85 Facts about The Natural History Society of Maryland

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Newsletter of Fall 2014

The Natural History Society of Maryland

My personal challenge for this issue was to come up with 85 facts in honor of the 85th anniversary of The Natural History Society of Maryland (NHSM). While by no means a comprehensive history, the list was created to provide new and old members alike with an overview of the NHSM. What struck me most was how integral the NHSM has been to the nature educa on of Maryland’s ci zens. In the 1930s, the NHSM members taught a free nature camp for Bal more City children, operated a natural history museum, and published dozens of natural science publica ons. And we are s ll here! We con nue to provide a community for budding naturalists to share their discoveries and knowledge of the natural world.

My greatest wish for the Society is that in 2029 we’ll ring in a century of the Natural History Society of Maryland in the state-of-the-art natural history museum that our state deserves! ~ Amy Young, Editor

Founders/History 1. On Maryland Day, March 25, 1929, a group of men interested in the natural sciences broke away from the

Maryland Academy of Sciences and formed the Natural History Society of Maryland. The Society’s Charter was officially signed on April 14th of that year.

2. Founding member Edmund ‘Doc’ Fladung was President of the Society from 1929 un l his death in 1956. In the Society’s 1946 Annual Report, he stated that “this Society is an important cultural adjunct to the life of our City and State, and I feel it is a patrio c duty to keep it func oning and preserve it for future genera ons.”

3. Gilbert Klingel, one of the founders of the NHSM, was one of the first to explore beneath the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. He built a ‘bentharium,’ a thick metal cylinder with a glass cover on one end, to observe inhabitants of the bay in their own environment. You can read about his adventures in his book The Bay.

4. Pioneers in the field of nature photography, the Society hosted the First Maryland Salon of Natural Science Photography in 1949. Entries came from 14 States, D.C., Canada, Hungary and Italy. A total of 111 prints were exhibited at the Bal more Museum of Art, as well as the Na onal Museum in Washington, D.C.

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The Natural History Society of Maryland

P.O. Box 18750 6908 Belair Road

Baltimore, MD 21206 410-882-5376

nhsm@marylandnature.org www.marylandnature.org

OFFICERS

Joe McSharry Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Carl (Bud) Herb Treasurer

Diane Allen Secretary

BOARD MEMBERS Ed Funk

Nick Spero Rick Stanley Amy Young

STAFF Herbert S. Harris, Jr.

Editor- Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society

Amy Young Newsletter Editor

5. The NHSM ran a natural history museum in Druid Hill Park from 1936 to the 1970s. In 1949, there were over 60,000 visitors.

6. Since its incep on, NHSM has had four headquarters located throughout Bal more: 605 St. Paul Street, 2101-2103 Bolton Street, 2643 North Charles Street, and 6908 Belair Road.

7. In 1935, women were granted associated membership in the Society and eight Bal more science teachers were made members.

8. The Society was divided into 13 departments: Mineralogy, Geology and Paleontology, Botany, Marine Life, Entomology, Herpetology, Ornithology and Mammalogy, Archaeology, Library, Photography, Publica on, Educa on, and Museum. Throughout its history, NHSM staff has primarily been volunteers.

9. The Society’s Field Day was obviously a fun event! Games included a bubblegum chewing contest, rolling pin contest, a one-hour nature hunt, and a ‘turtle derby’ led by all the Department Heads.

10. The Junior Division of NHSM was originally designed to train high school-aged boys in the scien fic work of the Society.

The junior members, who o en worked alongside the department curators, had their own lectures, field trips, nature quizzes, and debates.

11. By the 1940s, young women were ac ve Junior members. On April 10, 1943, Miss Eurath Hardy, Miss Olive Krastall, and Miss Mary Kurz won the debate “Resolved that the Starling and the English Sparrow are more beneficial than harmful”; they argued the Nega ve.

12. The Junior members also hosted an annual science compe on, the Nature Fair. The 1948 Fair par cipants, aged 12 to 18 years old, clearly had an impressive breadth of knowledge: “Mammalian Ecology of Mount Hope Area,” “Minerals of the Stony Run Sha ,” “The Rocket and Space Travel,” and “Wildflowers.”

13. Fostering children’s interest in Nature has always been a top priority for the Society. We used to have our own Boy Scout Explorer Troop (#126) that met at the Society’s Camp Kahagon off of Belair Road near the Big Gunpowder Falls.

14. Social bu erflies and wallflowers alike, NHSM members were invited to our annual Field Day and Christmas Dinner gatherings.

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15. The Society was the star of a documentary in 1949. ‘The Natural History Society of Maryland in Ac on’ provided a behind-the-scenes look at the work that went on in each of the Society’s 13 departments.

