HARVARD UNIVERSITY

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Museum of

Comparative Zoology

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CHARLES DEAN BUNKER

1870 - 1948

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CHARLES DEAN BUNKER

1870 - 1948

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Miscellaneous Publication No. 3, pp. 1-11, 1 figure

Published December 15, 1951

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^Y 2 1 1952
HARVARD

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BY
E. RAYMOND HALL

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

LAWRENCE. KANSAS

CHARLES DEAN BUNKER. April 24, 1948, photo, by Rollin H. Baker

my 2 1 1952

Charles Dean Bunker, 1870-1948

BY

E. RAYMOND HALL

C.liarles Dean Bunker died on September 5, 1948, at his home at
1330 West Ninth Street, Lawrence, Kansas. He was cremated and
his ashes were scattered from the tower of the Museum of Natural
History at the University of Kansas. He was born on December 12,
1870, at Mendota, Illinois, the youngest of the seven children of
David and Susan Jane (Spencer) Bunker. On January 19, 1897,
at Lawrence, Kansas, he married Clara Parnell, the daughter of
Andrew Jackson and Elvira (Thompson) Parnell. Two daughters
and no sons resulted from this union. He is survived by his wife,
his daughter Fedalma, his daughter Audrey Maurine (Mrs. Don P.
Warner), and the latter's two sons. James Donald and Charles
Harry.

His schooling was delayed because his parents, acting on medical
advice, encouraged him to spend his childhood out of doors instead
of in school. This may have had much to do with developing his
interest in natural history; much of his time afield was given to
hunting and to observing animals.

In the spring of 1947 Remington Kellogg came into my office and
suggested that I write down some facts that Bunker had told him
a few minutes before. According to these notes: "Bunker always
was interested in birds. The local ornithological authority, in Men-
dota, was J. Banning, a taxidermist, who mounted birds for bar-
rooms. Bunker asked to be taught how to mount birds and Ban-
ning said that he would give the instruction for S10. Bunker never
expected to be able to obtain $10 and had to pass up the oppor-
tunity. But Bunker shot birds and brought them to the taxidermist
to mount [in return for lessons in taxidermy or not. the notes do
not state]. Bunker brought to the taxidermist the last passenger
pigeon shot in that town. The bird was mounted. Years later,
Bunker wrote for the pigeon but the taxidermist, then 80 years old.
wanted $100 for it and Bunker never got the specimen. In 1890
with his parents. Bunker moved to Lawrence, Kansas. There he
worked in the Hoadley Printing Office.

"In Lawrence, Bunker two or three times unsuccessfully ap-
proached L. L. Dyche of the University of Kansas for a job. After

[5]

Dyche returned with his exhibit of mounted mammals from the
Chicago World's Fair, Bunker again asked him for a job. Dyche
terminated this chance meeting on the street by doing his best to
discourage Bunker. A short time later Bunker went to Dyche's
work rooms where 'Pug' Saunders was taxidermist and talked with
Dyche. Although Dyche again attempted to discourage Bunker,
he explained that his ambition in life was to mount birds, and after
some further discussion was hired for $15 per month."

This employment began on September 1, 1895. Bunker continued
the taxidermy work with Dyche at the University of Kansas until
June 1, 1901. On that date he went to the University of Oklahoma
as taxidermist where he remained until the autumn of 1904 when
the building that housed much of his work burned. He returned
to Lawrence that autumn and in the following summer worked in
the field with Charles Sternberg, the professional collector of fossil
vertebrates. In the autumn of 1905 Bunker resumed work at the
University of Kansas, under L. L. Dyche, and aided in installing
the mounted specimens and accessories in the huge panorama of
North American Mammals in the Museum of Natural History Build-
ing that had been finished in 1901. He continued in active service
with the University until July 1, 1942, when he was retired. Even
after that, he regularly visited the Museum on week days until the
beginning of his final illness in the spring of 1948.

