salmon flies. the standard patterns.

Transcription

Fly tyers Gary Borkowski and Bill Chandler demonstrate their skill during the open house.
w
Victorian For A Day
E T Hou GH T
Barbara Foster pulled together the various
components of the River Runs Through It
exhibit.
you'd like to see
some images from the 5th Annual Museum Festival Weekend, held June 3 to 5, 1994, a series of
events to which this year we added Victorian Angler's Day at historic Equinox
Pond. Museum members and visitors
were shuttled the two miles up Mt.
Equinox to the old site, popular since
the nineteenth century for picnicking,
boating, and fishing.
The pond has been lovingly restored
and the crumbling old boathouse renovated into a fabulous open-air pavilion
by the Equinox Hotel. On this fine Saturday we experimented with 12-foot
greenheart vintage Victorian rods from
the Museum's collection ("Sort of like
casting a noodle," exclaimed one
amaze2 guest) and caught a number of
the willing trout rising in front of us.
Visitors were rowed serenely around by
a costumed host in the Museum's
Adirondack guideboat (the rods and
boat both permanently categorized for
educational purposes). A sumptuous
lunch was then served in the uavilion.
This unique and relaxing event was
preceded by the successful opening of
an art exhibit by Luther Kelly Hall and
David Carroll. and followed bv Manchester's popular annual dinnerlauction
and open house.
In this Summer 1994 issue, Ray Smith
looks at the old ways of dying materials
for salmon flies using natural ingredients. We also learn something about the
artists S. F. Denton, courtesy of Charles
Steinhacker, and Thomas Bewick, by
Museum member Jeffrey Norton.
We are delighted with our readers'
continuing interest and research!
MARGOT
PAGE
EDITOR
Preserving a Rich Heritage
for Future Generations
T R U S T E E S
E. M. Bakwin
Robert F. Kahn
Michael Bakwin
Woods King 111
Foster Bam
Martin D. Kline
William M. Barrett
Me1 Kreiger
Ian D. Mackay
Bruce H. Begin
Paul Bofinger
Malcolm MacKenzie
Lewis M. Borden 111 Robert E. Mathews I1
Donn H. Byrne, Sr.
Bob Mitchell
Roy D. Chapin, Jr.
Wallace J. Murray I11
Michael D. Copeland
Wayne Nordberg
Peter Corbin
Leigh H. Perkins
Thomas N. Davidson
Romi Perkins
Charles R. Eichel
0.Miles Pollard
G. Dick Finlay
Susan A. Popkin
Audun Fredrikson
Stephen Sloan
Arthur T. Frey
Arthur Stern
Reed Freyermuth
John Swan
Larry Gilsdorf
James Taylor
Gardner L. Grant
Richard G. Tisch
Terry Heffernan
James W. Van Loan
Curtis Hill
San Van Ness
James Hunter
Richard J. Warren
Dr. Arthur Kaemmer
Dickson L. Whitney
Earl S. Worsham
T R U S T E E S
W. Michael Fitzgerald
Robert N. Johnson
David B. Ledlie
E M E R I T U S
Leon Martuch
Keith C. Russell
Paul Schullery
O F F I C E R S
Chairman of the Board
President
Vice Presidents
Treasurer
Secretary
Foster Bam
Wallace J. Murray 111
William M . Barrett
Arthur Stern
Wayne Nordberg
Charles R. Eichel
S T A F F
Executive Director
Executive Assistant
Curator
Registrar
Research/Publicity
Editor
Art Director
Copy Editor
Publications Coordinator
Offset Printing
Donald S. Johnson
Virginia Hulett
Alanna D. Fisher
Jon C. Mathewson
Joe A. Pisarro
Margot Page
Randall R. Perkins
Sarah May Clarkson
Alanna D. Fisher
The Lane Press, Inc.,
Burlington, Vermont
F~TY
Fisher
Journal of d ~ h American
e
Museum of Fly Fishing
SUMMER
1994
VOLUME
20
NUMBER
3
Antique Colors for Atlantic Salmon Flies . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Ray R. Smith
The Fish Prints of S. F. Denton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .lo
Charles Steinhacker
The Evolution of the Salmon Fly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
?: E. Pryce- Tannatt
Gallery: Omar Needham Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Notes & Comment:
Thomas Bewick, Wood Engraver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
JeffreyNorton
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
In Memoriam:
Ed Zern 1910-1974 .
Joe Pisarro
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Museum News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
COVER
In: this Summer 1994 issue, Ray Smith reveals nineteenth-century techniques for dyingfly-tying materials with such natural
ingredients as walnut skins, ground-up insects, and brazilwood. The cover
illustration is a page from William Blacker's Art of Flymaking (1855), one
of the Museum library'sfinest antique volumes.
ON THE
The American Fly Fziher 1s published
four times a year by the Museum at PO. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254.
Publication dates are winter, spring, summer, and fall. Membership dues include the cost of a one-year
subscr~ption($20) and are tax deductible as provided for hv law. lvlembersh~prates arc listcd in the hack of each
issue. All letters, manuscripts, photographs, and materials intended for pubhiat~onIn thc journal should he sent
to the Museum. The Museum and journal are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, drawings, photographic
material, or memorab~lia.The Museum cannot accept respon~~bdlty
far statements and interpretations that are
wholly the author's. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned unless postage is provided. Contributions to The
American Fly Flsher are to he considered gratuitous and the property of the Museum unless otherwise requested
by the contributor Articles appeanng m thls journal arc abstracted and indexed in Hiitoncal Abstracts and America:
History and Life. Copyright 0 1994, the American Museum of Fly Fishing, Maiiihester, Vermont 05254. Origiilal
material appeanng may not he reprinted without prior permission. Second Class Permit postage paid at Manchester
Vermont 05254 and additional offices (USPS og741o). The Amencan Fly Fzsher (ISSN 0884.3562)
P o s T M A s T E R : Send address changes to The American Fly Fisher, PO. Box 42,
Manchester, Vermont 05254.
SUMMER
1994
1
William Blacker and other early Victorianfly dressers developed these brilliant colors with natural dyestuffs. In the lower
right corner, a palette of antique dyes contains (clockwise, from left) indigo from the Far East, Mexican cochineal beetles,
South American logwood, tumeric powder, ground madder root, crushed cochineal, and (center) brazilwood chips. The
hackles and dubbing furs illustrate a full spectrum of authentic antique colors available to Atlantic salmon fly tyers.
Photograph by Cook Neilson.
2
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY F I S H E R
Antique Colors
For Atlantic Salmon Flies
by Ray R. Smith
C O L O R A D OF L Y T Y E R and Museum
member Ray Smith has spent years carefully researching the natural methods
used by Victorian fly tyers to dye feathers.
