I am looking for an informant about Mrs. G. W. Bannon (the initials probably are those of her husband, as women had incomplete identities in the nineteenth century), a scion of the famed Bannon family in Scioto County. Ms. Bannon was known, among other things, for her skill in collecting and preparing bird specimens, for which she was honored with an Ohio medal in 1888 for a large exhibit of bird specimens displayed in that year's Ohio fair. Among them was one of a passenger pigeon, and I've heard rumors that she had even prepared a mount of a whooping crane, that may or may not have been included in her submission. Her display may have been returned to Portsmouth or gone as a gift to the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Museum, which had gained support from the State by 1888. That museum was the beginning of the OSU Museum bird collection, which possesses an example of the whooping crane, without documentation, as well as a number of passenger pigeons without data. If any of these were Bannon's birds, it would be important to learn more about them. Was Bannnon's display returned to Scioto County, or did it all go to the new Ohio collection? Had she collected the birds in Ohio? The Ohio collection was assembled by J. M. Wheaton and Oliver Davie, who had probably seen the crane along with Bannon's other work at the fair. OSUM possesses a number of passenger pigeons without data, and a whooping crane equally unidentified. Bannon's name seems not to be associated with any specimen at the Museum, but where did her collection go? Information from Scioto County could help to honor this forgotten contributor to Ohio ornithology. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]