poisonous species. In
the United States there are two groups
of species that one should learn to
recognize and regard with caution; the
widows, or hourglass spiders
{Latrodectus, especially L. mactans),
and the brown spiders {Loxosceles.
especially L. reclusa and L. laeta).
Latrodectus mactans occurs virtually
throughout the United States, with the
exception of Hawaii and Alaska.
Relatively uncommon in nature, it
is most frequently discovered in trash
piles, under boards, and in outbuildings.
The body and legs of the adult
female are shiny black and there is a
characteristic red hourglass on the
lower abdomen; the total leg span is
about iy2 inches. The male — a
fraction the size of the female — does
not bite. The female is actually not
very aggressive and must be provoked
before she will bite. She is most apt
to bite when guarding an egg sac.
The venom of the black widow is a

nerve poison, causing severe pain,
nausea, and muscular weakness, but
recovery generally follows in a matter
of hours.

The brown recluse (L. reclusa) occurs
primarily in the Midwest, and like
the black widow is quite comfortable
in man's dwellings. The characteristic
"fiddle" marking is found on the upper
part of the body that bears the legs.
The venom of the brown recluse
causes an ulcerous wound that is slow
to heal. The bite of the brown spider
{Loxosceles laeta) has a similar action
to that of L. reclusa but is considerably
more potent. This spider is native to
South America but has become
established in the United States.
The large tarantulas of the southwest
are greatly feared, but this fear is totally
without foundation. A tarantula will not
bite unless it is abused. Even then,
the fangs usually do not penetrate the
skin. If penetration does occur it is
hardly more painful than a pin prick;
other than this slight discomfort the
effect of the venom is nil.

Spiders are victims, too

Just as most spiders are aggressive
predators, they too, are preyed upon
by other creatures. Certain species of
mud-daubers and digger wasps seek
out spiders, stinging them with a
paralyzing venom, then dragging the
stunned spider off to their nests to
provide food for their own growing
young. A notable example of such a
predator is the tarantula hawk, Pepsis,
that searches for female tarantulas.
Rarely does this giant spider win battle
with the intrepid wasp. Many insects
are parasites of spider egg sacs. The
larvae of mantid flies are known to
develop only in the egg sacs of ground
spiders. The larvae of small-headed
flies of the family Acroceridae are
internal parasites of adult spiders. The
most common enemies of spiders,
however, are birds and other spiders.

Between its alternate roles as predator
and victim the spider manages to hold
on to its own delicate foothold in the
ecological scheme of things. Like man,
the spider has so far been "successful."

This article was published with the permission
ot National Wildlite magazine.

July/August 1973

WELCOME

TO THE STONE AGE

The Museums Stone Age Hall Revisited

Forty years ago, while a "century of
progress" was being celebrated in
Chicago, Field Museum was celebrating
5,000 centuries of less energetic
progress by opening Hall C, which
depicts, in eight dramatic groups,
human prehistory from an early
stage in the Pleistocene period down
to the dawn of the historical period.
This reconstruction of 500,000 years of
man's past was a spectacle never
before attempted by any museum in the
world. Since that day in July 1933
millions of visitors to the "Hall of the
Stone Age of the Old World" have stood
in awe before the life-like groups of
prehistoric man, and wondered at the
nearby cases of artifacts from the
periods represented in the dioramas.
The exhibit's unusual human interest,
tinged with overtones of adventure and
romance, has placed it consistently
among the fvluseum's most famous and
popular attractions.

Preparations for the presentation had
begun many years before its completion,
and involved extensive travel and
research, and the acquisition of
archaeological collections from Europe
as well as other parts of the world. The
general plan was the result of many
hours of intense collaboration between
Henry Field, assistant curator of
physical anthropology, and Dr. Berthold
Laufer, curator of anthropology, with the
cooperation of Abbe Henri Breuil,

professor at the College de France in
Paris and corresponding member of
Field Museum. Their guiding purpose
was to present the most complete and
interesting picture that scientific
knowledge then permitted of the lives,
cultures, and physical characters of
prehistoric members of the human race.

To obtain data for accurate exhibits, it
was necessary to visit many prehistoric
sites. In June 1927 Field, Breuil, and
well-known American sculptor Frederick
Blaschke visited prehistoric sites in
Europe to conduct studies for the
dioramas. They were accompanied by a
photographer, Henri Barreyre, and an
artist, Pierre Gatier. For each site scale
models were built, and motion and still
pictures, as well as paintings, were
prepared. This expedition and three
more were financed by Marshall Field.

From data collected on these field trips,
Blaschke was able to make the life-size
human figures, under the direction of
Sir Arthur Keith, Prof. G. Elliot Smith,
and Breuil. The brushes of Museum
staff artist Charles A. Corwin lent
dramatic interest and realism to the
painted backgrounds.

The resulting dioramas reflect a perfect
blend of scholarship, imagination, talent,
and labor, for the resource material
was, at best, fragmentary — literally.
Well-preserved skeletal material of

Neanderthalers and Cro-Magnons has
often been found, but rarely does the
material represent an appreciable part
of the complete skeleton. In addition,
as pointed out by Dr. Glen Cole,
associate curator of prehistory in the
Museum's anthropology department,
in the October 1972 Bulletin: ". . . when
such unpreserved aspects of
Neanderthal man's appearance as
clothing, skin color, and hair form,
length, and style are concerned, much
guesswork is involved. . . ."

The guesswork, of course, is attributable
to early man's inability to keep
permanent records of his civilization
and pass them down through his
ancestors. Although in 1690 a pear-
shaped tool, associated with the bones
of an extinct elephant, was found near
Gray's Inn Lake in London and aroused
a little interest, the study of prehistory
did not really begin until much later. In
1847 Boucher de Perthes published an
account of worked flints collected by
him from the alluvial deposits of the
Somme River in northern France,
triggering, perhaps, the first serious
attempts by man to delve into his
distant past.

Laufer once wrote, about attempts to
reconstruct prehistory, "I would gladly
sacrifice all medieval local chronicles of
European towns and monasteries and
throw the lives of the emperors and

Field Museum Bulletin

1. The first diorama depicts Homo ereclus in Europe about 500,000 years ago, although early forms of
man also lived in Asia and Africa. These men had a language, made stone tools, and used fire.

martyrs for good measure into the
bargain in exchange for one
contemporaneous motion picture reel
taken of the life of the Neanderthalers
and Cro-f^agnons and a dozen
dictaphone records of their speech and
songs, not to speak of the gain that
v^ould have accrued to our knowledge
of history and anthropology if Alexander
the Great, on his conquest of Asia, had
been accompanied by an army of
camera men." But, Laufer continued,
probably with a sigh, "The next best
thing to the motion pictures of which we
unfortunately are deprived is the drama
in eight acts represented by the eight
groups of prehistoric man and his
culture. . . ."

Act I — 500,000 years ago

Imagine the outrage of people born just
a century or two ago had they come
across the Ivluseum's diorama of men
of the Pleistocene period, for many of
their most learned believed that the
world was created in 4004 B.C.,
according to the chronology of
Archbishop Ussher (1581-1656), and
that man was the result of special
creation. It would have been
incomprehensible to them that billions
of years had passed before any animal

that could be definitely recognized as
human had evolved upon the earth, and
that it happened so long ago.

The figures in the first diorama,
depicting a scene in the middle part of
the Pleistocene period in northern
France some 500,000 years ago, would,
in their minds, have been of questionable
similarity to humans. Homo ereclus

appears rugged, has powerful jaws, is
covered with coarse, thick hair, and
looks quite frightening from our point of
view. Because of the meagerness of
data on this period, Henry Field and his
assistants decided to present the scene
in the approximated dimness of silvery
moonlight. In the foreground, squatting
beside a fire in the shelter of a large
rock, are two hunters. One is chipping
flakes from a crude flint hand ax,
preparing for tomorrow's hunt. On the
opposite bank of a meandering river,
the fire drives three elephants from their
watering place. Farther upstream a
hippopotamus can be seen on the bank.
Near the skyline a magnificent stag
watches the flickering light, while a pack
of wolves steals through the
underbrush.

During this warm interval in the Ice Age,
great varieties of animals dominated the
earth. Man, small in numbers and
physically weak in comparison, was
forced to use ingenuity and his powers
of reason. He had knowledge of fire,
enabling him to keep away marauding
animals. He was becoming sophisticated
in the manufacture of stone tools and
weapons. The tools he produced are
called Acheulean. It is interesting to
note that these primitive men could

2. Homo sapiens was distributed over much of the Old World by around 100,000 years ago. This
second diorama depicts a Neanderthal family on Gibraltar approximately 50,000 years ago.

July/August 1973

have walked from France to England to
hunt during colder times In the
Pleistocene period, when the English
Channel did not exist.

At the close of this period, the climate
was becoming colder, and the
mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, and other
cold-loving fauna moved into western
Europe.

Act II — 50,000 years ago

Gibralter, the home of the Neanderthal
family of the period depicted in the
second diorama, during the most recent
cold period of the Ice Age, was far
enough south to be among the
European Homo sapiens' milder
habitats; but unlike its northern
neighbors this family enjoyed meals of
shellfteh from the Mediterranean.

The family is shown at the entrance to
Devil's Tower rock shelter at Gibralter.
Silhouetted against the deep blue of the
Mediterranean stands a young man with
a wooden club, bringing a rabbit he has
killed, as other members of the family
go about their daily activities. The father
crouches beside the fire waiting for
mussels to open as the heat penetrates
the shells. His five-year-old son, wishing
to help, is bringing twigs to replenish
the fire. Within the rock cleft, the mother
is carrying her baby on her hip.

In addition to finding new uses for fire
and inventing a variety of new tools for
scraping skins for clothes and removing
meat from bones, observed examples of
ceremonial interment of the dead seem
evidence that the larger-set (by
comparison with Homo erectus)
Neanderthaler revered his dead and
believed in a future life. (This diorama
recently underwent a revision, to reflect
recent scientific opinion. See the
October 1972 Bulletin, page 6.)

Act III — 35,000 years ago

About 35,000 years ago, while the
climate of western Europe was still
extremely cold, a new race, the Cro-
Magnons, entered Europe from Asia.

3. Gargas cave in southwestern France is ttie scene of many cave paintings and friezes, and one of its
cfiambers is reproduced for the third diorama. A second Cro-IVIagnon is out of the picture to the right.

They seem to have replaced completely
the Neanderthal population, whether
due to competition, war, inbreeding, or
other causes. No Neanderthal remains
are found after this time. The differences
in physical appearance between them
and the Neanderthalers is apparent to
visitors standing before the third
diorama in the Museum's drama of
stone age men. In general, the Gro-
Magnons were taller in stature than the
Neanderthalers. Their most important
differences, however, are found in their
cultures, for here is the dawn of art, and
a significant advance in toolmaking.

Two modern theories to explain the
emergence of this artistic expression
differ, though both connect the Cro-
Magnon's art to his food supply. The
popular theory contends that art was
considered necessary to a successful
hunt, that man's art was a form of
"hunting magic" that would ensure the
artist a good hunt through this
ceremonial killing on the cave walls.
The other theory, held by many
practicing anthropologists, is that these
drawings were a form of "fertility
magic" that was meant to ensure an

abundant game supply.

As can be seen in the third diorama,
artistic expression took the form of
engravings and paintings in the Gro-
Magnon's cave. His depictions of
animals are natural, accented with
scratches made with tools, or
applications of some colored pigment.
And, like the creators of the Museum's
stone age dioramas, the Gro-Magnon
often created models to simplify the
faithful and accurate reproduction of the
animals. These models were in the form
of carvings upon bone, ivory, or stone.

The Gro-Magnon man in the diorama is
working by fire and lamplight — animal
fat was burned in stone lamps. He is
resting on his left knee, his left hand
held firmly against the wall with fingers
outspread. In his right hand he holds a
hollow bone tube prepared from the leg
bone of a reindeer. Through this tube
he is blowing powdered red ocher
around the outlines of his fingers, so
that when his hand is removed from the
wall an imprint remains. This frieze of
hands is reproduced from Gargas Gave
in southwestern France. On the ground

Field Museum Bulletin

nearby are a pestle and mortar used for
powdering the ocher, and the shoulder
blade of a cave bear upon which part of
the coloring material has been mixed
with grease. Overhead the stalactites
glisten in the glow of the fire. From the
back of the cave another Cro-Magnon
is coming toward the sanctuary, his
face illuminated by the sandstone lamp
that he carries.

This scene shows the dawn of art. Art
appears to have been an instrument for
the practice of magic and religion; at
that time, according to Field, there was
very little difference between them. Also
new during this period was the use of
personal ornamentation. Necklaces of
reindeer teeth, seashells, or fish
vertebrae were worn. The Cro-Magnon
hunters may have painted their bodies
with red ocher, as their dead have been
found buried with a coating of this
material. It seems possible that this
custom was connected with the belief
that blood was synonymous with life,
and if so that they were buried thus,
along with their finest ornaments and
most useful tools and weapons, to make

an imposing appearance in the new life
beyond the grave.

Act IV — 20.000 years ago

The scene: Roc de Sers, southwestern
France, in a valley bounded on each
side by cliffs. In the cliff above the right
bank there is a cave with a broad
platform below. On this platform are a
quantity of burned bones, ashes, and
calcined pebbles; flint tools and rejects
suggest that part of the platform was
used as a workshop. At the back of the
platform are large blocks arranged in a
semicircle.

The time: early in the 20th century.

Enter: Archaeologist Henri Martin and
members of his expedition. In order to
excavate underneath the semicircle of
large blocks, the scientists remove them
— and in so doing throw an entirely new
light on the art of the Solutrean period
of 20,000 years ago.

When the first block was overturned,
sculptures of two animals were

discovered on the side which had been
lying face down. The remaining blocks
were disengaged and set back in
position on a natural ledge from which
they had fallen or been thrown, and the
scientists gazed upon a magnificent
frieze. Looking from left to right, they
observed on the first block a figure
representing a masked human in an
attitude suggestive of dancing. On the
other blocks are seen two small horses
and another animal with an elongated
muzzle; a musk-ox, his head lowered, in
the act of charging a man, who is
fleeing in terror; a short-legged horse
and traces of an ox destroyed by the
sculptor; and a small horse preceded
by a fantastic animal with a head like
that of a boar or a carnivore, an
elliptical eye, and elongated muzzle,
pointed ears, and no horns. The animals
are represented as walking and the
precision of movement reveals an
accurate power of observation. A
detailed study of the frieze suggests
that it was executed by several artists.

This scene is recreated in the fourth
diorama in the Hall of the Stone Age of

4. A Solutrean sculptor of 20,000 years ago carves a horse on a block ot stone. On the shell behind
him are reproductions of the other stone carvings found by Henri Martin's expedition to Le Roc, France.

b Ihe most prominent example oi Magaaienian art
France. The skeleton of a young girl (represented by a

July/August 1973

the Old World, through the courtesy of
Dr. Martin, who made casts from the
live original sculptures to create the
scene as it must have appeared 200
centuries ago. The blocks have been
placed in the position in w/hich they
were arranged by the Solutrean artists.
Museum visitors who look closely at
these blocks will note that all of the
animals, sculptured in high relief, are
pregnant. The questions arises: was the
original site a sanctuary for the practice
of "fertility magic?"

During the period depicted in this
diorama, which shows a Solutrean
sculpting a horse on a block of stone,
the climate grew colder and the horse
and wild reindeer were the chief
sources of food. The Solulreans
developed new tools, including flint
spearheads shaped like laurel leaves.
Other new forms of tools show that
these people were masters of a
flint-knapping technique that had not
appeared previously. They also made
javelin points of bone and a slender,
notched dart that would remain in the
flesh of an animal.

Act V — 15,000 years ago

In 1865, a new prehistoric culture,
subsequently named Magdalenian, was
excavated at the base of an overhanging
limestone cliff, where the great rock
shelter of La Madeleine, France, is
located. Many years later, in a small
rock shelter called Cap-Blanc in
southwestern France, what may still be
the most prominent example of
Magdalenian sculpture was found, and
it is this shelter that has been
reproduced as the fifth diorama in the
stone age hall.

During the course of excavation at
Cap-Blanc, a workman accidentally
drove his pickaxe into a human skull,
and a complete skeleton was unearthed.
It was determined that it belonged to an
18-year-old girl. The original skeleton,
the only Magdalenian skeleton in the
United States, is one of Field Museum's
unique treasures, and lies in a case
near the diorama; a modern skeleton
has been placed in the diorama in the
same position in which the original was
found.

During the Magdalenian period, Europe
was still cold and man continued to vie
with bears and other animals for
possession of caves. But food was
abundant, and new weapons assured
more successful hunting and fishing.
The men of this period produced the
finest naturalistic representation of
prehistoric times. The frieze reproduced
in the Museum's diorama is copied from
the Cap-Blanc shelter. Since the
drawings were placed far from the
entrances of shelters or caves, often
upon almost inaccessible walls, the
artist was not merely giving expression
to his aesthetic emotions, wrote Field,
but rather to some quasi-magicoreligious
symbolism.

Act VI — 12,000 years ago

Ice sheets had almost completely
melted in much of the Northern
Hemisphere. The arctic flora was
replaced by the birch and the pine.
Modern fauna, characterized by the red
deer, took the place of the cold-loving
mammoth and reindeer. The mammoth
became extinct. And old human culture

D years ago was found at Cap-Blanc,
I skeleton in the diorama) was also found

6. A boar hunt with spears and dogs depicts how the Cro-Magnon of 12,000 years ago had turned
from larger herd animals to small game. A fifth dog lies dead, out of the photograph to the right.

Field Museum Bulletin

began the transition from the old to the
new stone age. This transitional period
is called the Mesolithic period. Of the
several cultures identified with this time
in history, the Azilian culture of about
10.000 B.C. was chosen to represent the
era in the sixth diorama, and this
diorama is the most dramatic of the
entire series.

An example of one of the later hunting
peoples who roamed the soil of Europe
during this period is recreated for
Museum visitors with a wild boar hunt
at the entrance to the cavern of the Mas
d'Azil, near Toulouse. One important
step in man's advance toward
civilization Is immediately apparent: he
has tamed dogs to assist in the hunting
of his quarry. The scene shows two
Azilians at close quarters with an
enraged wild boar defending his mate
and two young pigs. The hunters have
wooden spears armed with flint points.
Three of the five dogs shown in the
group are restrained with rawhide straps
held by one of the hunters. One dog is
lying dead near the water, the result of
coming within range of the sharp tusks
of the male boar, which is being kept
at bay.

The assistance of man's faithful
companion, the dog, in the hunt might
well compensate for the inferior quality
of the hunting weapons. But the Azilians
were inferior in their art, also, which,
when compared to the Magdalenians, is
degenerate. They made neither
engravings nor sculptures, and their
painting was limited to simple designs
in red ocher on flat pebbles.

Act VII — The new stone age

The moving religious experience of the
next diorama provides a sharp contrast
to the excitement of the Azilian hunt.
Man has moved into the Neolithic
period, or new stone age, and brought
with him the new culture upon which
our modern civilization rests. Among
the contributions of Neolithic man is the
practice of agriculture; the true
domestication of animals, which
involves breeding in captivity; pottery-

7. Farming was becoming the way of life for people in parts of Europe by about 4000 B.C. Tfiis
reproduction of a stone alignment in nortfiwestern France suggests they also worshipped the sun.

making; the development of settled
village life; tool-making by grinding and
polishing; and the sophistication of the
ideas of law, government, and religion,
which were to reach culmination in the
succeeding "civilized" societies.

A form of worship originating during this
period is depicted in the seventh
diorama. These early farmers placed
single standing stones, known as
menhirs, in parallel lines. These
constructions are found in Europe,
Africa, and Asia, but the most important
is at Carnac in Brittany. Upright stones,
from two to twenty-one feet in height,
are lined up in parallel rows in three
sections. The largest section is eleven
lines wide. At the ends of two sections
are large rings of stones. At one point
the lines cross a collective grave. The
line of menhirs in the diorama,
reproduced from Carnac, running east
and west, may have been a place of
worship of the sun, possibly connected
in some way with the cult of the dead.
The priest is shown with his hands
outstretched toward the rising sun.

which casts long, dark shadows behind
the great blocks of weathered granite.
He is welcoming the new day, and the
emotion of the scene is often translated
by its modern viewers as the welcoming
of civilization as they know it.

