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Crawford H. Greenewalt papers
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Held at: Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia [Contact Us]1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA, 19103
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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Crawford Hallock Greenewalt (1902-1993) was a chemical engineer and the President of the DuPont Company from 1948 to 1962. He had a passion for the natural sciences, and combined his love of ornithology with photography. He was especially known for his high speed photographs of hummingbirds. His ornithological interests included bird songs, the radiance of hummingbird feathers and the evolution of shapes and sizes of birds in relation to their flight abilities.
Born August 16, 1902 in Cummington, Massachusetts, Crawford H. Greenewalt was the son of Frank Lindsay and Mary Elizabeth Hallock Greenewalt. He graduated from William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia and earned a BS in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1922.
Immediately after graduating from MIT, Greenewalt began a life long career with the DuPont Company. He began working as a control chemist in the Philadelphia Works of the Paint, Lacquer and Heavy Chemicals Department, moved to Central Research and Development Department and was assigned to the Experimental Station, of which he became, in 1939, the assistant director. In January of 1942, he was elected director of the DuPont Company.
During World War II, the DuPont Company was recruited by General Leslie R. Groves (1896-1970) to participate in the war effort. Greenewalt was on the Reviewing Committee, which was charged with investigating the atomic bomb. Greenewalt “was technical director of the DuPont plutonium plant at Hansford, Washington … and witnessed the first controlled atomic reaction at the University of Chicago stadium,” ( Auk). His involvement with the Manhattan Project required him to work as a liaison between the University of Chicago physicists, such as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi, and the DuPont engineers and construction crews.
In 1945, he became the assistant director of the Development Department, and, later that year, the Assistant General Manger of the Pigments Department. Greenewalt was elected as Vice President of the DuPont Company on May 19, 1947 and as President of the DuPont Company on January 19, 1948. He served as president from 1948 to 1962. He served as a board chairman from 1962 to 1967 and as chairman of the Finance Committee from 1962 to 1973. Greenewalt “played major roles in the development of nylon and in the birth of DuPont’s atomic energy program,” (MIT). He is credited with “build[ing] basic research strength, making [DuPont] one of the strongest science-based companies in the world,” (MIT).
In addition to his success at DuPont, Greenewalt was also highly successful in the fields of ornithology and photography. Greenewalt photographed his first hummingbird in 1953 in Delaware. In his book, Hummingbirds, he writes; "I had read of the hummingbird's extremely rapid wing beat and was interested primarily in seeing whether a technique I had developed for photographing small birds in flight would produce satisfactory results with these darting acrobats. To my surprise, wing action was adequately 'stopped' and the pictures were charming and much admired. So it was I caught hummingbird fever," (Greenewalt, p. ix). According to Academy News, Greenewalt, “unraveled secrets of song production by birds, of the structural basis of vivid hummingbird colors, of the evolution of shapes and sizes of birds in relation to their flight abilities, particularly the understanding of the energy requirements of the rapid movements of a hummingbird’s wings which appear to most as a hazy blur,” ( Academy News).
Greenewalt wrote in his book, Bird song: Acoustics and Physiology, "Since I cannot qualify as an ornithologist, an acoustical physicist, or as an expert on modern instrumentation, I have had to solicit much assistance in all three categories. . . " (Greenewalt). However, ornithology was more than hobby and Greenewalt “devised photographic equipment to determine … rate of acceleration to flight speed … [and] in cooperation with the late Harold E. Edgerton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and engineers of the DuPont company … developed high-speed photography capable of ‘freezing’ the rapid wing beats of hummingbirds,” ( Auk). He has made significant contributions to stop-action and time-lapse photography.
His enthusiasm as a naturalist brought about his involvement with the Academy of Natural Sciences. Greenewalt served on the Board of Trustees for the Academy of Natural Sciences from 1940 to 1966 and as an honorary from 1966 till his death. In 1951, the Atomic Energy Commission enlisted DuPont to construct a plutonium production plant on the Savannah River in South Carolina. Greenewalt was concerned about the environmental impact and worked with the Academy of Natural Sciences botanist and limnologist, Ruth Patrick to study the condition of the water and assess the effects of the proposed plant on the ecosystem. Patrick was appointed to DuPont's Board of Trustees and Greenewalt would not build the plant without the Academy's approval.
