Hello, MOUNet: Below is a message sent by Sue Leaf, who wrote the biography of Thomas Roberts, the first director of the Bell Museum, outlining the theft of the museum's stuffed passenger pigeon (Sue tried to send this herself, but it wouldn't work). MOUNetters will probably be interested, because of the recent discussion about passenger pigeons and speculation about the Bell's loss of its bird. Thank you, Val Cunningham MOU member
>> From: Susan Leaf <[email protected]> >> Subject: stolen passenger pigeons >> Date: September 15, 2014 6:51:31 PM CDT >> To: [email protected] >> >> There is a letter date Dec. 15, 1943 from Roberts to James Ford Bell in the >> U of M Archives in which Roberts tells him regretfully of the theft of the >> display. The display case was positioned on the mezzanine in the museum. The >> theft took place either on a Friday night or on the following Saturday, >> probably either Dec. 3 or Dec. 10. Roberts saw the display at 5:00 p.m. >> Friday. At 10:30 the next morning, he found out they were gone. The crime >> rattled the museum staff, because either it was an inside job-- someone had >> had a key, and they kept close track of their keys; or, the their had been >> very bold and very quick and had taken the birds when the museum was open >> and people roamed the building. >> >> The pigeons had been donated by Charles Deere Velie, a long-time patient of >> Roberts. He might have shot them himself. He was an avid hunter. Or, he >> could very likely have had them mounted and they were taken by a friend. >> >> They were not recovered in Roberts' lifetime (by 1946) and I believe they >> were never found, given the interest of the present Bell staff in the story. ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