In December of 1909 when L. L. Dyche left the University to
accept the position of Fish and Game Warden for the State of Kan-
sas, Bunker remained as "Assistant Curator in Charge" of the Recent
(as opposed to the fossil) vertebrates in the Museum of Natural
History. Bunker fortunately had, or early developed, a gratifying
sense of responsibility for safeguarding the study collections of ver-
tebrates, rich in birds and mammals, that had been gathered bv
Dyche and under Dyche's Curatorship. Dyche collected widely in
North America — from Alaska to New Mexico — and gathered long
series of the larger game mammals from areas where many of the
kinds are now extinct. Most of these specimens carried only field
numbers on rough labels of wood, metal, cloth or pasteboard. A
series of field numbers, beginning with number one for each year
or for each field trip had been provided by Dyche. These numbers
and; or the labels were the clues to data that might be found in the
informally-kept field note-books, but almost as often as not, some
of the essential data could be obtained only from Dyche — through
correspondence or by conversation with him when he visited the
Museum. Bunker deserves the thanks of naturalists for having

[6]

seen to it that these data were associated with the specimens while

Dyche was still alive. Under Hunker's direction a consecutive set
of catalogue numbers, in large ledger books, was established for
birds and another set for mammals. The pertinent data tor each
specimen were entered in these catalogues and were entered also
in permanent ink on lasting labels attached to the specimens them-
selves. A systematic catalogue for each class of vertebrates, con-
sisting of large loose-leaved ledger books was prepared. Thus, an
excellent cataloguing system was installed which preserved the sci-
entific values of irreplaceable specimens, which made the data and
specimens available for use, and which also taught to the student
assistants, who prepared the catalogues, a sound system of cata-
loguing and of associating data with specimens. This system exerted
a profound influence on modern curatorial practice in ornitho-
logical and mammalogical collections of American museums gen-
erally because Bunker's assistants applied part or all of his system
to the many other collections with which they became associated.
In the last half of his period of service at the University, Bunker
emphasized the study collections and these were his "tools" for giv-
ing training to student assistants. This is noteworthy because Dyche
had emphasized instead the display and exhibit features of the
Museum and it was in this work that Bunker served his museum
apprenticeship.

Bunker was quick to appraise the worth of persons that he met.
Of those who were found wanting at first meeting, few were able
subsequently to change his opinions of them. Some of his personal
attachments, and especially disaffections, are best understood if
viewed in the light of the position that Bunker occupied. In his
early years at the University of Kansas Museum, Clarence E. Mc-
Clung in Zoology, Samuel \Y. Williston in Paleontology, and Lewis
Linsley Dyche in Natural History, all men of national renown at
the time, were still at the University. When the two last-named
did leave they were not replaced. Bunker carried on with the
modern vertebrates as Handel Tongue Martin (Williston's assist-
ant) did with the fossil vertebrates. Because the formal education
of each of them had gone no further than grammar school, they
were not assigned teaching duties in the University. They cared
for, and added somewhat to, the Museum collections, developing
meanwhile a liking for the freedom of initiative which, perforce,
they exercised. Later, from time to time, when new men were
appointed to the Department of Zoology, the newly appointed
scientists, or the University administrators, or sometimes both, pro-

m

posed arrangements which would have restricted somewhat the
freedom of action of Bunker and Martin. They resisted these "re-
strictions" and by various means circumvented most of them.

