Biodiversity Heritage Library - Program news and collection highlights from BHL
Blog Reel, Campaigns, Earth Optimism 2020

No Egrets: The Story of Fashion and Feathers Through Books
Black and white photo of a woman in a Victorian dress wearing an elaborate adorned with bird feathers. She stands in a forest.

April 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Organizations around the world have commemorated the occasion by participating in the global Earth Optimism movement — an initiative spearheaded by the Smithsonian to “turn the conservation conversation from doom and gloom to optimism and opportunity”.

Throughout 2020, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and our partners are joining the movement by sharing conservation success stories from and made possible by the BHL collection. Follow our blog for conservation stories — past and present — and visit our website for more information and to explore our Earth Optimism book collection.

———————

Feathers have been used in fashion throughout history, but the trend became more widespread from the late 18th century when the Industrial Revolution made luxuries more available to the masses. In the 19th century, new technology improved the speed of production and the millinery industry boomed [1]. Hats with feathers became a status symbol coveted by a new mass market and were produced on an industrial scale.

Birds were hunted around the world to supply plumes to centres of fashion such as London and New York. In 1886, American Museum of Natural History’s ornithologist, Frank Chapman, infamously observed on a walk in New York some 40 native bird species on women’s hats, some with an entire stuffed bird attached [2]. Indeed, women were oft blamed for the trend: in The Ibis in 1887 [3], women were pointed to as “the indirect, but real, instigators of this slaughter”. The author continues: “all that can be hoped for is that the freaks of feminine vanity may take some other and less harmful direction.”

The issue also arises in a letter [4] dated 1865 from ornithologist John Gould to Museum Victoria’s first director, Sir Frederick McCoy, who had previously written to Gould asking him to procure bird specimens for the burgeoning museum’s collections. In the letter, Gould ironically writes:

“The Ladies, the Ladies, have however, so stripped us of birds for their bonnets that but few are now in the market and these of course are high priced.”

Black and white photograph of a woman in Victorian dress with an elaborate hat adorned with bird feathers. She stands in a forest.

Photograph of Flo Tuckfield wearing a hat featuring a large plume of feathers in Merrigum, Victoria, circa 1910s. Credit: Lilian L. Pitts / Source: Museums Victoria, MV000061572.

While women were loudly condemned for their role in consuming feathers, they were also instrumental in the campaigns to raise awareness of the devastating effects of plume hunting on bird populations. For instance, in 1896 the American socialite and amateur naturalist Harriet Hemenway and her cousin Minna Hall led a boycott of feathered hats which attracted 900 participants and led to the formation of the National Audubon Society and passage of the Weeks-McLean Law (aka the Migratory Bird Act), which outlawed market hunting and the interstate transport of birds [5].

As documented by Herbert K. Job in his 1905 book Wild Wings [6], at the turn of the 20th century, an ounce of feathers was worth $32—almost twice as much as an ounce of gold. Job states that during 1902, over 1600 packages of heron plumes were sold at just one London auction house:

“A package is said to average in weight 30 ounces. This makes a total of 48,240 ounces. As it requires about four birds to make an ounce of plumes, these sales meant 192,960 herons killed at their nests, and from two to three times that number of young or eggs destroyed. Is it, then, any wonder that these species are on the verge of extinction?” (p.146)

In Australia, egrets, herons, lyrebirds, bowerbirds and emus were amongst the species targeted by plume hunters.

A brown bird with long, pink tail feathers illustrated on a grassy platform

Illustration of a lyrebird from An account of the English colony in New South Wales by David Collins (1804). Contributed in BHL by Museums Victoria.

Lyrebirds are ancient Australian animals: the Australian Museum in Sydney has fossils of lyrebirds dating back around 15 million years [7]. The Lyrebird reportedly came close to extinction in the early 1900s as it was hunted for its ornate tail feathers. In the 1911 publication, Pros and cons of the plumage bill, bird protectionist James Buckland states that “over 400 lyre-birds were killed in one district in a single season to supply the London plumage market” [8].

