Gladys Bowery Black (1909–1998) was an American ornithologist, conservationist, and writer known as "Iowa's Bird Lady". She was inducted into the

Iowa Women's Hall of Fame The Iowa Women's Hall of Fame was created to acknowledge the accomplishments of female role models associated with the U.S. state of Iowa, and is an endeavor of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women (ICSW). History In 1972, the state of Iow ...

in 1985.

Early life, education, and marriage

Gladys Bowery was born January 4, 1909, one of two children of James M. Bowery and Jerusha (Ford) Bowery. She was raised on a farm east of

Pleasantville, Iowa Pleasantville is a city in Marion County in Iowa, United States. The population was 1,676 at the time of the 2020 census. Pleasantville is most famous for being the corporate headquarters of Smokey Row Coffee and the hometown of softball player ...

, where her mother introduced her to

birding Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, ...

at an early age. She attended Pleasantville High School and went on to obtain a nursing degree from Mercy Hospital (Des Moines, 1930) and a B.S. degree in public health nursing from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. She began her career as a public health nurse in rural areas of the state. She married Wayne Black and they moved to Georgia, where Wayne had a job at Warner Robins Air Force Base. Black worked in public health and did a great deal of volunteer work.

Career in ornithology

While living in Georgia, Black began working with ornithology professor David Ware Johnston of

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 s ...

, and he mentored her as she established a local bird-banding program. When Wayne died in 1956, Black moved back to Pleasantville and joined the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Although she never received any formal training in ornithology, she would go on to spend more than three decades working on identifying bird species in her home state, keeping checklists, and educating the public about birds and related issues like habitat preservation. From 1969 to 1987, Black wrote a weekly column on birding that appeared in ''The Des Moines Register'', the ''Knoxville Journal Express'', the ''Pella Chronicle'', and the ''Marion County News''. A number of these columns were republished in her sole book, ''Iowa Birdlife'' (1992), a joint project of the

Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Nat ...

and the

University of Iowa Press The University of Iowa Press is a university press that is part of the University of Iowa. Established in 1969, thUniversity of Iowa Pressis an academic publisher of poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction. The UI Press is the only universit ...

that was still in print as of 2015. She also took children on nature hikes and discussed ornithology and conservation at civic and church groups around the state. In 1978,

Simpson College Simpson College is a private Methodist liberal arts college in Indianola, Iowa. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has about 1,250 full-time and 300 part-time students. In addition to the Indianola residential campus, Simpso ...

awarded Black an honorary doctorate in recognition of her public outreach and her expertise in the migration and nesting patterns of American birds. Other honors she received included a certificate from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recognizing her conservation education efforts related to Lake Red Rock (1978), election as a Fellow of the

Iowa Academy of Science The Iowa Academy of Science is the oldest existing scientific association in Iowa, founded in 1875. It was established to promote scientific research, science education Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school chil ...

(1983), induction into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame (1985), and recognition from the Iowa governor for her 35 years of volunteerism (1989). Black was also an amateur woodcarver who in 1968 exhibited one of her own works in an exhibition of bird carvings at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Maryland; it was subsequently included in a second exhibition at the museum in 2012, "Making Her Mark: A Showcase of Women’s Carvers". Black died at home on July 19, 1998.

Legacy

Black's work was honored in 2004 by the creation of the Gladys Black Bald Eagle Refuge, funded by public donations and located on a well-known bald eagle roosting site in Marion County, Iowa. In addition, the Gladys Black Environmental Education Project was set up as a partnership between two nonprofit groups, the Red Rock Lake Association and Marion County Conservation, to encourage public use of county natural resources and to sponsor environmental education and conservation efforts.

References

External links

Gladys Black Environmental Education Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Gladys Bowery 1909 births 1998 deaths American ornithological writers American ornithologists Women ornithologists People from Marion County, Iowa American conservationists University of Minnesota School of Nursing alumni American nurses American women nurses 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century American women scientists