Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
By 1799
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, Lecture on Natural History 26. (ca. 1799). Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40. / https://ansp.org/research/library/archives/0000-0099/coll0040/
Additional Source Text:
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) wrote, in his 26th Lecture (ca. 1799): "843. 4024. Small brown back snipe. The Bill 1 ½ Inch long, a little curved. Top of the head and back russet with spots or stripes of black and white; under part of the body black; found at New York. I have not a doubt that we have many other snipes in this country, and when those of Europe is added the number must be increased considerably." (Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Archives, coll. 40)
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Red-backed Sandpiper / Tringa alpina" in American Ornithology vol. 7 (Pl. 56), where "Peale's Museum, No. 4094" [evidently a typo, = 4024] was cited (Wilson 1813: 25). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175507#page/33/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175507#page/29/mode/1up (plate)
In the same volume, Wilson described a second specimen, which he presumed to be a different species, under the name "The Purre / Tringa cinclus" in vol. 7 (Pl. 57), where "Peale's Museum, No. 4126" was cited (Wilson 1813: 39). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175507#page/49/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175507#page/41/mode/1up (plate)
Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) deposited a collection of "Sundry small Birds, Anatomical preparations" on 23 March 1821, after returning from the Long Expedition, as recorded in the Peale Museum Accessions Book (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481). This deposit may have included an aberrant male specimen of "Pelidna cinclus", collected in November 1820 near Engineer Cantonment, which was mentioned by Thomas Say (1787-1834) in Edwin James, 1823, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains..., vol. 1, p. 172 (Philadelphia). / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124314#page/190/mode/1up
Notes:
After Peale's Museum closed, a portion of Peale's bird collection was purchased in 1850 by Moses Kimball (1809–95), who displayed it at his "Boston Museum". An advertisement in the Boston Transcript, printed 1 October 1850, stated that Kimball had acquired "One Half of the celebrated Peale's Philadelphia Museum". The other half of Peale's birds had been sold to the circus promoter P. T. Barnum (1810–91) and would be subsequently destroyed in a fire at his "American Museum" in New York City in July 1865. When the Boston Museum closed, Kimball's Peale remnants passed temporarily to the Boston Society of Natural History, who disposed of them to Charles J. Maynard (1845-1929), a local taxidermist. The specimens were stored in a barn in Massachusetts for several years, then eventually were deposited at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), Harvard University. By the time the collection was catalogued by Walter Faxon (1848-1920) at MCZ, in 1914, in virtually every case the original mounts and labels had been disassociated from the specimens, and an untold number were lost. Walter Faxon, "Relics of Peale's Museum," Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 59, no. 3 (July 1915): 133, speculated that MCZ 67835, a data-deficient and headless specimen from the Boston Museum collection (shown here), was "probably the remnant of the bird figured by Wilson." Faxon's claim may be true, but the poor condition of the specimen makes comparisons to Wilson's plate seem futile, and Peale had this species in his collection by 1799, with little room (or interest) to display duplicates. / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6339801#page/183/mode/1up Wilson (1810: viii, American Ornithology, vol. 2) stated that "no drawings have been, or will be made for this work, from any stuffed subjects, where living specimens of the same can be procured; yet the former serve a very important purpose; they enable the author to ascertain the real existence and residence of such subjects". / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175511#page/14/mode/1up Wilson deposited many specimens at Peale's Museum, after completing his drawings, but the combined evidence from American Ornithology and the Peale Museum Accessions Book (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481) suggests that it was probably fewer than 50 skins, whereas many authors have assumed that all the "Peale numbers" cited in Wilson's work were those of his own specimens (e.g., "he contributed 279 specimens to the collection", Edward H. Burtt, Jr., and William E. Davis, Jr., 2013, Alexander Wilson: The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology, Belknap Press, p. 310). This assumption appears to be based on a misunderstanding — Wilson was citing the numbers to give credit to Peale, to acknowledge his contributions, not to stake a claim to his own specimen deposits. If Burtt & Davis (2013) were correct, the "Catalogue of Duplicate Specimens" (APS Library, Mss.B.P31) would be full of Wilson's specimen deposits—but this is not the case. No duplicate of Dunlin is listed. To the editor's (MRH) knowledge, there is no evidence that Wilson deposited a Dunlin specimen at Peale's Museum.
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Dunlin
Current Scientific Name
Scolopacidae | Calidris alpina
Repository:
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (MCZ 67835)