Act VIII — Dawn of Historical Period

During the winter of 1853-54 the water
in Lake Zurich, Switzerland, receded to
an unusually low level, and revealed the
first evidence of pile villages — buildings
constructed on piles — which had
originally been on the lake's shore. The
Swiss Lake Dwellers of this late
Neolithic period had discovered, as had
their relatives throughout Europe, that
huts constructed on platforms enabled
them to live on already cleared, though
wet and boggy, land. Sometimes these
platforms were raised or supported on
piles.

The ends of the poles — trunks of oak,
beech, fir, pine, and birch trees — were
pointed with the aid of stone axes and
driven into the swampy ground with
heavy stones or crude mallets. To make

July/August 1973

the platform, trunks of trees were laid
across the piles and secured to them by
wooden pins. The rectangular huts were
thatched with bark, straw, reeds, or
rushes. The sides, made of wattles,
were covered inside and out with a
thick layer of clay.

The Lake Dwellers were an industrious
people. They raised cattle, sheep, goats,
and pigs, and cultivated crops; they
were successful hunters: they practiced
weaving of vegetable fibers. They
imported, through trade, copper and
bronze with which to fashion their
implements, elaborate jewelry, bits for
their horses, and knives and swords.
Their civilization developed quickly, but
Henry Field noted that when a people
who understood the use of iron came
among them, probably as conquerors,
the Swiss Lake Dwellers, as
representatives of an individual culture,
virtually disappeared. Within a few
centuries, Rome became the dominant
power.

The final diorama in the Hall of the
Stone Age of the Old World is a large
group showing a calm early morning
scene on Lake Neuchatel, about 2800
B.C. In the foreground two fishermen
are hauling in their seine, which
contains the first catch of the day. The
water reflects the pink glow of the dawn,
which gives the snow-clad Alpine peaks
a roseate hue. On the right is the
village with its thatched houses. The
villagers are beginning their daily tasks.

The dawn of the historical period is at
hand.

Concluding observations

■ Dioramas," noted the October 1933
edition of Fortune magazine, "are a
20th-century improvement in museum
technique. Instead of the old-fashioned
cases of placarded specimens they offer
mounted animals or plaster figures
surrounded by carefully imitated stones
and trees, all arranged to melt
imperceptibly into a painted background

. . . Field Museum, always progressive,
is the first to offer such reconstructions
of prehistoric man. The dioramas . . .
are life-size, cost $150,000 to make."

Nearly 3.3 million perscr:s visited Field
Museum in 1933, and a large portion of
them paused in the stone age hall.
Viewing their ancient ancestors must
have been a personal experience for
each of them.

Henry Field wrote, in Anthropology
Leaflet 31, that the Hall of Stone Age
Man of the Old World allows us "to
turn our thoughts longingly back to
eons of time that were still a sealed
book to the preceding generation. . . .
No one who will spend only a few
minutes in front of each of these groups
will ever forget them; they live and
endure in our memory, and their
memory will always urge us with
irresistible force to return to them. A
new world has been opened here to all
of us with plenty of food for thought
and study."

8. During the third millenium B.C. Swiss villages were built on the soft, wet shores of lakes. This final
diorama depicts a late Neolithic period just before the dawn of history.

Field Museum Bulletin 11

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Dr. Louis Williams studies the growth
above a tranquil forest pool.

Since the Museum's first txjtanical
expedition — a collecting trip to the
Yucatan in 1894-96 by the first botany
curator and founder of the herbarium,
Dr. Charles F. Millspaugh — more than
60 such expeditions have been made to
the American tropics.

During the early months of 1973 several
botanical trips were made to this region.
Dr. Louis Williams, chairman of the
department, was in Guatemala: Dr.
William Burger, associate curator, and
Dr. Johnnie L. Gentry, Jr., assistant
curator, were in Costa Rica, as were
Robert Stolze. custodian of the fern
collection, and Dr. John J. Engel,
Donald Richards assistant curator of
bryology (the study of mosses and
liverworts). While these men were
investigating the flora of Central
America Dr. Rolf Singer, visiting
research curator in mycology (the study
of fungi), was in Ecuador.

Prof. Antonio Molina R., curator of the
herbarium at the Escuela Agricola
Panamericana in Honduras and Roy
Lent in Costa Rica assist Museum staff
on field trips and independently collect
materials in these regions where they
are permanent residents.

In Guatemala

The purpose of Dr. Williams' trip —
which lasted from November 1972 to
January of this year — was to increase
the representation in our collections of
those groups of plants still to be written
up for Flora of Guatemala, a project
that will engage him for at least another
three years. In preparing the work he
will be assisted by Mrs. Dorothy Gibson,
supervisor of the John G. Searle
Herbarium and associate in the Flora of
Guatemala project. This work will
complete the Flora of Guatemala,
totaling more than 7,000 pages. (A
"flora" in this sense is an encyclopedic
inventory of plants.)

While on his Guatemala trip, Williams
was also particularly interested in
collecting members of the enormous
Compositae (the family consisting of
daisies, asters, and their kin), whose

members usually flower in greatest
abundance toward the end of the rainy
season. A very large assemblage of
these plants was made and they are
now being processed at the Museum.
Dr. Williams was assisted in the field by
Mrs. Williams and by Prof. Molina. Most
of their work was done in the western
highlands of Guatemala. They also did
some collecting in the central high
region, in cloud forests, and along the
humid Atlantic coastal plain.

In Costa Rica

Former curator of the herbarium Dr.
Paul C. Standley was the first Field
Museum botanist to work in Costa Rica,
spending several months there from
1924 to 1926. On the basis of the
botanical materials he collected in the
country and his experiences there,
Standley prepared a Flora of Costa Rica.
Since 1945 Dr. Williams and Prof.
Molina have made a dozen or more
collecting trips to the country. More
recently, Dr. Burger has taken up the
Museum's botanical research interest in

Costa Rica and has just completed his
third field trip there, accompanied by
Dr. Gentry for whom this was an
introduction to tropical regions.
Specialists in taxonomy (classification).
Burger and Gentry visited Costa Rica in
March and April, primarily to obtain
additional botanical materials for the
preparation of a flora of the plants of
that country. Although usually of just a
few weeks' duration, the several trips
to the region have together covered
almost the entire year, thus enabling the
Museum botanists to collect plants that
flower during each of the seasonal
periods.

Smaller than West Virginia, Costa Rica
has exceedingly rich and varied flora;
the country has more kinds of ferns
than all of temperate North America and
five or six times as many orchids.
(Interestingly enough, the lush
vegetation of tropical regions ordinarily
is not characterized by the kind of mass
floral displays that are common to
Illinois woodlands in the spring or to
prairie meadows in the summer.)

A plant specimen is trimmed and placed in a newspaper prior to drying and shipment. After
being labeled, identified, and mounted, it will become part of ttie John G. Searle Herbarium, which
contains more than 2,500,000 specimens.

Field Museum Bulletin

Z'Ti'^'^^.j:

In addition to making general
collections, Burger concentrated on
members of the mulberry family
(Moraceae) and the nettle family
(Urticaceae). Gentry collected material
of the potato family (Solanaceae) and
borage family (Boraginaceae) and took
samples of immature flowering buds, of
seeds, and of root tips. These were
placed in a special fixative, or
preservative, which allows the integrity
of the chromosomes to be retained
indefinitely. Later, in the Field Museum
laboratory, tissues of these samples are
to be studied microscopically and
chromosome counts taken. (These
counts are often invaluable in
classification. Two similar plants can
frequently be recognized as discreet
species by differences in the
chromosome counts of their respective
cells.)

The March-April trip was particularly
successful, reports Dr. Burger, because
he and his colleagues were able to
collect from a wide variety of habitats,
including a leafless deciduous forest
(during the height of the dry season)
and several lowland rain forests. They
also worked in the central highland
forests up to elevations of 1 1 ,000 feet.
This season the work was hampered by

Dr. Gentry examines a giant leaf of an aroid.
Sucfi leaves are sometimes used as umbrellas.

unusually severe conditions. Low water
levels in the reservoirs resulted in an
acute electricity shortage. In the city of
San Jose, where they were
headquartered, all electricity was cut off
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for several weeks.

The most serious effect of this shortage,
as far as Museum workers were
concerned, was the difficulty it created

in the drying of collected specimens at
the expedition's laboratory in the
National Museum of Costa Rica.

Mr. Stolze and Dr. Engel had looked
forward to a collecting trip in March and
April to Cocos Island, a volcanic island
some 400 miles southwest of Costa
Rica. The uninhabited island is
remarkably rich in ferns, mosses, and
liverworts, and little scientific collecting
of any sort has ever been done there.
Stolze's and Engel's plans had to be
aborted, however, when the fishing boat
that was to take them to the island was
severely damaged in port. Fortunately,
they were able to shift their collecting
activities to the Costa Rican mainland.
They succeeded in bringing back an
outstanding collection as the result of a
month's work. Among their findings
were a number of extremely rare and
possibly new fern species and several
liverwort species never before collected
in Central America.

The Field Museum's Central American
floristic studies are funded for the most
part by National Science Foundation
grants. All expenses of these field trips
are borne by the grants. The grants also
support the ongoing field activities of
Roy Lent and Prof. Antonio Molina.

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

Collecting in the field is no vocation tor tenderloots or lor starry-
eyed seekers ot adventure, as attested by this recent letter Irom
Roy Lent, a Costa Rica resident who does field work lor the
Museum.

Well I made it to Burica [Costa Rica], and what's more im-
portant, I got back!! By telephone I made arrangements
through a series of middlemen tor an "expert" launch m,an to
take us out to Burica. When we arrived in Golfito he started
frantically hunting for someone who knew the area as before
he had been lying about his experience. He finally found the
police agent of Burica who, naturally, knew the area. We left
in a 9 yard long dugout with an outboard, at 2:00 a.m. After
five hours in the open Pacific much of the time, we began to
see the Burica Peninsula. At that time it was announced that
there was not enough gas to get to the end of the peninsula
so we would have to be landed hallway down. We headed lor

the shore and then began to realize how big the breakers
were! The police agent took the motor and yelled, "Hold on,
we're going in!" while the owner was yelling "NO, NO, we
can't make it!" Just before we hit the beach a wave overtook
us, killing the motor and swamping the launch. We all jumped
overboard and managed to get the thing to the beach. Al-
though everything was packed in plastic bags, many things
were wet, including all the newspapers [for packing plant
specimens]. While the two men got the launch back in con-
dition to return we set up camp near a thatched farm "house."
By moving the launch down the beach to a better area and
waiting for a change ot the tide the men got the launch back
out to sea and left . . . I later found out that while we were in
Burica, the owner ot the launch announced that he was not
going back to get us in spite of his verbal contract nor would
he allow his boat to be used because the area was too dan-
gerous. The police agent and another involved had him taken
to the local police station and there he was told to allow
someone to take his boat for us or he would be jailed for
breach of contract!

July/August 1973

L^fliJfc^

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$10-Million mark reached!

The Museum s three-year capital campaign,
begun in September 1971. for renovation of
its building has reached the SlO-million
mark with a $50,000 gift from the Allstate
Foundation.

"This gift and all others received are
extremely gratifying to those persons serving
on the various campaign committees as well
as the entire Museum staff," said Museum
Director E. Leiand Webber. "With Allstate's
gift we have achieved 80 percent of our
goal."

Gifts from foundations, corporations, and
individuals will provide half of the $25

million the Museum is seeking for renovation
of its 52-year-old building. Bonding authority
of the Chicago Park District is providing the
other SI 2.5 million on a matching basis.

The Museum has recorded many corporate
gifts, such as Allstate's. this spring.
According to Nicholas Galitzine. Museum
trustee and general chairman of the
campaign, "Sizable gifts last fall, climaxed
by a million-dollar Kresge Foundation grant
in February, seem to have given renewed
emphasis to our capital needs."

Among other gifts pledged during the past
three months are $30,000 from Western
Electric: $25,000 each from General Motors
Corp. and United Air Lines; $20,000 from
Ernst & Ernst; $15,000 each from Arthur
Andersen & Co., Harry Weese & Associates,
General Mills, J. C. Penney Co., and Union
Oil Co. of California; and $10,000 each from
Burlington Northern Foundation, Chicago
Bridge and Iron Foundation. Kirkland & Ellis,
U.S. Steel, and Xerox Corp.

Individuals Division expanded

An intensified effort to reach many more key
members of the Chicagoland community was
begun with the expansion recently of the
capital campaign's Individuals Division,
co-chaired by Marshall Field and William H.
Mitchell. According to Messrs. Field and
Mitchell. S226.000 in individual gifts,
including a $106,000 anonymous

contribution, was pledged during the first
five months of this year. Field, publisher of
the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-
Times, and (Vlitchell, honorary chairman of
Mitchell Hutchins & Co., and members of
the committee will invite community leaders
to luncheons at the Museum, where they
will view a slide program outlining the
Museum's purposes, activities, and needs,
followed by a tour of the Museum's
facilities.

Committee members of the Individuals
Division include Bowen Blair, partner,
William Blair & Co.; Edward F. Blettner.
honorary director. First National Bank of
Chicago; R.E. Brooker, chairman of executive
committee, Marcor, Inc.; Cameron Brown,
chairman and president. Interstate National
Corp.; James R. Coulter, vice-president of
transportation. Continental Illinois National
Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago; Thomas
E. Donnelley II, R.R. Donnelley & Sons;
R. Winfield Ellis, Blunt Ellis & Simmons;
Donald M. Graham, chairman, Mayer, Brown
& Piatt; Mrs. Corwith Hamill; Gerald Hollins.
Harris Upham & Co., Inc.; Robert L. Raclin,
partner, Paine Webber, Jackson & Curtis;
Joseph E. Rich, vice president for foreign
operations, Morton-Norwich Products, Inc.;
John S. Runnells, investor; William L. Searle,
chairman, G.D. Searle & Co.; Leonard
Spacek, senior partner, Arthur Andersen &
Co.; Gardner H. Stern, Sr., chairman of
finance, Hillman's, Inc.; John W. Sullivan,
chairman, Skil Corp.; and Morrison Waud of
Gardner, Carton, Douglas, Chilgren & Waud.

Blair

Blettner

Brooke r

Grown

Coulter

Ellis

Graham

Raclin

Rich

Runnells

Searle

Spacek

Sullivan

Field Museum Bulletin

Illinois Arts Council Grant
For African Exhibition

The Illinois Arts Council has recently
awarded a $4,500 grant for planning and
development of ttie Contemporary African
Arts Exhibition, scheduled to open at Field
Museum in the spring of 1974. The grant is
funded jointly by the National Endowment
for the Arts and by the Illinois Arts Council.
an agency of the state.

Herpetologlst Joins Staff

Dr Harold K, Voris. a native of Chicago, has
recently been appointed assistant curator of
reptiles. Formerly a faculty member of
Dickenson College. Carlisle. Pa., he holds
an AB degree from Hanover College and a
PhD from the University of Chicago. Dr.
Voris has done special work on snake
venom, on sea snake ecology, and on the
population biology of frogs.

Dr. Robert F. Betz Honored

Dr Robert F. Betz. research associate of
the department of botany, was honored
recently by the Illinois Audubon Society, In
recognition of his outstanding work in
conservation. Dr. Betz was declared Illinois
Audubon Man of the Year. A professor of
biology at Northeastern Illinois University, in
Chicago, Dr. Betz has been affiliated with
the Museum since 1971, He also serves as
consultant to the Illinois Nature Preserves
Commission and is coordinator of the
Gensburg-Markham Prairie, a tract of virgin
land just outside of Chicago. Dr. Betz was
among the first to recognize the unique worth
of Markham Prairie and has worked for its
conservation for more than a decade.

Grade Schoolers Select
Indian Studies

When sixth graders at the Chippewa School in
Bensenville were asked to choose the program
they would most like to study at Field Ivluseum,
they unanimously selected the cultures of the
Woodland and Plains Indians. Two of the
youngsters. Beth Cowling and Steve Craig, who
are of Indian ancestry, are shown looking at
one of the exhibits they saw during their recent
visit. Incidentally. Steve is the great-grandson
of Sitting Bull, famous American Indian warrior
and tiibal leader.

Dr. Phillip Lewis (left), curator of primitive art and (VIelanesian ethnology, is shown with IVlrs.
Danielle Demelz of France. Richard B. Nunoo of Ghana, and Gregorio B. Folgar of Guatemala
as they view a group of Malvina Hoffman sculptures m the President's Room. The visitors
were members ot a group of fore.gn museum profess. onals, here to study museum operations.

New Building Superintendent
Named

Field Museum's new building superintendent
IS Norman P. Radtke, a Chicago native. In
addition to being fully responsible for the
operation and maintenance of the Museum's
physical plant, Mr. Radtke has important
responsibilities coordinating the many
construction projects under the museum's
S25 million rehabilitation and modernization
programs now in progress.

Foreign Museum Professionals
Visit Field Museum

Professional staff personnel of museums in
21 foreign countries made a special visit to
Field Museum on June 1. The visit was
sponsored by the American Association of
fv/1useums in cooperation with the Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S.
Department Of State and was part of a tour
that included major U.S. museums. The
purpose of the tour was to acquaint the
foreign professionals with museum
operations in our country. Museums in
Europe, Asia, Africa. Australasia, and Central
and South America were represented.

July/Augusl 1973

African Osteologist Visits

Recently Mrs, D. Margaret Leakey of the
National Museums of Kenya visited Dr.
William D. Turnbull, associate curator of the
Field Museum's department of geology, for
two days to examine the Museum's
specimen storage facilities and to advance
her osteological (bone) studies. The former
daughter-in-law of Mary and the late L.S.B,
Leakey of Olduvai Gorge (fossil man) fame,
she holds the position of osteologist at the
National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi.
She has studied under and collaborated
with Mary Leakey.

While in Chicago, Mrs. Leakey acquainted
herself with some of the ongoing research
at Field Museum of Natural History. Here
Dr. Turnbull shows her the skull of
Thylacosmilus, the remarkable, extinct,
carnivorous South American saber-toothed
marsupial, whose jaw muscles he has just
reconstructed and studied.

Trustees of Field Museum

Mrs. B Edward Bensinger
Gordon Bent
Harry O, Bercher
Bowen Blair
Stanton R. Cook
William R, Dickinson. Jr.
Thomas E, Donnelley II
Marshall Field
Nicholas Galitzine
Paul W, Goodrich
Remick McDowell
Hugo J. Melvoin
J. Roscoe Miller
William H. Mitchell
Charles F, Murphy, Jr.
Harry M. Oliver, Jr.
John T. Pirie, Jr.
John S. Runnells
William L. Searle
John M. Simpson
Edward Byron Smith

Mrs. Hermon Dunlap

Smith
John W. Sullivan
William G Swarlchild, Jr.
E. Leiand Webber
Julian B. Wilkins
Blaine J. Yarringlon

Lite Trustees

William McCormick Blair
Joseph N. Field
CliHord C. Gregg
Samuel Insult, Jr.
William V. Kahler
Hughston M. McBain
James L. Palmer
John G Searle
Louis Ware
J. Howard Wood

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Closes July 15

Below (Plan's Vision: Electronic Windows
to Unseen Worlds, an exhibit exploring the
world of details in common objects and
familiar plants and animals, and offering
glimpses into current research activities.
Nearly 300 photographs, displayed at up to
200,000 times life-size, introduce a
previously unseen world. Hall 18.

Closes July 29

Seventeen-Year Cicada: A Strategy for
Survival, a multi-media exhibit describing
and interpreting the adaptive significance
of the unusual life cycle of these strange
insects. Millions of cicadas made their
noisy appearance above ground in the
Chicago area early in June. Hall 9.

Continuing

Adaptations of Amphibians and Reptiles,

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 7Sth Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological,
and cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense
of History" presents a graphic portrayal of
the Museum's past; and "A Sense of
Discovery" shows examples of research
conducted by Museum scientists. Hall 3.

Children's Programs

Movies at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.,
James Simpson Theatre

July 5: "In the Bush"

The kit fox and Australian animals.

July 12: "Lapland"

A visit to a fascinating northern land.

July 19: "The Mixed-Up Hound Dog"
The exciting adventures of a hunting dog.