Materials such as walnut skins, groundu o insects. brazilwood. and other natural
ingredients gave Victorian anglers the
precise colors they required and could not
easily obtain otherwise. This article will
be o f much interest to the small but dedicated group of historianfi tyers who have
revitalized an obscure type of salmon fly
that, apart from the magnificence of its
construction, would have disappeared
along with the Archduke Ferdinand in the
opening shots of the First World War.
Todav. full-dress flies tied far more
precisely than even Kelson would have att e m ~ t e d are constructed with modern
tools and thread, but attempts to tie the
DUtternS with original
materials, true to
"
Victorian excess, strain the limited legal
supply of exotic bird feathers. Smith's fascinating article gives featherwing salmon
fly tyers a new, and just as exciting, scavenger hunt, and one that is far more politically correct than chasing down the
last legal piece of speckled bustard. W h a t
a great thrill it must be to see your piece
of goose quill emerge from a pot of
ground-up cochineal insects from Mexico,
the same stuff used by the Aztecs and the
British Redcoats (to dye their coats)!
The historical dying materials listed
here are obtainable-although not too
easily, which would spoil the fun of most
salmon fly tyers. W e can only hope for an
encore article from the author that deals
with the correct dves used for nineteenthand early twentieth-century trout flies
like the Houghton Ruby, and, of course,
T u p i Indispensable.
TOMROSENBAUER
/ '
i
The great advantage the fly fisher must derive from a knowledge of dyeing his colours and hackles is obvious. . . . Every
hackle and colour that is used for making a salmon fly must
be of the richest dye imaginable, that they may show brilliant
and good to thefish's eye at the bottom of the water, and entice them to rise and take it at the top.
-William Blacker, 1855
I
N T H E F I R S T P A R T of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution had reached its peak in Great
Britain, bringing with it better roads,
railroads. and an increase in travel.
Sport fishers had the opportunity to visit manv different rivers and the resultant
exchange of patterns and fly-tying materials spurred the development of
salmon flies, especially those brilliantly
adorned jewels known as gaudy flies.
Foreign trade brought many exquisite
feathers to fly dressers in Great Britain.
To complement these exotic plumes, fly
dressers needed hackles and furs dyed in
rich and lasting hues.
An early work by W. H. Maxwell, The
Field Book, or Sports and Pastimes of the
British Isles (1833)~gave numerous formulas for the dyeing of fishing materials. Maxwell credits a Major Patrickson,
an angling expert, for the "simple and
antiquated recipes" which he gives, but
the formulas showed a lack of solid understanding of the dyeing process. Once
a secret skill protected by medieval
guilds, the science of dyeing had been
studied by French chemists in the late
eighteenth century. As early as 1778,
books such as James Haigh's The Dier's
Assistant in the Art of Dying Wool and
Woolen Goods explained the use of the
only dyestuffs available to nineteenthcentury dyers. All the dye pigments
were extracted from natural sources
-roots, barks, berries, insects, and a
few minerals from places all around the
world. Indigo and turmeric were imported from the Near East, cochineal
beetles from Mexico. brazilwood and
logwood from South America, and
madder roots from Holland and France.
In 1823 William Partridge, an English
emigrant to America, published A Practical Treatise on Dyeing, a manual which
he hoped would promote industry in
his adopted nation. Fly dressers had
these two reference works available for
dyeing their tying materials.
Irish flydressers, in particular, had
developed a reputation for tying fishing
flies using brightly colored furs, feathers, silks, and tinsels. One Irishman,
William Blacker, moved to London to
set up a tackle shop and introduce the
Irish style of tying to London gentlemen. His book, Art of Angling and Complete System of Flymaking and Dying of
SUMMER
1994
3
Title page, Blacker's Art of Flyntaking (1855)
Colours (1842), demonstrated fly patterns, tying techniques, and formulas
for the dveing
, u of materials.
Over the next decade contemporary
angling authors spoke highly of Blacker's skill as a fly dresser and dyer.
Among them were author and editor
William Fitzgibbon (pseud. Ephemera)
and Scottish writer Thomas Tod Stoddart. With such acknowledgement, Mr.
Blacker published an enlarged edition of
his work in 1855, including patterns and
hand-colored engravings of beautiful
salmon flies dressed in gaudv
"
, colors. In
combination with the engravings in
Frederick Tolfrey's Jones's Guide to Norw a y . . . (1848) and in Ephemera's Book
of the Salmon (1850), Blacker's illustrations provided fly-fishing readers with
pictures of intricately tied and colorful
salmon flies, all tied using only naturally
dyed materials. In this edition of The
Art of Flymaking, &c . . . (1855), he expanded the section on dyeing, giving
about seventv-five formulas using twenty-five differint natural dyestuff;to dye
pig's wool, mohair, seal's fur, and hackles. He refers his readers to the manual cis referred numerous times to the use
by James Haigh for more detailed infor- of mauve-colored materials in salmon
flies. In A Book on Angling (1867) Franmation.
Blacker's formulas, though written in cis recognized that a magnificent "nata disorganized fashion, used the princi- ural" color spectrum was already availples published by professional cloth dy- able to fly dressers. Having received
ers. He did not, however, have the same salmon flies from throughout the
economic constraints. Since he was British Isles, he had great difficulty dedealing with very small quantities of scribing all the colors they contained.
materials, he enjoyed the luxury of be- Although the new synthetic dyes added
ing able to use an overabundance of to the range of available shades, this
dyestuffs to achieve the richest imagin- complicated the choices presented to
able colors. The colors he obtained were the angler or fly dresser.
By 1883 George M. Kelson-sportsbrilliant and beautiful, rivaling the intense and showy hues of natural feath- man, author, editor, and noted fly
ers, such as macaw, cock of the rock, dresser-had proposed a way to try to
relieve some of the confusion. He arand golden pheasant crests.
Concurrent with the development
of gued that the colors that had made cerI
salmon flies, color chemists were bring- tain fly patterns famous were being ining synthetically based dyestuffs to the accurate$ replaced by "modern" colors.
textile industry to replace expensive and He hoped to eliminate great variation
rare natural dyes and to introduce new between flies tied by different fly-makcolors. A little more than ten years after ing firms, so that fisherman could get
William Henry Perkin extracted the first commercially tied flies as they expected
synthetic aniline dye, mauve, from coal them to look. Kelson wrote -frequently
tar in 1856, angling author Francis Fran- in The Fishing Gazette and in Land and
4
Water of the need for "standard colours."
He based his color choices on samples
of material and flies collected by his father -colors which predated the invention of synthetic pigments. In 1883 Kelson said, "I propose to have sample
books or cards containing five shades in
every colour, as well as Fiery Brown,
Dirty Oranges, Golden Yellows, and
Crimson Magenta with each one
named; and for these colours to be
adovted in all other materials."
