Radio Nature League (1927 January to April)

Note: Burgess was absent on April 6, presumably because of lecture obligations. (He was scheduled to give a talk in Lewiston, ME on April 7 and at Bowdoin College--sponsored by Alfred Gross--on April 8.)

January-April 1927

The winter of 1927 featured a full slate of speakers:

• January 12: Charles W. Johnson on "Some Common Insects of the Household."
• January 26: Francis Harper on chipmunks (talk is included in script)
• February 9: J.A. Cushman on "Fossils, how they are formed and their value to man." (talk is included)
• February 23: William H. Weston Jr. on "Beliefs of certain peoples in connection with plants and plant life."
• March 9: Glover M. Allen on "Whales and Whaling in New England." (talk is included)
• March 23: James L. Peters on hawks and owls. (talk is included)
• March 30: A.F. Burgess of the U.S. Bureau of Entomology on moths. (talk is included)
• April 6: Austin H. Clark paper on "Living Lamps." Burgess was absent this day. The paper--included--was read, presumably by A.E. Bach, the announcer in the studio.
• April 13: Edward Wigglesworth of the Boston Society of Natural History on "Household Aquaria." (talk included)
• April 20: Philip Hansling Jr. on "The Care and Preservation of Trees." (talk included, with TWB edits)

The relationship between Burgess and the final speaker (not associated with the Boston Society of Natural History) would be an enduring one. Hansling, a Hartford tree surgeon, would be invited back to speak and answer questions repeatedly over the next few years and even substitute host at least one show.

There was a special program on February 2 broadcast live from the New England Sportsmen Show in Boston. The show, part of "Conservation Week" (Jan 29-Feb 5) in Massachusetts, was reportedly the first one in New England in more than two decades. (Burgess praised Governor Alvin Fuller on January 12 for this week set aside "to emphasize the need of guarding forests, streams and game."). The show attracted exhibitions, some featuring live animals, from many states and Canadian provinces. (TWB argued that the show, was more of a "conservation exposition" than a celebration of hunting). Burgess had promoted the show beginning on January 19, announcing a special invitation to children and their teachers to attend the opening ceremonies. On the February 2 show, he dramatized his experiences in Northern Canada, using the talents of animal callers George and Jim McLeod to create the scene.

On February 16, Burgess commenced the second annual crusade against tent caterpillars. This time he would promise cash prizes. By the end of the crusade in mid-March, the procession of caterpillars-laid end to end--would reach the middle of the Pacific starting at the Boston State House.

Finally, April 20 brought a new enduring conservation concern: The automobile. Cars kill animals on the road and provide hunters with more access to remote locations. Over the next few years the charges against the automobile would grow to include the increase in forest fires (from cigarette flipped from car windows) and the increase in bird-killing feral house cats (driven far from home and abandoned).

Next: Radio Nature League (1927 May through December)

Radio Nature League (1926 September to December)

Note: The Radio Nature League resumed on September 1 at 8:30. The Boston Daily Globe has it at 7:30 on September 8 and 15, 8:30 on September 22, and then at 7:30 for the remainder of the year. There was no show on December 8 (TWB was in New York and apologized the next week that he had forgotten to mail the script for someone else to read). On November 3, the Globe's "What's on the air?" column promoted the RNL and called it "a real force in the conservation of desirable wild life in America."

September to December 1926

By fall 1926, the Radio Nature League was firmly established as a cultural phenomenon (at least in the New England area). Now when Burgess would quote from a Boston Daily Globe story, for example, the Globe would report on the citation (as in an October 7 story, "Says skunk will exterminate the lawn-destroying white grubs; Thornton W. Burgess, Naturalist, praises misunderstood animal, in radio address from Springfield.") The Globe would also draw on Burgess for expert knowledge: a November 25 article on woodchucks and winter prophecies includes a long letter from TWB "deprecating" the notion.