July 26; "The Merry-Go-Round Horse"

(A Fantasy)

The love of a boy for a wooden horse.

Continuing

Summer Journey for Children, "Nature
Invented It First," a self-guided tour
highlighting animals and plants which
possess "innovative" features duplicated in
human inventions. Youngsters are provided
wtih a questionnaire which routes them
through Museum exhibit areas. All boys
and girls who can read and write may join
in the activity. Journey sheets available at
entrances. Through August 31.

Meetings

July 11: 7i30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

August 8; 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

July and August hours

9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday:
Museum cafeteria open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
9 a.m to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday; Museum cafeteria open 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m

The Museum Library is open 9 am. to 4:30 p m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410

Volume 44, Number 8
September 1973

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

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Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 8
September 1973

contents

ART IN AFRICA TODAY

Preview of a forthcoming exhibit
By Maude Wahlman

THESE BIRDS WERE ONCE ENDANGERED SPECIES

Extinct birds of North America
By David M. Walsten

Managing Editor G. Henry Ottery
Editor David M. Walsten
Staff Writer Madge Jacobs
Production Russ Becker
Photography John Bayalis

WINDIGO

Cannibal myth of North American Indians
By Charles A. Bishop

ROBERT KENNICOTT

Chicago's first naturalist
By W. J. Beecher

LETTERS

FIELD BRIEFS

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

CALENDAR

Field Museum of Natural History

Director E. Leiand Webber

Board of Trustees

Remick McDowell,

President
Mrs. B, Edward Bensinger
Gordon Bent
Harry O Bercher
Bowen Blair
Stanton R. Cook
William R. Dickinson. Jr.
Thomas E. Donnelley II
Marshall Field
Nicholas Galitzine
Paul W. Goodrich
Hugo J. Melvoin
J. Roscoe Miller
William H. Mitchell
Charles F. Murphy, Jr.
Harry M. Oliver, Jr.
John T. Pirie. Jr.
John S. Runnells
William L. Searle
John M. Simpson
Edward Byron Smith

Mrs. Hermon Dunlap

Smith
John W. Sullivan
William G Swartchild. Jr.
E. Leiand Webber
Julian B. Wiikins
Blaine J. Yarrington

Life Trustees

William McCormick Blair
Joseph N. Field
Clifford C. Gregg
Samuel Insull. Jr.
William V. Kahler
Hughston M. McBain
James L. Palmer
John G. Searle
Louis Ware
J. Howard Wood

cover

Bead painting by Nigerian artist Jimoh Buriamoh; from the
collection of Dr. Robert P. Armstrong, Evanston, III.

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthly,
except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural
History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.
Subscriptions: $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the
Museum subscribe through Museum membership. Opinions expressed
by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of
Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Second-class
postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form 3579
to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore
Dnve, Chicago. Illinois 60605. ISSN: 0015-0703

ART IN
AFRICA

TODAY

preview to a forthcoming exhibit

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Itinerary of Maude and James Wahlman's African trip

By Maude Wahlman

A FESTIVAL on contemporary African
arts is scheduled to have its
opening at Field Museum in the spring
of 1974. The festival includes an
exhibit of contemporary African arts,
educational programs, and an African
arts shop. Plans for the festival
followed a showing to Museum staff
in 1971 of "New Images of Oshogbo,"
a film produced by Frank Speed
about a small town in Nigeria.

The movie shows the continuity
between the town's traditional
ceremonies and its contemporary
artists. When the movie was over,
Lothar Witteborg (chairman, department
of exhibition) asked if any of the
contemporary art shown in the movie
had ever been exhibited in the United
States. I replied that there had been a
few exhibits of Nigerian art, but never
a major show of contemporary African

Maude (Mrs. James P.) Wahlman is
consultant in African ethnology at
Field Museum.

art in the United States. Major exhibits
have been held in England and
Europe, however. As a result of that
conversation, I began thinking about
the merits of such an exhibit for Field
Museum. With encouragement from my
colleagues, I submitted a proposal for
an exhibit-planning grant from the

National Endowment for the Arts; the
Museum was awarded the grant in
April 1971.

After a lengthy investigation, a number
of ideas for an African arts
exhibit were discussed with staff
members of other departments at Field

A gaily decorated compound of a Ndebele village near Pretoria, South Africa

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Museum. We decided on a traveling
exhibit. It became apparent that some
aspects of contemporary African
culture could best be conveyed
through films, lectures, and
performances. Thus, we started thinking
in terms of a festival for the six months
the exhibit would be in Chicago, with
series of demonstrations, lectures,
films, and performances. It was also
apparent that the various materials
of contemporary African arts
could be adapted to the Museum's

Harris Extension kits which are sent
out to Chicago schools. These small
exhibit kits are being planned as a
means of introducing children to the
subject of African arts before they see
the large exhibit at the Museum.

After one has become involved in
planning educational materials in
conjunction with an exhibit, the
possibilities seem limitless. One idea
was a catalog-textbook on
contemporary African arts. Such a text

does not yet exist; in fact, the last
major book on the subject was
published in 1960. Another idea was a
set of slides or a filmstrip that could be
sold with the catalog as illustrative
material for teaching a course on
contemporary African arts. Other ideas
are an African arts workshop and an
African dance workshop. Funds for
making realities of these ideas are still
needed. Only the exhibit itself is now
fully funded.

Community participation

One goal which was formulated during
the planning process for this festival
was to involve individuals from the
Chicago community in the planning
and promotional activities. We now
have work volunteers; other persons
have volunteered to lend art works for
the exhibit. An advisory committee is
expected to be formed in the near
future. This group will be made up of
persons interested in Africa, in art, and
in the impact this exhibit can have on
the Chicago community.

Volunteers

Research for the program involved an
extensive task of locating numerous
references to contemporary African arts
in obscure publications. The
investigation of these references would
have been an endless project had it
not been for the help of many
volunteers. Much of the program's
progress is due to their faithful
concern. In the summer of 1972 there
was one volunteer for the program.
Now there are 20. Some volunteers
are students, some are housewives;
others are employed persons with wide
interests. Each one selected an
academic or artistic discipline
and proceeded to make basic
investigations — developing a
bibliography, locating articles in the
Museum library and other libraries, and
copying the most important articles for
a master file on the subject. Our
forthcoming catalog is now in the
preliminary stage of card files and

Rhodesian sculptor Thomas Mucarobgwa

folders that grow fatter every week.
These repositories will also provide
material for labels to be used on
exhibited materials and for the
educational components.

African arts shop

One reason that I personally looked
forward to being involved in such an
exhibit was that during my years as a
graduate fellow at Field IVIuseum, I had
been exposed to many dealers bringing
African "art" to Chicago for sale.
Some dealers had good art, but one
always wondered if their artifacts might
not have been stolen from an ancestral
shrine. Other dealers were just
deceiving the public with fake
antiquities — artifacts made within the
past six months, then covered with
kola butter and buried in the ground
for several months so that ants and

Nigerian woodcarver
Michael Odekunle is an
apprentice to Lamidi
Fakeye, Nigeria's
foremost sculptor who
demonstrated
techniques at Field
Museum in 1972.

termites would eat away the butter and
rapidly age the "art." Dealers were
getting high prices for these pieces,
mostly because African antiques are
very rare, and because most people
cannot distinguish between the real
and the imitation. Africans have access
to the same African art books as we
do, and those few dishonest dealers
can very cleverly fake almost anything.
It takes years of seeing hundreds of
objects to be able to recognize a fake,
and even the experts are fooled now
and then. "Don't buy African art as an
investment — it's too risky," they advise.
"Buy only what you like and want to
live with." There is also a problem of
ethics in buying antiquities. Many
African countries have laws that
prohibit export of their most valued
cultural artifacts. And many museums
have established policies like that
adopted by Field Museum in July 1972,
which states that it will not authenticate,

accept as gifts, or purchase any
artifacts that are not accompanied by
legal export papers.

But it is hard to advise people not to
buy antiquities when there is so little
else available in this country. Airport
art — that is, African art made in
factories for tourists only — is no better
than fake art. I was aware that good
art existed in Africa — I had seen it
everywhere in 1970 while doing field
work for a dissertation. I had gone to
Africa to collect contemporary pottery
for Field Museum and wound up
collecting pots and much more:
baskets, textiles, jewelry, and
leatherwork. It was with this experience
in mind that I felt we should try to
make many arts available to the public.
Thus, we have planned an African arts
shop, which will make available a
greater variety of items for public
purchase than we will try to cover in
the exhibit.

Role of the artist in African society

One myth that we hope to correct in
this festival is that the African artist is
anonymous; he never has been
anonymous nor is he today.
Traditionally, the artist was known to
his own society. He did not need to
sign his works, because societies were
small enough so that everyone knew
his work. One cannot generalize for all
of Africa, for the artist in different
cultures plays different roles —
sometimes he is a person of status,
sometimes not — but in any case he is
known.

Traditionally, most art was made for
religious cults — as ancestor figures,
representations of deities, worshippers
of deities, or as receptacles for ritual
objects. Other works of art fulfilled
secular functions. But whether religious
or secular, all art was intended to be
useful, either to decorate everyday
utensils or wearing apparel, or to be
employed for special occasions. Art
was and is an important aspect of
daily life — for the common man as well

Field tvluseum Bulletin

"Mama Kadi," famed textile designer of
Sierra Leone, does batik (above) as well as
tie-dyeing.

as the king. For these reasons the
festival is designed without the
traditional western dichotomy of "art"
versus "crafts" — a distinction that is
not to be found in African vocabularies.

Today the picture is modifying. The
local religious cults are no longer
followed as much as in the past, as
Christianity and Islam have had their
influences. No one can say this is
wrong, for every culture evolves, and
every culture has outside influences at
some time or another. But some artists
find themselves in a difficult position
during the period of transition. They

must find new patrons. Many find their
patrons among a new educated class
of Africans. Some appeal only to
tourists. Some teach for a living and
do their art in their spare time. Art is
also commissioned by African
governments and by international
religious groups. Art is still very
much a part of daily cultural life.

For this exhibit it seemed that the
different personalities and different
roles the artist plays in changing
societies might best be shown by
examining the worlds of individual
artists — revealing how the artist creates
his art, and what he does when he is
not being an artist. The exhibit should
tell something about the artist's family,
his friends, and how he believes art
should function today. For each of the
African artistic disciplines I tried to
locate one outstanding artist as a
representative. This was often difficult,
because there is very little up-to-date
information on contemporary African
artists.

The trip to Africa

Actual interviews with artists — getting
their views on tape about contemporary
Africa — seemed a most logical means
of documenting this information. It also
seemed that the best way to purchase
contemporary arts for a shop to go
with the exhibit was to go to Africa
and buy them there.

In the spring of 1973 Field Museum
received a planning grant from the
Illinois Arts Council, and another grant
from the National Endowment for the
Arts — this time for the exhibit itself. On
April 6 my husband James and I left
for Africa to photograph, record, and
collect contemporary African art. We
landed in Casablanca (Morocco), and
flew from there to Dakar (Senegal);
Freetown (Sierra Leone); Accra
(Ghana); Lagos, Ibadan, Ife, Oshogbo
and Oyo (Nigeria); Johannesberg,
Pretoria, Zululand, Xhosaland (South
Africa); Meseru (Lesotho); Mbabane
(Swaziland); Salisbury (Rhodesia);

Nairobe (Kenya); Addis Ababa
(Ethiopia); and Cairo (Egypt). My
reaction to what I observed is that a
real renaissance is now occurring in
African art. A much greater diversity
was apparent than what 1 had seen in
1970, and 1 found an even greater
vitality, I would like to share with you
some of the highlights of that trip:

A young Ndebele girl of South Africa,
Mary Msiza, fashions a belt of colorful glass
beads. Around her neck she wears one of
her own creations.

Sculpture

Sculpture is a very old art form in
Africa, whether it be in wood, stone, or
clay. Lamidi Fakeye, the foremost
Nigerian sculptor, gave a woodcarving
demonstration of his techniques on
October 1972 at Field Museum. While I
was in Nigeria I discovered that many
of his apprentices have now set up
their own shops and are also
producing very fine work.

September 1973

Across the continent, in Salisbury,
Rhodesia, we photographed the stone
sculptor, Thomas Mukarobgwa, while
he was working on a large stone
sculpture. Examples of his monumental
work are to be found in private
collections in the United States; for the
exhibit we hope to borrow some of
these pieces.

Textiles

I went to Sierra Leone to photograph
the dyer, Mrs. Kadiato Kamara, better
known as Mama Kadi, famous for her
tie-dyed and batiked textiles. Among
her outstanding tie-dyed patterns is the
cloud pattern. It is the most difficult
design to create as it is done by gently
folding satin into very delicate but
distinct folds which compress into
each other until the entire cloth is
folded into a small package. This must
be bound with twine without losing its
composition. The bundle is soaked in
indigo (blue) dye for about 20 minutes
and put on a line to dry. It may later
be refolded and redyed either in indigo
again or perhaps in a kola nut dye
which produces a rich brown. Synthetic
dyes are also used. Once the excess
dye is washed out, the colors are fast.

For batik dyeing. Mama Kadi uses
wooden stamps, made by local
craftsmen, which she dips in a pot of
hot wax and stamps onto a damask
cotton. The cotton is then dyed with
indigo, dried, redyed, and dried. After
that it is dipped several times in boiling
water to remove the wax. Finally it is
rinsed in cold water and again dried.

Aluminum panels

Asiru Olatunde is a well known
Nigerian artist who creates aluminum
panels depicting scenes of Yoruba life
and history. His is a unique art, for
although scenes of Yoruba life have
been and still are depicted in wood
(usually for palace doors) there has
been no traditional use of aluminum for

art. Olatunde uses a counter-repousse
technique — all the work is done from
the front of the panel.

Beadwork

Beadwork is another of the traditional
arts that is still being practiced in
Africa. The art was perfected in earlier
times by the Zulu, Ndebele, and Xhosa
peoples of South Africa. In the
Museum's permanent collections are
many old examples which will be
shown in the exhibit along with the new.

Beadwork was also a high art among
the Yoruba of Nigeria. Traditionally it
was commissioned in the form of
ceremonial objects for use by priests.
Today, a very talented young man,
Jimoh Buriamoh, has transformed the
art into a new form, that of bead
paintings. One of his creations is
shown on the cover of this Bulletin. He
glues beads onto a wooden base, but
in such a way that at a distance it is
difficult to distinguish the beaded areas
from the painted areas. His
compositions depict contemporary
Nigerian life as well as mythological
figures.

This is just a sample of the continent
as we saw it: people of various African
cultures being creative in their
individual ways. The exhibit will try to
communicate the same feeling. The
festival will also attempt to show (1) all
the arts: music, dance, film, literature,
and the visual arts (painting, sculpture,
graphics, pottery, calabash carving,
leatherwork, basketwork, and
metalwork); (2) arts from all over
Africa; (3) the relationships between
the contemporary and the traditional
arts; (4) the interrelationships of the
arts to each other; and (5) an African
aesthetic as distinct from the
Euro-American or Far Eastern aesthetic.

Funding is not yet complete for all
aspects of the festival, but we continue
to plan, knowing that when the money
comes, we will be ready.

Nigerian metalworker Asiru Olatunde (below)
recreates contemporary and historical scenes
on thin aluminum panels. Paneled church
doors at the University of Ibadan (above) are
an example of his unique art form.

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These Birds were once

Endangered Species

now there are none

By David M. Walsten

IN LESS THAN 100 years, four species
of continental Nortti American birds —
tfie passenger pigeon, the Carolina
parakeet, the heath hen, and the
Labrador duck — have vanished forever.
A fifth species, the Eskimo curlew, may
very likely be extinct, since few have
been sighted in recent decades and
none at all for several years. The great
auk, which vanished from North
America in the late 1700s, disappeared
from the last of its North Atlantic
habitats in the mid-19th century. Man,
the interloper, played a significant role
in the depletion of each of these species.

THE GREAT AUK (Mca impennis), once
common in the North Atlantic, was
exterminated largely because it was
unfortunate to have flavorful meat, fat
that yielded oil useful as fuel in lamps,
and soft feathers that made good
mattress and pillow stuffing. The
flightless bird was slow and ungainly
on land and was easily run down by
hunters and beaten to death. A few
men armed with clubs could, in a short
time, wipe out an island's entire auk
population.

On June 3, 1844, the last two specimens

Great Auk

were taken on Eldey Rock, off the coast
of Iceland. Their bodies were sold to a
collector. Nineteen years later several
dozen great auks were discovered in
frozen peat beds of Penguin Island, off
the southern coast of Newfoundland.
Many of these carcasses, too, were
sold to collectors at fancy prices.

The great auk stood about two feet
tall; like the penguin, it had tiny wings
that functioned only as flippers. Though
awkward afoot, the birds were marvelous
swimmers and migrated great distances
in the stormy northern seas.
Ornithologists believe that the auk
disappeared from the coastal islands
of North America in the late 1700s.

Skeletal remains in various places
along the New England coast indicate
that they once lived as far south as
Massachusetts. A few bones have been
found on the Florida coast. It is thought
that these were not from resident auks,
but from lost birds driven southward by
storms. The species also ranged
eastward over the Atlantic as far as the
northernmost coast of Norway.

In 1966, the Field Museum acquired a
great auk from the Royal Institute in
Brussels, Belgium. The bird arrived in
z box marked penguin, (the French

September 1973

word for "great auk"), which caused
some consternation until the bird was
examined and its true identity
established. (For a full account of the
acquisition of this specimen, see the
Bulletin, February. 1967.)

THE LABRADOR DUCK
{Camptorhynchus labradorius), which
lived mainly in coastal areas from New
Jersey northward to Labrador, has been
extinct for nearly a century, the last
recorded specimen having been shot
on Long Island, New York, in 1875.
None other had been seen since 1871.

The male Labrador duck was a
handsome bird, with a white head and
a black stripe running back across the
top. A velvety black collar encircled the
white neck. The rest of the body was
mostly black and white. The female
was brownish. The species was
apparently never common, and it was
not very good eating; occasionally,
however, the duck was to be found in
food markets in New York and other
eastern cities. The preferred habitat
was sandy coastal areas, inlets, and
bays; the bird was extremely wary and
difficult to approach. The reasons for
the Labrador duck's eventual demise
are not understood, but some authorities
believe that unusual feeding habits may
have been a factor — a theory suggested
by unique features of its bill structure.

Labrador Duck

Carolina Parakeet

THE LAST CAPTIVE Carolina parakeet
— like the last passenger pigeon — died
in the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens in
September 1914. The last specimen
taken in the wild was captured in
Brevard County, Florida, in 1901, but
authentic sightings of this species
occurred in that state as late as 1904.
Eight years later, reliable sightings of
the bird were also reported in Missouri.
There were two subspecies, Conuropsis
carolinensis carolinensis (the eastern
subspecies) and Conuropsis carolinensis
ludoviciana (the western subspecies,
sometimes called the Louisiana
parakeet). Both were about a foot long
— much of this in tall feathers. The head
was orange and yellow, the body green

and yellow. The wing feathers were
also trimmed in yellow. The tail was
green. The western subspecies was
somewhat paler than the eastern, and
parts of the back had a bluish cast.

Before the coming of the white man,
the Carolina parakeet commonly
occurred in deciduous forests from
Virginia to Florida, westward to Texas
and northward to Nebraska. Sometimes
it strayed as far north as the Great
Lakes region. The theory has been
advanced that the bird's disappearance
was the direct result of human activity
— too many were captured or shot; but
since the bird commonly lived in
relatively inaccessible swamp forests, it
would be unfair to say that man was
entirely responsible.

AN OBITUARY that appeared in
newspapers around the world on Sept.
1, 1914, caused many readers to pause
and reflect, for it not only reported the
quiet, uneventful death of "Martha," a
29-year-old passenger pigeon in the
Cincinnati Zoological Gardens, it also
marked the extinction of what possibly
had once been the most populous of
all bird species on the face of the
earth. Less than a century earlier (1810)
ornithologist Alexander Wilson had
observed near Shelbyville, Kentucky, a
flock that numbered — by his estimate —
nearly 2.25 billion birds. "Martha," born
in the zoo in 1885, was the final known
survivor.