By the end of the century, angling
authors who gave advice on dyeing generally suggested the use of prepackaged
dyes. In How to Tie Salmon Flies (1892),
Captain J. H. Hale listed four brands of
dyes available, including an aniline variety. He noted, however, that dyes of different manufacturers would yield different shades and hues for the same color.
M O D E R ~SyNTHET1c
DyEs vS.
NATURAL
DYES
The evolution of synthetic aniline
dyeing technology generally simplified
NATURAL
D Y E I N GMETHODS
APIIII
IU. 18111.
LAND
-
MI)WATER.
A number of factors influence the
process of dyeing with antique dyestuffs.
These include the quantity and quality
of the dyestuff, water quality, mordants,
chemical modifiers, cleanliness of materials, and temperature control.
The dye pigment must be extracted
from the dyestuff in a bath, usually before the addition of materials. In ParMR. G E O . M. ICELSON,
tridge's day, because of the many steps
required in extracting the pigment from
Undei- Authority of the Jurors of the Fisheries Exhibition; a Copy
of which is given below.
a natural dyestuff, economic consideraT h e s e Beautiful Flies will be Illustrated a n d Detioiis made the grading of dyestuff qualscril>ecl W e e k l y in " L A N D A N D W A T E R , " in
ity an important issue. The quality of
C h ~ = o ~ i ~ o - L i t h o g r aT
p lh~e. first F l y will a p p e a r o n
natural dyes available today appears to
t h e 2 4 t h April.
be
very high.
Tile S t a n d a l - d C o l o u r s t h e m s e l v e s will s h o r t l y be
Because early dyers knew water qualissuecl 1'1-om" L A N D A N D W A T E R " Office.
ity could affect dye results, they reconlTHE GREAT INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION,
mended soft water. Even with modern
LONDON. 1883.
dyes, results may vary because of minerEOSAIA RORTIOULTURAL OARDENB,
als dissolved in tap water, so distilled
now 8 0 . ~ti.^^,^^^^^
~
hodon, 6 . w . . ond J~I;, laas.
water gives the most reliable results.
Metallic salts, called mordants, bind
to the materials and help the pigment to
strike upon the fibers, making the dye
colorfast or permanent on the material,
the dyeing process. Most dyes readily quished antique dyes because aniinal and also influencing the hue or shade of
available today are prepackaged and re- fibers (wools, furs, feathers, etc.) absorb the color. The same dyestuff can yield a
quire few additions other than water. natural pigments easily and because the range of colors depending upon which
These dyes contain all the chemicals colors blend well with each other. There mordant is used. Aluminum, tin, and
necessary for permanent and attractive are, in fact, distinct advantages to using chrome tend to brighten or "bloom"
colors, and the synthetic pigments in natural dyes. The colors are lasting, colors; iron or copper tend to darken or
them are often chemically identical to vivid (as desired by early and modern "sadden" colors. "Substantive" dyestuffs
the major dye component of a naturally fly dressers), and beautiful, being more need no mordant to produce fast colors,
occurring dyestuff. Modern dyestuffs, complex in appearance than the puri- but the use of mordants may produce
however, typically operate best at one fied synthetic dyes. Many natural dye- different hues. The application of morconcentration. Diluting to get a lighter stuffs contain a whole range of pig- dants can occur before, during, or after
shade generally gives poor results, and ments. which are released d e ~ e n d i n"g the introduction of the material or dye
concentrating the dye beyond package upon the level of acidity, the cheinicals pigment to the dyepot.
recommendations may harm the mate- used, the temperature applied, and the
Other chemical modifiers bring out
rials, so to get another shade it is neces- length of time the materials are left in specific elements of the pigments or adsary to purchase another package of the dyebath.
just certain characteristics of the dyedye. Usually synthetic dyes will not mix
Blacker's formulas of 150 years ago bath. The level of acidity can affect color
to give nice compound colors (for ex- can be duplicated today using natural and also can help to increase color perample, yellow and blue to give green). dyestuffs to achieve the colors he used manence. Adding ammonia, or rinsing
Overdyeing may be possible, but the un- for his patterns. Some of the early for- materials in it after dyeing, can brighten
expected mixing of chemicals can pro- inulas given here will take the dyeing or change hues and conditioils the maduce unsatisfactory results.
process back to its component parts, al- terial to give it a lustrous appearance.
The natural dyeing methods, howev- lowing the dyer to make a variety of adNatural fibers require some cleaning
er, were not totally replaced by the in- justments for different colors required. with alkali soaps or ammonia to remove
troduction of synthetic dyes. Craftsmen, This "kitchen chemistry" can produce the waterproofing oils and greases they
especially weavers, have not relin- rewarding and authentic colors.
contain. Modern readers find some
.-
SALMON FLIES.
THE STANDARD PATTERNS.
Dressed to Accord with the Standard ~olours,
I
~
Y
L
L
D
~
~
~
~
~
~
SUMMER
1994
5
NII.?~r[xlnns.
The I\ alnut tree.
amusement in the idea that a common
ingredient in the old dyeing process was
urine. Used for scouring or cleaning the
oils from wool or other fibers, it was a
plentiful, free, and safe source of ammonia. In his 1823 Practical Treatise
William Partridge said:
Urine is the only material that ought to be
used for the scouring of wool: it is the
cheapest of any and can be obtained in
sufficient quantity in almost any situation
in which a factory may be placed. . . .
Urine that is fresh voided, will not scour
well. That from persons living on plain
diet, is stronger and better than from luxurious livers. The cider and gin drinkers
are considered to give the worst, and the
beer drinker the best. . . . Many English
manufacturers keep it in large vats with
close covers, and I have seen six of these
at one factory, holding nearly two thousand gallons each, all full: they keep
working the oldest and filling up as they
are emptied.
Careful temperature control ensures the
extraction of only certain pigments
from the dyestuff. Also, furs or wool
may shrink when subjected to sudden
temperature changes, so careful maintenance of proper temperatures protects
materials as well as controlling the pigment.
A selection of dyes and chemicals can
be obtained for around $50. Turmeric is
available at a grocery store and other
dyestuffs may be found at weaving or
craft supply firms. One highly recommended source is the Earth Guild. a
mail-order supply house which sells
natural dyes and many of the chemicals
needed, as well as several of the reference books listed above. A few materials
will be more difficult to obtain, such as
black walnut hulls, available only in the
fall where such trees grow. To obtain
some chemicals (sulfuric and nitric
acids) inquire at a college or university
chemical stockroom. Skyloom Fibres
will send Liquid Blue, a form of chemic,
which has the indigo already dissolved
in acid.
