![W_E_Clyde_Todd](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/W_E_Clyde_Todd.jpg)
Walter Edmond Clyde Todd (
Smithfield, Ohio
Smithfield was a village in Smithfield Township, Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. The population was 869 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2019, Smithfield voted to ...
, September 6, 1874 – June 25, 1969) was an American
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
who worked at the
Carnegie Museum. He collected specimens mainly in the arctic zone and was the author of several books.
Biography
In 1891 Todd abandoned his studies at
Geneva College
Geneva College is a private Christian college in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1848, in Northwood, Ohio, the college moved to its present location in 1880, where it continues to educate a student body of about 1400 traditional undergra ...
to take up a post as messenger with
Clinton Hart Merriam
Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5, 1855 – March 19, 1942) was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the 'father of mammalogy', a ...
at the
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...
, where his first job was the sorting and cataloging of a collection of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
stomach
The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and many other animals, including several invertebrates. The stomach has a dilated structure and functions as a vital organ in the digestive system. The stomach i ...
s preserved in
alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
. In
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
he met many leading scientists including
Robert Ridgway
Robert Ridgway (July 2, 1850 – March 25, 1929) was an American ornithologist specializing in systematics. He was appointed in 1880 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to be the first full-time curator of bird ...
, whom he took as a
role model
A role model is a person whose behaviour, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people. The term ''role model'' is credited to sociologist Robert K. Merton, who hypothesized that individuals compare themselves ...
.
![W_Clyde_Todd](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/W_Clyde_Todd.jpg)
Discontented with government work, in 1898 Todd contracted with the fledgling
Carnegie Museum to collect bird specimens in western
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. He soon joined the museum as Assistant, and remained there the rest of his working life, which was much prolonged beyond any normal retirement age. He continued with field work on Pennsylvania, and later in north-eastern Canada, and would later produce two major works, ''Birds of Western Pennsylvania'' (1940) and ''Birds of the Labrador peninsula and adjacent areas'' (1963); along with many descriptions of new taxa and systematic studies based on the Museum's growing collection of neotropical birds. Todd's specialty was the Arctic – he participated in over twenty expeditions before producing ''Birds of the Labrador Peninsula''. He chose the Arctic as his specialty because of a bout of malaria he contracted while working in Washington, DC, which prevented him from working in tropical climates. Despite his inability to do fieldwork in Central and South America, his first book was called ''The Birds of Santa Marta'' and focused on a particular region of Colombia. Todd's research was based entirely on the collections of bird skins he had amassed at the Carnegie Museum. He was awarded a Brewster medal in 1925.
A long-time Fellow of the
American Ornithologists' Union
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...
, he was elected Fellow Emeritus in 1968. He was also noted for his local initiatives in conservation and philanthropy. In his book ''Birds of Western Pennsylvania'' (1940) and his pamphlet (published posthumously) ''Birds of the Buffalo Creek Region'', he displays both his love of Western Pennsylvania ecology and a prescience about such topics as urban sprawl, global warming, and
habitat fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes ...
. He was also a vocal critic of private collections and of museums that amassed multiple versions of the same bird or bird's eggs, denouncing such practices as wasteful and not contributing to the study of birds. Although he married, he became a widower early in life and did not have any children. As a result, he devoted a substantial amount of personal resources to conservation of the area where he had spent much of his childhood, Buffalo Township (in Butler County). In 1942, he purchased seventy-one acres on the site of his grandfather's farm, where he had made his first significant ornithological discovery. The land would otherwise have been logged; he rescued it via his purchase and donated it to the
Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania
The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania (ASWP) incorporated in 1942, with a history dating back to 1916, is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve. The society obtained Todd Nature Reserve in 1942, and in 1977 ...
(ASWP) with the suggestion that it be turned into a nature reserve. The society honored his wishes, and in 1956 he donated an additional sixty-one acres south of his initial donation. ASWP has continued to add to the nature reserve and as of 2009 it stood at .
Todd Nature Reserve
Todd Nature Reserve (formerly called Todd Sanctuary) is a nature reserve owned and operated by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. It is located in Buffalo Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania; approximately thirty miles northeast o ...
, located off Route 28 and Highway 356 in Butler County, is named for W.E. Clyde Todd and is open to the public dawn to dusk throughout the year (with the exception of hunting season in November–December).
The ASWP annually awards the W.E. Clyde Todd Award to recognize "an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to conservation in western Pennsylvania."
[ASWP Environmental and Conservation Award]
Retrieved December 29, 2015.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Clyde
1874 births
1969 deaths
American ornithologists
People from Smithfield, Ohio