Description: Drawing of herons alighting on piles in Okanogen County, Washington, by William L. Dawson. This pen-and-ink sketch of two herons includes the handwritten caption "Herons alighting on piles (see text)." Dawson was an ornithologist and author of "The Birds of Ohio" (Columbus: Wheaton Publishing Company, 1903); "Birds of Washington" (Seattle: The Occidental Publishing Col, 1909), and "The Birds of California" ( San Diego: South Moulton Co., 1923, 4 vol.). Dawson was an alumnus of Oberlin College (1897, 1903) and Oberlin Theological Seminary (1899). He was an ordained minister who served as pastor of North Church, Columbus, Ohio, from 1900 to 1902. Circa 1904 he moved to Washington State, and later moved to California (1911?), where he was a co-founder and the director of the International Museum of Comparative Oology, Santa Barbara (now the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History). Dawson founded Wheaton Publishing Co. (Columbus), Occidental Publishing Co. (Seattle), and Birds of California Publishing Company (Santa Barbara). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06067
Subjects: Dawson, William Leon, 1873-1928; Ornithologists; Ornithological illustration; Natural history illustration
Places: Okanogen County (Washington)
 

Description: A sketchbook titled "Plant Descriptions and Field-Notes. Season of '87," arranged by William Werthner of Central High School in Dayton, Ohio, and kept by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The volume contains forms for recording and sketching buds, trees, flowers, and field notes including experiments, distribution of seed, color and fragrance, cross-fertilization, etc. An introductory "Suggestions" section offers recommendations of how and why to study botany, and many pages include poems and quotes from notable figures about the value and beauty of nature. Notes are presumed to have been written by Dunbar while he was a high school student at Central High School. This item was part of Paul Laurence Dunbar's personal library at the time of his death in 1906. Paul Laurence Dunbar, the son of formerly enslaved parents, was one of the first African Americans in the United States to gain prominence as a poet. He was a prolific writer of dialect poems, standard English poems, short stories, novels, librettos, plays, songs and essays. A native of Dayton, Dunbar attended high school with Wilbur and Orville Wright. His early literary work won the praise of notable literary and cultural figures such as James Whitcomb Riley, Frederick Douglass, and William Dean Howells. Dunbar travelled in the United States and to Europe to give readings of his work, but a worsening case of tuberculosis eventually limited his travels. He spent his last years living with his mother in Dayton, where he died in 1906 at the age of 33. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: H89725_001
Subjects: Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 1872-1906; Botanical illustration; Plants; Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Students -- Ohio;
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)