Burgess announced a schedule of ten guest speakers for the upcoming winter. This would begin with:

• December 15: James H. Emerton on spiders.
• December 29: Harold L. Babcock on "Snakes and their attributes."

The Ruffed Grouse intestine campaign resumed (it was now a contest, with a copy of Forbush's Birds of Massachusetts going to the winner).

There were also two new concerns of note, which would both continue for the length of the RNL's run.

First, following Burgess's spring request that league members refrain from picking the trailing arbutus, Burgess announced the fall equivalent, asking members not to pick (or buy) fringed gentians, another threatened New England wildflower.

Second, Burgess told members to watch out for "foreigners" who were using net traps to catch protected song birds. He would later stake out a netting spot in Springfield and aid in the arrest of the perpetrators. These particular "foreigners" were apparently immigrants from southern Italy. Note: the demonization of Italians as song bird killers had been a standard part of the bird protection arsenal for at least twenty years before this (joining house cats, sharp-shinned hawks, and boys with guns as chief enemies of useful birds). While it is true that the capture and consumption of song birds as delicacies is a southern Italian cultural practice (this remains a notorious problem in Malta), the rhetoric against the practice would come perilously close to out-and-out xenophobia.

Finally, one of the most memorable episodes in the history of the Radio Nature League would happen during this period. "Houdini" the milk snake made his debut (he had been mailed to the Radio Nature League as a living specimen but managed to defeat every attempt to contain him). On December 1, Burgess would need to leave the microphone during a broadcast because no one else was able (or willing) to recapture him.

Next: Radio Nature League (1927 January to April)

Radio Nature League (1926 April to June)

Note: On April 28 the meeting time moved to 8:00 Daylight Savings Time. On May 12, it moved to 8:30. There were no meetings in July or August. The Boston Daily Globe throughout this period lists the program as "Radio Nature League, direction of Thornton W. Burgess."

April to June 1926

Speakers:

• April 14: S.N.F. Sanford of the Boston Museum of Natural History on "Crabs, Lobsters, and Cannibals of the Seashore" (Sanford did not appear; TWB read the paper)
• April 28: Glover M. Allen of the Boston Society of Natural History on "Bats and their habits."
• May 12: Thomas Barbour, President of the Boston Society of Natural History on "The largest reptiles."

On April 14, Burgess announced that the Boston Society of Natural History was preparing a special radio bulletin containing four of the talks (Weston, Daly, Babcock, and Sanford.) It would be available on May 1 and cost fifteen cents.

Other Radio Nature League activities of note:

April 21 was "American Forest Week." TWB called on league members to plant trees. He offered a $5 prize (provided by the Chapin Farm Agency) for the boy or girl planting the most trees. TWB later (5/5) asked members to plant "Mother's Trees" on Mother's Day.

Burgess had begun banding birds. (The US Biological Survey had been managing a national program since 1920.) Throughout this period, TWB would talk about his experiences on Radio Nature League programs, assuring listeners that banding was OK and didn't harm or scare the birds.

May 26 featured a special program: "Birdsong Day." This marked the first appearance of famous birdsong performer Edward Avis. (Avis, who lived in Springfield, would be a regular performer on the Brewer sponsored RNL in 1935.) On this program, Burgess narrated a "bird tour" and Avis provided the sound effects (robin, oriole, blue jay, house wren, eastern bluebird, etc.)

The program took a summer break after the June 23, 1926 program. It would return on September 1.

Next: Radio Nature League (1926 September to December)

Easter on the Green Meadows 1914

See the meadows green and fair!
Hear the music in the air!
Life and love for all were born
On the blessed Easter morn.

Peter Rabbit brushed his coat with care and combed out his whiskers. Peter was very fussy this morning, very fussy, indeed. It was so unusual for Peter to care how he looked that Jimmy Skunk, who happened to come down the Lone Little Path, paused at the edge of the deal Old Briar Patch and asked Peter what he was fixing up so for.

