Chester County History Center - Charles J. Pennock Papers

Most of the letters in the collection are addressed to Pennock and relate to birds, bird eggs, or taxidermy.

Log book recording birds Pennock saw in Chester County. The volume records where and when birds were seen, and sometimes mentions sightings by other ornithologists. In addition, the book includes newspaper clippings about meetings of the West Chester Bird Club, and two lists of birds on separate pieces of paper. This “List of Resident & Visiting Birds of Chester Co.” may have been started by Ezra Michener, although Pennock may have written the penciled additions.

A manuscript copy of Charles Lucien Bonaparte’s book was made by Ezra Michener (b. 1794 - d. 1887), an ornithologist from New Garden, Chester County. Michener titled the manuscript “The Genera of the Birds of the United States, from C.L. Buonaparte,” which was published as Bonaparte’s The Genera of North American Birds, and a Synopsis of the Species Found Within the Territory of the United States. In the back of the volume are several recipes useful for taxidermy. A letter to Pennock from Ellwood Michener, son of Ezra, is pasted in front of the volume and notes that Pennock purchased this book circa 1901.