Albert R. Brand
{{Short description|American writer and ornithologist (1889–1940)}}
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Albert Rich Brand (October 22, 1889 – March 28, 1940){{cite journal |last1=Bailey |first1=Vernon |last2=Allen |first2=G. M. |last3=Allen |first3=Arthur A. |last4=Humphrey |first4=Harry B. |last5=Murray |first5=J. J. |last6=Sprunt |first6=Alexander |name-list-style=amp
|title=Obituaries |journal=The Auk |volume=58 |issue=3 |year=1941 |pages=444–448 |issn=0004-8038 |doi=10.2307/4078993 |jstor=4078993}} was an author and innovator in the recording of bird songs.{{Cite web |url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA00899.html |title=Guide to the Albert Rich Brand papers, 1928-1940 |website=Rare and Manuscript Collections |publisher=Cornell University Library}} Herbert J. Seligmann wrote Man and Bird Together: A Portrait of Albert R. Brand about him.{{Cite web |title=Herbert J. Seligmann papers 1894-1984 |work=Archives & Manuscripts |publisher=York Public Library |access-date=June 18, 2020 |url=http://archives.nypl.org/mss/2719}}
Biography
Albert R. Brand was born in New York City.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-a-r-brand-authorit/70088999/ |title=A. R. Brand, Authority on Birds, Dies |newspaper=The Ithaca Journal |page=3 |date=1940-03-29 |access-date=2024-11-23 |via=Newspapers.com}}
He was a stockbroker until age 39. At Cornell University he became a graduate student of ornithologist Arthur Augustus Allen. Brand collaborated with Cornell's engineering department to record bird songs, publishing two books accompanied by photographs.{{Cite web |url=https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/about/history/early-milestones/ |title=Early milestones (1920-1950) |website=Macaulay Library |publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology}} His first guide book about bird songs was accompanied by a phonograph record of a few dozen calls. He followed it up with a sequel with even more recordings.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kgJ5X5IpKNIC&pg=PA10 |title=Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Quest for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, 1935–1941 |first=Stephen Lyn |last=Bales |date=October 21, 2010 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |isbn=9781572337176 |via=Google Books}}
He also recorded frogs. Sales of phonograph records of bird sounds were a key source of income for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.{{cite web |url=http://macaulaylibrary.org/history |title=History of the Macaulay Library |website=Macaulay Library |publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology |access-date=May 19, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302154252/http://macaulaylibrary.org/history |archive-date=March 2, 2013 |url-status=dead }}
He died at his home in Ithaca, New York on March 28, 1940.
Bibliography
- Songs of Wild Birds, T. Nelson and Sons (1934)
- More Songs of Wild Birds (1936)
See also
- Macaulay Library, Cornell's library archive of animal sounds
References
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Category:Cornell University faculty
Category:American ornithologists
Category:Cornell University alumni
Category:20th-century American zoologists
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