21 July 1911: "All chicks...are alike to her maternal heart."

On this day in 1911, the Athens Banner ran this adorable story on the front page of their daily newspaper:

(click to enlarge image)

Though it often seems odd to see animals caring for the young of different species, cross-species adoption has always been common in the animal world, even among animals that would otherwise be prey for the nurturing parent. According to an article in National Wildlife magazine, "even in the unsentimental calculus of natural selection, it may be better to err on the side of compassion."

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jul. 1911 - Nov. 1911 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Parenting Paradox by Sharon Levy, National Wildlife Magazine, Aug/Sept 2002.
• Unusual Animal Families photo album in Global Animal magazine online.
• The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in the general collection.
• A Natural History of Parenting by Susan Allport in the general collection.
• Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding by Sarah Hrdy via PINES.
• Guess Who My Mommy Is by Ann Axworthy in the children's picture book collection.
• The Emperor's Embrace: Reflections on Animal Families and Fatherhood by J. Moussaieff Masson in the general collection.
• Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection by Sarah Hrdy via PINES.

24 December 1897: "No Postage Having Been Placed Upon the Chicken..."

On this day in 1897, news of this holiday surprise was published in the Weekly Banner:

Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Feb. 1897 - Jul. 1898 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Mailability Standards of the United States Postal Service.
• Extraordinary Chickens by Stephen Green-Armytage in the general collection.
• Master the Postal Exams by John Gosney in the general collection.
• The Joy of Keeping Chickens by Jennifer Lynn Megyesi in the general collection.
• We Need Mail Carriers by Lola M. Schaefer in the children's collection.
• Raising Poultry the Modern Way by Leonard S. Mercia in the general collection.
• Postal Clerk and Carrier by John Gosney in the general collection.
• The Complete Guide to Poultry Breeds by Melissa G. Nelson in the general collection.
• Mailman: A Novel by J. Robert Lennon in the fiction collection.
• The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Manus Pinkwater in the children's fiction collection.
• Can You Ship It? page for the United States Postal Service.

21 May 1897: "Athens can beat that egg."

On this day in 1897, the Weekly Banner published the following rebuttal to a fuss in Norcross:

 

Mr. M. C. Few was likely Mark Few, a local Bible salesman who lived on College Avenue, and therefore, an honest and reliable source.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest egg from a living bird was 5 pounds, 11.36 ounces, laid by a Swedish ostrich in 2008.

Learn More: 

• Weekly Banner, Feb. 1897 - Jul. 1898 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• 1904 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• 1900 U. S. Census images in Ancestry Library Edition via GALILEO.
• Big Egg by Molly Coxe in the children's Easy Reader collection.
• Secrets of the Nest: The Family Life of North American Birds by Joan Dunning in the general collection.
• Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada in the children's collection.
• The Complete Chicken Book by Justine Harding in the general collection.
• Georgia Curiosities by William Schemmel in the general collection.
• Strange & Unexplained Happenings: When Nature Breaks the Rules of Science, edited by Jerome Clark and Nancy Pear in the general collection.
• Eccentric America: The Brandt Guide to All that Is Weird and Wacky in the USA by Jan Friedman in the general collection.
• Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Phenomena by Jerome Clark in the Reference collection.
• The Book of Why by Robert L. Shook in the Reference collection.
  

14 November 1894: "Ladies Fancy Goods Generally"

On this day in 1894, the following advertisement ran on page 3, column 7, of the Athens Daily Banner:

The ad was apparently for the business of Mrs. Addie Sisson Adams, the widow of Thomas A. Adams, who died during the Civil War leaving her with a young son to raise. Mrs. Adams was originally in business with her widowed sister, Eva Williamson, as indicated by this advertisement they purchased in the 1889 Athens City Directory:

Millinery, the creation and decoration of hats, was one of the few professions deemed appropriate for the single, middle class woman in the 19th century. Women who opened millinery boutiques were often widowed or orphaned, and in need of a form of independent support at a time when the primary economic support system for women was a reliable husband. It was also an area of entrepreneurship; in 1913, the trade magazine The Milliner proclaimed, "It offers women an independence."

Milliner establishments were sometimes referred to (by men) as "fripperies," since they were often the only retail location where a woman could purchase such notions as beads, pearl buttons, ribbons, feathers, flowers, fine laces, and quality silks for fancier gowns. Some milliners expanded their offerings to dressmaking, but Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Williamson were able to stay in business simply by providing hats in an era when elaborately decorated headwear was in vogue. Feathers from birds such as ospreys, egrets, and the now-extinct Carolina Parakeet were in such high demand that the National Audubon Society was formed specifically to lobby for legislation to protect them.

