User:Doctree/sandbox/Cordelia Stanwood

Cordelia Johnson Stanwood (August 1, 1865 - November 20, 1958), known to family and friends as Cordie, was an ornithologist, teacher, writer, nature photographer and conservationist. Her work in ornithology was instrumental in the transition from the 19th century practice of collecting specimens to careful observation, documentation and photography in the field during the 20th century. She contributed over a hundred articles about birds to scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers.

Born in Ellsworth, Maine, Stanwood moved to Providence, Rhode Island to live with wealthy relatives until she completed her education as a teacher. She taught in elementary school systems and continued her education from 1887 until 1904 when health problems forced an end to her career as a teacher. After a period in a sanitorium in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, she returned to her family home in Ellsworth, Maine in 1904.

Beginning in 1905, Stanwood began to study the natural habitat around her home. She kept detailed field notes from 1905 through 1953. Most of her efforts concentrated on local birds but she also studied and photographed other wildlife. She contributed to scientific journals and books and corresponded with many prominent scientists and naturalists. To support herself, she sold nature stories and photographs to newspapers and popular magazines. She supplemented her income by selling crafts, most notably hand-woven baskets.

Stanwood was considered eccentric and was known as "Ellsworth's Famous Birdwoman" and "The Lady of Birdacre". She was fiercely independent throughout her life, refusing any form of charity or assistance in spite of living much of her adult life in poverty. Failing health finally forced her to move into a nursing home at the age of 89 supported by the state.

Before her death, Stanwood gave her home and surrounding land and all of her her notebooks, correspondence and photographs to a local birding club named for her. Her home and land were developed into a museum and wildlife sanctuary dedicated to her memory.

Early life and education
Cordelia Stanwood was born on August 1, 1865, at the Stanwood homestead in Ellsworth, Maine. She was the oldest of five children born to Roswell Leland Stanwood, a sea captain, and Margaret Susan Brown, daughter of a Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia businessman. Roswell Stanwood was already supporting his widowed mother and his three older sisters before the marriage. Cordelia's younger siblings included sisters Maude, Maria and Idella and a brother, Henry. Until Cordelia Stanwood was eight years old, she, her mother and sisters often lived on the ships captained by her father. She was described as a "frail child" who seldom attended school when the family lived in the Stanwood home in Ellsworth. She attended Ellsworth elementary school only intermittently. Her paternal grandmother helped teach her to read in addition to teaching her traditional skills expected of a woman at that time such as knitting and needlework.

The Stanwood family valued education but Ellsworth had no secondary school so in 1879, fourteen year old Cordelia traveled to Providence, Rhode Island to live with her uncle Oliver and aunt Cordelia Johnson, after whom she was named. She was sensitive about being older than the other students when she was enrolled in the Federal Street Grammar School.

Secondary school in Providence was separated into three tracks at the time Stanwood attended: Classical, English and English and Scientific. Students in the classical school were prepared for advancement to college. The English and Scientific track was a vocational school to prepare working class students for jobs in manufacturing and accounting. Stanwood completed the Girls' English track that prepared young women for teaching. Stanwood's classes included mathematics (algebra, geometry and trigonometry), languages (composition, English literature, rhetoric, Latin and French), philosophy, history and sciences (botany and chemistry). Stanwood overcame her inadequate early education to graduate sixth in a class of sixty from the Girl's High School of Providence in 1886.

While residing in Providence, Stanwood attended services at the First Baptist Church with her uncle and aunt. She went to Sunday school classes taught by professors from Brown University. When she was 17, Stanwood became a member of the church and continued to send small contributions to the church until at least 1932. Due to the influences of the church and her uncle and aunt, Stanwood maintained a high standard of personal conduct throughout her life.

Higher education and teaching
Stanwood wanted a career and to live independently. Teaching was one of the few occupations open to women in the late 19th century. After graduating from high school, Stanwood returned to her home in Ellsworth to try for a teaching position. She was not selected to teach in the Ellsworth school but she did help her former Sunday school teacher with Sunday school and was tutored in French in return for her work.

