Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
23 March 1821
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, 23 March 1821. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481.
Additional Source Text:
Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) deposited a collection of "Sundry small Birds, Anatomical preparations" and "2 [drawings of] Sand Pipers" on 23 March 1821, as recorded in the Peale Museum Accessions Book (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481). One of the drawings, of a male specimen collected at Engineer Cantonment on the Missouri River, on 5 May 1820, is extant in the American Philosophical Society Library (Mss.B.P.31.15d).
Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857) described this species under the name "Pectoral Sandpiper / Tringa pectoralis" in his continuation of American Ornithology vol. 4 (1833, Pl. 23). Bonaparte (1833: 43) cited "Philadelphia Museum" without giving a specimen number. / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/A4C5HISG… (text) / https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AFKPEJIASN54OC8L/pages/AC6U5BWQ… (plate)
Notes:
Here, for simplicity, we state that Titian R. Peale (1799-1885) deposited the Long Expedition specimens at Peale's Museum. However, it should be noted that the specimens did not belong to Titian, and were not his to give away. Officially, they were the property of the United States government, and as such were formally deposited by Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864), who led the government-sponsored expedition. The Peale Museum Accessions Book, pp. 112-113 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481) contains an "Invoice of Zoological Specimens and Drawings prepared by Titian Peale, Assistant Naturalist for the Exploring Expedition, and deposited in the Philadelphia Museum by Majr. S. H. Long, Maj. U.S. Engr. pursuant to instructions of the Secretary of War." At the conclusion of the invoice, "Rubens Peale [1784-1865], manager" signed the following statement: "Received, Philadelphia Museum, March 23d. 1821. of Majr. S. H. Long, the several articles, specified in the above Invoice, as a deposit for safe keeping, preservation and Exhibition; and I hereby promise, as agent for the Institution to hold the said articles subject to the orders of the War Department, thru the said Maj. Long." (HSP, coll. 0481)
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Pectoral Sandpiper
Current Scientific Name
Scolopacidae | Calidris melanotos