In 1901, the Australian Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) was founded to promote the study and conservation of the native bird species of Australia and adjacent regions. One of its members, Tom Tregellas, regularly camped out in a large hollow tree trunk over a period of seventeen years in Sherbrooke Forest, Victoria observing and photographing lyrebirds. Noticing a decrease in the population over time, he crusaded for the protection of lyrebirds and legislation was eventually passed to protect the birds.

The rapid decline of several species whose feathers were used in ladies’ fashion were seen during this period, and some bird species were not as fortunate as the lyrebird. The Huia of New Zealand was declared extinct in 1907, and it is also believed that the use of Great Auk feathers for down partially contributed to its extinction [9].

Periodicals, along with books and public lectures, were one of the key means of circulating information and inspiring action around bird preservation at that time. In volume seven of the journal of the AOU, The Emu, two articles by Australian ornithologist Arthur H. Mattingley are published side-by-side. In the first from November 1906 [10], Mattingley recounts a visit to the Murray River where he photographs egret and heron nests. In the second [11], written only a few weeks later, Mattingley returns to the same area and is horrified to discover that nearly one-third of the birds were killed, with the young left to starve in their nests.

Orphaned baby egrets at nests begging for food.

Photographs accompanying the article “Plundered for their plumes” by A.H. Mattingley, in The Emu, Vol.7 (1907). Contributed in BHL by American Museum of Natural History Library.

The second article, Plundered for their plumes, contains vivid photographs that caused quite a stir internationally. These photos are widely regarded as a tipping point in changing attitudes towards the use of feathers in fashion.

In England, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) posted the photos on billboards and in shop windows, and in 1911 men carrying enlargements of the story patrolled the West End of London to protest the cruelty of wearing feathers. As a result, the story gained attention throughout the UK, as well as in Paris, Amsterdam, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Australia and the United States [12].

From this point on, the interest of amateur ornithologists changed from bird collection to identification. An Australian Bird Book, by John Albert Leach (1911), and Neville Cayley’s What Bird Is That? (first published in 1931) are two Australian publications that reflect this shift.

Collage of various birds illustrated in color.

Illustration from What bird Is That? by Neville Cayley (1947). Contributed in BHL by Museums Victoria.

Feathered hats did make a reappearance from the 1930s-1960s, but the decades after this saw hats lose popularity as they were no longer a standard item of women’s daywear. Worryingly, feathers have been making a comeback since clothing adorned with marabou and ostrich feathers appeared in a couture runway show in 2017, and PETA have been campaigning against the use of feathers in fashion ever since. The use of down in jackets is also a contentious issue today, and many major international brands have stopped selling down in favour of high-tech synthetics.

While mass market fashion continues to have serious environmental repercussions, this history shows that wide scale attitudinal shifts around such issues are possible. Efforts on this front, however, need to be widespread and sustained.

References

  1. Ehrman, E. (2018) Fashioned from nature, V&A Publishing, London, pp. 97-98.
  2. Callahan, D. (2014) A history of birdwatching in 100 objects, Bloomsbury, London, p.72.
  3. The Ibis (1887) Recently published ornithological works, Ser.5, Vol.5, no.20, p.458, viewed 27 February 2020. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8521969.
  4. Letter from John Gould dated 20 December 1865, in Museums Victoria Archives, MV ARCHIVES – NATIONAL MUSEUM OF VICTORIA – Inwards Correspondence – 1863-1876 Gould, J., OLDERSYSTEM~02618.
  5. Souder, W. (2013) How two women ended the deadly feather trade, Smithsonian Magazine, viewed 27 February 2020. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-two-women-ended-the-deadly-feather-trade-23187277/.
  6. Job, H. (1905) Wild wings; adventures of a camera-hunter among the larger wild birds of North America on sea and land, Houghton, Mifflin & Co, Boston, viewed 27 February 2020. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/48785.
  7. Boles, W. (2006) ‘The avian fossil record of Australia: an overview’, In: Merrick, J.R. et al. (eds.) Evolution and biogeography of Australasian vertebrates, auscipub, Oatlands, pp.387-411.
  8. Buckland, J. (1911) Pros and cons of the plumage bill, printed by Edmund Evans, p.13, viewed 27 February 2020. https://viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/?entity=IE6076556.
  9. Callahan, D. (2014) A history of birdwatching in 100 objects, Bloomsbury, London, p.72.
  10. Mattingley, A.H. (1907) A visit to heronries, The emu: official organ of the Australasian Ornithologists’ Union, Vol.7, pt.2, pp.[65]-71, viewed 27 February 2020. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8517730.
  11. Mattingley, A.H. (1907) Plundered for their plumes, The emu: official organ of the Australasian Ornithologists’ Union, Vol.7, pt.2, pp.71-73, viewed 27 February 2020. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8517740.
  12. Cronin, J.K. (2018) Art for animals : visual culture and animal advocacy, 1870-1914, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park.
October 15, 2020by Joel Richard
Blog Reel, Featured Books