In 1887, Stanwood returned to Providence, Rhode Island, as a teacher-in-training at the Messer Street Teacher Training School. For the next 17 years, she taught at various schools in...

In the fall of 1893, Stanwood enrolled in the Massachusetts Normal Art School to

In autumn of 1904, Stanwood cited ill health as the reason for her resignation from the school system in Marion, Massachusetts. She checked herself into the Adams-Nervine Asylum, a mental health hospital. The contemporary diagnosis was neurasthenia, now interpreted as a nervous breakdown.

Ornithology


Between 1910 and 1917, Stanwood published twenty studies of different bird species in the Wilson Bulletin, The Auk, Bird Lore, the Maine Journal of Ornithology and Nature.

Stanwood's first published work was titled The Hermit Thrush: the Voice of the Northern Woods.

Published ornithological works

Clever Builders: Nest and Young of the Bay-Breasted Warbler, Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society (December 1909), pp. 103-110

My First Record of the Goldfinch in 1910, Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society (March 1910)

The Nest and Young of the Alder Flycatcher, Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society (March 1910) pp. 1, 3-5

The Hermit Thrush; The Voice of the Northern Woods, Bird-Lore 12 (May 1910)

A Lowly Home: Nest and Young of the Nashville Warbler, Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society (June 1910)

The Black-Throated Green Warbler, The Auk Vol. 27 (July 1910), pp. 289-294

The Green Black-Capped Warbler in Ellsworth, Maine, Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society (September 1910)

The Winter Wren In Ellsworth, Maine, Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society (September 1910)

How a Baby Vireo Came to Have His Picture Taken, Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society (September 1910) pp. 45-47

Other scientific contributions
While the main objective of her field activity was bird study, Stanwood included detailed observations of all the nature surrounding her home. She shared her observations in contributions to scientific journals and through correspondence with other scientists. In 1913, she sent specimens of local crane flies to Charles Paul Alexander for his entomology studies. He noted that the specimens were collected "while she was engaged in the study of insects that were being fed to nestling birds." A species of crane fly, Limnophila stanwoodae, was named for her. "The paratypes were collected by Miss Cordelia J. Stanwood, the well-known student of bird-life, in whose honor the species is named,. Miss Stanwood has done much to discover the craneflies in the vicinity of her home city, and as a result of her careful observations our knowledge of the Hancock Co. Tipulidae is remarkably complete and constitutes one of the most valuable lists of a restricted locality that has ever been secured."

Photography
Frank Chapman, editor of Bird-Lore

Stanwood was a pioneer in bird photography, possibly the first female ornithological photographer.

Popular ornithology publications magazines and newspapers
List of articles

A Tame Downy Woodpecker, Nature and Culture (April 1913) pp. 7-13

The Hermit Thrush at Home, Nature and Culture (May 1913) pp. 24-33

A Plea for the Birds, Ellsworth American (July 30, 1913)

A Small Work-basket, Home Progress (August 1913)

A Nest in the Eaves-trough, Blue-Bird (January 1914) pp. 92-94

The Brown Creeper at Home, Blue-Bird (February 1914) pp. 1, 15-123

English Sparrows Mobbing Birds, Blue-Bird (April 1914) p. 67

Nest of the Redstart, Country Life in America (April 1914) pp. 108-110

A Glimpse into the Kindergarten of the Ovenbird, Blue-Bird (May 1914) pp. 216-218

Other published articles
List of other published articles

Dyeing: How to Get Good Colors, School Arts Book 5 (June 1906), pp. 709-716

Home-made Dyes. How to Make and How to Use Them, Suburban Life (November 1909)

How to Make a Raffia Work Bag, School Arts Magazine (November 1913)

A Suggestion, Ellsworth American (June 14, 1914)