"Why!" cried Peter in the most surprised way. "Don't you know that this is Easter morning? I'm getting ready to make my Easter calls, of course! How do I look?

Jimmy stepped back and looked Peter all over as he turned around to show himself off, and there wasn't a trace of a smile, though there was a twinkle in his eyes, as he said:

"You look very fine, Peter. Mixed brown and gray are very becoming to you. For myself I prefer black and white stripes, rather broad. I see you still wear a white patch on the seat of your pants."

For just a second Peter's face clouded over. "Y-e-s," he replied slowly. "You see I have to wear that because it has been in the family ever since the days when the world was young. Do-do you think it is so dreadfully unbecoming, Jimmy Skunk?"

Jimmy looked at Peter' s funny little white tail and laughed outright. "Of course it isn't, Peter, he cried. "Why without it it wouldn't be you! No, sir, you wouldn't be you at all."

Peter's face cleared and together he and Jimmy Skunk started on down the Lone Little Patch across the Green Meadows. It seemed as if every one they met had on a new suit, and some of the suits were very handsome. There was Sammy Jay's--such a wonderful blue with the very whitest of white trimmings! And there--Peter suddenly sat up very straight. "Look, Jimmy!" he cried excitedly. "There's Bubbling Bob the Bobolink! He must have just arrived from the South, and see what a wonderful black and white coat he has, with cap to match! When he left last Fall he wore the shabbiest kind of a suit. Just hear him sing! I believe I could sing if I had a suit like that."

"Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! A great singer you'd make, Peter Rabbit! A great singer you'd make."

Peter turned to find Johnny Chuck laughing at him. Johnny had on a new suit, too. It was very plain and sober, but Johnny didn't seem to mind this in the least. In fact he didn't seem to think of it at all. "What are you thinking about clothes for, Peter Rabbit?" continued Johnny.

"Because it's Easter. What else is Easter for?" replied Peter.

Johnny Chuck scratches his head thoughtfully. "It isn't just to think about what we wear; I'm sure of that," said he. "It's-it's-why it's to make you glad that you're alive, and that Summer is coming, and that everything is so beautiful, and--and that no matter how brown and dead things look they will become lovely again, and that

Joy and love are in the air
All about us everywhere

and-and to try to make others feel as happy as we do."

Peter kicked his heels together happily. "I guess you are exactly right, Johnny Chuck," said he, "and I guess our new clothes are to please those who see us and not our own selves, and so I'm going to think how nice others look and not of how I look myself. Now I must hurry and wish everybody a happy Easter. Isn't it good to be alive? I feel as if I just love all the world, even Reddy Fox."

Peter hurried off to make his Easter calls and Johnny Chuck smiled as he watched him. "I guess that Peter has found out what Easter means," said he. And Peter knew that he had.

Radio Nature League (1926 January- March)

Note: Thornton Burgess was absent on January 13--WBZ announcer, A.E. Bach, handled the host duties. According to the January 20 script, that program was temporarily extended to 45 minutes. The scripts of talks by William L. Finley and Henry B. Bigelow are included in the Thornton W. Burgess Collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.

January to March 1926

In January, the Radio Nature League celebrated its one year anniversary with an annual report. Membership stood at 20,000 and counting. It had become a "real organization," recognized by students and leaders in Nature Study. It was cosmopolitan, democratic, and importantly--not just for children. Although this is not in the script it was also reportedly one of the most popular features on WBZ, showing that scientific subjects could have wide-spread appeal. (See this extended syndicated news story about the Radio Nature League and its scientific work.)

Here is the list (paraphrased) of League accomplishments in Year One.

1. Encouraged bird feeding and construction of bird houses
2. Conservation of wildflowers
3. Wayside beauty (removal of tent caterpillars)
4. Posting of farms as nature sanctuaries
5. Ruffed grouse project
6. White weasel specimen project

Burgess also begins to advocate grassroots versions of the organization. Why not have local chapters of silver and red star clubs?