Field Museum Bulletin 9

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The passenger pigeon {Ectopistes
migratorlus) was an uncommonly
beautiful bird, 12 to 18 inches long.
The wing and back feathers of the
male were a rich glossy blue. The
breast was burgundy, fading to white
near the tail. The neck was mottled
with green and bronze: the eyes were
fiery orange, the feet red. The main
habitat was the hardwood forests of
central North America. A migratory bird,
it journeyed in the autumn to
southeastern United States and the
Gulf Coast area.

The flesh of this bird was very good to
eat and it had been hunted by Indians
long before the Europeans arrived. But
the white man made a commercial
enterprise of pigeon hunts and the
birds were shipped in great quantities
to markets in the cities.

It is incredible that hunters — numbered
in the thousands — could, in the space
of a century or so, deplete a bird
population that had totalled in the
billions. Yet, this is precisely what
happened. The last great pigeon hunt
occurred in 1878 near Petoskey,
Michigan. In a month's time about 300

Passenger Pigeon

tons of birds were
slaughtered — filling 150
freight cars. After that their
numbers rapidly dwindled to
the extent that commercial
hunting was no longer
profitable. The last passenger
pigeon captured in the wild
was taken at Babcocl<,
Wisconsin, in 1899.
An idiosyncrasy of this
species, apparently, was its
inability to perpetuate itself
except in enormous flocks.
In small groups the birds
often seemed bewildered,
and it is probable that their
reproductive habits were
likewise affected.

— Heath Hen

THE HEATH HEN {Tympanuchus
cupido cupido), an eastern relative of
the prairie chicken, was last seen alive
on Martha's Vineyard Island, Mass., in
1932. The tiny island had been the
bird's last holdout for half a century.
The final survivor was an eight-year-old
bird that had been banded the year
before. Prior to that, no official sightings
had been made since 1928.

At one time the bird's habitat may have
ranged from Maine as far south as the
Carolinas. In some New England areas
it had once been extremely common,
but settlers soon discovered that the
heath hen made a very tasty dish. Its
numbers steadily dwindled as
woodlands — its natural habitat — were
turned into farmland and more and
more birds fell to the guns of hunters.
As early as 1824 a law was passed to

10 September 1973

protect ttie birds on Martina's Vineyard,
to which the species had probably been
introduced by colonists much earlier.
Annually from 1906 a census was taken
of the island's heath hen population.
Almost 2,000 were counted in 1916.
Thereafter the population dropped
swiftly; by 1925 only three birds
remained.

Special efforts were made to control
predators such as dogs and cats on
Martha's Vineyard, but this last-ditch
effort to save the birds was too late.
Other environmental hazards also took
their toll: excessive inbreeding, disease,
an excess of males (a large brush fire
in 1916 exterminated many nesting
females on Martha's Vineyard), and
perhaps the diminishing natural habitat.

THE LAST RECORDED SPECIMEN of
an Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis)
was taken at Battle Harbour,
Newfoundland, in 1932. It had then
been 17 years since any were taken
in the United States; one was collected
at Norfolk, Nebraska, in 1915.

Occasionally, since 1932, there have
been reports of others. In 1937 there

were reliable sightings in Argentina, the
bird's wintering ground. In the 1960s
individual sightings were made on the
Texas coast, but several years have
now elapsed since any authoritative
report. If any Eskimo curlews remain
alive, it is unlikely that these few can
perpetuate the species much longer.

At 13 to 14 inches long, the Eskimo
curlew was the smallest of the
American curlews — shore birds related
to snipes, woodcocks, and sandpipers.
It closely resembled the still extant
Hudsonian curlew {Numenius
hudsonicus), which has often been
mistaken for it. The primary feathers of
the Eskimo curlew, however, are clearly
barred with light brown — a feature
noticeable on the under surface of the
wing. The summer breeding ground
was the Canadian tundra; occasionally
the bird ranged into Alaska. The
curlew's migration route to South
America usually took it past the vicinity
of New York City, then out over the
Atlantic. A few traveled southward over
the Great Plains.

Overkill is believed to have been the
main reason for the decline of the
curlew, which was still common enough

Eskimo Curlew

into the late 1800s. But natural
catastrophe, such as epidemics and
hurricanes obliterating entire flights of
migrating birds, may have contributed
to their disappearance. The curlew
population may thus have been lowered
to the extent that its capacity to
reproduce was offset by the usual
adversities, such as bird and animal
predators and endemic disease.

North American Birds on the Endangered List

Common Name

Scientific Name

Range

Bald Eagle Haliaetus leucocephalus U.S., Canada

Masked Bobwhite Colinus virginianus ridgwayi U.S.. Mexico

California Condor Gymnogyps calitornianus Southern California

Whooping Crane Grus americana U.S., Canada

American Peregrine Falcon Faico peregrinus anatum Canada to Mexico

Arctic Peregrine Falcon FaIco peregrinus tundrius Canada to Mexico

Aleutian Canada Goose Branta canadensis leucopareia U.S. to Japan

Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidenlaiis Canada to Panama

Attwater's Greater Prairie Chicken Tympanuciius cupido attwateri U.S.

Bachman's Warbler Vermivora baciimani Southeastern U.S., Cuba

KIrtland's Warbler Dendroica l^irtiandi Michigan, Bahamas

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Campeptiilus principalis Southeastern U.S., Cuba

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Field Museum Bulletin

ByC. A. Bishop

FOR SOME INDIAN TRIBES of the Great
Lakes region the most terrifying of all
woodland creatures was the Windigo

. . . that terrible, grinning ice-sl<eleton
wlio working iiis way into a cursed
man's iieart, could mal<e him long for
human flesh, the flesh of his own kin.
Often enough in starvation winters
men had turned to cannibalism, so the
Ojibwa knew Windigo as a very real
threat.

. . . It was said that the potential
human Windigo could be recognized
by his greedy eating habits and his lust
for overmuch fat. Later such a one
could be expected to fall into deep
melancholy, emerging from it finally
with a violent urge to kill and eat
his relatives, who looked to him . . .
like lovely, fat beavers. In times of
starvation, people feared their own
families and feared that they themselves
would turn cannibal. "Run, run!" a
distressed young mother might cry

Drawing by Dick Roesener

Dr. C. A. Bishop is associate professor
of anthropology at the State University
of New York, Oswego, and the
author of The Northern Ojibwa: An
Ethnohistorical and Ecological Study;
tiolt, Rinehart & Winston of Canada,
Ltd., (1973).

12 September 1973

,^->c\s^^

Cannibal Devil of the North

out to her children. "You all look like
beavers to me!" Approaching madness,
even in the summer months, caused
many an old grandparent to demand
death trom his children. "Kill me quick
with the hammer and burn me in my
wigwam, or next winter I shall surely
eat you." The Windigo could be killed,
really killed, only by fire. It was the
one murder no one wanted to avenge.*

Belief in this cannibal devil — and the
act of cannibalism itself — antedated the
coming of the first white men to North
America. After their arrival, with the
consequent depletion of game animals,
famine as well as cannibalism became
more prevalent. The Windigo was
not always associated with famine
conditions, since Indians were
sometimes possessed by this creature
even in times of plenty.

The Montagnais Windigo

By the 1630s the subsistence of the
Montagnais Indians near the St.
Lawrence settlements of Tadoussac
and Three Rivers had been seriously
disturbed by the depletion of game —
processes that had their inception

•From NEW WORLD BEGINNINGS: Indian
Cultures in the Americas by Olivia Vlahos.
Copyright ©1970 by Olivia Vlahos. Reprinted by
permission of The Viking Press, Inc.

J _^^ HUDSON

BAY 1

YORK FORT X

FORT SEVERN/'^Vi,^

-«. y

FORT ALBANY rV^ J

• MOOSE FACTORY X

TADOUSSAC •(/

5lake V^__^_^

^(^^UPERIOR ^\

X ^^ <

// ^^
if ^ f^

1 Sf

QUEBEC »^^

» MANITOULIN mullc .^^
\ \ISLAND RIVERS Af<^

jp <r;>-\ MONTREAL ^^if

f -'=/ .^'"-^ 1 LAKE /

1 5 \

^ V/ ^.^i^ ^

1 UJ 1
1 ^ /
\< f

tly^ ^ERIE fi^

The Hudson Bay-Great Lakes region, showing the location of trading posts where Montagnais,
Cree, and Ojibwa Indians exchanged hides and meat for European wares

Field Ivluseum Bulletin

"TTTTsm^'rfuJs^^r/ij^yx^^^^^

more than a century earlier. The fur
trade was of minor importance during
the late 16th century, but by 1550
Tadoussac had become the site of an
annual "trade fair" where Algonquins
and Montagnais exchanged furs for
European wares. Trade continued off
and on for another five decades.
By the time Champlain and Pontgrave
arrived at Tadoussac in 1603,
European goods had already been
conveyed far beyond the territories of
those Indians in direct contact with the
French. Tribal boundaries had been
blurred and different groups vied with
one another for key positions in the
flow of trade goods.

The middleman position of the
Montagnais along the St. Lawrence
was partly disrupted when trading
centers were set up at Quebec, Three
Rivers, and Montreal. To these
settlements were attracted — like bees
to nectar — great numbers of Indians
from many miles around. Local Indian
groups were meanwhile becoming
more and more dependent on European
wares and foodstuffs. By the 1610s
many had acquired a taste for "exotic"
foods such as peas, beans, prunes,
and bread. Many materials of their
aboriginal culture fell into disuse, and
they came to rely on French substitutes.
The Indians were able to remain
somewhat independent with respect to
their economy and livelihood only as
long as they could obtain large game.

During the summer months of the
1620s the Montagnais around
Tadoussac lived on smoked moose
meat supplemented by European foods.
Moose, caribou, and beaver, however,
were being sought by the French for
their meat and hides so that by the
1630s these animals had become scarce
in some areas. By 1610 the trade in
beaver pelts was already thriving,
between 12,000 and 15,000 skins
being traded annually, and the supply
of these animals near the trading
centers was rapidly depleted. Indians
who were accustomed to donations of
foodstuffs from the French, and who
were dependent on the fur trade were

14 September 1973

hard pressed to sustain themselves
on local game.

Death by starvation was the fate of
many Montagnais in the Three Rivers
region during the winter of 1633-34,
In that winter, Fr. Le Jeune, a Jesuit,
lived with a band of Montagnais who
had gone to hunt south of the St.
Lawrence. Here — so they had been led
to believe — game would be more
plentiful. According to Fr. Le Jeune,
the Montagnais reported that

7wo or three families of Savages had
been devoured by large unknown
animals which they believed were
devils: and that the Montagnais. fearing
them, did not wish to go hunting in
the neighborhood of Cape de
Tourmente and Tadoussac these
monsters having appeared in that
neighborhood.'

The fact that the animals were
"unknown" to the Indians suggests that
a specifically named cannibal giant
was not involved. It is conceivable that
those who initiated the rumor were
merely trying to keep the dwindling

game supply near Tadoussac for
themselves. Starvation had thus become
a serious threat to Indians around the
white settlements; already there were
reports of cannibalism. Some Indians
near Tadoussac allegedly had eaten
human flesh, while others were
described as "fleshless as skeletons."
There is also evidence that the social
organization of the Montagnais had
been modified by the altered ecology
and by the drain on food resources.
Groups of various sizes appear to
have roamed about the woodlands at
random in search of food. Meanwhile,
the time-honored customs of hospitality
and food-sharing were disregarded in
times of stress.

From within this setting Fr. Le Jeune
described what has been termed
by modern investigators "Windigo
psychosis." He relates that the wife of
Manitou ("the great spirit") is "a real
she-devil" who feeds upon the flesh
of men, "gnawing them upon the
inside, which causes them to become
emaciated in their illnesses." Another
legendary creature was Gougou, a

Cree weapons: a 59-inch bow and bone-tipped arrows. The quiver and bow case are made of
deerskin. These were among the first American Indian artifacts to be acquired by Field Museum
after it was organized in 1893.

female monster "taller than the masts
of ships," who carried off and
devoured men. However, for the
psychosociologists the central idea of
the Windigo psychosis is not that of a
giant who literally eats people, but the
belief that people are devoured
spiritually and then become living
vehicles for the cannibalistic spirit.

The Cree Windigo

The development of a similar Windigo
concept is evident among the Cree
Indians who lived near the Hudson's
Bay Company coastal posts, especially
Fort Albany, York Fort, and Moose
Factory — points of convergence for
large numbers of Indians. The local
game, sought by Indians and traders
alike, was greatly depleted soon after
the posts were established in the late
17th century. The relative poverty of
the coastal area Cree — except during
goose-hunting season — and their
dependence on trade goods and store
foods in winter restricted many to
game-poor areas. In aboriginal times
these same impoverished areas might
have been abandoned in winter.
Starving Indians who camped near the
post during the cold months were
kept alive on oatmeal, peas, surplus
goose, and fish, but in spite of such
provisioning starvation among these
people was still relatively common.
The first clear instance of a devil
known as "Windigo" appears among
the York Fort Cree. The following
account suggestive of Windigo behavior
was recorded by William Falconer at
nearby Fort Severn in 1774:

(A Cree) threatened to stab his wife
last night, and would have kill'd some
of the other natives had they not
bound him both hand and foot: he has
appeared melancholy tor some time
past, and the Natives say he has
several times been insane of late.^

The other Indians asked that the
traders put the man to death to prevent
his going on a murdering spree. The
request was denied but the traders
did tie him up. The following day the
man escaped and "frightened the

Steel tomahawk-pipe of European manufacture
traded to the Ojibwa during the Late Historic
period (after 1760). The handle is hollow: the
small end of the head serves as the pipe bowl.
The above specimen, 12 inches long, was
acquired by Field fvluseum in 1893.

Other natives out of the tent." He was
recaptured, however, and put to death
by his relatives. When Falconer asked
why they killed him, the relatives said
they feared he would escape. But
now that he was dead they were afraid
he would get out of his Grave and
come back and kill them .... Their
Superstition leads them so far as to
Imagine People deprived of reason
stalk about after death, and Prey upon
human flesh, such as they say are
WItiko's (i.e. Divils) .... The above
unhappy man was so distress'd tor
food that he kill'd his own Sister and
her Child.'

Assuming that the above murders
were cannibalistic, a cause and effect
relationship may be noted between
the scarcity of food and the original
cannibalistic act. It is significant that
the man became a Windigo only after
he had eaten human flesh. But the act
of cannibalism is not in itself evidence
of Windigo behavior; it is the craving
for human flesh which indicates that
one is possessed by this devil.
Nonetheless, the belief that a human
could become a Windigo seems to
appear and intensify simultaneously
with the fear of starvation in cases
where food was being depleted, and
under trade conditions where the quest
for pelts stressed individualism over
cooperative kinship bonds.

Under these conditions (which began

in the late 1600s among the coastal
Cree) the belief in, and fear of the
Windigo was so intense that the
potential for becoming such a monster
was strong indeed. But the catalyst
for the development of Windigo
behavior was the decimation of game
and dependency on the trading post;
thus, the phenomenon had a firm
ecological basis.

The Ojibwa Windigo

The Windigo myth of the Ojibwa
appears to have had somewhat the
same development as those of the
Montagnais and the Cree. In aboriginal
times and for a considerable period
after contact with Europeans there was
never a threat of starvation for most
Ojibwa. They subsisted on a variety of
foods in summer and on large animals
in winter. Game was everywhere
abundant. In 1660, for example, more
than 600 moose were killed by Ojibwa
in the region immediately south of
Lake Superior. One French observer
reported that 2,400 moose were killed
on Manitoulin Island (in Lake Huron)
in 1670-71. Such devastation eventually
affected the game supply, so that by
the mid-1 8th century, the area near
Lake Superior had been virtually
stripped of large game.

Field Museum Bulletin

Further north the big animals lasted
somewhat longer. They were sufficiently
plentiful so that groups of 30 to 50
Ojibwa could remain together
throughout the year. The marked
decline in big game that finally did
occur in northern Ontario resulted
directly from the intensive competition
between the Northwest Company and
Hudson's Bay Company from the
1780s to 1821. During this time, game
of all sorts was reduced through
overhunting in an effort to supply
traders as well as Indians. By the time
the two companies merged in 1821,
large animals as well as beaver had
become extremely scarce. The relatively
large groups of Indians that remained
together during the 1700s had now
separated into smaller family units for
most of the year as the search for
food and fur became more of a
struggle. At the same time, the Indians
became more and more dependent
on provisions from the trading post.

After 1810, starvation for the Northern
Ojibwa became a real threat.
Cooperative sharing that had been the
custom among large kinship groups
became impossible in cases where
families had to separate and spread

out in quest of hare and other small
nonmigratory animals. It was during
this time that the earliest cases of
famine cannibalism among the
Northern Ojibwa were reported. It was
also within this context during the
19th century that the classic examples
of Windigo behavior were recorded
among these Indians. In July 1837
more than 100 Ojibwa arrived at the
Lac Seul post after fleeing in terror
from a Windigo which several had
reported seeing at their summer camp.^'
They set up their new camp next to
the store and posted sentries. For
a week the medicine men engaged in
conjuring to ward off the evil monster
The trading post, then, where food
could be obtained in time of need, had
become a haven and a symbol of
protection against the dread giant.
Some disagreement existed among the
Ojibwa hunters concerning the physical
features of the Windigo, suggesting
perhaps that the Windigo myth had
been relatively insignificant in earlier
times.

There is every reason to believe that
cannibalism among these Indians was
a normal response within the abnormal
situation of starvation. But the

distinction must be made between
cannibalism as a consequence of
famine conditions and Windigo
cannibalism: The former occurred only
in times of extreme food shortage,
while the unspeakable terror of Windigo
cannibalism could strike in times of
plenty as well as during periods of
famine.

References Cited

1. Thwaites. R, G,, editor; 1896-1901. The Jesuit
relations and allied documents. Cleveland:
Burrows Brothers.

2. Hudson's Bay Company Archives. 1870. MSS
in Public Archives of Canada, Ottaw/a,
B198/a/19.

3. Ibid., B1D7/a/16.

The author wishes to thank the Governor
and Committee of the Hudson's Bay
Company for permission to cite from their
arctiival sources,

"Windigo — Cannibal Devil of the North" is
adapted from Dr. Bishop's paper "Ojibwa
Cannibalism," presented at the IXth
International Congress of Anthropological
Sciences, which convened in Chicago
Aug. 28-Sept. 8, 1973. The paper is
subsequently to be published by fvlouton &
Co. of The Netherlands.

Ojibwa birchbark wigwam. Probable date of photograph: 1893.

16 September 1973

/g„i.-^<i.

CHICAGO'S
FIRST

NATURALI

and the grove which could serve as a
fitting memorial to him

By W. J. Beecher

VIRGIN PRAIRIE once covered two-
thirds of the state of Illinois; but the
steel moldboard plow — invented by John
Deere in the 1830s — was so efficient
that virtually the entire prairie was
under cultivation by the 1880s. It is
well-known that, once prairie land
passes under the plow and the ancient
roots of grasses and other herbs
(penetrating the ground as much as 12
feet) are severed, prairie plants do not
again come in, but are succeeded by
Eurasian weeds. Thus the plow
effectively destroyed the prairie nearly
a century ago.

So it was with great jubilation that a
number of us, who had been searching
for prairie remnants along railroad
rights-of-way, recently discovered two
square miles of prairie near Morris,
Illinois. After a long publicity campaign,
we succeeded in persuading the state
to buy Goose Lake Prairie. There was
something a bit pathetic about the public
response. A housewife volunteered to
write letters to save the praiiie; someone
else offered, anonymously, 51,500,000
interest-free to enable the state to buy

Dr. W. J. Beecher is the director of the
Chicago Academy of Sciences.

the land immediately and reimburse
him later. In a time of fatal decision it
seems that something almost genetic
in man, affirming his kinship with the
soil, comes forward and causes him to
draw back from the brink. Since the
acquisition of Goose Lake Prairie an
embarrassing number of "last" prairies
have been discovered in and around
Chicago; several additional small ones
have been acquired through the efforts
of various citizen groups.