16. Several prominent Maryland nature organiza ons were offshoots of the NHSM, including the Maryland Ornithological Society and the Maryland Herpetological Society.

17. In 2006, over 50 volunteers took about six months to move all of the collec ons from our Charles Village rowhome to our new loca on. They accomplished this daun ng task with great enthusiasm. In this photo, Judy Harding packs specimens from the mammal and bird room.

18. The NHSM’s current headquarters—the Maryland Naturalist Center—in Overlea has its own rich history. Originally built in 1910 as the Town Hall, it has es to the Women’s Suffrage movement. In the winter of 1913, a group of women called ‘The Army of the Hudson’ marched from New York City to the Capital to bring a en on to vo ng rights for women; on February 23rd they were met by supporters at Overlea Town Hall.

19. The Society’s membership was at an all- me high in 1949 when it approached the 400 mark! Help us build a larger network of naturalists throughout Maryland and become a member today at www.marylandnature.org.

Collec ons

20. Our natural history specimens, as well as nature prints and photographs, were once on display throughout Bal more. In the mid-1930s, the NHSM held 26 exhibi ons at venues such as the Enoch Pra Library, Maryland Ins tute of Art, Maryland State Normal School (now Towson University), and the Y.M.C.A.

21. The bog turtle is a federally endangered species found in the eastern United States. In Maryland, its range is limited to Carroll, Bal more, Harford, and Cecil coun es. It is so secre ve that it was not documented in Maryland un l one was found on August 8, 1941 near Poplar Run in Bal more County. The NHSM has that first bog turtle in its collec on.

22. In the late 60s and early 70s the NHSM, under the guidance of the Curator of Herpetology, Herbert Harris, organized a distribu onal survey of the rep les and amphibians of Maryland. The results of that survey were reported in the Bulle n of the Maryland Herpetological Society in September of 1975. The specimens collected at that me remain in the NHSM’s permanent collec ons.

23. We have several jars of the skeletal remains of voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) taken from the pellets of Barn Owls (Tyto alba pra ncola). What makes them really interes ng is that they were collected between 1896 and 1906 from the owls that inhabited the Smithsonian Tower in Washington, D.C.

24. We have a shell collec on from the Garre s, railroad magnates of Garre County fame.

25. Natural history collec ons are an invaluable research tool, allowing scien sts to make comparisons over me. In the 1950s and 1960s, historic collec ons of Osprey and Bald Eagle eggs were evaluated to provide baseline informa on on those species’ eggs prior to the widespread use of pes cides like DDT. The Society has a number of bird eggs, including sets collected by Ralph Jackson on the lower Eastern Shore during the 1920s.

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26. Chances are if you’ve visited the Maryland Naturalist Center, you’ve spent me eyeing the Joseph Schofield Bird Collec on. Housed in a Victorian display cabinet, it contains 46 mounted bird specimens that were collected in Maryland in 1850, including our favorite avian neighbor, the Chimney Swi (see #63).

27. The oldest fossils in our collec ons are stromatolites from western Maryland. These were formed by the growth of cyanobacteria during the late Cambrian over 500 million years ago.

28. The most recent addi ons to our fossil collec on are Eurypterids from West Virginia near the Maryland border. These specimens are 380 to 410 million years old.

29. Maryland’s official state fossil is an ex nct snail named Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae. It lived in the oceans that flooded the area that is now the Chesapeake Bay during the Miocene epoch (5 to 23 million years ago). The NHSM has several of these specimens in its collec on.

30. Cycad fossils are rela vely rare in Maryland, but we have a nice specimen that was found off of Route 1 between Bal more and Laurel. It is believed to be from the early Cretaceous Era (approx. 120 million years ago). Cycads s ll grow today.

31. Not everything is what it seems in our collec ons! The black rat snake on display in our mee ng room is actually a plaster model made by T. Milton Oler, Jr. He was the curator of the Museum at Druid Hill Park.

32. 14,000: the number of books and pamphlets once shelved in the NHSM’s library!

33. The oldest book in our collec on is possibly from George Shaw’s 14-volume series on Natural History. We have the insect volumes published in 1806.

34. Wilson ‘Snowflake’ Bentley became the first person to photograph a snowflake (snow crystal) in 1885. He did it by adap ng a microscope to a bellows camera. His photomicrographs of snow crystals were sold around the world and the NHSM has a collec on of them on lantern slides.

35. Over 10,000 moths and bu erflies were donated to the NHSM from Bob Bryant, a local moth expert who spent 20 years working on a family-by-family checklist of the macro-moths of Maryland.

