Elizabeth Dickens (ornithologist)

Elizabeth Dickens, known as the "Bird Lady of Block Island", (born 2 Dec 1877, died 17 Jun 1963)[1] was an American ornithologist.

Early life

Dickens was born and lived her entire life on Block Island, Rhode Island. She was an eighth generation descendant of Nathaniel Dickens (1614-1692),[2] an early settler of Block Island who arrived from the mainland in 1679.[3] She was the last member of that family line to reside there, and she traveled only occasionally and then usually for reasons connected to her interest and expertise about birds.[4]

Scientific contributions

Dickens contributed to the annals of ornithology through her half-century of daily bird sightings on Block Island.[5][6] These journals, which she began in 1912, were bequeathed by Dickens to the Audubon Society of Rhode Island and are housed at their offices in Smithfield, Rhode Island.[7]

In addition to her journals, she also accumulated a taxidermy collection of 172 mounted specimens representing many of the island's bird species.[8][9] The Block Island School is today the home of the Elizabeth Dickens Bird Collection.[10][11]

The Dickens-Lewis Farm Nature Preserve on Block Island, named for Elizabeth Dickens, preserves farming history on 200 acres of meadows that also provide habitat for grassland birds.[12] Roland Clement, in a 1959 Yankee Magazine article about Elizabeth Dickens, coined the title “Bird Lady of Block Island” for Miss Dickens. Her biography was written by Herbert S. Whitman.[13]

References
  1. Pettingill, Olin Sewall (1965). The bird watcher's America.
  2. The Hylbom Family Ancestry Project - Elizabeth Dickens: http://hylbom.com/family/notable-kin/notable-kin-ch-to-ga/dickens-elizabeth/ Archived 2014-12-09 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Early Block Island Families by G. Andrews Moriarity, VI THE DICKENS FAMILY. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 86, April 1932, pg. 174-177
  4. The Saturday Evening Post. Curtis Publishing Company. May 1960.
  5. Lord, Peter. "Not for Sale" Archived 2014-12-03 at archive.today. Providence Journal.
  6. Arthur Cleveland Bent (1926). Life Histories of North American Marsh Birds. Courier Dover Publications. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-0-486-21082-7.
  7. Kim Gaffett, "Elizabeth Dickens: a local hero, 100 years ago", The Block Island Times, 25 Dec 2012
  8. RINHews: The newsletter of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey. (1995) 2 (1), 4-5. "The Elizabeth Dickens bird collection"
  9. Stacy Baker, "The Birds of Block Island", The New York Times, 9 Mar 2012
  10. "Birding Takes Flight", Block Island: Close to Home, A World Away (published by the Block Island Tourism Council, 2009), p. 17
  11. Phyllis Méras; Katherine Imbrie (4 June 2012). Explorer's Guide Rhode Island (Sixth Edition) (Explorer's Complete). Countryman Press. pp. 345–. ISBN 978-1-58157-786-0.
  12. "Of birds and rolling grasslands on Block Island", The Nashua Telegraph, 16 Aug 1984 (accessed online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19840816&id=-6crAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9PwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4153,3476002 - 14 Aug 2013)
  13. Herbert S. Whitman, Elizabeth Dickens: The Bird Lady of Block Island (Cornwall, Connecticut: Still Pond Press) 1982.
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