But something has been missing — the
prairie had been a shining sea of grass,
spangled by a luxuriant tapestry of
wiidflowers rolling out to the horizon.
The descriptions of the early pioneers
dwelt often on the visual relief afforded
by the prairie groves, which were made
up in part of thick-barked bur oaks that
could withstand the frequent prairie fires.
The rollicking songs of meadowlark
and bobolink, along with the dancing
flowers, made the prairie a gay place —
but perhaps the sky was too big. The
communities that sprang up were
generally located at the edges of the
groves and have come down to us as
place names: Morton Grove, Fox River
Crove, Downers Grove.

Authentic wild groves surrounded by

prairie remnants are in the 1970s at a
premium. I know of only one that is
near Chicago — Kennicott's Grove — and
I know of it particularly because my
predecessor, Robert Kennicott, first
director of the Chicago Academy of
Sciences at its founding in 1857, was
born there.

I first visited the grove in the mid-1 930s
as a member of the Kennicott Club, a
natural history society named for
Chicago's first naturalist. We had been
invited to see it by Donald Culross
Peattie, the nature writer, who had
married into the Redfield family and
lived there. Much later (in the 1960s)
I visited the grove with my old friend,
Hiram Kennicott, a cousin of Robert's.
On both occasions I was impressed
with the fact that much of the grove
remained in a comparatively natural
state. In my mind's eye I could almost
see young Robert demanding of his
sisters that they shake out their
voluminous skirts and petticoats on the
porch after running about in the prairie,
so that he could collect the insects
gathered. I am not aware that any of
the Kennicott insects thus collected
have come down to us, though a small
collection of his birds, including prairie
chicken, Carolina parakeet (extinct),

Field Museum Bulletin

A pair of ducks enjoy the tranquillity of tfie pond in Kennicott Grove.

and passenger pigeon (extinct), survive
in tlie Academy collection.

in the grove young Robert grew up
pretty much like an Indian. A sickly
boy, he was not required to go to
school. His father. Dr. John Kennicott,
preferred to tutor him at home. Dr.
Kennicott was a prominent horticulturist
and editor of Prairie Farmer magazine,
and the grove became a meeting place
for famous naturalists of the day. Out
of this came an offer for Robert to
understudy at the Smithsonian in
Washington with its secretary, the
famous Spencer Fullerton Baird. There,
with others later to become great
naturalists, such as William Stimpson,
he founded the tvlegatherium Club —
occupying a small cottage near the
museum. Here, in an atmosphere of
frequent hilarity, the impecunious young
men lived beween 1854 and 1858.
Robert's first professional paper was a
natural history survey of the reptiles.

small mammals, and birds to be found
along the right-of-way of the Illinois
Central Railroad from Chicago to Cairo.
When the Chicago Academy of Sciences,
"the first museum in the West," was
founded in 1857 at the suggestion of
the legendary Louis Agassiz, Robert
Kennicott was appointed its first
director. He then spent several years
on collecting trips in Illinois, Minnesota,
and northern and western Canada.
Between 1882 and 1865 he divided his
time between the Academy and the
Smithsonian, classifying his material;
and in 1865 he undertook to head the
survey expedition of the Western Union
Telegraph Company to Alaska — then
Russian territory. A route was laid out
for a telegraph line that would cross
the Pacific by way of Bering Strait,
where it would connect with one laid
by a Russian team working eastward
across the wastes of Siberia.

The successful laying of the Atlantic

cable by a rival organization, after
several failures, beheaded the vast
enterprise at the cost of millions.
Alaska was then so remote that it took
six months to transmit the order to the
field party to stop stringing telegraph
wire. But the collections of Kennicott in
Chicago and in Washington became
the concrete basis for Secretary of State
Seward's successful proposal to
purchase Alaska.

Kennicott himself did not survive the
Alaska experience. One sees this high-
spirited young man, ever merry and
the favorite of his companions, paddling
alongside Canadian voyageurs in huge
birchbark canoes up the Athabaska
River at 50 strokes a minute, shouting
"Alouette!" Or we see him on Christmas
morning, 1862, dog-sledding along the
banks of the Peel River, smoking his
last remaining cigar to the health of the
family circle back in the grove. On May
12, 1866, his body was found face-down
on the shore of the Yukon at Nulato,
his compass nearby and bearings to
the local peaks traced in the sand. He
was dead at thirty of a heart attack.

A couple of years ago a record book
of Robert Kennicott's father was
discovered. In it were inscribed by date
the origin of certain horticultural
plantings in the grove and where the
stock was obtained — some entries
going back to the 1840s. These records
add a unique scientific value to the
primarily wild area of the grove. There
is no question, however, that the old
Kennicott homestead is a typical prairie
grove. As to dominant tree form, it is
almost entirely made up of bur oak,
with low marshy glades and a willow-
bordered pond. The size of the grove
is ideal for the creation of a nature
center with historical overtones; it would
show how early residents in prairie
groves made their accommodation with
the natural environment. No more fitting
memorial to Chicago's first naturalist
could be proposed than this grove set
aside in its present state, housing there
various memorabilia of Robert Kennicott
— for example, enlarged passages from
his voluminous letters.

Seotember 1973

ETTERS

A member reminisces

The following exchange is between
Museum life member Alan D. Whitney and
John R. Millar, retired deputy director of
the Museum and chief curator of botany.

Dear Mr. IVIiilar:

Having enjoyed your article in the June
Bulletin, I decided to write you and mention
a few of my own recollections of the old
(Museum in Jackson Park. I was born
on the South Side on Oct. 30, 1893, the
last day of the Columbian Fair. My mother
attended it on Chicago Day, the 9th, and
was warned I might arrive unduly at
the fair in the excitement and huge crowd,
but I bided my time. I still have the 1<
postal card my father wrote that day to one
of my uncles, announcing my arrival, and
ending with "presume he came for the
Fair and just made it by a scratch,"
I grew up on the South Side and in my
late teens we moved to the vicinity of
Jackson Park, at 54th and Everett. I
attended the old museum building many
times in my youth and recall exhibits long
since discarded, mummies, Indian artifacts,
railroad trains, etc. I even saw the Ferris
Wheel, after it was moved to the North
Side, and before it was taken to St. Louis,
in 1904. As luck would have it. Dr.
Charles F. Millspaugh Ithe Museum's first
curator of botany] and wife lived in
our building.

I saw the old museum being vacated
and dismantled, and saw the temporary
RR track which ran from it to the ICRR
across Stony Island Ave. I took photos of

the construction of Rosenwald Museum
on the same site and with part of the
same walls. I courted more than one girl
in the area, and when I became engaged
to a girl also from the South Side, I
took motion pictures of her in and around
the museum then being rebuilt.

About 25 years ago I met Eugene
Richardson [curator of fossil invertebratesl.
He was co-leader with me in the Great
Books course in Winnetka then. His
ability to read the texts in the original
Greek intrigued me, and forced me to try
my hand a bit at that art. I taught myself
to read enough so that when we went
to Greece in 1960 and again in 1964, I
could decipher parts of the old
inscriptions .... I became a member
of the Museum a few years ago (and) in
recent years became a life member.

Alan D. Whitney
Winnetka, III.

Dear Mr. Whitney.

Your reminiscences of your youth and early
events in connection with the World
Columbian Exposition and the Museum are
most interesting and awaken some
nostalgic thoughts of my early days. When
I began employment at the Museum in
1918, I lived on the North Side, rode the
el. to 63rd and Stony and walked from there
to the Museum in all kinds of weather.

Please address all letters to the editor to

Buflelin

Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605

The editors reserve the right to edit
letters for length.

During lunch hour I and Homer Geib,
another young man employed at the same
time, explored the park and all there was
in it, the German Building, the Japanese
Tea House, Wooded Island, the Viking Ship,
Columbian caravels, and of course every
nook and corner of the Museum.
My first visit to the Museum occurred
when, as a grade school pupil, I and a
classmate took our respective girls there
on a Sunday afternoon. We fed our morbid
curiosity about death and the human body
with awesome viewing of mummies,
especially the unwrapped ones, and fed
our dreams of adventure in faraway places
with sight of native costumes and weapons.
It was a tremendously stimulating
experience that I can still recall vividly.
The fact that each generation of young
people must go through an equivalent
phase in their lives and development makes
museums and their exhibits of continuing
value as adjunctive educational institutions.

John R. Millar
Longboat Key, Fla.

An exhibition case is moved from the Museum's first home, the Palace of Fine Arts, into a freight

car for transport a few miles up the lake shore to the new Field Museum building. Photo taken about 1919.

Anthropology Program for
High-Schoolers

David Lawrence Pitrak. Oak Lawn Community
High School and James Gerard Graham,
Evergreen Park High School, both juniors,
learn about American Indian techniques for
making rope at Field Museum of Natural
History. They are participants in a six-week
Student Science Training Program in
Anthropology offered by Field IVluseum's
Department of Education and supported by the
National Science Foundation. David and James
were chosen for the free course on the basis
of academic achievement, teachers'
recommendations, and personal interviews.
The program features lectures by noted
authorities, seminars, workshops, individual
projects, study of artifacts, and a week of
supervised archaeological field work at a local
site.

Elizabeth Girardi Museum
Volunteer, Awarded Doctorate

Several years ago Mrs, Elizabeth Louise
Girardi began as a volunteer worker in the
division of invertebrates. Encouraged by
Dr, Alan Solem, now curator of that division,
Mrs. Girardi entered upon graduate studies
and, in August of this year, was awarded a
PhD from Northwestern University. Her thesis
on "The Genus Ostodes (Mollusca,
Gastropoda) In Western Samoa" was based
on materials collected by Dr. Solem and
staff under National Science Foundation
sponsorship.

Field Museum Celebrates 80th

On September 16 Field Museum of Natural
History begins its ninth decade, for on that
date in 1893 the incorporators of the
Museum (then the Columbian Museum of
Chicago) were granted a state charter. In its
80 years the institution has grown to
become one of the world's most important
museums — both as a scientific research
center and as a repository for specimens
and artifacts.

Journals Exchange with Peking

About twenty years ago Field Museum and
the Academia Sinica in Peking, People's
Republic of China, initiated an exchange of
technical publications: Fieldiana (Field
Museum's continuing series) going to
Peking, and four Chinese journals coming to
the Museum library. As a result of the
"cultural revolution" in China in 1966, few
scientific publications were printed and none
were sent to our library.

Through it all, however, the Museum
continued to send its publications to the
academy and to its Institute of Vertebrate
Paleontology and Paleoanthropology,

In February of this year Mr. Peyton Fawcett,
Museum librarian, wrote to the Academia
Sinica concerning the journal exchange and
was informed that the academy had been
receiving Fieldiana without interruption! He
also received assurance that the Museum
would again be getting those journals that
had been interrupted earlier, issues of which
have been received.

Lorin I. Nevling, Jr. Named
Chairman of Department of Botany

On July 1 Dr. Lorin I. Nevling, Jr., formerly
of Harvard University, became the new
chairman of the department of botany at
Field Museum. At Harvard he had been a
faculty member since 1966 and lecturer in
biology since 1969. He was appointed
assistant curator of Harvard's Arnold
Arboretum in 1959 and subsequently became
curator. Dr. Nevling also served as associate
curator, then curator, of Harvard's Gray
Herbarium.

Dr. Nevling was born in St. Louis, received
his BS from St. Mary's College, Winona,
Minnesota; and his AM and PhD from
Washington University in St. Louis. He is a
member of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (Fellow, 1967), the
Linnaean Society of London, and the
Sociedad Botanica de Mexico. At Field
Museum, Dr. Nevling will continue his work
on the "Flora of Veracruz," an ecologically
oriented flora which is a cooperative study
with scientists of the National University of
Mexico, This project is supported in part by
a recent grant from the National Science
Foundation.

Dr. Nevling succeeds Dr. Louis 0. Williams,
chairman of the department since 1964. In
his new capacity as curator of
Central American Botany, Dr. Williams will
devote full time to his 15-volume work,
Flora of Guatemala, a comprehensive survey
which he hopes to complete by 1976.

September 1973

Singer Collects in Ecuador

While several of his colleagues in the
Department of Botany were collecting in
Central America. Dr. Rolf Singer, visiting
curator in mycology (the study of fungi), was
on a National Science Foundation-supported
field trip in the Ecuadorian headwater
regions of the Amazon, and in the Andean
provinces of Pichincha and Tungurahua.

(Only two mycologists had previously been
in the area — both more than half a
century earlier.)

During his work in eastern Ecuador Singer
was stationed at the village of Lago Agrio
on the Rio Aguarico. an Amazon tributary,
where he was guest of the Texaco Oil
Company. His primary objective was to
collect fungi of the class Basidiomycetes;
secondarily, he took soil samples, which, by
the type of fungi they contained, might
indicate the likelihood of the presence of
petroleum deposits.

"The Naked Ape" Filmed at
Field Museum

Several scenes from "The Naked Ape," a
commercial film soon to be released to
theatres were filmed at Field IVIuseum last
year. The movie is based on a book of
the same title by British zoologist
Desmond IVlorris.

John White Joins Department
of Education

Field Museums new coordinator of native
American programs in the department of
education is John White. The new program,
funded by a grant from the W. Clement
and Jessie V. Stone Foundation, will attempt
to utilize Field Museum as a cultural
resource for the Indian community, and will
involve a close working relationship with
other Indian educational groups in the city.
A major project under Mr. White's direction
will be the development of a comprehensive
illustrated catalog of the North American
Indian materials in the Museum's collection.

A native of Philadelphia, Mr. White is of
Cherokee (Chickamauga Band) and Scottish
descent. He received his MA from the
University of Chicago in a combined
education and anthropology program; his
thesis was on "The American Indian in
Chicago — the Hidden People." He has also
completed work toward his PhD at
Stanford.

Moonlet Acquired 75 Years Ago

Field Museum's miniature moon, still to be
seen in Hall 35, was donated to the Museum
75 years ago. The 19-foot model, made in
Germany, is so accurate in detail that none
of the photos taken by astronauts during the
Apollo moon missions has revealed features
in disagreement with those shown on the
model's surface.

On the occasion of the model's acquisition
in 1898 the following statement appeared in
that year's annual Museum report:

"In geology, the gill ot Mr. L. W. Reese, o/
Chicago, of the Schmidt-Dickert relief
model of the moon is a notabie acquisition.
This great model, 19 feet in diameter,
exhibits with scientific accuracy the surface
features of the moon. It was prepared with
great care from the charts ot Beer and
l^adfer and of Dr. Schmidt of the Athens
Observatory, undoubtedly the greatest
authority upon the topography of the moon
of his time. Five years were occupied in its
construction."

(For further information on the curious
history of this model see the February 1970
Bulletin.)

Field Museum Bulletin 21

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"The creation of ground-level access to
Field Museum will be the attainment of a
long-sought goal," said Museum Director
E. Leiand Webber. "As early as 1943,
our architects studied the feasibility of such
access, but the project has been deferred
through the years because of lack of
funds. Now, through the generosity of many
Chicagoans, this important improvement
is nearing reality."

The new entrance facility should be
completed by the end of next year. In the
meantime, handicapped visitors, through
prior arrangement, may enter the Museum
via the service elevator, and use a Museum
wheelchair for the day.

Many other aids to persons with limited
mobility are included in the Museum's

renovation plans. There will be two public
passenger elevators to replace the present
single, small elevator. Each will have
group-size doors and capacities of 30
persons. In addition, wide restroom stalls
with grab bars, low drinking fountains
and pay telephones, and wide doors will
enhance a Museum visit for mobility-limited
persons. It is also hoped that the Simpson
Theatre can be equipped with a lift
backstage for patrons who cannot enter
via the lobby stairs.

These renovations are parts of 27 major
projects that will update the Museum for
the 1970s and decades to come. Half of
the money is being generated through
private gifts, the other half is public funds
through the bonding authority of the
Chicago Park District.

Plan ground-level access
for handicapped visitors

"The 38 steps" — not a Hitchcock thriller
but a real frustration to approximately
600,000 Chicago-area residents who cannot
presently visit Field Museum without
hardship and inconvenience to themselves
and to the people accompanying them.

The 38 steps lead up to the Museum's two
main entrances. But for visitors confined
to wheelchairs or crutches, or who are
pregnant or on the mend from a broken
limb, or who are still in the toddler stage
or have advanced to their senior years,
those 38 obstacles are sufficient to often
deter them from an exciting,
thought-provoking tour through the
Museum.

But, thanks to many generous contributors
to the Museum's $25-Million Capital
Campaign now in progress, the Museum
will soon have a ground-level entrance to
better serve these potential visitors. It will
be one level lower than, and just to the
north of, the present entrance to the lobby
of the James Simpson Theatre on the west
side of the building. The new entrance
will feature pull-type doors with a
clearance of 36 inches wide or more.

Architect's rendering of Field Museum's west entrance as it will appear in the near future.
Access to the building by this entrance will be at the ground level, making it possible for persons
in wheelchairs and on crutches to visit the Museum with minimum difficulty.

September 1973

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Closes September 30

Seventeen-Year Cicada: A Strategy for
Survival, a multi-media exhibit describing
and Interpreting the adaptive significance
of ttie unusual life cycle of tfiese strange
insects. IVIIIIIons of cicadas made tfieir
noisy appearance above ground In tfie
Cfiicago area early In June. Hall 9.

Adaptations of Amphibians and Reptiles,

an exhilbit of pfiotographs portraying tfie
natural beauty and aesthietic qualities of
ttnese animals, as well as Illustrating some
of tfieir often remarkable and unique
adaptations whicfi help them survive. They
were taken by Dr. Nathan W. Cohen,
Chairman. Department of Continuing
Education in Sciences and Mathematics,
University of California, Berkeley. Hall 27.

Continuing

Field Museum's Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of
Wonder" offers thought-provoking prose
and poetry associated with the physical,
biological, and cultural aspects of nature;
"A Sense of History" presents a graphic
portrayal of the Museum's past, and
"A Sense of Discovery" shows examples
of research conducted by Museum
scientists. Hall 3.

Children's Program

Begins September 1

Fall Journey for Children, a free self-guided
tour designed to acquaint youngsters
with Museum exhibit areas. All boys and
girls who can read and write may join in
the activity. Journey sheets available at
entrances. Through November 30.

Meetings

September 11: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera
Club of Chicago.

September 12: 7 p.m., Chicago
Ornithological Society.

September 12: 7:30 p.m., Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

September 13: 8 p.m., Chicago
Mountaineering Club.

September 25: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera
Club of Chicago.

Coming in October

Fall Film Lecture Series, offered at
2:30 p.m. every Saturday In the
James Simpson Theatre. "The Epic
Voyages of Ra" will also be presented at
7:30 p.m. Friday, October 19.

October 6: "In the Heel of the Northeast
Trade," (Patau Islands. Micronesia),
narrated by Dr. Kenneth R. H. Read.

October 13: "Hawaii," narrated by
Doug Jones.

October 19 and

October 20: "The Epic Voyages of Ra,"

narrated by Comdr. Norman Baker.

October 27: "Minnesota Valley Saga,"

narrated by Dr. Walter J. Breckenrldge.

Hours

9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. September
1 and 2. and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday. September
3 {Labor Day). Remainder of month 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. Saturday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to
9 p.m. Friday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410

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Volume 44, Number 9
October 1973

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

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Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 9
October 1973

contents

REHABILITATION

The first large-scale modernization program
in the history of Field Museum
An interview with William B. Dring

Managing Editor G. Henry Ottery
Editor David M. Walsten
Staff Writer Madge Jacobs
Production Russ Becker
Photography John Bayalis

SCARABS

Sacred and otherwise
By David M. Walsten

SPANISH PREHISTORIC ART

Introduction to a new exhibit
By G. Henry Ottery

BOOK REVIEWS

RAY A. KROC ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION PROGRAM

CHILDREN'S WORKSHOPS

FIELD BRIEFS

Field Museum of Natural History

Director E. Leland Webber

CALENDAR

Board of Trustees

Remick McDowell,

President
Mrs. B. Edward Bensinger
Gordon Bent
Harry O. Bercher
Bowen Blair
Stanton R. Cook
William R. Dickinson. Jr.
Thomas E. Donnelley M
Marshall Field
Nicholas Galitzine
Paul W. Goodrich
Hugo J. Melvoin
J. Roscoe Miller
William H. Mitchell
Charles F. Murphy, Jr.
Harry M. Oliver, Jr.
John T. Pirie, Jr.
John S. Runnells
William L. Searle
John M. Simpson
Edward Byron Smith

Mrs. Hermon Dunlap

Smith
John W. Sullivan
William G. Swartchild. Jr.
E. Leland Webber
Julian B. Wilkins
Blaine J. Yarrlngton

Life Trustees

William McCormick Blair
Joseph N. Field
Clilford C. Gregg
Samuel Insull, Jr.
William V. Kahler
Hughston M. McBain
James L. Palmer
John G. Searle
Louis Ware
J. Howard Wood

COVER

The date: May 2, 1921. The event: Opening day of Field
Museum's new building. Chicagoans. like pilgrims journeying to
a shrine, make their way to the doors of the Museum, across
the "barrens" of what is to become Grant Park.

