(Oneida, NY – June 2015) Dr. Norman K. Dann, historian and educator, will discuss the subject of his latest book, the short-lived ornithologist and taxidermist Greene Smith, at Oneida Public Library on Tuesday June 16 at 7 p.m.
Greene Smith, born in 1842 in Peterboro, was the son of the famous landowner, politician and Abolitionist Gerrit Smith. Unlike his famous father, he eschewed the public life to devote himself to the study of birds and the vanishing wildlife of America.
From an early age, he collected birds, nests and eggs. As an adult, he lectured on ornithology at Cornell University and served as president of various state and national sportsmen’s organizations. His great triumph was the design and building of the “Ornithon” or Bird House, a three-storey museum on his father’s Peterboro estate, to house his huge collection of stuffed birds and artifacts.
It was in the Bird House that Smith died at the age of 38 years. His widow donated his collection of more than 2,000 specimens to Cornell, Colgate and Harvard universities to form the basis of their ornithological collections. The Bird House collapsed in on itself in 1975.
For his recent biography, “Greene Smith and the WildLife,” Dann researched family letters, military records, Greene’s ornithological writings and records about the Bird House. He uncovered not only Smith the scientist but also Smith the troubled son of a famous father, whose unhappy childhood led to a “wild” manhood of drink and misadventure that helped to bring him to an early grave.
Dann, professor emeritus of Morrisville State College, is the author of several works on Gerrit Smith, his family and the Abolitionist and reform movements that absorbed his long life, including “Cousins of Reform: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Gerrit Smith” (2012), “Whatever It Takes: The Antislavery Movement and the Tactics of Gerrit Smith” (2011), “Practical Dreamer: A Biography of Gerrit Smith” (2009) and “When We Get to Heaven: Runaway Slaves on the Road to Peterboro” (2008).
Dann is also a founder and member of the Cabinet of Freedom for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro, a steward of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and an active member of Peterboro Area Historical Society, the Peterboro Civil War Weekend Committee and the Smithfield Community Association.
Dann’s book talk on June 16 is free and open to the public. Copies of his book “Greene Smith and the WildLife” will be available for sale and signing by the author.
For more information, stop by the Oneida Library, 220 Broad St., or call 363-3050.