A few weeks ago, Wendy Wasman, Librarian, and I discovered a small pile of books from the 1800’s: eight volumes of the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, whose front covers had been detached. As we turned these covers over, we found beautiful book plates attached, each with the same printed border framing a central hand-painted and hand-lettered picture of a bird. The bird on each plate, however, is different: American Coot, Dickcissel, Dusky Grouse, Gnatcatcher, Magpie, Pin-Tail Duck and Three-Toed Woodpecker. Also printed on each plate are the words “Natural History Library of John Lewis Childs, Floral Park, N.Y.” As the books had been previously unknown to Wendy, she asked me to research their provenance and the identity of the artist who painted the birds.
A Google search revealed that John Lewis Childs (1856-1921) was a successful businessman and politician whose love of nature influenced both his business and leisure pursuits. He started the first seed catalog business in the United States and edited and published the ornithological magazine titled The Warbler. He also had an impressive natural history collection including many bird eggs and nests, over 700 mounted bird specimens from around the world, and one of the largest private ornithology libraries in the country, including Audubon’s rare Birds of America. Many of the books in his library contained his book plates, each appropriate to the subject of the book in which it was glued. The Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club was the first journal dedicated to ornithology in North America, and therefore it is fitting that the habitat ranges of the aforementioned birds on the plates all include North America.
The blog of Lew Jaffe, a self-professed book plate junkie, proved to be a serendipitous starting point for information on Childs’ book plates. Jaffe’s collection of Childs’ plates includes images of a flower, an insect and a frog, and Jaffe speculates that the artists that Childs hired for his seed catalog business may have also painted the plates. Childs’ success in the seed and bulb business led to the founding of Floral Park, New York, so I contacted the Floral Park Historical Society. According to the Society, Childs commissioned a number of talented artists, including one who lived on-site, to help publicize his botanical merchandise. The painter of the book plates, however, remains anonymous.
The year after Childs died, in 1922, the Museum began planning the Blossom Expedition to the South Atlantic Ocean to collect birds and other natural specimens for its collection and to exchange with other museums. During this preparatory period, as the Museum acquired books to take onboard, Childs’ library was auctioned off in March of 1923. As the Bulletin of the Museum states on May 1, 1923, the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, as well as all volumes of the journal the Auk, which the Nuttall became, were purchased at this auction. 12,000 specimens were collected during the Blossom Expedition, at least 3,000 of them ornithological. Although a record of books taken on the Blossom lists several volumes of the Auk, none of the Nuttall volumes were taken on the endeavor.