One of Hunker's most notable accomplishments was the training
of a disproportionately large number of naturalists in a student-
body of three thousand to five thousand. Among the many who
came more or less under his influence, some of the more produc-
tive scholars were William H. Burt, Lawrence V. Compton, David
H. Dunkel, Claude W. Hibbard, the late John Eric Hill, A. Bem-
ington Kellogg, Jean M. Linsdale, the late Wilbur S. Long, Charles
C. Sperry, B. A. Stirton, Alexander Wetmore, and Theodore S.
White. Bunker's system was to try out, often on a volunteer basis,
the college undergraduate, next to "promote" him to receive a
small hourly wage, and finally to give him responsibility for the
curatorial care of one of the collections. Closer supervision by
Bunker would have obtained better curatorial results, but might
have revealed to the student that Bunker was not telling the whole
truth when he said that lack of education and scientific know-how
required him to depend entirely on the student to insure that all
was in order and scientifically accurate. The combination of grati-
tude to Bunker for finally awarding the job, a determination to see
that Bunker's work was done in a way that would protect him from
criticism and censure by his superiors, and the responsibility for
mastering the literature, caused the student to learn as much as he
could, as fast as he could, by his own efforts. The student assist-
ants were given to understand also that the collection must be
growing to justify its existence and that it was up to them to collect.
Bunker, the assistants thought, lacked the time to do this himself.
For one thing, he had to cut wood almost every week end at his
cabin seven miles southwest of Lawrence. The students were
grateful to "Bunk" for permitting them to ride there with him. His
cabin was well equipped for the student who was preparing study
skins. The availability of Bunker to identify a bird, mammal, or
snake new to the student was another facility. His commendation
for almost every specimen, because it was an early record, or a late
record, or because it was needed to fill out a series, encouraged
the student to collect as almost no other system could have done.
That was Bunker's system in the early twenties. Probably the
large measure of responsibility placed on the student assistant was
the reason for much of Bunker's success in training able naturalists.
The system was approximately the same in the thirties except that
in summer he took students on collecting trips also to Arizona, New

[8]

Mexico, and Colorado where they became acquainted with a vari-
ety of faunas. The students thought that Bunker was the "salt of
the earth." His generosity toward needy students who assisted with
the work in the Museum was remarkable. It was their privilege to
use, even for their own purely personal projects, any equipment
or resources that the Museum or Bunker, himself, might have. Un-
der Bunker the student assistants dedicated their zoological efforts
to the advancement of the collections and Bunker dedicated the
Museum's resources to the advancement of the student assistants.
As experience and maturity later brought to his assistants a fuller
understanding of his motives and some of his methods, their regard
and affection for him was increased still more. Evidence of this
regard was the alacrity with which his former assistants responded
in 1942 to the suggestion of William H. Burt that a fund be created
to supplement the small retirement allowance that Bunker received
beginning in that year. Animals which were named in his honor
were Neotoma bunkeri Burt (Trans. San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist., 7:
181, October 31, 1932), Antrozous bunkeri Hibbard (Jour. Mamm.,
15:227, May 15, 1934) and Marmota monax bunkeri Black (Jour.
Mamm., 16^319, November 15, 1935).

In his early years with the University, Bunker operated the pro-
jection machine for L. L. Dyche when the latter gave his popular
illustrated lectures in the Kansas City region. Despite his observ-
ance of the self-assured Dvche while he delighted and swaved
audiences. Bunker never overcame his own natural shyness in speak-
ing to a group. His one venture in this direction, he told me, was
a talk on birds before a group of ladies in Lawrence. Despite
having written notes to guide him, his nervousness, when he arose
to speak, so affected his throat-muscles that he was unable effec-
tively to say what he wished. Consequently, he thereafter con-
sistently refused to speak to groups of people.

Bunker published little. Possibly he felt that his lack of formal
education in bibliographic practices and scientific techniques han-
dicapped him in preparing manuscript. Probably he recognized
that his own responsibility in the University heirarchy was more
with the objective, than the subjective, aspects of the museum ma-
terials. Certainly, when I was associated with him from 1920 to
1923 and in his retirement from 1944 until his death, he preferred
that some one of the student assistants, instead of himself, publish-
on any noteworthy specimen or observation, because he wished the
assistant to derive whatever credit attached to the report. There
did appear under his name, nevertheless, four publications as fol-
lows:

[9]

"The Stormy Petrel,"' an ornithological magazine in 5 numbers,
of 8 pages each, of which I have seen only number 5. This maga-
zine appeared in the period of April to August, 1890, at Mendota,
Illinois. Bunker and Park were co-authors.

"Habits of the Black-Capped Vireo (Vireo atricapillus) with one
photo," Condor, 12:70-73, 1 fig., April, 1910.

"The Birds of Kansas," Kansas Univ. Sci. Bull., 7:137-158, June,
1913.

"The Kit Fox." Science, 92:35-36, July 12, 1940.