An Annotated Copy of Butterflies of Australia by Waterhouse and Lyell (1914)

Published in 1914, Butterflies of Australia by Gustavus Athol Waterhouse and George Lyell was the first comprehensive work on Australian butterflies to appear in Western scientific literature. It is a thick and rather chunky volume, with descriptions of 332 butterfly species, and was the product of many years of research. The copy held in Museums Victoria’s Rare Book Collection is even thicker than a standard issue, as it is bound with lined pages interleaved throughout. It is an author’s copy, owned and annotated by George Lyell.

1. Inscription Lyell.jpg

Title page of annotated author’s copy of Butterflies of Australia (1914.) Contributed in BHL by Museums Victoria.

Lyell and Waterhouse worked on the book separated by some distance; Lyell’s location in Gisborne, Victoria was 862km (536 miles) away from Waterhouse’s residence in Sydney. They corresponded regularly via mail, and the Museums Victoria Archives now houses some 400 of Lyell’s letters from Waterhouse, which came to the museum with Lyell’s extensive donation of butterflies and moths in 1932. In 2019 a McCoy Seed Fund project enabled further exploration of the archival material to see what it could reveal about the scientists’ collaboration and Lyell’s collection. It also shed some light on the annotated copy in our collection.

The archival material reveals that their publisher, Angus & Robertson, prepared the handsome interleaved copy for Lyell and gave it to Waterhouse to pass on. In a letter dated 28 August 1914 Waterhouse writes “I have the interleaved copy for you, but it is much too bulky & too nicely done to trust to the post” (OLDERSYSTEM~03030, Museums Victoria Archives). Instead Waterhouse entrusted the volume to friend E. H. Proctor to give to Lyell’s brother in Melbourne.

Letter to Lyell.jpg

Letter to George Lyell from his co-author and friend G. A. Waterhouse. Photo Credit: Hayley Webster / Source: Museums Victoria.

Their correspondence also demonstrates how carefully they considered every aspect of the publication. For instance, a letter to Lyell on 20 March 1914 states “I like very much the black headings as they seem to show the divisions at a glance & generally speaking I like the size of the type” (OLDERSYSTEM~03030, Museums Victoria Archives), showing that the typography was carefully considered for readability. Waterhouse was pleased with the plates, writing on 4 Feb 1914 “Dear Lyell, Coloured plate no. 1 is glorious, magnificent drawings, just showed it to [Allan Riverstone] McCulloch who was delighted with it” (OLDERSYSTEM~03030, Museums Victoria Archives).

The illustrations are a combination of original drawings and photographic reproductions: original coloured plates by H. W. Simmonds, drawings of larvae and pupae by Miss J. Kong Sing, and the remaining are from photographs by Henry King. Butterflies of Australia includes 43 plates, and a total of 888 illustrations; its considerable scope and detail was considered very helpful by scientists and collectors when the book was published.