A heavy schedule of guest speakers continued:

• January 6. Francis Harper, curator of mammals at the Boston Museum of Natural History, on bears.
• January 20. James Lee Peters of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, on "Bird life in Northern Patagonia."
• January 27. William L. Finley, State Game Commissioner of Oregon, on "Lower Klamath Lake."
• February 3. Reginald A. Daly, geologist at Harvard University, on Earthquakes (there had been a recent earthquake in New England).
• March 3. Charles W. Johnson of the Boston Museum of Natural History, on "Where insects pass the winter." (Johnson had originally been scheduled for February 17 but had to cancel).
• March 17. William H. Weston, Jr. of Harvard on "Seaweeds and some of their uses."
• March 31. Henry B. Bigelow, oceanographer of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, on "The Life of an Eel."

William L. Finley's talk was not part of the Boston Society of Natural History series. Rather, Finley, a friend of Burgess's and a member of the League, had come to the program to deliver an impassioned plea for the preservation of a particularly important natural habitat in the Pacific Northwest--Lower Klamath Lake. The Lake had been drained for dubious agricultural purposes ("greed," according to TWB); Finley wanted the water returned. Burgess tells the League membership to send letters that he can collect and send as a petition to the Secretary of the Interior. He would continue to solicit letters for weeks to come. Finley's campaign was ultimately partially successful, creating the Upper Klamath Wildlife Refuge in 1927. [Note: much of Finley's talk as well as Burgess's own plea against environmental degradation can be found in the February 28, 1926 Burgess Radio Nature League column--Google's News Archive has it but it is mis-dated, positioned sideways, and there is no direct link. Try going to Feb 27 first, then page 46]

Burgess announced the first crusade against tent caterpillar nests on March 10. Envisioned as a aid to roadside beauty, he urged individual boys and girls, scout troops, and schools to remove the nests, count the egg masses destroyed (supervised by a responsible adult) and send in their count by March 21. The prizes for the groups with the highest count would win William T. Hornaday's Natural History set; individual winners would receive National Geographic books of birds and animals. This would become an annual Radio Nature League event, with substantial cash prizes.

Next: 1926 (April to June)

Burgess Radio Nature League

 

A September 18, 1925 ad for the Milwaukee Journal announces a newly expanded Sunday "Boys' and Girls' Magazine." In addition to "Seckatary Hawkins" and "Through the Gates of Fairyland," the magazine offers "a brand new department by Thornton W. Burgess--'The Burgess Radio Nature League!'" Google News Archives has it. [The Milwaukee Journal is no longer available via Google News Archive]

Dated September 20, it is the first instance of the column I know. It fills nearly a whole magazine page, leading with the mission of the RNL, includes a longish essay on lizards and newts, a shorter piece on birds that fight their own reflection (based on the experience of a correspondent), and a section titled, "Naturalist's Question Box" in which Burgess answers a wide variety of correspondents' questions. There are two illustrations, of robins and kingfishers. 

The text is taken, with minor editing, almost entirely from Radio Nature League radio scripts. The Burgess Radio Nature League column ran from September 1925 into 1931. (The last manuscript in the HGARC at BU is dated March 22 and is numbered #289.) Syndicated throughout the country, it functioned both to publicize the radio program (in midwestern cities like Milwaukee or Sioux City, Iowa, where the column ran, it was theoretically possible in 1925 to receive WBZ at night) and to put Burgess's hard work in writing and editing content to remunerative purposes. [This is actually an open question. Burgess claimed repeatedly that he wasn't compensated for his radio work; surely, however, he didn't offer the BRNL column for free]. 

 The "Burgess Radio Nature League" title was not universally used. The Deseret News, for example, used "Burgess Stories of Wild Life" (in Utah, reception of WBZ was probably not even theoretically possible); the Deseret News also ran it on Saturdays, not Sundays. The Winnipeg Free Press called it "Burgess Nature League Talks." Even the Milwaukee Journal preferred a headline based on the column's content to the "Burgess Radio Nature League" heading. 

