A lot of questions could be answered if we knew more about the work of 
Mrs. G. W. Bannon. The Bannons were prominent in Portsmouth, with much 
interest in natural history, and Ms. Bannon was skilled in the taxidermy 
of birds.
        The following announcement appeared in the Forty-third annual report of 
the Ohio State Board of Agriculture for the year 1888 (Westbote Co, 
Columbus, 1889, p. 70):
        "The ladies in charge of the Woman's Department have taken the liberty 
to commend the following exhibits to the attention of the Board, and to 
recommend that a silver medal be awarded for excellence: ...3. To Mrs. 
G. W. Bannon, of Portsmouth, for a large exhibit of the birds of Scioto 
county, the product of her skill in taxidermy. The exhibit was not only 
very large, but was pronounced by skilled persons as very excellent work."
        On page 155 we learn that Ms. Bannon won that silver medal. Recently, 
the Local History department of the Portsmouth Public Library located an 
undated clipping from the local newspaper in a story about a passenger 
pigeon specimen retained there, which reported in part that “Much of 
Mrs. Bannon’s collection is in the State Archaeological and Historical 
Museum in Columbus now.”
        The 1888 exhibit could not have attracted the attention of J. M. 
Wheaton, the state’s foremost ornithologist, who died the year before, 
but Oliver Davie, the famous oologist and taxidermist, lived in Columbus 
at the time. He does not mention Bannon in any published work I could 
find. The exhibit is presented in a sexist context here, and no doubt 
that affected its future. It may well have preceded Bannon’s preparation 
of the state's only whooping crane specimen, however, and any donation 
to the collection in the Statehouse that later became the OSU Museum 
presumably took place at a later date. Acquisition of the crane may have 
occurred after the donation, and as late as 1902.
The Historical Society, some of whose collections preceded those at OSU, 
retains a good number of bird specimens without data.
        The Archaeological and Historical Museum was a product of the A&H 
Society, formed in Columbus in 1885, later garnering State support in 
1888. In 1894 its library and museum were moved to the OSU Campus and 
curated by faculty. This was the direct antecedent of the current OSU 
Museum. Over a thousand bird skins from the A&H collection are retained 
at the Ohio Historical Society, forming the majority of the Wheaton 
Collection, nearly all of them study skins which lack tag data except 
for species names. There is currently nothing in either collection with 
data citing Bannon by name as collector, despite her many contributions 
to Ohio ornithology. There are 121 OSU Museum specimens from Scioto 
County, but only two of them lack data. Even if the donation was very 
large, such as the material in the exhibit, it could still conceivably 
be hidden among the several hundred OSUM specimens (counting only those 
likely from North America) with no data, which include one demounted 
whooping crane specimen, #756. Without data, however, this is a dead end.
        Is there somewhere a description of Bannon’s collection, or even an 
inventory of its contents?  Is there an A&H Society accessions record 
from before 1902? There seems to be nothing of this kind at OSU. We can 
look at the ledgers at the OHS, but they do not elaborate on each and 
every article in a large accession. Most likely is more searches for 
information in Portsmouth, maybe with the Bannon family, or perhaps in 
some other place. But even if a Portsmouth inventory is found with a 
whooping crane and data more complete than the known record offers, we 
are not a millimeter closer to a specimen. The only remnant I could find 
of her work was a passenger pigeon mount that is still retained in 
Portsmouth city library. Some research on Bannon's work with birds could 
be very revealing, and needs doing.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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