Today, a half-century later, Field Museum has grown to become
one of the great scientific meccas of the world. Completion of
the Museum's $25 million rehabilitation program (described in
the following pages) will do much to ensure the institution's
continued growth as an educational and research center.

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monttily,
except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural
History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Stiore Drive, Ctiicago, Illinois 60605.
Subscriptions: $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the
Museum subscribe through Museum membership. Opinions expressed
by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of
Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Second-class
postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form 3579
to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore
Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. ISSN: 0015-0703

October 1973

Rehabilitation

The first major modernization
program in Field Museum's history is
explained by architect William B.
Dring of Harry Weese & Associates.

Architect's visualization of new lunchroom planned for
Field Museum

Editor: The goal of Field Museum's Capital Campaign

is $25,000,000— funds to be used in
rehabilitating the Museum building. Could you
summarize the major aspects of the
construction program and explain how this will
affect Museum visitors?

Dring: Probably the most obvious changes as far as

Museum visitors are concerned will be the
renovation of the public spaces. Virtually all of
the public service areas will be affected.
Included in the program is an expanded new
cafeteria, modernization of James Simpson
Theatre, and expansion and renovation of the
educational facilities, including new classrooms
and lecture halls, new children's lunchrooms

Harry IVeese & Associates is the arctiitectural
firm in charge of the rehabilitation project. The
firm has been involved in many major renovation
projects in Chicago, among which are the
Auditorium Theater. Orchestra Hall, and
Newberry Library. Mr. Dring is project manager
tor the Field l\/luseum's rehabilitation program.

and a new ground-level entry for children's
groups and mobility-limited persons at the west
side of the building. The other public spaces to
be affected are the north and south entries
where new coat-checking facilities are planned.
New elevators will serve the three public levels
of the building. The present bookstore is to be
enlarged. A new bookstore at the south
entrance and a children's bookstore on the
ground floor are also planned.

Less visible to the public will be the expansion
of the scientific departments. This will include
substantial enlargement of the curatorial offices,
laboratories, and collections storage areas for
each of the four scientific departments (zoology,
botany, geology, and anthropology).
A third aspect of the building program is
consolidation of departmental offices. Due to
incremental expansion over the years, these
departments tended to spread around the
building and become physically decentralized,
causing problems in staff communication yet not
really providing adequate space. Under the
new program, each of the departments will be

Field Museum Bulletin

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consolidated into contiguous facilities. The
administration, education, and development
offices will be on ttie ground floor. The
Department of Exhibition's new offices are
already completed and in use at the south end
of the fourth floor.

Along with the construction of the new facilities
there is a continuous program of renovation
of the physical and mechanical plant. This will
include repair of some fairly minor structural
deterioration and will also include such major
items as a complete air conditioning system,
and almost total renovation of t^.e electrical
system.

The last major aspect is an outgoing program
of exhibition renewal. The Museum has a very
strong commitment to the exhibition program,
and has budgeted a rather large portion, about
$5,000,000 of the $25,000,000 capital campaign
funds, to exhibition renewal. Part of this money
will be used for physical renovation of the
halls: new lighting, acoustical treatment, and
repainting.

Ed.: What is the overall timetable for the

construction program?

Dring: Par'i of the work has been completed. In

addition to the new work areas for the
Department of Exhibition, we have also
completed new offices and storage areas for
the Division of Invertebrates, and a laboratory
for the new scanning electron microscope.
Conversion of the boilers from coal to gas has
been completed. Just recently the Museum has
entered into a contract for eight new fire exits
and repair of the north and south steps. By the
end of the year we hope to have the air
conditioning, the electrical renovation,
additional curatorial space, and most of the
ground floor work under contract. All of these
are phased projects which are scheduled to be
in construction over the next several years. In
total these represent about 65 percent of the
building program, all under contract this year!

Ed.: What will be the effect of all this construction

activity on the staff and visitors?

Lecture hall II will feature seat rows in semicircular tiers.

"11 ir

Laboratory in the Division of
Invertebrates. Modernization
of this section, including
offices and collection storage
areas, has recently been
completed.

Dring: The phasing of the work for minimum

disruption is a complicated matter. We're
rebuilding the cafeteria in a new location so
that the present facilities can be In operation
until changeover. We're using the same
techniques in building new facilities for the
curatorial staff because their collections are
very sensitive and could not tolerate exposure
to the dust of construction. Remodelling and
expanding the offices is a different problem;
many of the staff will have to occupy
temporary offices during a portion of the
construction program.

It is fortunate that the Museum has chosen
"construction management" as a method of
monitoring the construction process and has
hired Turner Construction Company for this
responsibility. Construction management
essentially means hiring a construction firm
as part of a team, with responsibility for cost
control and assisting in scheduling and In
coordination between the various contractors.

Ed.: What was your overall approach in

master-planning the rehabilitation program?

Dring; An early part of the study, of course, was an

analysis of the building itself. The Museum is
very fortunate to have such a truly remarkable
building. Though the classic style was hardly
avant-garde when the designs were started
in 1905, the original architect, Daniel Burnham,
created a magnificent Greco-Roman structure
that has a timeless quality which will always
be "in style." I've been working with the
building for more than five years now, and am

continually impressed with the clarity and
integrity of the plan. The public spaces are
arranged like fingers — always leading back to
Stanley Field Hall for orientation. Stanley
Field Hall itself is one of the finest indoor
spaces in the country.

Early in the design process we decided, with
the Museum administration's blessing, that
any visible expansion outside the building
would be undesirable. Fortunately, within the
building the large lightwells, now rendered
obsolete by modern exhibition lighting
techniques, are available. They offer large
clear spaces where new floors could be
installed, and the existing structure could
easily take the load. All in all, the lightwells
offer an increase in floor area of 19 percent! —
even more than the present program requires.
And beyond that we could also consider
expansion under the exterior terraces. These
expanded areas would also be "invisible."

Our overall philosophy is to work within the
present design fabric, saving existing design
elements and ornamentation. Occasionally we
must insinuate modern facilities into strong
design areas, such as the rest rooms which
were added as part of the new lounges on the
second floor overlooking Stanley Field Hall.
There we even copied and extended existing
ornamentation to be as discreet as possible.

In James Simpson Theatre we are planning
to modernize and update the facility but still
save the existing form and ornamentation.

Field Museum Bulletin

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New classrooms are among the public service areas to be included in the Museum rehabilitation program.

In most areas we are not in conflict with the
original architecture. On the ground floor,
for instance, there is no strong architectural
detailing. We felt we should preserve the basic
symmetry of the circulation pattern, but the
new architectural elements could be totally
modern.

Ed.: Your plans show a new glass wall to enclose

the north entry portico. What is the reason
for this?

Dring: This is probably the only area where the

modern will come hard up against the
original, but we believe that the two will meet
very well. The main reason for this addition
is that it solves a very basic circulation
problem that was not adequately solved in
the original design.

A large number of persons enter and leave
the building at this point; traffic here is further
congested by the coat checking, the bookstore,
and ticket-taking functions, plus the guard's
desk which mediates access to the nonpublic
areas of the building. Our proposal to solve
these problems was to enclose the exterior
portico. We're providing a desk and special
elevators in an alcove at the side to serve the
staff and visitors to the nonpublic areas.

The bookshop will be entered at the east side
of the north entrance. All the congestion inside
the bronze doors will be avoided, allowing easy
access to the grand stairs and a suitably
dignified approach to Stanley Field Hall. The
glass wall we are adding to enclose this new
space will be the most visible change to the
exterior, but by holding the glass behind the
outer row of columns, we expect that it will
not dominate the scene.

Ed.: What about the not-so-visible changes — the

air conditioning, for example.

Dring: The decision to air-condition the building was

made very early. There was concern for the
comfort and efficiency of the staff and the
Museum's visitors, but the primary reason for
air conditioning is the need to preserve the
invaluable collections of the Museum. Most
of the specimens, particularly those which
are organic in nature, require a stable
environment. Extremes of temperature and
humidity could, over a period of time, cause
severe deterioration to many of these virtually
irreplaceable objects. The collections are
housed not only in the scientific areas but
throughout the exhibition halls, making total
air conditioning almost mandatory.

October 1973

The Museum sought the advice of the many
experts in the field of conservation, and
engaged Dr. Nathan Stolow as a consultant.
Dr. Stolow is director of the Canadian
Conservation Institute of the National Museums
of Canada and is a world authority on the
preservation of works of art and natural
history objects. He surveyed the collections
and made a series of recommendations as to
the proper environment for each of the various
types of specimen. Our engineers have
designed an air conditioning system that can
meet these critical needs but which can also
be throttled back for economy if any area were
to be converted to more standard use.

We tried to design the air conditioning system
into the existing fabric, again, as discreetly
as possible. For the air conditioning cooling
tower we were able to use a lightwell above
James Simpson Theatre. In planning the
distribution of the large pipes and ducts we
were equally fortunate. We found that the
corners of each of the old lightwells could be
extended down to the first floor and the
ground floor with almost no impairment of the
visual aspects or working qualities of the
building. These shafts reach almost everywhere
and will serve perfectly to conceal most of
the equipment.

Also, we are reserving two of the shafts for
the new public elevators. The shafts are so
perfect for the task that it almost seems that
the original architect, more than half a century
ago, foresaw this future need.

Ed.: With the completion of the rehabilitation

program, Museum members will take pride m
the fact that their modernized building will be
one of the best equipped and most up-to-date
institutions of its kind in the world.

The fulfillment of members' dreams for a fully
modernized building is predicated on the
successful completion of the Capital Campaign.
The Campaign's goal is $25 million — half to
be privately donated, the other half to be
provided by the bonding authority of the
Chicago Park District on a matching basis.
So far, through the generosity of individual,
foundation, and corporate donors, more than
$10 million has been subscribed — a truly
remarkable demonstration of faith and interest
in Field Museum. Nearly $2.5 million from
private sources is still to be raised by
September 1974, however. In the months to
come, each of us must consider how we can
individually participate in the achievement
of this goal.

CHICAGO'S BIG GIVERS

The immediate future o1 Chicago is
an interesting study for observers.
All eyes have been centered upon her
now for six months, and in a less
degree for nearly two years. Her
purposes and her methods of carrying
them out have been matters of
national moment. It is hardly too much
to say that she has been the most
important city in the land, and of
course she has feft her importance.
What will become of her now? Will
she drop gracefully down to hard
pan and become once more a
comparatively commonplace big
western town or will she keep right
on and strive by tremendous hustling
to maintain the central and
commanding position which was lent
her by the falr'i' Of course that

remains to be seen, but she has
given some evidence already that she
does not intend to drop an inch
farther than she can hefp. Marshall
Field's subscription of a million
dollars to found a museum of natural
history may be accepted as an
indication of her sentiments, ft is
proposed to make the museum a
memorial ot the fair and perhaps to
house it in the Art Building at
Jackson Park. Mr. Pullman follows
Mr. Field's subscription with one ot
a hundred thousand dollars, and
doubtless before this reaches the
reader's eye the entire sum of two
millions called for will be made up.
What extraordinary givers these
Chicago men are! It is exhilarating
even at this distance to see the

superb confidence with which they
back up their town. Other cities get
bequests now and then, but Chicago's
rich men have not had time to die,
and neither she nor they can wait for
that. They want to see that investment
in actual being. If any eastern
listener is holding his ear to the
ground to catch the thud of Chicago's
collapse, he might as well get on
his legs again and go about his
business. There Isn 't going to be
much of a thud. Those amazing
hustfers are stiff at it, and though
their tide may ebb a fittfe for a time
it is bound to ffow again in due
season. — Editorial from Harper's
Weekly, Nov. 11, 1893.

Field Museum Bulletin

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8 September 1973

SCARABS

Sacred and Otherwise

By David M. Walsten

EARLY IN THE 19TH CENTURY Lord
Elgin — the British Museum's dedicated
collector of antiquities — found in
Constantinople a boulder-size green
granite replica of a beetle. It measured
about five feet long and weighed more
than two tons. The sculpture is
possibly the largest carving of a beetle
ever made, and is believed to have
originally come from the temple of
Heliopolis in northern Egypt.

Elgin's colossus represented an insect
known to entomologists as Scarabeus
sacer and commonly called (along with
a number of similar species) the dung

beetle, or tumblebug. Because it held
religious significance for the ancient
Egyptians the beetle also is known as
the "sacred scarab." At least three
other species were also used by the
Egyptians as models for amulets,
talismans, seals, tablets, and pedestals.
The family to which all of these belong
is known as Scarabaeidae, a group that
comprises more than 20,000 species
(about 1,300 in North America). All of
these beetles, too, are properly called
scarabs.

Perhaps no instance of religious
symbolism could be described as more

curious than the ancient Egyptians'
identification of S. sacer with Khepera,
their god of creation. The beetle's
seemingly playful habit of rolling a ball
of dung along the ground was believed
to represent Khepera's divine task of
rolling the sun across the sky. The ball,
in time, magically produced another
beetle; the Egyptians probably did not
notice that an egg had been inserted
into it weeks earlier.

The beetle grub used the ball as food
— a miniaturization of heat and life
springing from the sun. Thirty structures
on the beetle's legs were thought to

Over a period of more than 3.000 years the Egyptian scarab was fashioned in a variety of styles,
in a great range of sizes, and from many materials. Those shown (actual size) at the left,
selected from Field t^useum's collection, were probably made ca. 1570-500 B.C. See key below.
(1) faience: (2) mottled argillite?; (3) faience; (4) granitic; (5) blue ceramic; (6) serpentine; (7)
faience, with sun disk above and threading loop in shape of infinity sign; (8) faience; (9)
serpentine; (10) amethyst; (11) wood; (12) translucent paste; (13) lapis lazuli; (14) wood; (15)
faience: (16) altered volcanic rock; (17) quartz-feldspar; (18) wood; (19) jade?; (20) faience.

Greenstone scarab, lop and bottom, from about
1000 B.C., showing beautifully incised hieroglyphs
on the lower side. (Enlarged about twice)

Field Museum Bulletin

'J^^% " » r /.r #.%. v» V#

Winged Egypt'an scarab, ceramic, from the
Late Period (1090-332 B.C.). The wings
represent those of Horus, the falcon-formed
god of the sky. (Slightly enlarged)

represent the days of the month. The
number of days in the month was also
said to be represented by the number
of days before a new beetle emerged
from the ball. All scarabs were
supposedly males; by virtue of their
divine power they were able to
perpetuate themselves without female
assistance.

Iriiages of the beetle — a stout black
insect about an inch long — were made
from a great variety of materials,
•ncluding ivory, wood, ceramics,
colored glass, gold, and stone. Stone
scarabs were of basalt, granite, diorite,
hematite, lapis lazuli, carnelian, jasper,
agate, soapstone, onyx, and quartz. The
great majority were from half an inch to
two inches in length. Some replicas
had wings of the sacred falcon Horus.
Others bore a ram's head and horns,
Khepera is sometimes represented as
a man with a head in the likeness of a
scarab. The bottom of scarab replicas

IS usually flat and smooth, but many
are inscribed with hieroglyphs or with
other figures. Anatomical features of the
beetle's lower side are sometimes
represented in stylized fashion.

Scarabs have been found on habitation
sites as well as in tombs. The oldest
known amulets date from at least as
early as the first half of the fourth
millenium B.C., and jars of embalmed
scarab beetles also date from this
period. The use of scarab replicas as
amulets became common during the
Xlth or Xllth dynasties (2133-1786 B.C.);
around the XXVIth dynasty (664-525
B.C.) they passed out of vogue.
Hundreds of large scarabs were made
during the reign of Amenophis III
(about 1450 B.C.), memorializing such
events as his marriage, the digging of
an artificial lake, and various hunting
trips.

Scarab amulets were worn on the
person to promote general well-being

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(a) Scarabeus sacer. found only in the Eastern Hemisphere, is the species most commonly
regarded by the ancient Egyptians as sacred; (b) small North American tumblebug, Canthon
laevis: (c) common North American junebug, genus Phyllophaga: (d) the gold bug, Plusiotis
resplendens: native to Central America, this scarab has the color and sheen of highly polished
24-carat gold. (All life size)

and to ward off evil. Warriors carried
them to bolster their courage. Some
were inscribed with the name and title
of their bearer. Others had the name
of a pharaoh, or a motto or good luck
phrase carved into them, such as "May
your name endure and a son be born
to you." Because the beetle symbolized
life itself, scarab amulets were often
placed with the dead. The so-called
heart scarab was placed on a mummy's
breast, among its wrappings, or put
inside the body in place of the
mummy's heart. The bottom of the
heart scarab was inscribed with a
passage from the sacred Book of the
Dead, in which the deceased petitioned
his heart not to bear witness against
him at the time of final judgment.
Beyond Egypt, scarabs have been
found in various other Mediterranean
countries and as far east as Iran, where
they were in all probability taken by
early traders. The Greeks and
Etruscans copied the scarab in their
own art, Etruscan scarabs of the 6th
and 5th centuries B.C. being especially
fine.

Among the Egyptian scarabs to be
found in Hall 33, case J, of Field
Museum are blue glaze amulets of the
XXVIth-XXXth dynasties, winged
scarabs of the XXIInd-XXXth dynasties,
and heart scarabs from between the
XVIIIth and XXVth dynasties.

Scarabs generally, that is to say, all
members of the beetle family
Scarabaeidae typically have oval or
elongate bodies, a robust appearance,
and are rather lethargic in habit. They

October 1973

-i». • ■*-■'

DYNASTIDS — giants of the living scarabs

THE ELEPHANT BEETLE (Megasoma
elephus) occurs in Central and
South America. (Life size)

THE GOLIATH BEETLE (Goliathus
regius), found in Africa, is pertiaps
ttie largest of all living insects.
(Life size)

THE HERCULES BEETLE (Dynastes
hercules), native to Central and
Soutfi America, sometimes measures
more than six inches to the tip of
the horn. (Life size)

are distinguished from other beetles by
the platelike, or lamellate, structure of
the three end segments of the
antennae. These may be opened and
closed something like a fan. The family
is further distinguished by a five-
segmented tarsus — the end section of
the leg. It may have been the total of
these 30 segments on the sacred
scarab's six legs that were believed by

the ancient Egyptians to correspond to
the 30 days of the month.

The family is of particular interest to
the collector because it includes the
giants of the beetle order: the goliath,
hercules, elephant, and rhinoceros
beetles — the so-called dynastids. The
goliath beetle greatly outweighs the
smallest mammals and may very well

be, on the basis of weight, the largest
of all living insects. Some dynastids
have spectacular hornlike structures.
As with many horned mammals, only
the male dynastid bears horns.

Among the most curious, and least
known, scarabs are beetles of the
genus Cremastochellus. These insects,
'/2 inch long or so, live in ant nests.

Field fvtuseum Bulletin

A worker ant gnaws at nutritive thoracic
glands of the scarab Cremaslocheilus
castaneae. Apparently unharmed by this
attention, the beetle is held captive in the nest
or, in some cases, freely comes and goes.
(Several times life size)

Some appear to be held captive;
others apparently come and go with
complete freedom. A nutritive fluid,
eaten by the ants, is secreted by
special glands located between the
beetle's thorax and the wing covers.
Clinging to the beetle's body, the ant
gnaws at the glands to release the
fluid.

Scarab pests

Many scarab species are serious pests
of food crops, flower gardens, lawns,
and golf greens. The junebug (a name
applied to more than 100 closely
related species, mostly of the genus
Phyllophaga), is a destructive insect
that occurs throughout North America:
it is also known as the June beetle or
May beetle. The peanut-shaped,
shiny-brown adults — V2-^A inch long —
feed at night on the foliage of trees
and shrubs. Enough of these insects
can strip a large plant of its leaves
overnight. At the first light of dawn the
junebugs descend to the ground. But
at dusk they again take flight, seeking
out a suitable tree or shrub for their
evening meal.