36. William B. Marye was a noted authority on Maryland history, topography and archaeology. One of his main interests was researching place names across the state. Our archaeology collec on includes a drawer

of Marye’s arrowheads.

37. You never know what you might find in your backyard. We have an axe-head that was unearthed in Gardenville, Bal more, Maryland.

38. The NHSM mineral collec on is a comprehensive collec on represen ng the period from about 1900 to 1960. Our collec on of Jones Falls minerals is unusual because Jones Falls was one of America’s oldest collec ng sites, with a descrip on of minerals from Jones Falls first published in 1811.

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39. In 1939, a young Harold Levey was searching for snakes in the Pimlico area with other members of the Natural History Society of Maryland. He was not really that interested in snakes, so he spent his me picking up rocks. He had one in par cular that looked interes ng: a piece of quartzite that had a small sec on of a black mineral s cking out of it. When he got home, he cracked it open and found a beau ful tourmaline crystal inside. It was the beginning of a life-long love affair with minerals. Today that tourmaline crystal is in the NHSM mineral collec on.

40. The Black Drum (Pogonias cromis) eats oysters, mussels, clams, and other shellfish. It’s able to do this because of its powerful jaws and pharyngeal teeth that crush the hard, protec ve shells. We not only have a specimen of a modern day black drum grinding plate, but also individual teeth from a specimen from the Miocene (5 to 20 million years ago).

41. The NHSM has a collec on of Florida tree snails that were collected and donated by Howard Kelly, one of the founding physicians of the Johns Hopkins Medical School (see #47). Many of these species no longer exist due to development and over-collec ng.

42. At one point we possessed the horse skull of ‘Pine Knot,’ a horse long used in Bal more City horse-cars. There were plans in the 1970s to donate the specimen to the Bal more Streetcar Museum.

43. More skulls! According to the speech that accompanied the Society’s film, the Geology department contained two whale skulls, “one weighing 81 lbs., which must have belonged to a monster whale; the other weighing 18 lbs., which is much smaller than any of our present-known whales.”

44. A child’s nature discoveries can lead to a life me of nature explora on and study. The NHSM plans to build a Kid’s Corner at the Maryland Naturalist Center to honor these invaluable collec ons.

Publica ons 45. Herbert Harris has been publishing the Bulle n of the Maryland Herpetological Society (the “Herp Bulle n”)

since 1964. That’s 50 years this year!

46. The Maryland Naturalist, another NHSM publica on, began as a monthly bulle n about the Society’s research work in 1930. Today, it is a peer-reviewed journal focused on natural history research in the mid-Atlan c region. Its contributors are not only NHSM members, but researchers and individuals from around the region.

47. In 1936, the NHSM published ‘Snakes of Maryland’ by Howard A. Kelly, M.D. The text was accompanied by many beau ful color plates of snakes. A noted physician and surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medical School, Dr. Kelly had a strong interest in the natural world and served on the Society’s Board of Trustees un l his death in 1943.

48. Earlier in its history, the NHSM had its own Publica on Department that produced educa onal materials ranging in price from 7 cents to $1.50! Other tles available in the 1940s included ‘Minerals of Maryland,’ ‘Familiar Bu erflies of Maryland,’ ‘Birds of Bal more and Vicinity,’ and ‘Fuertes Bird Prints.’

49. NHSM used to have staff ar sts that illustrated many of the Society’s publica ons. This beau ful drawing of a Cecropia moth was done by Edgar Gretsky, who worked for NHSM from the 1930s to 1950s.

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50. Two new taxa have been proposed in the serial publica ons of the NHSM. In 1935, Elra Palmer proposed the name Libinia marylandicus for a fossil oxyrhynchid crab found by him in Maryland sediments of Miocene age. In 1958, Ralph W. Jackson described the snail Succinea crisfieldi from along the Chesapeake Bay at Crisfield.

51. Another notable scien fic finding a ributed to the Society’s publica ons: a subspecies of the Arizona Ridge-nosed ra lesnake, first described in the Bulle n of the Herpetological Society, was the first poisonous snake placed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Threatened and Endangered Species list.

52. A series of 13 ‘Maryland Nature Leaflets’ were designed to teach middle to high school students about many aspects of the state’s natural history. Topics included ‘Maryland Maples,’ ‘Winter Birds in Maryland,’ ‘Maryland Tree Frogs,’ and ‘Queer Fishes of the Chesapeake.’

53. Our publica ons can also teach you li le known facts from the field. Did you know that brown sugar, molasses, and stale beer can be used to a ract moths?

