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Saturday, March 19, 2016

THE BIRDS OF BIRDVILLE by L. N. GILBERT

Birding is today an avocation, an area of intense interest, and a source of great pleasure too millions of devotees in the United States and around the world.  But this increasing millions of bird lovers only occurred in the most recent decades. One hundred years ago the appreciation of birds for their beauty and evolved specialization was considered a bit strange by the general public, if not peculiar.

So I was very interested to receive a call recently from Nancy Jewell, a Travis Country resident, who offered me a book published in 1923.  This book had been in the library of a birder friend of  Nancy's husband.  THE BIRDS OF BIRDVILLE contains a collection of hand painted bird images, only a few of which are from Birdsville, Pennsylvania, to which we believe it refers. 

As bird books in 1923 were not common, this book is fascinating for its age and because it is in color. Here is a video of each page of this short book and the 48 bird images so that you may enjoy it also.  Thank you Nancy.



2 comments:

  1. Absolutely beautiful! Is the author also the artist?

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    1. Unfortunately, there is no information, that I have been able to find, on either the author or the book. The only information in or on the book is on the cover where it shows the name "L. N. Gilbert 1923" at the bottom. Inside the book, no information is provided as to the publisher, author, or artist. I have searched for information on the book and the author with no result. I did talk to the historian at the Birdville Historical Association in Birdville, Texas, who told me the book does not refer to Birdville, Texas, as I had initially expected. He told me that he had once read that the book title referred to Birdville, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Birdville, PA, only a name-place at this time with no historical information available. So for now, what we have is a Bird Book from 100 years ago, in color, and we don't know any more information than that. I will continue to research but fear that it was a small run, private publication, for which there is little or no additional information.

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