The following books will provide
further information on dyeing with nat6
ural dyestuffs: Natural Dyes and Home
Dyeing by Rita Adrosko, Ancient Dyes
for Modern Weavers by Palmy Weigle,
Vegetable Dyeing by Alma Lesch, Easy
Dyeing by Frances Mustard, A Dyer's
Manual by Jill Goodwin, and The Art
and Craft of Natural Dyeing by J. N . Liles.
Additional reading can provide a better
understanding of the dyeing process.
How
TO
DYEW I T H
Equipment needed for dyeing with
natural dyestuffs includes measuring
spoons, rubber gloves, wooden dowels
or stainless steel utensils for stirring, a
thermometer, and a kitchen or postal
scale for weighing ounces. To prepare
the dyebaths use either stainless steel or
Pyrex glass pots.
Clean all materials thoroughly in tap
water with mild dishwashing detergents,
so that their fibers will accept the
dyestuff properly. If necessary, for very
light colors, whiten materials with a
nonchlorine bleach or color remover
such as thio-urea dioxide to keep a yellow or brown tint from influencing the
final color. Thoroughly rinse any soap,
detergent, or whitening agent from the
material with warm tap water and follow with a rinse in warm distilled water.
Prepare all dye and mordant baths
and modifying solutions using distilled
water because the minerals dissolved in
tap water can affect dye results. Enclose
loose materials in clean nylon net bags
to keep them from mixing with the
dyestuffs. Tie hackles by their stems into
small bundles. If necessary, soak materials in distilled water until they are thoroughly wet before putting them into the
dyebath or mordant bath. Keep furs or
wools at nearly the same temperature as
the dyebath they are going into, to prevent matting or shrinking. Add materials to the dyebath and stir using a
wooden dowel. When the desired color
is reached, remove materials and rinse
them thoroughly in warm tap water,
matching dyebath temperature for furs
and wools, and gradually reducing the
temperature of the rinse water. Blot the
material dry with paper towels and then
lay them out to dry in the air. Clipped
furs should be picked apart and fluffed
to assist drying.
Many natural dyestuffs are harmless,
being actual foods or food colorings approved by the FDA. Others chemicals,
including some of the mordants, are
poisonous or caustic, and should be
handled carefully and disposed of properly. Dyeing is a chemical process and
should be practiced with proper precautions at each step, keeping harmful materials away from children and pets. Obtain Material Safety Data Sheets for
chemicals from most supply sources.
Do not use cooking utensils intended
for food preparation. Be extremely careful with concentrated acids and always
add acid to water (the stronger liquid to
the weaker). Keep the dyeing area well
ventilated and do not inhale fumes produced by heating liquids. A final precaution: dyes are intended to be colorfast and can. therefore. seriouslv stain
clothing, skin, and countertops.
The rest of this article contains formulas that, with a little practice and
good quality dyestuffs, can give surprisingly consistent results. They are Blacker's methods, tested by the author, and
with quantities given in modern mea-
Pre-mordant materials in alum and
cream of tartar. Stir 1 tablespoon of
powdered cochineal into I quart distilled water, add the materials, and heat
to i70°F. Let simmer for 2 hours or
more for rich crimson. Wash, rinse, and
dry as before.
Letting the materials sit overnight in
the dyebath will enhance the blue factor
of the dyestuff to produce a plum-claret
color.
surements for dyebaths suitable for
small batches of materials. Each formula
can produce a dyebath for dyeing about
l/s of an ounce of wool, seal's fur, or
hackle feathers.
DYEF O R M U L A S
In his Art of Flymaking Blacker approached the formulas this way: "The
five principle colors to work upon are
blue, red, yellow, brown and black.
From the combination of two or more
of these may be produced every shade
required, from the lightest to the darkest, so that it only requires some practice, to know the different ingredients to
use, to become a Dyer of Fishing Colors." Proper recipes appear below.
Alum Pre-mordant
Blacker used alum as his principal
mordant. He often applied it to his materials prior to the actual dyeing.
Up to 1 ounce of fur and hackle may
be pre-mordanted at once and then divided for use in different color dyebaths.
Dissolve I teaspoon alum and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar in I quart of distilled water. Add the materials and slowly heat the bath up to 170° F. Let this
simmer for 4,5,minutes. Cool the bath to
hand-hot, then remove the materials
and rinse them in warm distilled water.
For Yellow
This method is easy, inexpensive, and
completely nonhazardous. The spice
turmeric ( Curcuma longa) is the ground
root of the Indian saffron plant, the yellow coloring agent and an important
flavor in curry powder. Many dyers considered it to produce the finest yellows
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
cream of tartar. The dvestuff is turmeric
powder (I teaspoon), stirred into 1 quart
of distilled water. Put in the wet, premordanted materials. Bring dyebath to
170°F. Remove a bright yellow in about
8 minutes. Leave materials up to an
hour to obtain a rich golden yellow. Remove the materials, wash in dishwash-
For Blue
ing detergent, and rinse in tap water.
Dry by air drying or blow drying.
For Red
Madder (Rubia tinctorum), a plant
transplanted to Europe from Asia Minor, has roots containing dyestuffs ranging from red to orange. The dye pigment alizarin is found within the plant
root, so pulverizing the root will release
the most dve substance.
cream of tartar. The dye is 4 tablespoons
of madder root, finely ground. Add the
powder to 1 quart of distilled water, add
the materials, and heat only to 150°F
(higher temperature will bring out a
brown dye element). Let them dye for at
least 2 hours for a rich "lacquer" red.
Wash, rinse, and dry the materials as before.
For Crimson
Spanish explorers found the Aztecs
dyeing splendid reds using cochineal
(Dactylopius coccus), a scale insect
which grows on cacti. The dye pigment,
carminic acid. com~risesa common ingredient in women's cosmetics. European dyers prized cochineal highly and
used it to dye expensive fabrics. The
British Redcoats wore coats dyed with
cochineal at the time of the American
Revolution.
Indigo (Indigofera tinctoria), the extract of a leguminous plant which originally grew in India and Egypt, was the
commercial source of most blue dye. It
was first synthesized in 1870, but the
synthetic form did not become commercially available until 1890. The dye
Blacker used for blue was chemic. or indigo powder dissolved in sulfuric acid
(also known as Liquid Blue). It is possible to obtain Liquid Blue from Skyloom
Fibres or make it using the following
formula.
Use great care when producing this
blue liquid dye. Wear rubber gloves and
goggles and ventilate the workspace for
this process. Slowly stir in 1 ounce of the
natural indigo (powdered) to 4 ounces
(by weight) of concentrated sulfuric
acid. Set the mixture aside for a day and
then store in a tightly capped bottle.
For pure blues in lighter shades, use
materials that are as white as vossible.