As Museums Victoria Archivist Nik McGrath recounts, Waterhouse destroyed his letters after entering the relevant scientific data onto index cards. While this might seem like a curiously destructive working method, it is not unheard of; researchers working with Charles Darwin’s correspondence have noted that he crossed out personal matters in his letters so he would not be distracted if he needed to return to them for scientific purposes [1]. In this case, in spite of the loss of Lyell’s letters, we retain a lot of the archival material relating to the book including a manuscript, index cards from Waterhouse, notebooks, proofs, black and white photographs of specimens used by illustrators for the book, specimen lists, and newspaper clippings of book reviews.

Butterfly photos.jpg

Along with many others, these photographs of butterflies were used to develop the illustrations for Butterflies of Australia. Photo Credit: Hayley Webster / Source: Museums Victoria.

In addition to looking at the archival material, an examination of the book itself is also revealing. Annotations are dated throughout the 1910s and 1920s and most appear to record sightings. In the introduction to the work, Waterhouse and Lyell note of the geographical focus of their study: “We are hoping this work will serve to indicate the need and point to that direction, and so induce collectors to aid us: we are carefully tabulating every verified record reaching us, and will much appreciate dated specimens for examination and return, especially those from points distant from localities given in our list.”

Lyell is systematic in his approach to annotations, including roughly the same information and formatting for each entry. The marginalia primarily consists of locations added to specimen descriptions, often dated, and sometimes includes a number, gender, and occasionally an elevation.

elevation crop.jpg

The initials GAW frequently appear throughout, and refer to Lyell’s co-author Gustavus Athol Waterhouse. Here Lyell notes that the species is “very plentiful at 5000ft diminishing to 4500 none lower, only few at 6000ft”. Annotated copy of Butterflies of Australia. Contributed in BHL by Museums Victoria.

There are also often initials entered next to the information, which relate to the person collecting the data, as you can see in the example above.

The annotations use a similar approach from the beginning to end of the text; Lyell underlines the printed text in pen, circling the relevant figure numbers, and then notes the date, locations and other data on the interleaved pages.

This is a typical example of how Lyell annotated his copy of Butterflies of Australia, underlining the relevant information and then adding details to the opposite interleaved page. Contributed in BHL by Museums Victoria.

Though the method of data entry is reasonably consistent, there are noticeable changes in ink, indicating that Lyell completed the annotations across a period of time. It would appear that Lyell was copying across data from other sources such as his own field notes and correspondence from other scientists as he received it.

Lyell’s marginalia mainly seems to record observational data, but occasionally includes a reference to secondary reference material. One reference appears to have been copied in its entirety—this is Norman Tyndale’s description of Lycaeninae adaluma from the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia in 1922. Tyndale’s description references Waterhouse and Lyell’s work, and suggests a placement of the new species within their system. The placement suggested corresponds to where Lyell has copied in the description.

Revised description crop.jpg

The annotation replicates Tyndale’s description of Lycaeninae adaluma and includes a sketch of the species. Annotated copy of Butterflies of Australia. Contributed in BHL by Museums Victoria.

What exactly was Lyell doing with his annotations? It appears he was using the book to record ongoing research by himself and a group of naturalists across the east coast of Australia. H. J. Jackson notes in Romantic Readers that the practice of interleaving in books by scientists originated in earlier educational practices [2]. I have certainly come across other similar examples in the Museums Victoria Library. It is notable that Lyell’s annotations drop off after the early 1930s. He suffered an illness in 1931 that led to his decision to deposit his collection with the National Museum of Victoria. The rest of his life was dedicated to preparing his collection for transfer to the museum, and this seems to correlate to a decline in annotating.

References

  1. Gregorio, Mario A. & Gill, N. (1990) Charles Darwin’s Marginalia Vol. 1, New York, Garland, p. xiv.
  2. Jackson, H. J, (2005) Romantic Readers: the Evidence of Marginalia, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, p. 84.