54. How many birds do you think you can iden fy in your local park? In 1940, a naturalist iden fied 91 bird species around Herring Run Park. His results were published in the Bulle n of the Natural History Society of Maryland with the humble reminder that “there can be found, in a small limited region, enough material with which to work on indefinitely, so as to eventually compile and obtain valuable informa on on migratory and nes ng birds in one’s own backyard.”

Programs 55. In the early years, field work was considered the most important part of the Society’s ac vi es. Society

members par cipated in expedi ons to Calvert Cliffs and sent back reports to The Sun paper. Visit our display cases to view a slab embedded with fossil snails (Turritella mortoni) that was collected on one such trip.

56. Star ng in 1936, NHSM offered a three week summer nature school that was free to children living in Bal more City. Ac vi es included the art of snake-handling, iden fying birds ‘on the wing,’ chasing bu erflies, and seeking out minerals at Bare Hill.

57. Talk about priceless nature experiences for young adults. The 1963 summer workshop included field trips to St Mary’s River (fossils), Cunningham Falls State Park (hemlock forest habitat), Ocean City ( dal marshes and shore birds), and Bal more County (plant and animal iden fica on in three different habitats). All of this for $25!

58. Can you answer this ques on from a summer nature school quiz?

59. In 1955-1956, the Society hosted monthly Laboratory Evenings to encourage its members to get involved with taking care of the collec ons and conduc ng research. Par cipants could spend 90 minutes working in the Bird, Plant, Insect, Rep le, Mineral, and Fossil departments.

60. For several decades, NHSM led “Spring Migra on Nature Walks” at Cylburn Arboretum. Edith Conley, a NHSM volunteer, was co-leader of these walks from 1964-1992, and reportedly showed up ‘rain or shine’ to share her love of birds.

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61. Conserva on has always been an essen al part of the NHSM. It should come as no surprise that we sponsored an “Endangered Species Act 1973—What It Means To You” lecture in the 1970s.

62. Our program offerings have greatly expanded since we created our Meetup page (www.meetup.com/marylandnature). Within the past four years, we’ve offered hundreds of programs and connected with over 800 nature enthusiasts throughout the greater Bal more-D.C. region.

63. Since 2012, we’ve been hos ng a ‘Chimney Swi Watch’ in conjunc on with the Bal more Bird Club at our headquarters in Overlea. We have observed over 2600 Chimney Swi s on a single night roos ng in a chimney across the street as part of these birds’ migratory voyage to South America.

64. Did you know that the NHSM and Bal more County Master Gardeners are conduc ng a plant inventory of the Bal more County Center for Maryland Agricultural and Farm Park? In conjunc on with this project, NHSM offers informal plant iden fica on workshops (twice a month) and frequent field trips to learn how to collect plant specimens.

65. This summer we offered naturalist-led canoe trips on Dundee Creek for the first me. The canoes were donated by naturalist Charlie S ne.

66. Volunteers across the state have submi ed over 33,000 rep le and amphibian sigh ngs to the Maryland Amphibian and Rep le Atlas (MARA) project, a five-year survey jointly coordinated by the Society and the MD Department of Natural Resources. The Atlas will be published in book form by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 2016.

67. Another successful NHSM ci zen science project has been the annual Cricket Crawl—an evening sound census of crickets and katydids, which will help scien sts to document these o en, overlooked insects’ distribu on. It is a collabora ve partnership of the NHSM, the Audubon Naturalist Society, the U.S. Geological Survey and DiscoverLife.org.

68. Charlie and Linda Davis started the Maryland Community Naturalist Network (MCNN) in 2013. The goal: a naturalist in every neighborhood. We are currently training naturalists from 20 Bal more neighborhoods, several of whom have begun to develop and offer programs to children in their neighborhoods.

Notable Members 69. Elra Palmer was William Donald Schaeffer’s science teacher at City College; he would eventually become Science Supervisor for Bal more City Public Schools. Palmer was Chairman of the NHSM’s Board of Trustees and served as Associate Curator of the Geology and Paleontology department.

70. C. Haven Kolb, Jr. authored the standard High School Biology Green Version textbook from the 1960s. His NHSM roles included librarian, assistant curator of Ornithology, nature school instructor, and creator of the NHSM newsle er News and Views.

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71. Richard E. Stearns served as curator of the Society’s Department of Archeology for over 30 years. A pioneer in Maryland archeology, his NHSM publica ons include “Conowingo: An archaeological account” (The Natural History Society of Maryland Bulle n, 1938) and Some Indian Village Sites of Tidewater Maryland (Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Maryland, 1943).

72. Interna onally-known ichthyologist Romeo Mansue was a member of NHSM’s Junior Division. Founder and first editor of the journal Chesapeake Science (now Estuaries), Mansue also wrote nature essays for the Maryland Naturalist and illustrated many of the Society’s Maryland Nature leaflets. The Mansue Library at the Chesapeake Biological Lab (University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science) is named a er him.

