[Tweeters] Historical Perspective on Re-naming Birds

[Hans-Joachim Feddern]

Well said Hal! I agree!

Hans

On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 5:10 PM Hal Opperman <hal at catharus.net> wrote:


> Here’s an example to consider from the perspective my professional life as

> an art historian. (Yes, like everyone else in the world, we birders do have

> more than one side to our lives.)

>

> One of the most distinguished scholars of the art and architecture of the

> French Late Renaissance and Baroque (17th-18th centuries) was Anthony

> Blunt. In his field, Blunt's writings and the many students he formed were

> as groundbreaking and influential as were those of John James Audubon in

> his own field of North American ornithology—founding figures without whose

> legacy our present understanding in each of these fields would be

> unimaginably poorer. We stand on the shoulders of giants, as is said—of

> these two giants and many, many others.

>

> In 1979, Blunt was outed as a onetime Soviet spy back in his student days

> in the 1930s—a member of the notorious “Cambridge Four” (along with Donald

> Maclean, Guy Burgess, and Kim Philby; a fifth recruit was identified

> later). All were branded as traitors, quite rightfully. Blunt was stripped

> of his knighthood and appointments, and hounded from public life by the

> media and popular outrage. He died four years later, in 1983.

>

> His obituary in the august *Burlington Magazine*, the venerable journal

> of the UK’s art history establishment, was written by André Chastel, the

> dean of the French art history establishment. Hewing closely to its title,

> “Anthony Blunt, art historian,” it is a tribute to a remarkable scholar

> richly deserving of our recognition and that of posterity.

>

> Why can’t we see our guy as “John James Audubon, ornithologist”? Accord

> him the respect he is due? Doesn’t he deserve that?

>

> Hal Opperman

> Seattle

> hal at catharus dot net

>

>

>

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-- 
*Hans Feddern*
Twin Lakes/Federal Way, WA
thefedderns at gmail.com
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