Helen Cruickshank (née Gere; February 20, 1902 – March 31, 1994) was an American nature writer and photographer of birds in their natural habitats in many areas of the world.[1][2]
In 1937, she married Allan D. Cruickshank, a lecturer, writer, and photographer for the Audubon Society. Husband and wife formed a highly effective partnership for photography and bird study. He took the black and white photos and she took the color slides on their bird study expeditions.[citation needed]
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (formerly named the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science) has a bird image collection named VIREO (Visual REsource For Ornithology) with over 180,000 thousand photographs, thousands of which were taken by the Cruickshanks.[1]
Helen Cruickshank won the 1949 John Burroughs Medal for her 1948 book, Flight into Sunshine: Bird Experiences in Florida. Brevard County, Florida established the Helen and Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary, a 140-acre wildlife refuge near Rockledge, Florida. The Florida Ornithological Society sponsors the Helen G. and Allan D. Cruickshank Education Award.[3]
Books
- Bird islands down East. New York: Macmillan Co. 1941; photographs by Allan D. Cruickshank
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - Flight into sunshine, bird experiences in Florida. New York: Macmillan Co. 1948; photographs by Allan D. Cruickshank
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - Water birds. Garden City, N.Y.: N. Doubleday. 1955.
- Wonders of the bird world. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1956; photographs by Allan D. Cruickshank
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - as editor: John and William Bartram's America: selections from the writings of the Philadelphia naturalists. 1957; edited with an introduction by Helen Gere Cruickshank; foreword by B. Bartram Cadbury; illustrated by Francis Lee Jacques
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link)[4] - with Allan D. Cruickshank: 1001 questions answered about birds. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1958; photographs by Allan D. Cruickshank; drawings by James Macdonald
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) Cruickshank, Allan D.; Cruickshank, Helen Gere (January 1976). 1976 Dover reprint. Courier Corporation. ISBN 9780486233154. - Wonders of the reptile world. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1959; illustrations by Lon Ellis
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - Fun with birds in Florida. Florida Federation of Garden Clubs. 1960.
- as editor: Thoreau on birds. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1964; Henry David Thoreau's writings on birds, compiled and with commentary by Helen Cruickshank; foreword by Roger Tory Peterson
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - Paradise of birds: when spring comes to Texas. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1968; photographers by Allan D. Cruickshank
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - as editor: Nesting season: the bird photographs of Frederick Kent Truslow. New York: Viking Press. 1979. ISBN 978-0-670-50606-4; commentary by Helen G. Cruickshank; foreword by Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr.; afterword by Mildred McCutcheon Truslow
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link)[5] - as editor: The birds of Brevard County, Florida (compilation of the sighting records by Allan Cruickshank in Brevard County). Orlando, Florida: Florida Press. 1980; with added records (1974–1978) by Robert D. Barber
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link)[6]
References
- ^ a b McLeod, Michael (30 March 1986). "The Bird Lady After 50 Years And More Than 30,000 Pictures, Photographer Helen Cruickshank Knows One Thing Very Well: There's Just Not Enough Time In One Lifespan To Complete Her Work". The Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
- ^ Carson, Joan (May 18, 1997). "The Bird Lady: Women have taken their rightful place in the lore of bird watching". Kitsap Sun.
- ^ "Helen G. and Allan D. Cruickshank Education Award". The Florida Ornithological Society. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
- ^ Dethier, V. G. (September 1958). "Review of John and William Bertram's America, ed. by Helen Gere Cruickshank". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 33 (3): 217. doi:10.1086/402412.
- ^ Emerson, Ken (December 2, 1979). "Brief review of Nesting season: the bird photographs of Frederick Kent Truslow, commentary by Helen G. Cruickshank". NY Times.
- ^ Hardy, John William (November 1981). "Review of The birds of Brevard Country" (PDF). Florida Field Naturalist. 9 (4): 69–70.