Bunker's verbal explanation of these publications was that the
vireo article would not have been written except for the assistance
of Alexander Wetmore and that the one on the birds of Kansas was
prepared by Dix Teachenor and contemporary student assistants.
In the correspondence file of the Museum, along with a rejection
slip from a Kansas City newspaper, there is a manuscript, in
Bunkers own hand and prepared sometime before World War I,
contending that the food habits of the non-native English Sparrow
were so far beneficial that the bird did not deserve the reputation
for evil which the writings of some ornithologists had gained for it.
Bunker cited his findings as to the large number of the destructive
cankerworm eaten by these birds at Lawrence.

Bunker had invitations to join other institutions. Old letters in
the Museum reveal that he refused in 1905 the position of Prepara-
tor in Paleontology in the Field Columbian Museum of Chicago
and, in 1915, the position of Assistant Superintendent of the Zoolog-
ical Garden in Philadelphia.

His travels took him to the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma in
1908. In 1919 he went to the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska with Dr.
John H. Ontland and friends, and saved specimens of large mam-
mals for the University of Kansas Museum. In the summer and
autumn of 1911 Bunker and his assistant, Theodore Rocklund, col-
lected along the northern, western and southern borders of Kansas.
In the autumn of 1912 Bunker spent three months in west-central
Kansas. Birds were the principal objective on each of these trips
in Kansas. In 1915 he visited Philadelphia and in 1922 southern
California. In the thirties he took collecting parties to Arizona,
New Mexico, and Colorado. His daughter, Fedalma, has told me
that when he was no longer able to join in the strenuous field trips
he was a changed man; he seemed to feel that his efficiency and
usefulness had been definitely impaired.

Natural history was Bunker's occupation and, although his salary
always was small, he seldom gave time to outside ventures that

[10]

promised personal financial gain. The one such venture that I
know of took plaee about 1913 when he and Theodore Rocklund
aeeepted the loeal agency for the Hupmobile auto. It is my im-
pression that they sold two ears — one to themselves and a second
to Walter B. Kibbie. The serviee given the customer was so good
that Kibbie willed his Hupmobile to Bunker. When Kibbie died,
in 1922, Bunker, for sentimental, rather than economic, reasons went
to Biverside, California, and drove the 1914 model ear back to
Lawrence, Kansas. Bunker definitely was not a "joiner" and the
Modern Woodmen of America, so far as the writer knows, was the
only fraternal order with which he was affiliated. In the thirties
he enthusiastically devoted considerable time and labor to helping
William B. Green of Lawrence build a zoo and rustic building for
housing historical materials of local interest. This was done with
the ill-founded hope that such a development would attract mu-
nicipal support for its maintenance.

Although Bunker encouraged his assistants to collect specimens
of all classes of vertebrates, his personal interest was greatest in
birds. When he perfected the dermestid beetle method of cleaning
skeletons, he concentrated on birds. The splendid collection that
resulted will long be a monument to his energy. Bunker was sincere
and serene in feeling that his projects were worthy, but he was
modest indeed in appraising his own personal accomplishment. In
the years before 1920 he built traveling cases of mounted birds that
were widely and effectively used in the public schools of Kansas.
In 1915 his election to full membership in the American Ornithol-
ogists' Union was an honor which he deeply appreciated.

In his last years his greatest pleasure seemed to be obtained from
the accounts that came to him of the successes and achievements
of those who had received training from him. He was especially
pleased, shortly before his death, to learn that there had been es-
tablished, in the Kansas University Endowment Association, the
Charles Dean Bunker Loan Fund for needy University students in-
terested in natural history study.

Charley Bunker's generosity to his assistants, his modesty, his
extensive fund of knowledge concerning birds and mammals, his
uncommon sense about natural history museums and the ways in
which they could be useful, and his effective system for training
naturalists earned for him a wide reputation among zoologists, and
established the University of Kansas as a place for the development
of mammalogists and ornithologists.

Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas.
Lawrence, Kansas.

Transmitted October 22. 1951.

PRINTED BY

FERD VOILAND. JR.. STATE PRINTER

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