Millinery as a viable profession began to decline with the rise of the department store and the decline in customized hats as fashion in the 20th century. Mrs. Williamson died "after a lingering illness" in early 1900 at the home she shared with her sister on Oconee Street. Mrs. Adams had buried her son a few years earlier, and the 1900 U.S. census shows her occupation, at 74, as "milliner." Mrs. Adams lived until 1912, and is buried with her family in Oconee Hill Cemetery.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, Nov. 1894 - Nov. 3, 1898 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• 1889 Athens City Directory in the Heritage collection.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• HeritageQuest Census records in GALILEO. (call 706-613-3650, ext. 350 for current password)
• Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and Fashion, 1840-1900 by Joan L. Severa in the Heritage collection.
• A History of Private Life, Volume IV: From the Fires of Revolution to the Great War, edited by Michelle Perrot in the general collection.
• Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar, 1867-1898 by Stella Blum in the general collection.
• Sixty Years of Fashion, 1900-1960: The Evolution of Women's Styles in America by Alice Lessing in the general collection.
• A History of Costume by Karl Kohler in the general collection.
• Women's Hats of the Twentieth Century for Designers and Collectors by Maureen E. Lynn Reilly in the general collection.
• Hat Tricks: 80 Instant Makeovers That Transform Ordinary Hats into Fabulous Creations by Terence Terry in the general collection.
• Hats Off to Hats by Sara Corbett in the children's collection.
• The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss in the children's fiction collection.

10 August 2002: Ecology Pioneer Eugene Pleasants Odum Dies

On this day in 2002, Eugene P. Odum died in his Athens home, one month shy of his 89th birthday. It was believed he had a heart attack after working in his garden. Dr. Odum's research fundamentally changed the way the world understood the environment, asserting that "the ecosystem is greater than the sum of its parts."

Dr. Odum grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and was an avid ornithologist. After receiving his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Illinois, he spent a year as the naturalist at the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville, New York. In 1940, he came to the University of Georgia in Athens to teach zoology, though during WWII he taught "science to nurses, pharmacy-mates and pre-medical personnel."

When he started his career, Dr. Odum's holistic approach to ecology, that all life on the planet are an interdependent system, was considered unconventional. Since no textbook offered this perspective, he and his brother, Howard T. Odum, published Fundamentals of Ecology in 1953. The book revolutionized the way scientists and average citizens understood life on the planet, and for a decade was the only textbook that took a "top-down" approach to the environment. It was translated into 13 languages, and is currently in its fifth edition. The text made "ecosystem" a household word.

Over the years, Dr. Odum helped to create and establish the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (1951), the Marine Institute on Sapelo Island (1954), and the Institute of Ecology at UGA (1961), where he served as its first director until his retirement in 1984. During that time, Dr. Odum was the first UGA faculty member elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1970), helped pass Georgia's Coastal Marshlands Protection Act (1970), won the John and Alice Tyler Ecology Award (1977), and shared with his brother the Prix de l'Institut de la Vie (1977) and the Crafoord Prize (1987), considered to be the Nobel Prize for ecology science.

Dr. Odum was preceded in death by his wife Martha in 1995 and his son William, also an ecologist, in 1991. In his will, he left the profits from the sale of his 26 acres of property to the Eugene and William Odum Ecology Fund to support graduate student research at the Institute of Ecology at UGA, with $1 million set aside for an endowed Eugene P. Odum Chair of Ecology professorship. The will stipulated that 57% of the land must remain undeveloped, and would be overseen by the Oconee River Land Trust. There is now a small, 16-house development on the property, with 15 acres of walking trails through protected green space along the Oconee River near Five Points.

In 2007, UGA renamed the Institute of Ecology the Eugene P. Odum School of Ecology.

Learn More:

• Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist and Environmentalist by Betty Jean Craig in the Heritage and biography collections.
• Ecology and Our Endangered Life-Support Systems by Eugene P. Odum in the general collection.
• Ecological Vignettes: Ecological Approaches to Dealing with Human Predicaments by Eugene P. Odum.
• The Georgia Landscape: A Changing Resource by the Kellogg Physical Resources Task Force (Eugene P. Odum, chair) in the Heritage collection.
• Essence of Place by Martha Odum and Eugene P. Odum in the Heritage and general collections.
• Athens Banner-Herald, Aug. 1, 2002 - Aug. 15, 2002 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.

8 July 1920: Police Jurisdiction Over Roosters Disputed

On this day in 1920, page 7 of the Athens Banner brought to attention this dispute on Pulaski Street:

Pulaski Street Is Disturbed By Early Crowing of Rooster

Family Calls Upon Police Department To Stop Disorder; Chief Says It Has No Jurisdiction.