The white-bodied, brown-headed
junebug larvae — commonly called
white grubs — grow to about an inch
long. They live in the soil, burrowing
as deep as five feet, and do serious
damage to the roots of forage plants.

lawn grass, and a large number of
agricultural crops.

The rose chafer {Macrodactylus
subspinosus), a widely distributed
insect closely related to the junebug,
is a tan, slender beetle about '/2 inch
long that feeds on the foliage and
flowers of grapes and roses. Peaches
and other fruits are also among the
rose chafer's favorite foods. The rose
chafer grub, like that of the junebug,
does serious damage to a variety of
food crops by eating the roots.
Curiously, the rose chafer is poisonous
to poultry, which sometimes die from
eating the beetle. (The name "chafer,"
like Kafer, the German word for any
sort of beetle, is derived from the
name of the ancient Egyptian god
Khepera.)

The Japanese beetle {Popillia japonica)
is a beautifully colored scarab, but it is
also a pest in many parts of the United
States. It feeds on the foliage and fruit
of at least 250 plant species, including
cultivated fruit trees, shrubbery, and
lawn grasses. The V2 -inch-long
metallic green or greenish bronze
insect first arrived in this country in
about 1916 as a stowaway on the
roots of agricultural stock shipped from
Japan.

Tumblebugs and scavengers

Beneficial scarabs include the dung
beetles (which comprise many species
and several subfamilies) and the skin
beetles (family Troginae). Dung beetles
remove the excrement of larger
animals by burying and devouring it.
Skin beetles — so-named because they
commonly occur under the hides of
dead animals — feed on carrion.

The sacred scarab, a dung beetle
which occurs only in the Eastern
Hemisphere, belongs to a subfamily
(Scarabinae) whose members are also
commonly called tumblebugs. These
insects are fascinating to watch as
they go about their task: When the
tumblebug comes upon a piece of
animal dung it cuts off a chunk, works
it into a sphere often much larger than
itself, then rolls it away. Sometimes
two beetles cooperate at the task — one
pulling, the other pushing. When the
ball reaches a hole or crevice in the
ground it is dropped in and one or
more eggs (depending on the species)
are laid in the ball. Later the ball is
used as food by the developing grub.
J. Henri Fabre's The Sacred Beetle
and Others, first published in English
in 1918, is a classic account of the
activities of the dung beetle.

Two dung beetles, or tumblebugs, of the North American species Canthon pilularis work
together to move their ball of dung to a hole or crevice in the earth.

Photo courtesy of John H. Gerard.

October 1973

\V\

Hunting scene from cave at Ares del Maestre, Castell6n.

Spanish prehistoric art

By G. Henry Ottery

FOR FIVE-YEAR-OLD Maria, it was like
a holiday. She was thrilled that her
father, Marcelino de Sautoula, an
engineer and amateur archaeologist,
permitted her to explore with him the
caves of the Cantabrian mountain region
of northern Spain that day in 1879.
There were so many caves, and Maria's
father had told her that they had been
home and refuge for succeeding
generations of humans.

They were examining the interior of the
Cave of Altamira. It was a very low
cave, so that, while Maria was able to
stand up, her father had to crawl or
walk duck fashion. Maria's excited
eyes darted to all sides and up and
down, not knowing what to expect.
Suddenly she cried out, "Papa! Los
toros!" Her father's eyes followed her
pointed finger to the roof of the cave
until they found Maria's bulls. They
were painted bison, whose rich colors
must have astonished Marcelino, and
humbled him with the message they
brought from centuries past.

Maria and her father — and the world —
had discovered the art of painting in
one of its earliest stages. Since that

day in 1879, more than 100 caves and
rock shelters in northern Spain and
southern France, as well as large
numbers of rock shelters in eastern
Spain, have been discovered to contain
prehistoric paintings and engravings,
dating as far back as 30,000 B.C.

A representative sampling of these art
findings has been placed on view in
Field Museum's Hall 27, and will
remain through October. The exhibit
"Spanish Prehistoric Art," is comprised
of 42 photographs and other
reproductions of cave paintings and
engravings. Visitors to the display are
reminded of the Museum's Hall of the
Stone Age of the Old World, where
full-size, three-dimensional dioramas
recreate in detail two prehistoric rock
shelters and a cave discovered in
France, which present other examples
of prehistoric art.

Development of the art

There were more skeptics than
believers when the cave drawings were
first discovered. Very few thought them
to be genuine. In spite of the
knowledge gained from the earlier

study of numerous small works of art
— objects of stone, bone, and horn
adorned with incisions or reliefs — the
date and authenticity of the paintings

Detail of cave painting from Ares del Maestre,
Castellon, depicting bull and arcfier

»?■»*!

were difficult to determine. Even the
specialists in prefnistory misinterpreted
their significance, some saying that
they could have been done by Roman
soldiers, others declaring that the
artists were Spanish priests! It wasn't
until about 20 years after Maria's
discovery, when similar paintings were
found in caves in southern France, that
the problem was solved.

These early paintings are of
extraordinarily high quality and the
artists have been favorably compared
with the most renowned artists of
historic times. The prehistoric artist had
to invent techniques and overcome
great difficulties. He had limited colors.
He initiated the use of dotted outlines,
the silhouette, flat colors, incised and
relief sculpture, etc. Frequently the
artist had to work by torch light or by
the light of lamps made of hollow
stone and filled with animal fat, since
he often worked at a great distance
from the cave's entrance.

Left: Male figures from cave painting at
Monfrague, Caceres. Right: Detail of battle
scene from painting in rock shelter near Ares
del Maestre, Castellon.

The paintings of these artists are
thought by some to involve hunting
magic or to relate to fertiliy rites. The
figures are full of life. Animals abound.
Painted hands appear on some cave
walls; a masked human is also
depicted. The appearance of symbols
suggests the artists' capacity for
abstraction. Authorities generally agree
that these methods of artistic
expression had their beginnings about
30,000 B.C. The paintings that Maria
found are usually considered as part of
the grandiose last chapter of late
Paleolithic art, around 15,000 B.C.

After about 9,000 B.C. a second style
of painting appears in prehistoric
Spain. In addition to animal forms —
still painted in a naturalistic style — a
great number of human beings, of both
sexes, appear. Those wearing what
appear to be skirts are identified as
women. But humans are depicted more
in an abstract than in a naturalistic
style. All figures are comparatively
small, appearing especially in hunting
or food gathering scenes. In addition,
instead of adorning the hidden
recesses of caves, this style of art is
found on the walls of rock shelters in
the mountains of eastern Spain, As

this style worked its way westward, it
lost its last traces of naturalism and
became schematic and abstract. One
reason for this change, it has been
argued, could have been an evolution
from the natural representation of the
figure to the stylized figure and the
symbol. Another reason may have been
the introduction of a different style and
different mentality, brought about by
what has been termed the Neolithic
Revolution. Some believe that both of
these factors may have joined to
create the new style.

These prehistoric paintings and their
geographic limitation have caused
constant problems for the archaeologist
since their discovery in 1903. But the
consensus is that they were painted
between 9,000 and 3,000 B.C.

Although two subsequent periods of
Spanish antiquity are also recognized
in the development of prehistoric art,
the Museum exhibit concerns itself with
the first two periods, spanning 27,000
years. The display was assembled
because of increasing interest in
prehistoric and primitive art. The
traveling exhibit was organized by the
Spanish Institute, Inc. of New York.

ILL" L I

The Archaeology of Arizona:

A Study of the Southwest Region

By Paul S. Martin and Fred Plog. New York:
Natural History Press, 1973. 448 pp.;
illustrations; end maps. $16.95.

The regional archaeological study that is
both authoritative and well illustrated is
unusual enough, but it is even more
remarkable when this combination is as
intellectually satisfying and innovative as the
volume Martin and Plog have produced. They
have succeeded in creating a stimulating
exposition of archaeological problems in the
Southwest through their comprehensive
review of Arizona archaeology. The
graphics have not been neglected in this
visually attractive book, and the illustrations
are informative and often pleasing to the eye.

The admirable aspect of this book is its
scope. It is a carefully organized exposition
of the kind of scientific problem orientation
that the authors have participated in over the
last dozen years. The new directions that
Martin and others have charted find their
way in the discussion of all aspects of
Arizona archaeology. The organization of
the book, which is much more than an
introduction to Arizona archaeology, testifies
to the broad scope of their study, whose
range is represented by the eight parts of
the book that encompass 21 chapters.

These parts are: 1. Tools in Recovering
Arizona Prehistory, 2. Environments of
Arizona, 3. Space and Time Dimensions,
4. The Evolution of Subsistence-Settlement
Systems, 5. The Evolution of Technology,

6. Changing Patterns of Social Organization,

7. The Great Events in Prehistoric Arizona,
and 8. Southwestern Prehistory — An
Explanation. Completely absent is the
Procrustean geographical and historical
organization that has been the time-honored
form of regional archaeological syntheses —
including the two previous statewide studies
in the series.

This book is not a catalog of fancy artifacts
and picturesque ruins that could easily have
been the focus of any Arizona archaeological
text. Instead the authors have selectively
used the prehistoric record to illustrate their
exposition. They have chosen to
communicate their thesis that the
archaeology of Arizona has something of
importance to contribute to our
understanding of man's cultural evolution.
This is not a didactic exercise, but is a
serious study concerned with explaining the
actual variety present in the archaeological
record. In so doing they stress such
explanatory relationships as the adaptive
contexts of technologies, the patterns of site
location that relate to the procurement and
control of resources (energy), and the
various cultural responses to different types
of labor organizations. Theirs is a cultural
and social study of Arizona archaeology. In
the end they develop the notion that the past
is continuous with the present and that
explanations of past events must be
conceptually acceptable to explaining
contemporary cultural change. But as broad
as the conceptual scope of their study is,
they have kept their link with archaeological
history by returning to recurring questions
asked of the archaeological record: how did
agriculture arise, why were the great towns
established, and why were so many areas
of former pueblo occupation abandoned?

The responsibility for each chapter was
solely that of one of the authors, who also
enlisted the assistance of David Gregory and
Frederick Gorman in writing one chapter
and the appendix. Because of this division
of authorship there are redundancies and
inconsistencies. But it is to the credit of the
authors that these are so few. The appendix
included is a useful guide to the ruins since
it is an alphabetical list of dated sites with
locations and brief descriptions.
Unfortunately, the book lacks a glossary
and the index is quite skimpy.

There is an importance to this book beyond
that of a masterful statement of what Arizona
archaeology is about. It represents the
capstone statement of the kind of
archaeology that Paul Martin of Field
Museum and his students have been
involved in during the last decade. He has
been a pioneer in charting and actively
supporting new directions in research into
Arizona's past. It is his field station at
Vernon, Arizona, that has been a major
instrument in developing the models and
tools for implementing the approach
represented in this book.

This volume is highly recommended to the
serious reader with some acquaintance with
southwestern archaeology. It is unparalleled
in its breadth and regional
comprehensiveness, and its organization
permits many uses, including a field guide,
a scieniific text and as a source for finding
answers to questions about Arizona's past.

by James A. Brown,
Department of Anthropology,
Norttiwestern University.

Fieldiana Publication Describes
New Order of Fossil Fishes

Dr. Rainer Zangerl, chairman. Department of
Geology, has recently co-authored with
Gerard R. Case a major work in which an
entirely new group of Pennsylvanian fishes
is described. "Iniopterygia, a New Order of
Chondrichthyan Fishes From the
Pennsylvanian of North America" [Fieldiana:
Geology Memoirs, Volume 6) provides a
characterization of a new order of vertebrates
— Iniopterygia, as well as descriptions of five
genera and seven species never before
recorded. The iniopterygians are known only
from carbonaceous, sheety shales of the
Pennsylvanian basin complex of central
North America.

As the authors point out in their closing
paragraph, "the fact that it is still possible
to discover whole groups of vertebrates that
have escaped our notice should once again
focus attention on the probability that the
fossil record is far from adequately known."

Field Museum Bulletin

R^y A.Ktoc

Efii/itontnentsI

Education

A film series, field trips, and cfiildren's
worksfiops will be offered to tfie
public, beginning October 12, as tfie first
Ray A. Kroc Environmental Education
Program gets underway.

In announcing the new program, Museum
Director E. Leiand Webber pointed out tfiat
it is being made possible by ttie Ray A. Kroc
Environmental Fund. The fund was recently
established at Field Museum by his friends
to honor Mr. Kroc, chairman of McDonald's
Corporation, on his seventieth birthday.

Other events of this new program will be
presented in coming months and years.

Organizing the various components of the
program is Carolyn Blackmon, Coordinator
of special educational services for the
Museum.

"We are extremely grateful that we have
funds available to begin a quality program
on the environment," she
said. "We feel confident that this broad
program will contribute in an important way
to an understanding of the wide variety of
environmental problems that affect the
quality of our lives."

Assisting Mrs. Blackmon was a committee
that included, besides herself,
Matthew Nitecki, associate curator of fossil
invertebrates; William Burger, associate
curator of vascular plants; Loren P. Woods,
curator of fishes; Alice Games, coordinator
of teacher training, Department of Education;
and James Bland, lecturer. Department of
Education.

Film Series

Each film will be presented twice — Fridays
at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. —
in the Lecture Hall. Critical evaluations will
be invited. Seating limited to the first 225
persons for each showing. Admission free.

Field Museum is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on
Fridays; thus affording an opportunity for
a late afternoon visit to the Museum
followed by the film program.

Oct. 12 and 13— Double feature. "The Sun
Serves Niger," narrated by Alistair Cooke,
portrays efforts by scientists to perfect solar
energy facilities on the Sahara Desert.
"Slow Death of the Desert Water" — from the
TV series "Our Vanishing Wildlife" — shows
how the desert fish cui-cui, found nowhere
else in the world, faces extinction as
Pyramid Lake in Nevada dries up.

Oct. 19 and 20 — "Mzima: Portrait of a
Spring" describes this spring in Kenya as a
fascinating ecosystem that demonstrates the
interdependence of animals.

Oct. 26 and 27— "Billion Dollar Marsh,"
filmed by the BBC at Sapelo Island, Georgia,
examines a saltwater marsh and coastal
dunes from New Jersey to Florida.

Nov. 2 and 3 — "Should Oceans Meet?" is
a question posed during the construction of
a sea-level canal that would allow Atlantic
and Pacific waters to merge for the first time
in millions of years, presenting a potential
ecological program. "Of Broccoli and
Pelicans and Celery and Seals." The
ecological effect of pesticides sprayed on
the Oxnard Plain in California.

Nov. 9 and 10 — "Death of a Legend,"
produced by the National Film Board of
Canada, recounts the life story of the wolf,
including its struggle to survive man's
predation.

Nov. 16 and 17 — Double feature. "Prairie
Killers," produced for National Education
Television (NET), depicts the prairie dog as
a vital part of the chain of life on the Great
Plains, and explains the consequences of
removing this link in the chain. "Tragedy of
the Commons," based on an essay by
Garrett Hardin, is an exploration of the
effects of overpopulation on the resources
of a finite earth.

Field Trips

Busses will depart Field Museum at 9:45
a.m. for each field trip. Each trip is limited
to 40 adults. A $4 fee will be charged to
cover lunch and transportation.
Checks, made out to Field Museum, together
with name{s), address, telephone number,
and choice of field trip should be mailed to:
Mrs. Carolyn Blackmon, Coordinator of
Special Educational Services, at Field

Museum. For further information, dial
922-9410, ext. 361 or 363.

Oct. 13 — "Keeping Waters Blue." the first
field trip, will be led by Loren Woods,
curator of fishes. Participants will observe
the inshore ecology of Lake Michigan via a
Skyline boat cruise (included in fee),
followed by a visit to the Chicago water
purification plant to view its operations.

Oct, 20 — "Ancient Chicago Environments."
Led by Dr. Eugene Richardson, curator of
fossil invertebrates, the group will see
300,000,000 years of the earth's histor/, as
recorded in strip mine Pit 11 in South
Wilmington. A visit to a recreation site on
reclaimed land will follow.

Oct. 27 — "History in the Sand; Futures in
Energy." Led by Harry Changnon, assistant
to the chairman of the Department of
Exhibition, participants will tour Illinois
Beach State Park, the Zion Atomic Energy
Plant, and the Waukegan Thermal Plant.

Nov. 3 — "Maintaining a City within a City" is
the challenge of the John Hancock Center.
How it's done will become apparent to the
group as it examines the life-support system
of this miniature urban ecosystem. A tour of
the Chicago Sanitary District concludes the
day's outing, which will be led by Dr.
William Burger, associate curator of vascular
plants.

Workshops for Young People

Two different, single-session workshops will
be presented on Saturday, beginning Oct. 20,
and repeated on Oct. 27, Nov. 3, 10, and 17.
Offered free, they will be led by James A.
Bland of the Museum's Department of
Education. Since each session is limited to a
specified number of participants,
reservations are mandatory. For reservations
or further information, phone 922-9410,
ext. 361 or 363,

10:00 a.m. — "Mini-Environments." Students
(ages 9-13) will construct their own
mini-environments to be taken home with
them. The workshop will include a
discussion on the care and upkeep of these
environments. Limited to 20 students per
session. In the Meeting Room.

1:00 p.m. — "Ballad of a Disappearing
Legacy: Demise of the Wolf." The anatomy,
behavior, and role in nature of this
endangered animal will be discussed, as
well as the characteristics of other
endangered species. Limited to 50 students
(ages 12-17) per session. In the Lecture Hall

October 1973

The Fall Saturday Children's Workshops,
sponsored by the Museum's Department of
Education, afford children an opportunity to
meet with staff members and to work with
specimens from the Museum's scientific
collections. These workshops provide
instruction in small groups and participation
in a variety of topics and activities that
appeal to children of different age groups
This popular fall activity for children was
originated ten years ago by the Raymond
Foundation to stimulate interest in natural
history and to encourage use of the Museum
as a learning resource.

To ensure a close working relationship
between the child and the Museum staff
teacher, registration for each workshop is
necessarily restricted. However, in order to
accommodate as many children as possible,
two sessions are scheduled each Saturday,
at 9:30 and 1 1 :00 a.m. Each lasts about
one hour.

Make reservations now. Each applicant is
limited to one program; reservations will be
accepted in the order in which they are
received. If more than one child in your
family wishes to attend a workshop, please
submit a separate application for each child.
Accepted applicants will be sent a
confirmation card that will admit them to
the workshops.

Insect Life

Oct. 13 — Julie Castrop, leader; ages 8-10

The structure, growth, and behavior of
insects will be demonstrated with specimens
and other illustrative materials. Children will
then take part in an insect "scavenger hunt"
in the exhibit halls. (Each session limited
to 24 students.)

NOTE: Telephone reservations tor this
vjorkstiop only may be made by calling the
Raymond Foundation at 922-9410.

Tooth for Tooth

Oct. 20 — Martha Lussenhop, leader;
ages 8-10

Through observation and study of skulls and
jaws, children will determine how the size
and shape of animal teeth indicate function
and diet. Game-like activities will implement
this study. (Limited to 24 students.)

African Folktales in Pantomime

Oct. 27 — Edith Fleming, leader; ages 8-10

Following a close examination of African
mammals — especially horns, body postures,
and coat markings — participants will
dramatize an African folktale by
impersonating these animals. (Limited to
20 students.)

Toys and Games of North American Indians

Nov. 3 — Harriet Smith, leader; ages 8-10

Children will handle the playthings of Indian
boys and girls. By determining how they
were used and what they were made of,
participants will decide the physical
environment and ways of life of the Indian
children to whom the toys belonged. (Limited
to 24 students)

Fossils in the Floor

Nov. 10 — Martha Lussenhop, leader;
ages 9-12

Many invertebrate fossils may be seen in
the marble floor and south stairway in Stanley
Field Hall. After becoming familiar with
how fossils are formed and how they appear
when cut into sections, children will search
for fossils in the floor. From sketches they
make, the group will try to identify these
fossils in Museum exhibits. (Limited to 24
students.)

