Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1825
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, 23 March 1821. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481.
Additional Source Text:
Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) deposited specimens of "1 [Species of] Warbler" on 23 March 1821, after returning from the Long Expedition, which evidently was this species (Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481).
Thomas Say (1787-1834) described the specimens as a new species called "Sylvia celatus" in Edwin James, 1823, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains..., vol. 1 (Philadelphia): 169. / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124314#page/188/mode/1up
Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857) described this species under the name "Orange-crowned Warbler / Sylvia celata" in his continuation of American Ornithology vol. 1 (1825, Pl. 5). Bonaparte (1825: 45) cited "Peale's Museum, No. 7013" and wrote "This little bird, discovered early in May, at Engineer Cantonment, on the Missouri river, was first described and named by Say." Bonaparte's (1825) plate was based on a drawing by Titian, engraved by Alexander Lawson (ca.1772-1846). / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/AD6K3KOB… (text) / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/A2XS624I… (plate)
Notes:
Here, for simplicity, we state that Titian R. Peale (1799-1885) deposited the Long Expedition specimens at Peale's Museum. However, it should be noted that the specimens did not belong to Titian, and were not his to give away. Officially, they were the property of the United States government, and as such were formally deposited by Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864), who led the government-sponsored expedition. The Peale Museum Accessions Book, pp. 112-113 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481) contains an "Invoice of Zoological Specimens and Drawings prepared by Titian Peale, Assistant Naturalist for the Exploring Expedition, and deposited in the Philadelphia Museum by Majr. S. H. Long, Maj. U.S. Engr. pursuant to instructions of the Secretary of War." At the conclusion of the invoice, "Rubens Peale [1784-1865], manager" signed the following statement: "Received, Philadelphia Museum, March 23d. 1821. of Majr. S. H. Long, the several articles, specified in the above Invoice, as a deposit for safe keeping, preservation and Exhibition; and I hereby promise, as agent for the Institution to hold the said articles subject to the orders of the War Department, thru the said Maj. Long." (HSP, coll. 0481)
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Orange-crowned Warbler
Current Scientific Name
Parulidae | Leiothlypis celata