Any yellow in the base material can give
a greenish tint to the hue.
cream of tartar. Dissolve the desired
amount of dye in 1 quart of warm water
(150°F) before adding warm presoaked
materials. Six to twelve drops of dye per
quart of warm distilled water yields a
light
Silver Doctor blue. Twentv-five
"
drops or more of the dye will produce a
rich deep blue, known to early dyers as
Saxon Blue. Leave the materials in the
bath for 15 to 30 minutes. For deeper
blues, allow the materials to remain in
the dyebath for up to 8 hours at room
temperature. Wash, rinse, and dry as
before.
SUMMER
1994
7
From Blacker's Art of Flyrnnking (1855)
For Brown
Black walnut (Juglans nigra) has
brown dyestuff in its leaves, bark, and
roots, but mostly concentrated in the
hulls of the nut. This substantive dye
needs no mordant, although an alum
and cream of tartar pre-mordant can
deepen the color. Use natural brown
hackles for this color.
Wear rubber gloves-this dye can
stain your hands for up to two weeks.
Cut off the rinds of sixteen black walnuts. Place the walnut hulls in 2 quarts
of water and simmer at least 1 hour.
Strain out the rinds and make 1 quart of
dyebath.
Add the wet materials to the dyebath
and simmer at 170°F for up to 8 hours
for the darkest brown. Wash and rinse
as before.
For Black
William Blacker recommends starting with natural black hackles for this
process. The heartwood of the South
American tree, logwood (Haematoxylon
campechianum), contains dyestuffs,
yielding pigments ranging from violet
to blue to black.
1 oz. logwood
1tbsp.
tannic acid
l/s tsp. iron sulfate (copperas)
?4tsp. cream of tartar
lh tsp. sodium carbonate
little ciysi
Ils of cochi
)r an hour* or two; t,ake the hackles
ust boiled j n the tartas, and put
iye-pot, a n (I simmer them slow1
some tim!e, say half un hour ; then take
"spirits 0f grain,"* nnd put into the dyetea-spoonfd or a little more ; take then
vr,baaluuaJy, and look at theru Ln+".nns
v r u w r c u
eyes and the light, and when the right c
is obtained, rinse the,rnand dry
If you are in a hurry tor scarlet, y
drop the pbxticles of block-tin into aquatill they tve dissolved, and add a little t
scarlet dye:; the other is best, as it gives a
.
orillinnc. shade
;-boil slow.
If the extract of bismuth is added tc
red liquor of the cochineal in a small qua
it will change it to a purple or violet colo~
3
.??.
* Spirits c~fgrain for 81:arlet,-5 qutlrter pint o f ,spirits
of nitre, a quarter of cwI ounce of 5mmoniac, add hnif
bottle, and drop into it half an omice of
,I:,
block-tin in g-.*:.L- u ~ r .a:,,
UIL ~ ~ s o l v t f c l .
For Greens
For Simple Oranges
Two methods will produce many
shades of greens. Overdye materials by
first dyeing them various shades of blue
and then, after rinsing, by transferring
them to a yellow dyebath.
An all-in-one method involves placing alum pre-mordanted materials first
in the yellow bath, then stirring in the
Dye the materials yellow using the
turmeric dye formula. Rinse materials
in warm distilled water and transfer
them to either a madder red bath or a
cochineal crimson bath. After obtaining
the desired shades of orange, remove
the materials and wash, rinse, and dry
as before.
$
A!
-
Put the logwood and tannic acid into 1
quart of distilled water and boil them
for 1 hour. Add the remaining ingredients to the quart of water and heat to Liquid Blue (chemic) a drop at a time to
170°F. Add the materials and maintain obtain shades of green.
heat at 1700F for 2 or more hours for a
For Purple
rich deep black.
Like the green formulas, this color
Compound Colors
requires overdyeing. First, dye the mateMake dyes for compound colors rials a pure blue (various shades). Rinse
from a mixture of natural dyestuffs ei- and then put them into an alum and
ther by putting them in at the beginning cream of tartar mordant bath. Then dye
or by adding an additional color to the them red using cochineal (see formula
same dyebath after the first color has for Crimson).
For a redder wine color, rinse them
struck onto the materials. For top-dyeing, take the materials from one bath, again and dip them into a bath of ?htearinse them in warm distilled water, and spoon of potassium carbonate dissolved
put them into another bath of another in 1 quart of water to bring out the red
element.
color.
8
I
For Orange, Hot Orange, and
Bright Scarlet
This fascinating compound dye process will produce three brilliant colors
from one dyebath. Use unmordanted
materials.
tsp. tin chloride
8 drops concentrated nitric acid
1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
1/2
1/2
tsp. cream of tartar
tsp. cochineal (powdered)
To be followed by:
1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
1'/2 tsp. cochineal (powdered)
In 1 quart of distilled water mix the
first group of chemicals and dyestuffs.
Add the materials and heat the bath to
170°F. During the first 30 minutes remove fine orange materials from the
bath. Rinse and dry. After 30 minutes,
remove the materials temporarily and
stir in the remaining dyestuff amounts.
Return the materials to the bath. Continue simmering, removing reddish-or-
ange materials in about i j more minutes. After another zo to 60 minutes. the
result will be a rich scarlet known to
professional dyers as "flame-colored."
For Fiery Brown
Another Irishman, Michael Rogan,
was famous for his Fiery Brown color
and legend has it that urine, from various amusing sources, was a "secret ingredient" in his dyeing process. It seems
probable that he used natural dyestuffs
to obtain his much admired colors or at
least he continued some of the best of
the techniques used by professional fabric dyers.
First dye materials yellow; then put
them into the walnut dyebath for at
least 1 hour to achieve a vellow brown
and up to 8 hours for a dark fiery brown.
For Claret
Use natural brown hackles for this
color. Brazilwood (Caesalpina echinata)
gave its name to the South American
country where the trees are found.
1 oz. brazilwood, chopped fine
?hOZ. logwood (sawdust)
1j drops concentrated sulfuric acid
I/q tsp. potassium carbonate
tsp. (a tiny pinch) iron sulfate
(copperas)
Simmer the brazilwood and logwood
together in 1 quart of distilled water for
30 minutes. Cool the liquid. Carefully
add the sulfuric acid to the dyebath.
Add the materials and simmer (170°F)
for 2 hours. Remove the materials and
put them into water for a moment. Add
the uotassium carbonate and iron sulfate ;o the dyebath and mix. Return the
materials and simmer for 2 or more
hours. Wash and rinse the materials as
before, but finish with a dip into mild
household ammonia for a brilliant
sheen. Rinse again in water and dry.
Other Mordants
Blacker does not mention every technique used by professional dyers in the
nineteenth century. Many dyestuffs can
be brightened with tin to produce brilliant colors. Later in the century the use
of chrome with natural dyestuffs increased the range
" of colors available.
These mordants give satisfactory colors
and work more effectively than some of
Blacker's methods.