Chinese Brush Painting

Nov. 17 — Edith Fleming, leader; ages 9-13

After carefully examining selected Chinese

paintings and scrolls on display in the
Museum, boys and girls will have an
opportunity to practice Chinese brush
techniques. (Limited to 20 students.)

Southwestern Designs

Nov. 24 — Harriet Smith, leader; ages 11-15

Decorations on masks, pottery, baskets, and
weaving will be compared to discover those
aspects of desert environment that most
influence the lives of Southwestern Indian
tribes. (Limited to 24 students.)

Microscopes

Dec. 1 — Julie Castrop, leader; ages 11-13

Participants will work with a microscope to
learn how it works and how it is used. After
observing prepared slides, boys and girls
will learn how to make their own slides
using a variety of biological materials and
commonplace objects. (Limited to 24
students.)

Cut out and mail to: Raymond Foundation,

Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road

at Lake Stiore Drive, Chicago, llinois 60605.

Application for Fall Workshops

Program desired

2na choice

3rd choice

4th choice

Time (circle prelerence) 9:30 a.m. 11:00 a.m.

Name of child
Address

Age ol child

Membership in name of

Field Museum Bulletin 17

Seek Volunteer Teachers

A volunteer teacher training course is being
offered to a limited number of adults by \he
Museum's Department of Education,
beginning October 11. Volunteers are

needed to assist the Museum staff in
providing expanded educational programs
for the thousands of school children who
visit the Museum each year. The course will
include natural history subject matter, the
techniques of teaching with the aid of
Museum exhibits, specimens, and artifacts,
and the use of audiovisual equipment.
Instruction will be given by members of the
Department of Education.

Applicants will be selected on the basis of
experience, availability, and a personal
interview. The first session will be an
orientation on October 11 at 10:00 a.m. The
course will continue for ten successive
Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Individuals who are curious about the world
around them, who enjoy working with
children, and who can give one day a week
to the Museum's teaching program are
invited to arange for a personal interview
with Carolyn Blackmon, coordinator of
special educational services. Department of
Education, at 922-9410, ext. 361.

Community Outreach Program

Actress Sandy Dennis Visits Field Museum

Actress Sandy Dennis (rt.), recipient of Academy and Tony awards, and her husband, jazz
saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, sneak-previewed the forthcoming Contemporary African Arts
exhibit during a recent visit. Ivlaude Wahlman. consultant in African ethnology, and Sandy
helped Gerry prepare to play an instrument from Kenya, made of sable antelope horn,
beeswax, and gourds. The exhibit opens next spring. Photo by Herta Newton.

Among children who studied pottery-making
techniques at Field Museum this summer were
(from left) Linda Rainwater and Sandra
Swinney; Hull House counselor Elaine Goings
stands behind them. Photo by John Bayalis, Jr.

The children shown above were participants
in a program offered through August 30 to
neighborhood organizations on a
pre-registered basis. Geared to children ages
nine through teens, it included workshops in
weaving with yarn, glass beadwork, pottery,
and animated film-making.

The two-session classes, which also
included a tour, were planned to help
children see the relationships between art
forms and designs in various cultures, and
to understand their meanings within a
particular culture. Each child was also
encouraged to express his own feelings
about their art forms by creating his own
designs and completing a craft project.

October 1973

The workshops were sponsored by Field
Museums Department of Education under its
Community Outreach Program, funded by the
National Endowment for the Arts and the
Illinois Arts Council.

Frank Hull Named Chief Accountant

Field Museum s new chief of the accounting
department is Frank M. Hull, formerly
business manager for St. Francis College
in Joliet. III. Prior to that he had held
positions with Millikan University, in Decatur,
III., and with the Illinois Power Company.
A native of Decatur, Mr. Hull is a graduate
of Millikan University and of the American
Council on Education's Institute for College
and University Administrators. He has also
done graduate work at Northern Illinois
University.

Gerald Durrell Gives Lecture

The noted author and conservationist Gerald
Durrell will give an illustrated lecture on
conservation in James Simpson Theatre of
Field Museum on Thursday, Oct. 18, at 8
p.m. The lecture is to be sponsored by
SAFE (Save Animals From Extinction).
Members of Field Museum, the Chicago
Zoological Society, and SAFE will donate
SI -00 for admission: donation for
nonmembers will be SI. 50. All proceeds of
the lecture will go to support conservation
programs of SAFE. Entrance will be by the
Museum's west door only: free parking
available at the west and north parking lots.
For further information call 922-9410,
ext. 361 or 363.

Ownership and Circulation

Filing dale: 8/27/73, Title: Field Museum of Natural
History Bulletin. Frequency of publication: monthly
except combined July/August issue. Office: Roosevelt
Rd. at Lake Shore Dr.. Chicago, III. 60605.
Publisher: Field Museum of Natural History. Editor:
David M. Walsten. Known bondholders, mortgagees,
and other security holders: none. Noneprofit status
has not changed during preceding 12 months.

Av. No. Actual No.
Copies Copies

Each Issue Single Issue
Preceding Nearest to
12 (Months Filing Date
Total copies printed 26,672 26,500

Total paid circulation 22,144 22,198

mail subscriptions 22,144 22,198

Free distribution 2,128 1,772

Total distribution 24.272 23,970

Office use, lefl-over 2,700 2,530

Total 26,972 26,500

I certify that the statements made by me above are
correct and complete. — Norman W. Nelson, Asst.
Dir., Admin.

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Closes October 31

Spanish Prehistoric Art, an exhibit of about
40 drawings and photographs of paintings
found in caves and rock shelters. The
collection is being shown through the
courtesy of the Spanish National Tourist
Office. Closes Oct. 31. Hall 27.

Continuing

Field IVIuseum's Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of
Wonder " offers thought-provoking prose
and poetry associated with the physical,
biological, and cultural aspects of nature:
"A Sense of History" presents a graphic
portrayal of the Museum's past, and
"A Sense of Discovery" shows examples
of research conducted by Museum
scientists. Hall 3.

Film Program

Ayer Adult Film Lecture Series, offered at
2:30 p.m. Saturdays in the James Simpson
Theatre. The October 20 program will also be
presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 19.

October 6: "In the Heel of the Northeast
Trade," (Palau Islands, Micronesia),
narrated by Dr. Kenneth R. H. Read.

October 13: "Hawaii," narrated by
Doug Jones.

October 19 and

October 20: "The Epic Voyages of Ra,"

narrated by Comdr. Norman Baker.

October 27: "IVIinnesota Valley Saga,"

narrated by Dr. Walter J. Breckenridge.

Special Events

Ray A. Kroc Environmental Education
Program, a series of films, field trips, and
children's workshops. (See p. 16.)

Children's Program

Continuing

Fall Journey for Children, "Plant Your

Dinner," a free self-guided tour of Museum
exhibit areas. The journey not only acquaints
youngsters with botanical displays, but
encourages them to learn more about plants
by growing their own live specimens at
home. All boys and girls who can read and
write may join in the activity. Journey sheets
available at entrances. Through November 30.

Coming in November

Ayer Adult Film Lecture Series, offered
at 2:30 p m, Saturdays in the James Simpson
Theatre. The November 17 program will also
be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday,
November 16.

November 3: "New Hebrides," narrated by
Kal Muller.

November 10: "Panama," narrated by
Col John Craig.

November 16 and November 17; "China:
The Awakening Giant," narrated by
Jens Bjerre

November 24: "Indonesia," narrated by
Dr. John Nicholls Booth.

Join us for coffee after the Friday
evening film lecture presentations and
meet speakers Comdr. Norman Baker
on October 19 and Jens Bjerre on
November 16.

Meetings

October 9: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera Club
of Chicago.

October 10: 7 p.m., Chicago Ornithological
Society.

October 10: 7:30 p.m., Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

October 11:8 p.m., Chicago Mountaineering

Club.

October 23: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera Club
of Chicago

Hours

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday through Thursday,
and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410

Field Museum Bulletin

> .,

November 1973

rieia Museum ot incllufcii nitjiuiy duiiuuii

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Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 44, Number 10
November 1973

Managing Editor G. Henry Ottery
Editor David M. Walsten
Staff Writer IVIadge Jacobs
Production Russ Becl^er
Ptiotography John Bayalis

contents

CAN THESE BIRDS SURVIVE?

Endangered species of North American
birds and their current status
By David M. Walsten

THE CHICAGO RIVER SYSTEM

— moving towards recovery
By Joyce Marshall Brukoff

3
9

SNUFF BOTTLES

A "classification extraordinaire"
By Alice K. Schneider

FIELD BRIEFS

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

CALENDAR

20
22
23

Field Museum of Natural History

Director E. Leland Webber

cover

The bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, selected in 1782
as the United States' national emblem, is today considered an
endangered species. Although it still ranges widely over
North America, the bird has disappeared from areas where
it was once abundant. If the bald eagle's recent rate of
decline continues it could soon become extinct.

Board of Trustees

Remick McDowell,

President
Mrs. B. Edward Bensinger
Gordon Bent
Harry 0. Bercher
Bowen Blair
Stanton R. Cook
William R Dickinson. Jr.
Thomas E. Donnelley II
Marstiall Field
Nicholas Galitzine
Pau: W. Goodrich
Hugo J. Melvoin
J, Roscoe Miller
William H. Mitchell
Charles F. Murphy, Jr.
Harry M. Oliver, Jr.
John T. Pirie, Jr.
John S. Runnells
William L, Searle
John M. Simpson
Edward Byron Smith

Mrs. Hermon Dunlap

Smith
John W. Sullivan
William G. Swartchild
E. Leland Webber
Julian B. Wilkins
Blaine J. Yarrington

Life Trustees

William McCormick Blair
Joseph N. Field
Clifford C. Gregg
Samuel Insull, Jr.
William v. Kahler
Hughston M. McBain
James L. Palmer
John G. Searle
Louis Ware
J. Howard Wood

The cost of this enlarged issue of the Field Museum I

of Natural History Bulletin, which stresses ^

important environmental issues, was in part l

underwritten by the Ray A, Kroc |

Environmental Fund. s

The Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin is published monthly,
except connbined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural
History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.
Subscriptions; $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the
Museum subscribe through Museum membership. Opinions expressed
by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of
Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. Second-class
postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form 3579
to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore
Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. ISSN: 0015-0703

November 1973

Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
length: 41"

Can

These

Birds

Survive?

By David M. Walsten

Residents of many southern coastal
areas would be surprised and perhaps
puzzled to learn that the brown pelican,
so familiar to them, has been classified
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
as an "endangered" species.

Field Museum Bulletin

John Henry Dick from National Audubon Society

Bachman's Warbler
Vermivora bachmanii
length: AVt "

Contrary to popular belief, 'endangered"
does not necessarily mean "rare"; an
endangered species may be so
classified if ttie general population has
declined at such a rate that the species
appears to be in danger of extinction.
Thus, in some areas, an endangered
species may actually be common and,
to all appearances, thriving. The
requirements for survival may vary
greatly from one species of bird to
another. Some, like the bald eagle and
whooping crane, cannot tolerate the
presence of man. Some, like the
recently extinct passenger pigeon,
apparently cannot perpetuate
themselves except in concentrated
numbers. Still others, like the Everglade
kite, subsist on highly specialized diets
that may be easily upset by human
disruption of the habitat.

The species described on the following
pages are currently listed as
endangered by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service or by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources, Switzerland.

The brown pelican (Pelecanus
occidentalls) was once a common
sight along most coastal waters of the
United States; it also ranged southward

along the coasts of northern South
America. Following the advent of DDT,
however, pelican populations dropped
drastically in some areas, notably in
Louisiana and Lower California. Only
since the dangers of DDT were
recognized and its use curtailed, has
there been a population stabilization or
noticeable increase in numbers. Pelicans
reintroduced into Louisiana in 1968
appear to be breeding successfully.
(DDT, like other pesticides consisting
of chlorinated hydrocarbons, has been
shown to reduce the fertility of animals
at certain levels of concentration in
their tissues. For further discussion of
the pesticide problem see "The
Vanishing Peregrine," by Melvin A.
Traylor, in the Bulletin. Sept. 1970.)

Kirtland's, or the jack pine, warbler
(Dendrolca kirtlandii) has long been a
rare species. Although as recently as
1958 James C. Greenway in his Extinct
and Vanishing Birds of the World
observed that the bird was "in no great

Kirtland's Warbler, Dendroics kirllandii. lenglti: 4%

danger of extinct. on," a precipitous
decline in the populations of this bird
has occurred during the past decade.

The nesting ground of Kirtland's warbler
— which winters in the Bahamas — is
confined to north central Michigan. Only
200 pairs were observed there in a 1971
spring survey, a decline of 60 percent
from that of a decade earlier. Reasons
for its decline are believed to be loss of
acceptable nesting habitat and
parasitism by the brown-headed
cowbird. The cowbird lays its eggs in
the nest of the warbler (among other
species). Warbler fledglings, being
smaller than young cowbirds, are
unable to compete with them for the
attentions of the adults at feeding time.
As a result, they starve to death. A
cowbird-trapping program is now
underway in Michigan under the
sponsorship of the Michigan Department
of Natural Resources, the Michigan
Audubon Society, and the US, Forest
Service.

Ronald Austing from National Audubon Society

November 1973

Bachman's warbler (Vermivora
bachmanii) has the unique trait of
disappearing unpredictably from
accustomed breeding areas. At one
time the bird apparently vanished from
South Carolina, only to show up there
again some years later. It has continued
to nest in that state for the past 35
years. The warbler also nests in
Kentucky, Alabama, and Missouri, but
its occurrence anywhere is rare. The
bird prefers moist, deciduous forests,
sharing the same general habitat as
the common hooded warbler (Wilsonia
cltnna), which it closely resembles. The
winters are spent in Cuba.
Ornithologists are unable to account
for the rarity of this species.

The California condor (Gymnogyps
calitornianus), the largest North
American land bird, has the most
restricted range of any bird of prey,
being found only in rugged mountainous
regions of southern California. Its
current population is thought to be less
than 100 — about the same as that of
15 years ago. In 1968-72 only four
young were known to have been
reared. No California condors have
been bred or raised in captivity;
however, Andean condors have bred
successfully in the San Diego Zoo. In
the early 1800s the California condor
ranged as far north as the Columbia
River: fossil remains have also been
discovered in eastern North America.
Some authorities attribute the bird's
decline to a general decline in the food
supply or to the bird's basic need for
isolation from man in order to breed. A
condor sanctuary has been established
in Los Padres National Forest, where
most of the nesting sites are located.

The ivory-billed woodpecker

(Campephilus principalis principalis),
the largest North American woodpecker,
may well become our next extinct bird.

California Condor

Gymnogyps calilorr^ianus

length: 45"

Carl B. Koford from National Audubon Society

% t

';*wi

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Campephilus principalis
ength; 18"

become rare — or extinct — in Cuba
(subspecies Campephilus principalis
bairdii). The gradual destruction of the
Ivory-biU's habitat — very large trees
with their specialized fauna of wood-
boring insects — is held responsible for
the bird's decline. The U.S. ivory-bill
population dropped most radically
between 1885 and 1900 when the
logging industry in the south was
rapidly expanding.

The whooping crane (Grus americana)
has come within a hair's breadth of
extinction: thanks to the efforts of
conservationists, however, the bird has
made a comeback. In the mid-1950s
barely two dozen whooping cranes
were thought to survive. The population
of wild birds is currently more than 50
and the number of captive cranes
about 20. At the present time, nesting
areas are believed to be confined to
Wood Buffalo National Park, in the

The last sightings occurred in deep
forests of South Carolina, Florida,
Louisiana, and Texas. Within historic
times the ivory-bill ranged as far north
as Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Early in
the 19th century Audubon noted "entire
belts of Indian chiefs ornamented with
the tufts and bills of the species."
Simultaneous with its disappearance in
the United States, the bird has also

Whooping Crane

Grus americana

length: 45"

(immature at left)

November 1973

District of Mackenzie, Northwest
Territories, Canada. Ttie wintering
ground is confined to the Texas coast,
primarily in Aransas National Wildlife
Refuge. In 1811 the naturalist Thomas
Nuttall described the whooping crane's
migratory flight up the Mississippi:
". . . the bustle of their great migra-
tions and the passage of their mighty
armies fills the mind with wonder." But
this graceful, regal bird is also shy; it
withdrew from its natural haunts as
civilization advanced, preferring, it
seems, self-obliteration to sharing its
territory with an alien creature, man.

An excellent, recent study of the
whooping crane is to be found in
Cranes of the World by Lawrence H.
Walkinshaw; Winchester Press (1973).

The Florida sandhill crane (Grus
canadensis pratensis), one of the six
subspecies, nests only in Florida and
Georgia. Its home range is the coastal
lowlands. Within the past century it may
also have nested in Louisiana. Like the
ivory-billed woodpecker, the Florida
sandhill crane was seriously affected
by lumbering activities in the late 19th
century. Unless a refuge is established,

Aleutian Canada Goose

Branta canadensis leucopareia

length: 24"-26"

Masked Bobwtiite

Colinus virginianus ridgwayi

length: 8"

it is feared that the bird will ultimately
be driven to extinction.

The Aleutian Canada goose (Branta
canadensis leucopareia) is now found
on only two islands of the Aleutian
group — Amchitka and Buldir.
Overhunting along their migration route
(to California) and introduction of the
blue fox to their nesting areas are
thought to be the cause of their decline;
significantly, the blue fox does not
occur on Buldir, the only island where
the bird is known to breed. In 1966 the
estimated total goose population was
down to 250. Several pair of these
geese are in captivity at Monte Vista,
Colorado. Since their breeding potential
in captivity is considered good, there is
hope that the subspecies can be saved
from extinction.

The masked bobwhite quail (Colinus
virginianus ridgwayi), once common in
southwestern United States and Mexico,
has been reduced to extreme rarity by
overhunting and by the inroads of cattle
grazing on its grassland habitat. About
1910 the bird disappeared from the
northwest part of its range — the
mountainous region of southern Arizona.
Because these birds typically bunch
together in coveys of 15 or 20,
several in such a group could be killed
with a single shotgun blast. A program
for restoration of suitable habitat is
currently being conducted by the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum,
assisted by the Allegheny Foundation
of Pittsburgh.

Attwater's greater prairie chicken
(Tympanuctius cupido attwateri), a close

R. Van Nostrand from National Audubon Society

aS^^VJclJv^v ^;/; -^

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Field Museum Bulletin 7

Bald Eagle

Haliaeelus leucocephalus

length: 32"

relative of the heath hen (T. cupido
cupido), which became extinct in 1932,
is today found only in southwestern
Louisiana, in isolated flocks along the
Texas coast, and northward to Austin.
In former times it occurred from
southwestern Louisiana almost
continuously to the Mexican border. In
1937 conservationists estimated that
8,000-9.000 of the species survived; in
1965 the number had dropped to 750.
The primary reason for the bird's
decline is the destruction of its
grassland habitat by cattle.

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus
leucocephalus). sometimes called the
American eagle, was still common in
the United States when it was chosen
as the national emblem in 1782. In
Alaska the bald eagle was once so
common that, in 1917, a bounty was
placed on them there. Within a decade
bounties had been paid on nearly
42,000 of the birds. In 1962 it was
estimated that little more than 3,800
still survived in continental United
States, Alaska excepted. Today the
bald eagle continues to range over
most of the continent, but localities
where they are common are few and

far between. The birds decline is
attributed to a lowered fertility — the
effect of DDT and other chlorinated
hydrocarbons and to the bird's natural
preference for isolation from man.

The Everglade kite (Rostrhamus
sociabilis plumbeus) has been the
victim of marsh-draining and
reclamation of land. Its primary range
is the southwestern sector of Lake
Okeechobee in Florida. At the turn of
the century this kite was common, but
by the late 1920s it had already become
scarce. The kite's principal food is the
great marsh snail (Ampullaria depressa).
The bird's continued survival rests on
whether sufficient marshland is left to
maintain this specialized food supply.

The American peregrine falcon (Faico
peregrlnus anatum), which breeds from
Lower California northward to
non-Arctic Alaska and Canada, has

disappeared from the eastern part of
North America. The main reason for its
decline is breeding failure, due to the
cumulative effects of DDT. A
considerable number of these birds are
in zoos or are held by falconers: their
breeding potential in captivity Is
considered poor, however.