Short Method of Reading, Ellsworth American (June 17, 1914)

Is It Fair? Ellsworth American (July 22, 1914)

Art in the Home: May Be a Part of Economic Training, Ellsworth American (July 29, 1914)

Nature Study as a Diversion, Normal Instructor and Primary Plans (June 1915)

A New Use for Honey Bees, Blue-Bird (September 1916) pp. 11-13

Conservation activism
about 'feather trade' activism. mention article published

Personal life
Cordelia Stanwood was raised as a Victorian lady. She was never financially secure as an adult. Her income from teaching and writing kept her impoverished but she refused financial help, even from her family and closest friends. During the winter, Stanwood

Stanwood was described as eccentric by some but "romantic, mysterious and inspirational" by others.

Legacy


The web site of the North American Bird Phenology Program, US Geological Survey, recognizes Stanwood as a major contributor. A short biographical sketch is included on the web site. One of her migration observation cards in which she complained of a woodpecker "tapping constantly" and "stealing suet" is featured.

In 1961, three years after Stanwood's death, the Stanwood Wildlife Foundation received a certificate with the following text

Birdsacre
Birdsacre, officially named the Stanwood Wildlife Sanctuary and Homestead, is now a park including Stanwood's historical home and adjacent land. The house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

History and development
After her father's death in 1914, maintenance of Stanwood's home was neglected. Examination of the property in 1958, shortly after her death, showed that the roof of the large barn had collapsed and the condition of the house was badly deteriorated. Because Stanwood received old age assistance from the state, the state held a claim on the estate even though Stanwood donated her house and land as a museum and sanctuary.

After seeing the Stanwood estate listed for sale in Yankee magazine, Chandler Richmond, Stanwood's biographer, met with the Ellsworth Rotary Club on January 6, 1959. Some of the older members knew Cordelia Stanwood all their lives and Richmond hoped to gain support for preserving the property.

Preserving the Stanwood property became a community project. The Stanwood Wildlife Foundation was incorporated and took title to the property in November 1959. Much of the work was done by volunteers, some of whom were craftsmen skilled in hand working wood to preserve the historic nature of the house.

Stanwood Homestead Museum
Stanwood's house, built by her father in 1850, is now a museum. The furniture consists of period pieces, many of which are original to the home. Also displayed are many of Stanwood's photographs, art and crafts.

In 1973, the Stanwood house and surrounding grounds were added to the National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Maine.

Richmond Nature Center
The Richmond Nature Center was added to the park in 1990, constructed by the Ellsworth Vocational Tech class. It houses displays of mounted birds and mammals, collections of bird nests and eggs, many over 100 years old, art exhibits by local artists and a gift shop.

The sanctuary also includes a wildlife rehabilitation center and housing for raptors too badly injured to be released. The enclosures are located under trees near the museum.

The museum and nature center open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from June through September. Hours are subject to change depending on the availability of volunteer staff. The organization archives all of Stanwood's original field notes and photographic plates and makes them available to researchers and the public by appointment.

Stanwood Wildlife Sanctuary
The Stanwood property that Cordelia named Birdsacre was originally forty acres. One hundred sixty additional acres of land adjacent to the original homestead were added to the sanctuary thanks to a gift by Ruth Foster in 1967.

The current park includes three long hiking trails designated as the White, Red and Blue trails. A number of interconnecting paths provide a wide variety of possible routes to walk. The wooden Everglade boardwalk, built and maintained by local master gardeners, and the Pinkham Path, surfaced with crushed stone, are handicapped accessible. The Stevenson Pontoon Bog Walkway provides a route over an area of wetlands.

A significant portion of the park is unimproved. It includes the Whitcomb Old Growth Pine Woods, a stand of old growth pines that escaped logging.

The sanctuary grounds are open during daylight hours throughout the year. Bicycles and motorized vehicles are prohibited from the trails. Pets must be leashed and should not be taken near the bird enclosures.