To get two or more shades from
some of the dye formulas given above,
follow the formulas for Yellow, Crimson, or (madder) Red, and remove a
portion of the materials. For each dyebath, dissolve l/s teaspoon tin chloride
in ?hCUP warm distilled water. Add the
tin solution to each dyebath to give
richer brighter shades, respectively, of
Golden Yellow, Bright Red, or Orange
Red.
Blacker never used chrome, but it
produces yet another series of colors.
The addition of chrome allows faster
development of jet blacks in a logwoodltannic acid bath, especially on
seal's fur and mohair.
Mr. Blacker has been a celebrated trout
and salmon angler from early boyhood,
and he is known to be the best maker of
trout and salmon flies alive. We have never seen such flies as his, for naturalness of
shape, appropriateness of colour, and for
beauty and solidity of finish. . . .
-Bell's Life in London, April 8,1855
William Blacker was widely recognized by British salmon anglers as one
of the finest fly dressers of his day. His
dedication to the craft of fly dressing
spurred him to learn about, and to publish, the secrets of dyeing furs and feathers using the best formulas available.
With reasonable care and a small number of dyestuffs, the interested amateur
today can authentically reproduce a
rainbow of brilliant colors to dress truly
e
classic Atlantic salmon flies.
The following list of dyestuffs and
chemicals would provide a full range of
colors:
Dyes
turmeric powder
brazilwood
indigo powder
logwood
madder root
cochineal
walnut rinds
Mordants and Mod$ers
alum (potassium aluminum sulfate)
sulfuric acid (conc.)
cream of tartar
nitric acid (conc.)
tin chloride
household ammonia
iron sulfate
tannic acid powder
potassium carbonate
sodium carbonate
thio-urea dioxide
The Earth Guild
33 Hayward Street
Asheville, NC 28801
800-327-8448
Skyloom Fibres
1705 South Pearl Street
Denver, CO 80210
303-777-2331
B I B L I O G R A P H Y
Adrosko, Rita. Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.,
1971.
Blacker, William. Art of Angling and Complete System of Flymaking and Dying of
Colours. London: published by the author, 1842.
-. Art of Flymaking, &c., Comprising Angling
and Dyeing of Colors. London: published
b y the author, 1855.
Ephemera (William Fitzgibbon). Book of the
Salmon. London: Longman, Brown, Green
and Longmans, 1850.
-. The Handbook of Angling. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1847.
Francis, Francis. A Book on Angling. London:
Longmans, Green and Co., 1867.
Goodwin, Jill. A Dyer's Manual. London:
Pelham, 1982.
Haigh, James. The Dier's Assistant in the Art
of Dying Wool and Woolen Goods. London: 1778; Philadelphia: 1810, first American edition; Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Paraclete Potter, 1813, second American edition.
Hale, Captain, J. H. How to Tie Salmon Flies.
London: Sampson Low, Marston, and
Co., 1892.
Kelson, George M. "On the Description of
Salmon Flies," in The Fishing Gazette.
London: a weekly series, May 31, 1884, to
November 7,1886.
-. "Standard Salmon Flies. Dressed to Accord with the Standard Colours," in Land
and Water. London: a weekly series beginning April 24,1886.
Lesch, Alma. Vegetable Dyeing. New York:
Watson-Guptill Publications, 1974
Liles, J. N. The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing. Knoxville, Tenn.: The University of
Tennessee Press, 1990.
Maxwell, William H. The Field Book, or
Sports and Pastimes of the British Isles.
London: W. Tweedie, 1833.
Mustard, Frances. Easy Dyeing. Plainfield,
N.J.: Textile Book Service, 1976.
Partridge, William. A Practical Treatise on
Dyeing Woolen, Cotton, and Silk. . . .
New York: William Partridge, 1823.
Stoddart, Thomas Tod. The Angler's Companion to the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland.
Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1847.
Tolfrey, Frederick. Jones's Guide to Norway,
and Salmon-fisher's Pocket Companion.
London: Longman, Brown, l re en and
Longmans, 1848.
Weigle, Palmy. Ancient Dyes for Modern
Weavers. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1974.
SUMMER
1994
9
The Fish Prints of S. F. Denton
.
S. F.D E N To N the artist whose extraordinary chromolithographs documenting
various species of North American fish
and wildlife would illustrate the State of
New York Fisheries, Game, and Forest
Commission's Annual Reports from 1895
to 1909, is here profiled by noted photographer Charles Steinhacker.
w
I L L T H E R E A L S. F. Denton
please stand up? Naturalist,
artist. adventurer. entrevreneur, collector, inventor, and author -it
was difficult to pin the man down. His
diversity of interest was the by-product
of a passionate and tenacious curiosity
about the natural world. To do such a
full life justice would require a far-ranging dissertation on such topics as moths
and butterflies (for which he received
the most immediate fame).
, birds. insects, fossils, freshwater pearls, and
gems. all of which he and his brothers
collected throughout the world and sold
to museums and private buyers. Then
we would need to review his published
,
Y
10
'
books and other professional and private writings. And we would be remiss if
we failed to shed some light on Denton
the businessman who had a commercial
streak that bordered on showmanship.
Only then would we be in a position to
even consider his fish mounting and
coloring methodology as well as his exquisite watercolor paintings of freshand saltwater fish.
Since the focus here is exclusively on
Denton's fish art, the introduction
above serves to provide the reader with
a feel for the scope and breadth of the
man, and particularly an appreciation
for the rare and magical blend of the
scientist and the artist that came together so persuasively in a single human being.
Born Sherman Foote Denton in 1856,
the eldest son of William Denton, young
Sherman taught himself how to draw
while accompanying his father on his
lecture tours around the United States,
Australia, and New Zealand. Following
his father's untimely death from jungle
fever in the wilds of New Guinea, Denton returned home and was employed
by the United States Fish Commission
(the equivalent of today's U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service). It was during his
tenure in Washington that he developed
and patented a method for mounting
fish that preserved their vivid original
colors. Until then, all previously mounted fish svecimens were mere shadows of
their naiural reality. Denton had discovered how to make them "live" again. So
perfect were his fish models that orders
poured in from state fish commissions
and museums around the country, including the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, the Field Museum in
Chicago, and the Agassiz Museum at
Harvard University. Alexander Agassiz
wrote, "I have seen the best that Italy,
France, Germany, and England can
show in the way of mounted fishes and
your work is far and away ahead of
them all."
As part of his fish-mounting process,
Denton made watercolor paintings of all
T H E M A L EBROOKT R O U T(Salvelinusfontinalis).