In 1979, Greenewalt worked with the Academy's Director of Ornithology, Frank Gill to establish the Visual Resources of Ornithology (VIREO), which is the Academy of Natural Science's world-wide bird photograph collection, and has become the world's most comprehensive collection of ornithological images. Greenewalt's photographs were the seed collection for the project. He also provided VIREO with an endowment.
Greenewalt is the author of three monograph works: The Uncommon Man: the Individual in the Organization, published in 1959; Hummingbirds, published in 1960; and Birdsong: Acoustics and Physiology, published in 1968. He also authored numerous articles in a variety of publications, such as National Geographic and the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. He served as: a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the president of the American Philosophical Society, a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the National Geographic Society, a trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and a life member of the MIT Council. He received the Gold Medal of Merit of the Wharton School Alumni Society in 1952; the William Proctor Prize for Scientific Achievement by the Scientific Research Society of America in 1957; the 1958 Medal for Advancement of Research by the American Society of Metals; the Gold Medal Award of the American Institute of Chemists in 1959; the Poor Richard Club’s Gold Medal of Achievement in 1959; the Economic Club’s Gold Medal Award in 1961; the John Fritz Medal by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1961; the Society Medal by the Society of Chemical Industry in 1963; the Robert E. Wilson award by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1967; and the Academy of Natural Sciences' Richard Hopper Day Medal in 1980. He also held honorary degrees from many institutions.
In 1926, Greenewalt married Margaretta Lammot DuPont and they were the parents of three children: David, Crawford, Jr. and Nancy. Margaretta Lammot DuPont Greenewalt died in 1991. Crawford H. Greenewalt died on September 27, 1993. He is remembered as “a rare individual—one of the leading chief executives of his time who was also a fine scientist and a discerning humanist,” (MIT).
Bibliography:
Academy News. “Day Medal 1980: Crawford Greenewalt,” Winter, Volume 3 (4),1980.
Author and Source Unknown. Biography of Crawford Hallock Greenewalt (Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Biographical File).
Auk. “In Memoriam: Crawford H. Greenewalt, 1902-1993,” by Albert E. Conway. Volume 111 (1): 188-189, 1994.
Greenewalt, Crawford H. Bird song : Acoustics and Physiology. Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1968.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Crawford Greenewalt of DuPont Dies,” http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1993/greenewalt-0929.html (accessed December 16, 2009).
This collection documents Crawford H. Greenewalt's personal study of ornithology, primarily his work on hummingbirds. The materials date from 1951 to 1993 and are arranged into the following series: "Manuscripts/writing/publications," "Photographs, proofs and contact sheets," "Photographs, mounted prints," "Slides and transparencies," "Negatives," "Microscope slides," "Sketches for 1960 publication Hummingbirds," "Awards" and "Objects." The collection consists primarily of photographs taken by Greenewalt and technical data collected by Greenewalt. The images photographed by Greenewalt exist in many different formats throughout the collection, including prints, negatives and slides. The technical data in this collection represents Greenewalt's research into the physiology of hummingbirds, and the development of his high-speed photographic technique. In addition to Greenewalt's research material, this collection also houses drafts and edits of some of Greenewalt's original publications.
Photographs constitute the bulk of this collection, most of which are undated. When there are dates associated with an image, it is not certain whether those dates refer to the moment the picture was taken or when the print was created. Greenewalt's field notes are the most promising component of this collection for determining photograph dates. These forty-four notebooks contain documentation of photo sessions between the years 1956 and 1983, including the name of the bird, location and date. Researchers concerned with knowing the exact date of any particular image should consult Greenewalt’s field notes for clues.
This collection is of great research value as it documents the process of innovating high-speed photography techniques, amateur ornithological methodology and Greenewalt's research process. This collection also demonstrates wide-spread recognition that Greenewalt's efforts in ornithology received from contemporary academic and professional institutions.
The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources’ “Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives” Project.
This collection was minimally processed in 2009-2011, as part of an experimental project conducted under the auspices of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries to help eliminate processing backlog in Philadelphia repositories. A minimally processed collection is one processed at a less intensive rate than traditionally thought necessary to make a collection ready for use by researchers. When citing sources from this collection, researchers are advised to defer to folder titles provided in the finding aid rather than those provided on the physical folder.