Bibliography

Administration – George A. Lyell – Internal Correspondence 1891-1947- Waterhouse, G. A – Museums Victoria Archives, National Museum of Victoria OLDERSYSTEM~03030

Gregorio, Mario A. & Gill, N. (1990) Charles Darwin’s Marginalia Vol. 1, New York, Garland.

Jackson, H. J. (2005) Romantic Readers: the Evidence of Marginalia, New Haven & London, Yale University Press.

McGrath, Nik (2019) Kindred Spirits, Museums Victoria Blog, Retrieved from https://museumsvictoria.com.au/article/kindred-spirits/

McGrath, Nik (2019), Butterflies of the night, University of Melbourne Blog, Retrieved from https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/insect-museum-collection/2019/01/30/butterflies-of-the-night/

February 27, 2020by Joel Richard
Blog Reel, Featured Books, User Stories

Provenance and Library Stamps at Museums Victoria and on BHL

On the BHL blog, we often focus on the extensive biodiversity information made available through BHL and the innovative ways scientists are using the vast quantities of historical biodiversity data in BHL to conduct contemporary research. BHL is also useful for a range of non-scientific research, however, and is used by researchers in the arts and humanities as well as the sciences. Artists draw on the illustrations for inspiration, while humanities scholars use the digitised collections for historical research.

For librarians and book historians, BHL contains a wealth of provenance information, as well as the material to conduct comparative research. As a librarian in charge of a rare book collection specialising in natural history, I often use BHL to check if our copy of an item is complete, bound in the usual manner, or coloured in the same way as other copies.

A good example of this is Museums Victoria’s copy of Albertus Seba’s Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio (commonly referred to in English as his Thesaurus). Museums Victoria holds the only copies of Seba’s Thesaurus in Australian libraries; however, using the Biodiversity Heritage Library I have been able to compare our copy with copies around the world in libraries that I would be unlikely to visit. I have been able to identify that our copy is bound differently to the norm, with plates and text in separate volumes — presumably at the request of a previous owner. I was also able to deduce that the unusual teal nails on the opossum are intentional — we had thought it a quirk of hand-colouring! However, all coloured copies on BHL show the opossum sporting a teal mani pedi (fig. 1).

000080372c-39.jpg

Fig. 1. Tab XXXIX. Seba, Albertus. Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio. Plates to Volumes 1 & 2. 1734-1765. Digitized in BHL by Museums Victoria.

Lately, I have used our digitised items in conjunction with our Rare Book Collection to look at provenance and acquisition information in our collection. This was inspired by a fantastic course in “Provenance in Books” as part of London Rare Book School last year. Our instructor, David Pearson, took us through various aspects of provenance information in books, including bookplates, bindings, inscriptions, and annotations. Working in an institutional library, one of the things I was most interested in was different forms of library acquisition and provenance information. David told us of a project at the British Library to develop a research guide detailing the different stamps used across the institution’s history to assist in identifying when items had been acquired. I set out to develop something similar for our institution, and here is a sample of the work I have done so far, focusing primarily on one of our predecessor institutions, the National Museum of Victoria.

The National Museum of Victoria was established in the 1850s, and the library collection has been developed since its foundation. Accessioning practices have changed over the 160-plus year history of the library. The most consistent practice appears to have been to mark or apply stamps to the title page, or first few flyleaves, of a book. The stamps that appear on these pages are therefore usually the most reliable for dating an acquisition or to assist in narrowing a date range for archival research.

The information available in each library book varies. A book may include all or none of the following: accession number, date of acquisition, library stamp, inscription or bookplate of a previous owner. Books purchased between 1854 and the end of the nineteenth century are the least likely to carry acquisition information; many only bear a stamp, as shown below (fig. 2).

D'orbigny tp stamp.jpg

Fig. 2. Title page of Museums Victoria’s copy of Histoire naturelle : generale et particuliere des cephalopodes acetabuliferes vivants et fossils by Ferussac and d’Orbigny (Volume 2. 1835-1848) with National Museum Victoria stamp.