One of the outstanding chromolithographs included in the
series of Annual Reports published by the State of New York
Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commission between 1895 and
1909, about which was said "no coloredfigures offishes in
existence exceed them for truthfulness or beauty of execution."
by Charles Steinhacker
the fish that he had personally collected
in America, Europe, Hawaii, and the
West Indies as well as those that were
sent to him packed in ice from all over
the world. Many of these watercolors
were used to illustrate the United States
Fish Commission's reports.
It should be duly noted that the
methods and schemes used by the collector to catch his fish would not be appreciated by your friendly fish and game
warden todav. Denton was believed to
have utilized a secret berry mixed with
bread which when cast upon the water
would intoxicate the fish and render
them defenseless. And he was reputed to
have employed certain mysterious roots
that he ground up and dropped into a
boat half filled with water. When the
boat was capsized the fish would swarm
all around it, whereupon they would become instantly asphyxiated and thus
ouite collectable. In short. Denton's unconventional fishing methods just might
have given him the edge over a No. 18
Quill Gordon on a 9x tippet.
The State of New York Fisheries,
Game, and Forest Commission hired
Denton to paint various species of
North American fish and wildlife. The
original chromolithographs were reproduced from the paintings in a series of
extraordinary books called Annual Reports that were published between 1895
and 1909. The plates included fresh- and
saltwater fish, each identified by its English and Latin names, as well as a few
nonfish subjects, -lobsters, oysters, deer,
and pheasant -that were signed "Denton" or "S. F. Denton," though some
contained no signature. In all, 105 of his
prints were published in this pre-eminent set of books, of which ninety-nine
were pure fish images. The combination
of Denton's unmatched skill as a fish
artist and the exceptional quality of the
plates (New York State spared nothing
in its dedication to excellence of reproduction) quickly established these prints
as the very finest fish art ever done.
As part of the Seventh Annual Report
of 1901 (published in January of 1902),
and due largely to public demand, the
Commission produced a supplementary
portfolio containing all of the Denton
prints that had been published up to
that time.
The Denton fish prints can be found
in three different sizes: 8 inches x 11%
inches (cloth-bound volumes), 7%
inches x lo % inches (leather-bound volumes), and 9 % inches x 12 inches (portfolio). In each case, however, the size of
the fish is the same; only the trim size
varies. A complete list of the Denton
prints appears on page 13.
The remarkable quality of Denton's
work is referred to in the preface of the
First Annual Report:
Mr. Sherman F. Denton, the Artist of the
United States Fish Commission, was engaged to make sixteen color drawings of
fishes and game, and this he did so faithfully that they will serve to identify the
originals of the drawings, for fin rays and
scale formation are as faithfully represented as the external colors of the subjects.
SUMMER
1994
11
Depicted, apparently, is a 13-pound
specimen fi-om Canada (where the
fish is called "Ouananiche") and
perhaps caught or otherwise
provided by A. N. Cheney, State of
New Yorkfish culturist. Denton has
pasted on to the bottom of the print
a rather primitive watercolor of a
young Maine landlocked salmon for
purposes of comparison. Some ofhis
notes read: "More D U ~ in
V ~Canadian fish" and "a general tone of
apple green on body and fins of
female Salmon. A little red on edges
of some of the black spots. In male
sometimes spots on lower part
of body red."
1
I
These color-drawings have been reproduced so exactly, that no colored figures
of fishes in existence exceed them for
truthfulness or beauty of execution. They
are absolutely faithful reproductions,
which can be said of no other work of this
kind.
The same can still be said today. The
original chromolithographs first appeared almost loo years ago and remain
the standard by which all other fish art,
past and present, is judged.
Until recently it had been a relatively
simple matter to obtain the Denton
print of your choice. The New York
State books were seemingly everywhere.
Used book shops had them in generous
quantities and one could find them for
as little as a dollar or two at tag sales and
flea markets. But when print dealers began to sense the popularity of these images, they bought up all the books they
could get their hands on and stripped
them of their Denton plates. Today it
has become extrelllely difficult, if not
impossible, to find the most popular of
the Denton fish prints. And prices have
skyrocketed accordingly. Striped Bass,
Bluefish, Brook Trout, and Brown Trout
are currently the prints in greatest demand and their prices are all in excess of
$100. The same is true of most of the
other trout prints (Denton painted fifteen different trout images) as well as
the salmons and the large- and small12
Thefirst Annual Report
of the Commissioners of
Fisheries, Game and
Forests of the State of
New York (1895). Some
of Denton's most popular
fish prints were published
i n this first book.
The Complete List of Denton Prints
FISH P R I N T S
Adirondack Frost FishIRound
White Fish
AlewifeIBranch Herring
Bass, Calico
Bass, Channel
Bass, Large-Mouthed, Black
Bass, Large- and Small-Mouthed, Black
Bass, Rock
Bass, Sea
Bass, Small-Mouthed, Black
Bass, Striped
Bass, White
BergalllCunner
Bluefish
Bonito
Brook Sucker
Bullhead
Burbot
Butter-Fish
Carp
Catfish, Spotted
Channel Cat
Cisco
Cod
Cod, TomIFrost Fish
Crappie
Dog FishIMud FishIGrindle (male
and female)
Drum, Freshwater
Eel, Common
Fall Fish/Silver Chub
Flat Fish
Flounder
Gold Fish
Golden ShinerIBream
Group: Mummichog, Fall Fish,
Black-Nosed Dace, Common White
Sucker
Group: Red-Sided Minnow, Common
Silverside (male), Creek Chub, RedNosed Minnow
Group: Roach, River Chub, Common
Silverside (female), Blunt-Nosed
Minnow
Haddock
Hake
Halibut
Herring, Sea
Kingfish
Mackerel, Common
Mackerel, Spanish
Mackerel, Yellow
Mascalonge
Mascalonge (from Chautauqua Lake)
Maskalonge (shown on fly)
Menhaden
Moon-Eye
Perch, White
Perch, Yellow or Barred
Pickerel (from pond in Massachusetts)
Pickerel (from upper Hudson River)
Pickerel, Banded
Pike
Pike Perch or Wall-Eyed Pike (Denton
signature near edge of print)
Pike Perch or Wall-Eyed Pike (signature
properly placed)
Pollack
Pompano
Pompano, Short
Red Horse
Red Snapper
Rose Fish
Salmon, Atlantic
Salmon, Landlocked (female)
Salmon, Landlocked (male)
ScupIPorgy
Shad
Shad, Hickory
Sheepshead
Shiner, Golden or Bream
Smelt
Spade Fish-Triple Tail
Steelhead or Salmon Trout
Sunfish
Sunfish, Blue Gill
Sunfish, Long Eared
Tautog
Trout, Albino Brook
Trout, Brook
Trout, Brook (female)
Trout, Brook (male)
Trout, Brown
Trout, Brown (Von Behr Trout)
Trout, Canadian Red (female)
Trout, Canadian Red (male)
Trout, Canadian Red (young)
Trout, Lake
Trout, Rainbow
Trout, Redthroa, Black Spotted, or Rocky
Mountain
Trout, Sunapee
Trout, Sunapee or American Saibling
(female)
Trout, Sunapee or American Saibling
(male)
Trout, Tahoe
Weak-FishISqueteague
Whitefish
Whitefish, Common (female)
Whitefish, Common (male)
Whiting
ADDITIONAL PRINTS
Deer, Virginia
Lobster, American (female)
Lobster, American (male)
Oysters (natural size)
Oysters, Enemies of the Pheasant,
Mongolian or Ring-Necked
S. E Denton as a young man.
mouthed bass. Adding to the increased
market pressure is the fact that fish as
art is presently quite the "rage" for
home and office decor.
