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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-family:"Times",serif"><font size="2"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Jorge,<span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">As Andy said, the answer to this question depends on whether you
mean the oldest individual specimens, or the oldest collections, or whether you
mean the first bird specimens collected in what is now the US but might be in
other museums. Just one example—by </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">1828 there were birds from North America in the
Museo di Storia Naturale (Florence).<span style="color:black"><span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">There are many specimens of birds from what is now the United
States in European museums, and records of specimens that are no longer extant.
The catalog of the Tradescant Museum in London </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span>for example records “A black bird with red
shoulders and pinions, from Virginia.” There is no date of collection, but the catalog
(<i>Musaeum Tradescantium</i>) was published in 1656.<span style="color:black"><span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Early
bird collectors working in what is now the US included John Bartram (1699-1777),
who collected in Pennsylvania and Alexander Wilson (1766-1813). See:<span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Halley,
Matthew R. 2022. Rediscovery of the holotype of the American Goshawk, Accipiter
gentilis atricapillus (Wilson, 1812), and a commentary about Alexander Wilson’s
contributions to the Peale Museum. <i>Proceedings of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia</i> 167(1):233-240<span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Prince
et al. 2003. Stuffing Birds, Pressing Plants, Shaping Knowledge: Natural
History in North America, 1730-1860. <i>Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society</i>, new series, 93(4):1-113).<span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">The</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-1806) returned with many
bird specimens, most (or all?) of which were sent to the went to Peale Museum
in Philadelphia, where they were exhibited. When the Peale Museum later closed,
the specimens were purchased by P.T. Barnum for his museum in New York, and
most were destroyed in the two disastrous fires that wiped out the Barnum museum.<span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Burns
emphasized the collecting by Peale, who also exchanged specimens with European museums,
and exhibited a large collection by 1805 that included most of the then-known birds
of the Eastern us (Burns, F.L. 1932. Charles W. and Titian R. Peale and the
Ornithological Section of the Old Philadelphia Museum. The Wilson Bulletin 44(1):23-35.).<span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Genoways and Ratcliffe reported in detail on the Stephen
Long Expedition of 1819-20, which included Thomas Say and Titian Peale (who
made bird collections) (2008. Engineer Cantonment, Missouri Territory, 1819-1820:
America’s first biodiversity inventory. Great Plains Research 18:3-31).<span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">If you are looking for the oldest bird specimens from the US
that are in US collections, I recommend starting with the Academy of Natural
Sciences in Philadelphia, <a href="https://ansp.org/research/systematics-evolution/ornithology/ornithology-collections/" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">https://ansp.org/research/systematics-evolution/ornithology/ornithology-collections/</a><span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">One point about early bird collecting to keep
in mind is that prior to around 1820 birds were prepared as taxidermy mounts,
not as study specimens, and taxidermy mounts are much more difficult to
maintain long-term than study specimens.<span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times",serif"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">—John</span></font><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span></span></span></p>





</div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></span></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">John E. Simmons<br>Writer and Museum Consultant</span></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Museologica<br><i>and</i><br>Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia<br>Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima</span></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jan 29, 2024 at 9:28 AM Jorge A. Santiago-Blay <<a href="mailto:blayjorge@gmail.com">blayjorge@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div style="border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:12pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Hello:</div><div style="border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:12pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div style="border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:medium;line-height:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:12pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">What are the oldest bird collections in the USA, particularly in the state of Pennsylvania? More broadly, how could anyone know the answer to this question?</span></div><div style="border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:medium;line-height:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:12pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><br></span></div><div style="border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:medium;line-height:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:12pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Sincerely,</span></div><div style="border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:medium;line-height:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:12pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><br></span></div><div style="border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:medium;line-height:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:12pt;line-height:inherit;font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Jorge</span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br>
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