Soon, the column would have a distinctive style, enclosing photographs of wildlife subjects (sometimes by Burgess himself) in circles and rectangles. See the 1926 layout below for a taste.

   

Surprisingly, Burgess didn't seem to use the column as a way of increasing RNL membership across the nation--there is no address to which readers can send membership cards. On the other hand, Burgess did offer to answer readers' questions ("so far as it is possible") care of the newspaper running the column.

 For our purposes, the newspaper column provides access to Radio Nature League content that is otherwise only available by slowly perusing deteriorating carbon copies in an archive. To be clear: the column and the program were not identical. Burgess would carefully select material, sometimes from several different programs, to fill the needs of the column. Nevertheless, Burgess's overall attitude about environmental issues as expressed in the program can be found in the columns, as well as details about many conservation-oriented RNL initiatives. 

 Next: Radio Nature League (1926 January-March)

Radio Nature League (1925 September to December)

Note: According to the dated script, the Radio Nature League met at 6:30 on September 16. This is not reflected in the listing in the Boston Daily Globe, which still has the program ("Radio Nature Story by Thornton W. Burgess") on at 7:32. On October 14, the Globe finally listed the program as "Radio Nature League by Thornton W. Burgess" and on December 16 begins to identify guest speakers. Mrs. Burgess filled in on October 7 (while Mr. B was up in the New Brunswick wilderness) and again on November 18.

September-December 1925

Starting September 2, 1925, the Radio Nature League entered its most productive era. Thornton Burgess announced that the Smithsonian and the Boston Society of Natural History would now serve as experts advisers, helping to answer members' questions and make identifications. (From this point on, Burgess, care of the mailroom of WBZ, would receive hundreds of objects of natural history, some still living.) He also announced the start of a series of guest speakers. These would be:

• November 11: Arthur Loveridge of the Zoological Society of London on "Spitting Snakes."
• November 25: John C. Phillips of the Boston Society of Natural History
• December 16: W. Sprague Brooks, curator of birds at the Boston Society of Natural History, on "Arctic Spring."
• December 23: Dr. Harold L. Babcock, of the Boston Museum of Natural History, on "New England Turtles."

The speakers would be allotted fifteen minutes at the beginning of the program and would speak from a remote hook-up at the Hotel Brunswick in Boston. The normal question/experience format would resume afterwards. Burgess would now call shows without speakers, "experience meetings."

The Radio Nature League's central scientific project began on October 14. On that program, Burgess spoke at length about research being conducted by Dr. Alfred O. Gross at Bowdoin College on the ruffed grouse. The population of the grouse, a favorite New England game bird, had crashed and Gross and his colleagues were looking for samples of grouse intestines to check for parasites. For the rest of the fall (and repeatedly during the grouse's open season throughout the remaining years of the RNL) Burgess would call for grouse intestines (along with instructions on how to pack them for the mail) and also update listeners on research findings. According to TWB's autobiography, the RNL became the best source of specimens for the Gross project, contributing "some two thousand." (He also notes, a tad resentfully, that "wives often proved to be better sports than their husbands, the latter proving too uninterested to co-operate in preserving their favorite sport." (p. 148)) The grouse project received national attention, evidence of the "possibilities of radio as a direct and practical aid to science." (Hartford Courant, January 6, 1926). On December 2, another (successful) request went out to listeners for white weasel specimens, to aid an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Natural History.

The Radio Nature League had also attracted the attention of public officials. On December 9, the program held a special "Connecticut School Nature Party." This was organized with the help of Russell F. Lund, supervisor of the elementary school agriculture and nature study in Connecticut and featured a special message from Conn Governor, John H. Trumbull.

Finally, September, 1925 marked the beginning of a new Burgess Sunday newspaper feature, the "Burgess Radio Nature League." This feature, syndicated throughout the nation, drew directly from RNL radio scripts and offered a different channel into League participation.

Next: Burgess Radio Nature League