The jurisdiction of the police department of the city of Athens over Pulaski street roosters was brought into question yesterday afternoon and will, it was stated at police court, probably be placed before council at its next meeting.

The cause of the legal point being brought into question was a hurry call to police headquarters answered yesterday afternoon by Patrolman Nelms. He was summoned to a Pulaski street home, the name of whose owner he refused to disclose when questioned yesterday, and informed that a neighbor's roosters were waking up the family at too early an hour since the summer days have brought dawn at 4:30 o'clock in the morning.

Patrolman Nelms has, in his years of police service, been called upon frequently to settle delicate technicalities of the law on the spur of the moment, but the Pulaski street complaint nonplussed him. He referred the complaining parties to the sanitary department or Sheriff Jackson and assured them that the City Council had not authorized the police department to control Athens roosters.

Chief of Police Henry Beusse suggested yesterday afternoon that other Athens people who are annoyed by early crowing roosters might petition City Council to pass a rooster-muzzling ordinance, but that until some official action was taken, the police department has no jurisdiction over the matter.

Captain of Detectives Seagraves said the call yesterday to stop "disorderly conduct" among the city's barnyard population was the first of its kind he could remember in all his years of service.

Neither the newspaper nor City Council Minutes indicate whether this issue was resolved in 1920, but it is an issue that is still relevant on Pulaski Street and in the rest of the city today. Currently, it is illegal in Athens to keep chickens on less than an acre of land in residential areas, but many people keep chickens, as pets and for eggs, despite the law.

In 2008, Commissioner Kelly Girtz, a resident of Pulaski Street, proposed changing the law to allow people to raise chickens in their backyard. He believed that because residents were keeping chickens anyway, it would be a good idea to regulate the practice for the purposes of public health and safety of both the area residents and the chickens. Even the Athens Banner-Herald agreed that such a law would be a sensible reaction to the situation, but the Athens-Clarke County Commission did not support the idea.

This March, HB 842 passed out of the Georgia House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, but even with some changes, was not supported by local governments, who balked at state laws overriding local ordinances. Commissioner Girtz plans to revisit urban farming on the Athens Commission in 2011.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Aug. 1919 - Sep. 1920 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner-Herald, Jul. 1-31, 2008 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner-Herald, Nov. 1-30, 2008 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Flagpole Magazine, July and November, 2008 in the Heritage collection.
• Extraordinary Chickens by Stephen Green-Armytage in the general colleciton.
• Chickens by Mary Ann McDonald in the children's collection.
• Egg to Chick by Millicent Ellis Selsam in the children's collection.
• Storey's Guide to Raising Poultry by Leonard S. Mercia in the general collection.
• Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil by Andrew W. Lee in the general collection.
• The Decorative Egg Book: Twenty Charming Idea for Creating Beautiful Displays by Deborah Schneebeli-Morrell in the general collection.
• Holiday Eggs by Georgeanne Brennan in the general collection.
• Chicken on the Grill: 100 Surefire Ways to Grill Perfect Chicken Every Time by Cheryl Alters Jamison in the general collection.
• The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry in the general collection.
• The Impudent Rooster by Sabina Rascol in the children's fiction collection.

26 March 1913: A Basely Deceptive Woodpecker

On this day in 1913, the Athens Banner ran the following story on the front page:

Woodpecker Basely Deceived Athens Lady at Her Front Door

Yesterday morning bright and early--early anyhow and fairly bright on the part of all parties concerned--a lady living in a pretty nice section of the city heard a rapid rapping at her door and hastened to throw aside her kitchen apron--she had no help that morning--and as hastily brushing back the rebellious little ringlets of hair which had strayed away from their moorings--she went to the door. There was nobody in sight.

She called to mind that it is not yet the first of April and went back to the rear of the house--to be called again by the same insistent, persistent, nervous, determined knocking at the front.

Again she went to the door--to be disappointed.

The program was rehearsed four times--before the good lady discovered by accident that her visitor was none other than a red-headed woodpecker--perched over the front porch, hammering on the weather boarding of the gable.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Feb. 1913 - Jun. 1913 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
  
• Life Histories of North American Woodpeckers by Arthur Cleveland Bent in the general collection.
• Red-Headed Woodpeckers by James E. Gerholdt in the children's collection.
• The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters with North America's Most Iconic Birds by Paul Bannick in the general collection.
• Garden Birds of America: A gallery of Garden Birds and How to Attract Them by George H. Harrison in the general collection.
• Annotated Checklist of Georgia Birds (multiple editions) in the Heritage, Reference, and general collections.
• John Abbot's Birds of Georgia: Selected Drawings from the Houghton Library, Harvard University by John Abbot in the Heritage, Reference, and general collections.
• Woody Woodpecker page on the Independent Movie Database website.