The practice from around 1900 seems to have been to write the accession date on the top left corner of the title page or the abbreviations ‘Entd.’ Or ‘E’ (fig. 3).

lewin tp stamp.jpg

Fig. 3. Title page of Museums Victoria’s copy of A natural history of the birds of New South Wales (3rd ed. 1822) by John Lewin. Unfortunately, Museums Victoria doesn’t hold a first edition of this work, however we have digitised the 3rd (1822) and 4th editions (1838) for everyone to enjoy!

The National Museum Melbourne stamp appears to have been used from around 1900 to 1930 (fig. 4).

Hahn tp stamp.jpg

Fig. 4. Title page of Museums Victoria’s copy of Monographia Aranearum (or Monographie der Spinnen in German) (1820-1836) by Carl Wilhelm Hahn with National Museum Melbourne stamp. This title is very rare, with only 13 complete copies recorded in Peter Sacher’s census in 1988.[1]

From the 1930s to late 1970s, dated stamps such as the examples below were in use, making purchases in this period very easy to date (figs. 5 & 6).

Fletcher tp stamp.jpg

Fig. 5. Museums Victoria’s copy of A popular sketch of the natural history of Queensland (1886) by Price Fletcher with dated stamp. With a specific date available, this acquisition would be easy to trace in our archives.

Turton tp.jpg

Fig. 6. Title page of Museums Victoria’s copy of William Turton’s A conchological dictionary of the British Islands (1819) with dated stamp. The acquisition number in the top right-hand corner makes this title even easier than the last example to trace in our archives. Keep looking through this item and you will spy some lovely additional illustrations added in the margins by a former owner.

While dated stamps continued to be used after the 1970s, a blind stamp was used for items that were being directly entered into the Rare Book Collection between the late 1970s and early 2000s (fig. 7).

Example of a blind stamp from Museums Victoria

Fig. 7. This blind stamp would have been considered less intrusive, while still clearly indicating ownership.

This is representative of a shift in library practice towards the designation and separate management of rare book collections. By the late 1970s, the Museums Victoria Library was housing its rare books separately from the general collection.

recent stamp crop.jpg

Fig. 8. A recent example of a dated stamp from 2017. National Museum of Victoria. List of meteorite specimens in the collection of the National Museum of Victoria, September 1972. 1972. Digitized in BHL by Museums Victoria.

Archival research is usually needed to confirm the date of acquisition. Items frequently bear multiple stamps, which may have been applied after accessioning. It appears that stamps were applied to the verso of plates retrospectively, while items may also have been routinely stamped if they were rebound.

While the stamps can be a bit confusing at times, having a general understating of them can help refine a date range for archival research. It also allows me to give a quick answer to a question often asked by tour groups — how long has this item been in your collection?

References

[1] Sacher, Peter 1988 ‘Commentary’ in Hahn, Carl Wilhelm, Monographie der spinnen (1820-1836), Leipzig, Zentralantiquariat der DDR.

Further Reading

Guide to researching provenance of books now in the British Library

Northcote Library – Stamps & Stickers

Daley, Jason. Bonn Library Recovers More Than 600 Books Looted After World War II, Smithsonian Magazine. April 15, 2019.

McGrane, Sally. What became of the Jewish books? New Yorker. February 28, 2014.

October 3, 2019by Joel Richard

Help Support BHL

BHL's existence depends on the financial support of its patrons. Help us keep this free resource alive!

search

About BHL

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working together to digitize the natural history literature held in their collections and make it freely available for open access as part of a global “biodiversity community.”

Join Our Mailing List

Sign up to receive the latest news, content highlights, and promotions.

Subscribe Now

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 319 other subscribers

Subscribe to Blog Via RSS

Subscribe to the blog RSS feed to stay up-to-date on all the latest BHL posts.

Access RSS Feed

Inspiring Discovery through Free Access to Biodiversity Knowledge.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library makes it easier than ever for you to access the information you need to study and explore life on Earth…for free, anytime, anywhere.