Employing processing strategies outlined in Mark Greene's and Dennis Meissner's 2005 article, More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Processing Approaches to Deal With Late 20th-Century Collections, the project team tested the limits of minimal processing on collections of all types and ages, in 23 Philadelphia area repositories. A primary goal of the project, the team processed at an average rate of 2-3 hours per linear foot of records, a fraction of the time ordinarily reserved for the arrangement and description of collections. Among other time saving strategies, the project team did not extensively review the content of the collections, replace acidic folders or complete any preservation work.
People
Organization
- Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
- E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Visual Resources for Ornithology (Organization).
Subject
- Publisher
- Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Laurie Rizzo and Eric Rosenzweig
- Sponsor
- The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources’ “Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives” Project.
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the Archives with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.
Collection Inventory
The "Manuscripts/writing/publications" series contains research on the various fields of interest conducted by and collected by Crawford Greenewalt. There are five main areas of interest on which Greenewalt has published works. The material in this series reflects Greenewalt’s research and editing processes for these publications. This series is divided into six subseries, five of which are dedicated to a single area of research and one subseries of "Personal papers." The subseries are "Photography", "Hummingbird Project", "Feather reflectance", "Flight", and "Birdsong."
The "Photography" subseries contains material related to Greenewalt's photography experimentation and technique development. The first part of the subseries is a collection of notebooks referred to by Greenewalt as “Field Notes.” Notebook entries document photo shoots, providing information on the location, subject, name, date and technical information about camera setup and use. The collection of notebooks as a whole provides a detailed account of Greenewalt's photographic efforts from 1956 to 1983. These notebooks are arranged chronologically.
The second portion of the "Photography" subseries contains Greenewalt's collection of equipment operation manuals and test data. The manuals and the test data associated with the specific pieces of equipment are arranged alphabetically by object name.
The "Hummingbird Project" subseries contains materials related to Greenewalt's publication titled, Hummingbirds. These materials include inventories of bird photographs and slides, drafts of captions for illustrations, and marked-up proofs of the photos that were used for that monograph. As a whole, this subseries demonstrates Greenewalt's editing process for this project. The materials are arranged chronologically.
The "Feather reflectance" subseries consists almost entirely of technical data and publications that Greenewalt referenced while doing research for his own publication on the physical properties of hummingbird feathers. In addition to this research material, this subseries also contains a group of electron microscope images of hummingbird feathers. The material in this subseries is arranged chronologically.
The "Flight" subseries contains a good deal of technical data related to the physics of bird flight, including notebooks containing flight sketches showing wingtip movement, wingtip movement analysis data, and information about physical proportions. This subseries contains some published material that Greenewalt used for research, as well as drafts and final versions of his own publications on the topic. The materials in this subseries are arranged alphabetically.
The majority of the materials contained in the "Birdsong" subseries is technical data. Specifically, there are large amounts of harmonic measurements or oscillograms of various bird calls, which Greenewalt has called "birdsong," and writings that analyze and describe these measurements. This subseries also includes phonographic recordings of bird calls and Greenewalt’s published material on the topic. This subseries emphasizes the research aspect of Greenewalt's writing, rather than the editing process. This subseries is arranged chronologically.
The "Personal papers" series contains some correspondence and other personal ephemera.
Because materials in this series are arranged in a chronological manner, researchers interested in correspondence with specific individuals and/or subjects, should review the entire folder list.
The "Photographs, proofs and contact sheets" series contains what could be considered rough drafts of the more finished photographic prints that are found in the "Photographs, mounted prints" series. Many of the images in this series appear elsewhere in the collection in various formats. The majority of the photographic prints in this series are undated and the subjects are unidentified. The prints in this series are arranged chronologically, based on dates that are associated with these images either on their original housing or elsewhere in the collection.
The "Photographs, mounted prints" series contains color prints mounted on mat board. There are three sets of prints that are included in this series. Each of the three sets is a different size, and each size constitutes its own subseries.
The "8 x 10 mounted prints" subseries contains colored prints of a wide variety of birds. The birds are identified on most of the prints. There seems to be two groups of prints in this subseries - those dated 1964, and those dated 1969 to 1971. It is not clear if those dates represent the years the photos were taken, or the years the prints were made. Prints with dates between 1969 and 1971 attributed to them tend to have more information about the subject than do the rest of the prints in this subseries, including species, gender, location and date.
The second subseries, "8.5 x 11 mounted prints," are arranged into six volumes. Identification is inconsistent and less explicit than that provided in the "8 x 10" subseries. Most of the prints provide the species name of the subject.
