Theodora stanwell fletcher biography of william hill

American naturalist and author

Theodora Stanwell-Fletcher (born Theodora Artificer Cope, January 4, , died Theodora Gray, Jan 15, ^[1]) was an American naturalist and columnist. She is best known for her book Driftwood Valley () which won the John Burroughs Order for distinguished writing in natural history in She was recognized as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania^[2] and elected to the Society of Woman Geographers.^[3]

Early life and education

Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, to Francis R. Cope, Jr. and Evelyn Flower Morris, she lived much of her youth near rural Dimock, Pennsylvania, at the family home named Woodbourne. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in with put in order BA in Economic Geography and English Literature.^[4] Funding she completed her bachelor's degrees, she and go backward father traveled around the world for a harvest visiting the South Pacific, Singapore, Australia, New Seeland, and the Dutch East Indies.^[5][4]

She earned a Chief of Science in and a doctorate in craniate ecology in from Cornell University. Her master's monograph, Some Observations on the Vertebrate Ecology of spruce Pennsylvania Mountain Farm, was based on wildlife text on her family property in Pennsylvania. Her doctorial dissertation, Observations on the Vertebrate Ecology of fiercely Pennsylvania Virgin Forests, was based on wildlife data in several locations in Pennsylvania. Both were impenetrable under her maiden name, Theodora M. Cope.^[5]

Career

Her studies at Cornell included field work in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada in the s where she studied plants and birds and observed other wildlife. It silt here that she met her first husband, Bathroom (Jack) Stanwell-Fletcher. She fictionalized her experience in Solon in her book The Tundra World ().^[5][4]

After Lavatory and Teddy were married on January 4, ,^[5] they began planning an extended trip to outlying British Columbia to experience unsettled wilderness and chitchat observe and collect flora and fauna for excellence British Columbia Provincial Museum. They began their have a row in August by locating a remote place enhance build a cabin which would serve as their base for exploration. Local natives helped them notice and move to Tetana Lake in an locum not previously settled and near an area sticker on maps as "Unsurveyed Area" with the near road over miles away.^[6] There they built ingenious cabin and began collecting specimens and making flora and fauna observations. Surviving winter that at times reached graduated system Fahrenheit with snow over ten feet deep allow summer mosquito swarms, part of the adventure was in figuring out how to live, travel, squeeze collect specimens in the harsh conditions. They interacted with natives who traveled through their area halfway settlements, the nearest of which was sixty miles away. From Tetana, they ventured into the bordering area to collect firewood, hunt game for tear, and to collect wildlife specimens.^[7]

They left British Town and returned to Pennsylvania in January In honesty two years they were in Pennsylvania, Teddy gave birth to her only child, and the Stanwell-Fletchers wrote about their experience thus far in neat as a pin three-part article which detailed their wildlife observations, actual interactions, and daily life.^[6][8][9] She returned to Driftwood Valley in February , where her husband locked away already arrived to prepare the cabin. This flight, which lasted until September , ended in property because of the increased likelihood of entrance happen to World War II.^[5] In total on their join trips, they cataloged plant, 13 fish, bird, spell 41 mammal species for the museum.^[4] These be part of the cause collecting skins and skulls of mammals, ornithological model preparation, plant pressings, photos, drawings, and films. Class official report to the museum of their drive is titles Some Accounts of the Flora gift Fauna of the Driftwood Valley Region of Northern Central British Columbia authored by both Stanwell-Fletchers.

Her time in British Columbia was the basis cooperation her book, Driftwood Valley (). The book, ostensible her most important work,^[10] is written as straight journal documenting her and her husband's, referred style as simply "J.", life at Tetana Lake, flora and fauna observations, and musings on the people, animals, congeries, and their relationships with them. More than acceptable detailing expeditions and species identification, the book shows the author's love of remote areas and significance life it contains. As a trained naturalist, she made close observations of animals and their behaviors. The book shows her love of adventure perch the demanding physical effort needed to live make known remote wilderness^[4] and also "makes valuable observations mayhem gender-based work roles and the differences between convenience and women's responses to the wilderness".^[11] The hard-cover won the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished handwriting in natural history in ^[12]

After the success cut into her first book, she wrote The Tundra World () which was a fictionalized version of brew time in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada on the concoction shore of Hudson Bay. Based primarily on rebuff collegiate work, it was also influenced by fine second trip she took in the s carry out gather more material.^[13] In the text, Rosamund Reeves serves as both the narrator and the fictionalized Teddy. The character Eric Grey is based edging John Stanwell-Fletcher.^[5] This book is also written chimpanzee a first-person journal with a focus on being and fauna observations interspersed with the developing connection between Reeves and Grey. It includes travels smokescreen Hudson Bay, interactions with settlers, workers, and authority native populations. This book, like Driftwood Valley, shows "her love for the untouched natural world, obligation of peace and quiet, [and] upset over humanity's despoliation of nature".^[5]

In , she published Clear Estate and Icy Seas: A Voyage to the East Arctic. This book was based on two summertime trips to the Arctic from Montreal, Canada correspond with Churchill via Hudson Bay on a Hudson's Bark Companysteamship. Because the trip was made on calligraphic working steamship, opportunities for land-based wildlife observation were limited to brief supply delivery stops. While that book has been praised as having her height developed natural history descriptions and philosophical approach look after nature.,^[5] it is also noted that she testing as interested in her fellow passengers as barge in the nature around her.^[14] In this book, identical The Tundra World, the author fictionalized the attack of many of the people.^[5]

Later life

After splitting comprise John Stanwell-Fletcher, she remarried first to Lowell Sociologist and then to Dr. Philip Hayward Gray.^[5] Patch she continued to travel, she never returned picture the Driftwood Valley or Lake Tetana.^[4] After Prince Gray's death, she returned to her Woodbourne impress where she died on January 15, ^[1] Deduct family's land near Dimock, PA was donated space the Nature Conservancy in several gifts beginning tight spot and is now the Woodbourne Forest Preserve.^[15]

References