73. In 1991, Arnold ‘Butch’ Norden, Society member and former editor of the Maryland Naturalist, and his family discovered the six-foot thigh bone of an adult sauropod dinosaur near Laurel. Their discovery was honored by a special postal cancella on presented by the Rockville-Gaithersburg Stamp Club.

74. Well-known philanthropist, Aaron Straus, was a trustee as well as a benefactor of the NHSM. His dona on allowed the Society to purchase its building on Bolton Street in 1942. Thanks to his generosity, the subsequent sale of the Bolton Street and Charles Street proper es have, in turn, allowed us to pay off one-third of the mortgage on our current property in Overlea 65 years later.

75. Jean Worthley, host of Maryland Public Television’s nature educa onal show “The Hodgepodge Lodge” from 1970 to 1977, is a long me NHSM member and supporter. Her late husband, Dr. Elmer Worthley, was an accomplished botanist and member of NHSM for 37 years; a mountain in Antarc ca, a Peruvian moss, and a lichen-ea ng beetle are all named in his honor.

76. All of our volunteers! They have truly kept the Society opera ng for 85 years. In 2012, we calculated that 56 volunteers donated 3,467 hours to NHSM! Thank you!

77. All of our volunteers! Yes, we’ve repeated ourselves for drama c effect. The majority of our programs are designed and led by volunteers not staff! Our dedicated volunteers also created the 1200 square foot mul -purpose room where many of our programs are held. The transforma on is remarkable compared to what our headquarters looked like when we first moved in!

Importance of the Society

78. Society members were involved with the crea on of the ‘Municipal Aquarium.’ On the occasion of the Society’s 10th anniversary, President Fladung noted that “prior to the advent of the Society, these educa onal advantages did not exist in Bal more. We had no aquarium, no school service, no popular nature publica ons, no conserva on organiza on, no nature courses, no Museum wholly devoted to [natural history].”

79. The closure of the natural history museum in Druid Hill Park in the 1970s was a considerable setback to the preserva on of Maryland’s natural resources. Today, Maryland is one of only several states that lacks a state natural history museum.

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80. Some of Maryland’s oldest and most valuable natural history collec ons have le the State. The baleen whale skeleton that was the main exhibit at the Society’s natural history museum now resides at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. This skeleton is men oned in the Transac ons of the Maryland Academy of Sciences, 1888.

81. Other scien fic collec ons have met worse fates: abandoned, dispersed, and/or destroyed because the state lacks an archival-quality collec ons facility. The Society is working hard to reverse this trend.

82. The Maryland Naturalist Center, the Society’s headquarters, currently has a public space that serves as both mee ng and program space. This winter our volunteers will be fixing up another room so that we can turn the current public space into a naturalist center with exhibits and hands-on collec ons.

83. In partnership with Blue Water Bal more, we will be implemen ng more sustainable prac ces onsite, as well as improving our building’s curb appeal. Plans are in the works to reduce the stormwater runoff on our property in 2015.

84. It is more important than ever to get children interested in and excited about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). One important part of our mission is to inspire youth to pursue careers in the natural sciences. Are we off to a good start? See number 85 for the answer.

85. We are successfully reaching future naturalists: “My 12 year old daughter, who is developing into a very serious naturalist, has had the rare opportunity to be treated like a naturalist by other naturalists rather than as a child. In the [NHSM] programs she has been able to find a ‘peer group’ in which the only requirements for membership are passion, stamina, curiosity, a good a tude and a sharp eye.”

Now that you’ve glimpsed our past, just imagine what the Natural History Society of Maryland can do with your addi onal support! As a volunteer-based, non-profit organiza on, we rely on fundraising to meet all of our financial obliga ons. Funds are always needed to support our goals of expanding programming, hiring a director, and establishing a state natural history museum. Make your tax-deduc ble dona on by:

♦ visi ng www.marylandnature.org/donate or

♦ mailing a check to: The Natural History Society of Maryland, P.O. Box 18750, 6908 Belair Road, Bal more, MD 21206-0750.

Visit us on the web www.marylandnature.org

Sign up for our programs on Meetup www.meetup.com/marylandnature

Call us at 410.882.5376

Email us at nhsm@marylandnature.org

The Natural History Society of Maryland, Inc. is

a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Your member-

ship may be fully deductible. Check with IRS

publication 526, Charitable Contributions.

The Natural History Society of Maryland P.O. Box 18750 6908 Belair Road Baltimore, MD 21206 –0750

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