Florence Merriam Bailey: The Happy Marriage of America's Pioneering Ornithologist

The above portrait of 19th-century lady naturalist Florence Merriam Bailey is by Sarah Nicholls, author of Field Guide to Extinct Birds. Neck brooch alert. A-ooooga.

Marcia Bonta's book Women in the Field, America's Pioneering Women Naturalists reminded me again of the power of the relationships of 19th-century lady naturalists, #gowithFlo, of the marriage of kindred spirits that was the "First Lady of Ornithology," Florence Merriam Bailey's to Vernon Orlando Bailey.

When they married in 1899, Vernon was Chief Field Naturalist for the U.S. Biological Survey and Florence had already written several books about birds including the one that made her famous, Birds Through An Opera Glass.

The Baileys traipsed across the county together, camping, drawing, detailing lovingly the natural world. They wrote a book together, Wild Animals of Glacier National Park. He the mammals, she the birds.

They even made it into Scientific Sweethearts, the Smithsonian's documentation of happy research couples, and I felt a twinge of envy: the thing my Husb. and I do together is binge watch Netflix. We are not A-Birding On A Bronco.

["I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house to breakfast: after, we'll a-birding together; I have a fine hawk for the bush. Shall it be so?"]

Even though it is not me (below) it could be (I like the beseeching gesture, with hand outheld) "Let's abird, husband, in raiments of another era!"

Florence Merriam Bailey Diary, 1874. Entries March 1-2 with drawings. Record Unit 7417 - Florence Merriam Bailey Papers, 1865-1942, Smithsonian Institution Archives.