Mice in the Freezer, Owls on the Porch: The Lives of Naturalists Frederick and Francis Hamerstrom

Notes

Notes In citing works in the notes, short titles have generally been used. Works frequently cited are identified by the following abbreviations: FH, Frances Hamerstrom; FNH, Frederick Nathan Hamerstrom Jr.; AL, Aldo Leopold; CM, Curt Meine. I have preserved the original punctuation, date as given, and syntax of the original letters. Chapter 1. Prologue 1. Modest Hammy would have nothing to do with a mixed sauna. 2. Following Fran’s death in 1998, their daughter, Elva Paulson, moved books, family papers, and other material to her home in Oregon; what professional files remain are still in the Plainfield house. There is no organized archive at the present time. 3. The approach of Italian scholars Alessandro Portelli and Luisa Passerini , among others, has brought new impetus to the use of oral history. Denying its reliability is no longer automatic: reliability is not everything. “Oral sources tell us not just what people did, but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were doing, and what they now think they did.” See Alexander Stille, “Prospecting for Truth in the Ore of Memory,” New York Times, 10 March 2001, A15, A17. 4. April 9, 2002 Fran wrote on an early draft of this work: “This rings true so often—Don’t be afraid of lots of direct quotes—Paraphrasing weakens the impact.” 5. Aldo Leopold, Game Management (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933), 423. 6. Ruth Hine, personal communication. 309 Chapter 2. The Complexities of Childhood 1. Frances Hamerstrom, My Double Life (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994). The Press reprinted her earlier Strictly for the Chickens (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1980). Citations are from the more recent book. 2. See Edward F. Flint Jr. and Gwendolyn S. Flint, Flint Family History of the Adventuresome Seven, 2 vols. (Baltimore: privately printed, 1984), 2: 1029–1030, 1048–1049; and Erwin James Otis and Florence Leverett Hodge, Genealogy of William Leverett (1772–1807) and Descendants (Ann Arbor: privately printed, 1974), leaves 4 and 5. I am indebted to John Holshueter for providing these references. 3. Dates and facts derive from two detailed letters to me from Putnam Flint, 22 January 1999 and 19 August 2000. 4. This was the Herr Thümmer who came to a Sunday tea with the young Flint family in Dresden, probably in 1912, a visit that lay behind Fran’s discovery that her father had “condoned breaking the law.” See FH, My Double Life, 5. 5. Ibid., 81. Putnam Flint was distressed when Fran sold this house, a bequest from her grandmother, for $10,000 shortly after World War II. It was valuable ocean-side property. 6. Putnam Flint has this diary. 7. FH, My Double Life, 12. 8. Alice Miller, For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1986), 97. 9. FH, My Double Life, 26; Mrs. Flint’s letter to Fran is in Putnam Flint’s family papers. 10. Ibid., 40. “I sadly repent all my nauty-nesses to Fräuta but perhaps it is too late she talks every day about going and I am very unhappy. I have resolved to be good.” The method of adult control implied here is laying on guilt, a common practice no longer seen as desirable. 11. Both Fran and Helen Flint kept in touch with Fräuta until 1941, and again after the World War II. 12. Hamerstrom’s accounts varied. In her Birding With a Purpose (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1984), 4, she says: “My family graciously gave me a vacant maid’s room for my hobbies. It contained my insect collection, my animal collection, my bird collection, my egg collection, arsenical soap for preserving skins, and things that I just happened to like: for example, a doll’s bureau with a secret compartment for hiding small objects.” This account serenely contradicts her frequent statements about the secrecy of her pursuits. 13. FH, My Double Life, 116–117. Notes to Pages 13–21 310 14. Ibid., 71–72. See “Will She Die without Rangle?” 15. Her wartime letter to Elva of 16 March 1944 to McCool Junction, Nebraska, reads, in part, “Beloved little Elva—Happy birthday darling!” She mentions the check she is sending to Fran for a birthday present and continues , “Grandparents have so much love for you and Alan that sometimes they find it hard to be brave in Mother’s...