The "10 x 15 mounted prints" subseries is a twenty one volume set of color prints. The set features hummingbirds almost exclusively, except for the final two volumes which contain many of the same images that appear in the smaller sets. Identification is provided for all but a few of the subjects in this set.
The "Stereographs" subseries contains color, and black and white stereographs of a small variety of birds at different angles. These images have been mounted on mat board cards. Most of the cards in this series are numbered 1 to 579, with large gaps in the 500s. This series also contains a group of unnumbered, unidentified stereographs. Some of the birds represented in this series have been identified. Some of the stereographs have dates marked on them, which are probably the dates that the pictures were taken. All of the cards, with the exception of the few unmarked cards at the end of the series, contain some technical data which seems to relate to some function of the camera during the photograph session. The cards seem to have been organized into groups according to an "M" value, and then numbered sequentially.
Original order for the entire "Mounted prints" series has been maintained.
The "Slides and transparencies" series contains various images of birds, some of which can be found in other locations in this collection in various formats. This series is divided into four subseries according to subject and /or medium.
The "Personal collection" subseries contains sets of photographic slides, which seem to be of a personal nature. The slides portray images from family vacations and wildflowers. Also represented in this subseries are some of Greenewalt's early experiments with time lapse photography.
The "Slides of Birds of the World" subseries is a large collection of slides which seems to constitute Greenewalt's attempt to fulfill James L. Peters' Check-list of Birds of the World, an adaptation of which can be found in the first series of this collection. The birds are arranged taxonomically by order. There are multiple images of every bird, and each bird is identified.
The "Transparencies" subseries consists of two small boxes filled with images of birds that Greenewalt photographed in Ecuador. This subseries also includes a set of large glass and plastic transparencies used during the printing of an article about Greenewalt entitled "Bird Watching with an Electronic Eye."
The "Lantern slides" subseries contains two sizes of three distinct sets of images: "Wrens feeding", "Bluebird" and "Slides for high speed camera."
Boxes 28-31 contain numerous smaller slide boxes.
The "Negatives" series contains photographic negatives of many of the prints in this collection. Three pre-arranged groups of negatives have been arranged into three subseries.
The "Early high speed photographs of unidentified birds" subseries is housed in eleven booklets that have been numbered. These images seem to date from the early to mid-1950s, and the birds represented in this subseries are unidentified.
The negatives in the "Stereographs" subseries have been numbered 1 to 1000. This subseries also contains a small number of identified birds which are: the tree swallow, the house finch, the Australian finch and the cardinal.
The third subseries, "Sequence shots of unidentified birds" contains a group of heavily damaged negatives, which are numbered 1-200.
Original order has been maintained throughout the series.
The "Microscope slides" series consist of four boxes filled with microscope slides, upon which are mounted hummingbird and sunbird feathers. The feathers on each slide have been identified. It does not seem that the slides are in any particular order, but no order has been imposed during processing. The cases are labeled "1" through "4."
The "Sketches for 1960 publication Hummingbirds" series contains a variety of hand drawn illustrations in various sizes. This set of sketches constitutes the creation and selection process for the illustrations that appear in Greenewalt’s 1960 publication Hummingbirds. Along with the originals, this series also contains illustrations that had not been chosen for publication, including alternate versions and unique images. This series is arranged according to the order in which the illustrations appear in the publication, with works not selected filed at the end of the series.
The “Awards” series provides evidence of the wide-spread recognition that Greenewalt received for his various pursuits. Greenewalt received honorary degrees from a variety of academic institutions, and medals from academic and trade organizations.
The “Awards” series is divided by medium into three subseries. The first subseries contains rolled-up and encased diplomas and certificates; the second subseries contains medals, pins, and statuettes; the final subseries contains programs from various events at which Greenewalt was recognized, such as commencements and organizational meetings. These programs are arranged chronologically. The other material is loose in the boxes.
Physical Descriptionendless. see oversize.
22 certificates
The “Objects” series contains a few artifacts related to Greenewalt’s work with ornithological photography. There is a metal camera case which contains a camera and various camera accessories. The leather case housed Greenewalt’s camera (which is now part of VIREO’s holdings, along with Greenewalt’s set), and now contains some random parts and stereograph lenses. This series also includes the Greenewalt’s aluminum camera floating action tripod. The fourth item in this series is a leather map case filled with color travel maps of various European territories.