Object Details
- Author
- Walker, Howell
- Subject
- Deignan, H. G (Herbert Girton) 1906-
- United States National Museum Dept. of Birds
- United States National Museum Dept. of Biology Division of Birds
- Arnhem Land Expedition
- Category
- Historic Images of the Smithsonian
- Originally published in National Geographic Magazine, vol. XCVI, December 1949, page 746. Image was displayed in the 2012 exhibit, "When Time and Duty Permit: Smithsonian Collecting in World War II," in the SI Libraries exhibit case in the National Museum of Natural History.
- Summary
- Herbert G. Deignan, curator of birds, is preparing a bird specimen while on the Arnhem Land Expedition. Deignan was part of the expedition team made up of Australian and American researchers and support staff. The expedition lasted nine months and explored northern Australia's remote region known as Arnhem Land. The team consisted of men and women from various disciplines including: an ethnographer, archaeologist, photographer, and film maker. The expedition included a botanist, a mammalogist, an ichthyologist, an ornithologist, and a team of medical and nutritional scientists. Under the leadership of Charles Mountford, the team investigated the Indigenous populations and the environment of Arnhem Land.
- Earlier, Deignan served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II and was stationed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where he collected natural history specimens for the National Museum, along with S. Dillon Ripley.
- Contained within
- Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7006, Box 194, Folder: Deignan, Herbert G
- Contact information
- Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu
- 1948
- Standard number
- SIA2008-2369
- Restrictions & Rights
- No restrictions
- Physical description
- Number of Images: 1; Color: Black and White ; Size: 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Person, Candid; Medium: Photographic print
- Place
- Australia
- Sri Lanka
- On view
- When Time and Duty Permit: Collecting During WWII, July 14, 2012 to May 2013
- Smithsonian Archives - History Div
- Topic
- Collectors and collecting
- Ornithologists
- Scientific expeditions
- Birds--Collection and preservation
- Birds
- World War, 1939-1945
- Record ID
- siris_sic_13627
