Witmer Stone papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: ANSP-Coll-0072

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Witmer Stone papers document Stone’s research and his expansive network of scientific colleagues. This collection is arranged into four series: “I. Correspondence,” “II. Professional organizations,” “III. Graphic materials,” and “IV. Writings and notes.

Series “I. Correspondence” is arranged alphabetically, and contains letters between Stone and other ornithologists regarding bird species, article submissions for The Auk, and other related subjects. Stone had spent many years collecting data for a history of ornithology and written to an enormous number of people for facts and general information about the subject. It has been reported that he actually had the text written and was in the process of searching for a publisher when he was taken ill and died. It has been a great disappointment to many that his manuscript never came to light when his papers were purchased by Charles M. B. Cadwalader and presented to the Academy's library after Stone's death. The materials from this purchase constitute this series.

Series “II. Professional organizations” is arranged alphabetically, and documents the various organizations Stone associated with or led throughout his career.

Series “III. Graphic materials” contains illustrations and photographs by Stone. Illustrations include several books of Stone's drawings in pen, pencil, and watercolor, on various animals and plants. Photographs include portraits of Stone, his family, and houses; ornithologists; and photograph prints from the Academy's 1890 expedition to Mexico and the Yucatan.

Series “IV. Writings and notes” contains research conducted by Stone and his colleagues. Materials include notes, bibliographic references, handwritten and typed manuscript pages for Stone's history of ornithology and for his biographical articles for the Dictionary of American Biography, genealogical research materials, and a catalog of algae. Also included are Stone’s diaries from an 1889 expedition to York Furnace, PA and from the 1890 Yucatan expedition, which include pen and ink drawings, maps, photographs, and clippings. The writings in this collection, while mostly about birds, also reflect his interest in local plants, spiders and related groups. The records in this series are mostly unsorted and undescribed.

Dates

undated

Creator

Dwight, Jonathan, Jr. (1858-1929) (Person)

Conditions Governing Use

Biographical / Historical

Naturalist, botanist, zoologist, editor and historian, Witmer Stone came to the Academy in 1888 just after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. His first connection with the Academy was as a Jessup Student, but his long association lasted more than fifty years and while at the Academy he was concerned with scientific observations and administrative work. As an executive he was Assistant Curator, 1891-1908; Curator, 1908-24; Director 1924-28; and Director Emeritus, 1929 on. However, from 1927 to the date of his death he was also a vice president of the Academy. His writings concern birds, mammals, reptiles, plants, butterflies and land mollusks in the scientific field, and historical notes and biographies of scientists in the field of humanities. He was acutely interested in people and the organization of groups for study and discussion. As a boy he and his brother Frederick with their neighbors Amos and Stewardson and other Brown brothers organized a group called the Wilson Natural Science Association. This met weekly in the Stone home and was concerned with an attempt to study all the plants, animals and minerals in the vicinity of their Germantown residences.

Later, he helped to organize the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, the Philadelphia Botanical Society and the Pennsylvania Audubon Club. He was also very active in the American Society of Mammalogists and the American Ornithologists' Union, where he served as editor of The Auk. In this capacity as editor, Witmer Stone included reviews of most of the important ornithological works during his tenure of office, at the same time publishing biographies of his colleagues.