JP Wade wrote:
> Recently found a book at 1/2Price Books in Austin:
> Bird Songs: Adventures & Techniques in recording the
> songs of American birds by Norma Stillwell
>(Doubleday 1964)
> with an intro by Dr. Peter Paul Kellogg
>
> I was wondering if anybody out there knows anything
> about this couple, Jerry & Norma Stillwell, and their
> work/passion/hobby.
>
> JP Wade
> Harlingen, Tx
Wil Hershberger replied::
> I have read Norma's book several times. It is a wonderful chronicle of
> their adventure. As I understand it, their collection of tapes is at
> Cornell and was "restored" a couple of years ago and is probably
> digitized by now.
> Wil Hershberger
I can vouch for Wil's statement that the Stillwell collection is archived at
the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, though I do not know
if it has yet been copied to DVD - that is an ongoing process.
Dr. Kellogg spoke highly of Jerry and Norma Stillwell in the late 1950s and
early 1960s when they were doing much of their recording. As I recall, many
of their early tapes were paper-backed (before acetate and mylar), and they
were struggling to improve their technique because of modest signal-to-noise
ratio. Dr. Kellogg freely shared many tips, described his objectives for a
good natural sound recording, and offered them ongoing encouragement in
their retirement pursuit. Most of their material that I had a chance to
review at that time was, not surprisingly, recorded in their Oklahoma area
and constituted a good addition of geographic range and perhaps even a few
firsts to the Cornell collection of that time.
Good recording,
Randy
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