A Love Affair with Birds: The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts

Synopsis

The father of Minnesota ornithology, whose life story opens a window on a lost world of nature and conservation in the state&’s early days Imagine a Minneapolis so small that, on calm days, the roar of St. Anthony Falls could be heard in town, a time when passenger pigeons roosted in neighborhood oak trees. Now picture a dapper professor conducting his ornithology class (the university&’s first) by streetcar to Lake Harriet for a morning of bird-watching. The students were mostly young women—in sunhats, sailor tops, and long skirts, with binoculars strung around their necks. The professor was Thomas Sadler Roberts (1858–1946), a doctor for three decades, a bird lover virtually from birth, the father of Minnesota ornithology, and the man who, perhaps more than any other, promoted the study of the state&’s natural history. A Love Affair with Birds is the first full biography of this key figure in Minnesota&’s past.Roberts came to Minnesota as a boy and began keeping detailed accounts of Minneapolis&’s birds. These journals, which became the basis for his landmark work The Birds of Minnesota, also inform this book, affording a view of the state&’s rich avian life in its early days—and of a young man whose passion for birds and practice of medicine in a young Minneapolis eventually dovetailed in his launching of the beloved Bell Museum of Natural History.Bird enthusiast, doctor, author, curator, educator, conservationist: every chapter in Roberts&’s life is also a chapter in the state&’s history, and in his story acclaimed author Sue Leaf—an avid bird enthusiast and nature lover herself—captures a true Minnesota character and his time.

Copyright:

2013

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9780816688821

Related ISBNs:

9780816675647

Publisher:

University of Minnesota Press

Date of Addition:

03/18/25

Copyrighted By:

Sue Leaf

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Animals, Biographies and Memoirs, Outdoors and Nature

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.