For the discriminating collector, a
few closing
" observations. The chromolithographic prints that appeared in
the New York State books are of superior quality to those that comprised the
portfolio. Indeed, it is almost certain
that the folio prints were made from the
book plates. However, it should be noted that the difference is a very fine
point. And for many Denton collectors
it is the folio prints, though of coarser
dot structure than the original book
prints, that are preferred for their aesthetically pleasing quality. In any case,
the marketplace discerns no difference
in price between the two types of lithographs.
Surely it was the mix of science, art,
and romance so miraculously coalesced
into one human spirit that enabled
Denton to produce these superlative fish
images.
" To look at the Male Brook Trout
or the Atlantic Salmon on a cold and
snowy January night is to admire the
beauty of the fish we fish for. . . and will
soon again. For if the truth be known, it
may well have been the fish prints of
Sherman Foote Denton that provided
the comfort to see many an angler
through the long and fishless winter.
r3.'
SUMMER
1994
13
Salmon flies dressed by Dr. ?: E. Pryce-Tannatt to exemplify the three principal groups in use today.
Colorplatefi-om "The Evolution of the Salmon Fly" in The Field (1952).
14
The Evolution of the Salmon Fly
by T. E. Pryce-Tannatt
M O S T A N G L E R S are familiar with Dr. printings, Pryce-Tannatt was mostly 1965 that a new edition, expanded by
Thomas Edwin Pryce-Tannatt through silent on salmon flies, in print at least. Yet John Veniard, was produced.
But Pryce-Tannatt did have something
his masterful little book How to Dress praise, encouragement, even urgings for a
Salmon Flies, first published in 1914. Of new work on the subject were heard from to say. One day, as I was rummaging to
the pre- World War I titles devoted to the time to time. Charles Phair declared in no constructive purpose in the Museum's
subject, it is considered the model for its 1937 that How To Dress Salmon Flies "is Preston Jennings's collection, I stumbled
clarity and practical instruction, and, de- the best thing on the subject I have seen"; upon the enclosed article and immediately realized that it deserved
spite the passage of eighty years
wider circulation. I shall let
and fashion changes in salmon
Pryce-Tannatt speak for himflies, retains its usefulness.
self: He does it so well.
Born in the East Indies in
Delfur Fancy
Thurso Canary
WALLYMURRAY
1881, Pryce-Tannatt followed
the cust&nary practice of reWhite Wing
Beaulieu Peacock
HOUGH
SUBSTANturning to England for his edutially the same in escation, eventually earning a
sentials as when oriaide~reein medicine. At the ape
of" thirty-one, however, ze
nally devised, the salmon %y
abandoned medical ~racticeto
Joe Brady
Lady Caroline
Iris
Gled Wing
of the present day reflects
some of ;he changes brought
assume editorship ofsalmon &
Trout Magazine, the journal of
Jock Scott
Silver Doctor
William Black
about by the modified outLondon's Salmon & Trout AsRufus
Silk
look and practice of salmon
fly fishermen during the insociation, a position he left in
tervening vears. There are
the autumn of 1912 to accept
many wuho 'think that it has
appointment in the civil service
Blue
improved in looks and is a
as Inspector of Salmon FishInvicta March Haslam Black
Red
Silver
more practically serviceable
eries, Board of Agriculture and
Brown
Teak
Gauntlet Peacock
production, but it would not
Fisheries.
be easy to prove that the
How to Dress Salmon Flies
appeared in 1914, but it was
Green
modern article is, in fact,
not until 1946, two years after
Per1
Watson's
Silver
and
Jeannie
Sally
more deadly than either the
Pryce-Tannatt's retirement from
Max
Fancy
Blue
Gold
comparatively primitive buskings used by Scrope in the
the civil service, that another
1830s or the more elaborate
"edition" of the book appeared.
creations sponsored by Kelson
This edition was actually a
sixty years later. Owing mainreprint of the original: happily,
K EY TO THE COLOURED PLATE OF FLIES
ly to the advent of the metalthe remarkably fine photograeyed hook, salmon flies nowaphy was retained but, regretdays are more dependable and
tably, the text was not updated,
although much had changed in the man- Eric Traverner pleaded about the same more durable. On that score it can be
ner of dressing salmon flies. A. H. Chay- time, and again in 1947, ': . . there is an claimed that they are more effective. But
tor had advocated very simple flies as ear- urgent need for a revised edition or for whether salmon really like them better
ly as 1910, and A. H. E. Wood had simpli- another book from the same facile pen." is not so certain.
To Kelson, more than to any other, is
fied salmon flies to the practice of merely The hoped-for author was sixty-six at the
time. No book appeared and it was a to be ascribed the conventionalisation
painting the hook shank.
During the period between the two dozen years after the author's death in of the salmon fly. It is the fashion now
T
SUMMER
1994
15
to decry Kelson as a humbug; but what
he had to say was not all of it nonsense.
In any case his patterns accounted for
many fish; and it cannot be denied that
the flies he and his associates produced
were, in their way, works of art, though
the dispassionate utilitarian of later
years might consider them more appropriate as adornments to headgear than
as instruments of capture attached to
the end of a cast. Overloaded they tended to be, and being initially under the
disability of having to figure on hooks
furnished with twisted gut loops, they
could not be made as slim in the body
or fine in the head as subsequently became possible with the metal-eyed
hooks.
A fat body and a thick head in a
salmon fly- as in other objects-are
contemplated with disapproval by the
cognoscenti, though there is little evidence that the salmon is as esthetically
sensitive. The salmon fly is, after all, a
very artificial thing. What it might represent to the salmon is largely conjectural. In the circumstances it would be
unwise to be didactic about it; or to go
so far as to assert that a spare and slim
build, per se, is more in accordance with
the salmon's tastes than something of
more substantial proportions. Corporeal obesity and hydrocephaly may not be
as repellent to Salmo salar as to Homo
sapiens. Incidentally, plug baits and
boiled prawns are not sylph-like, yet
they are taken (and at times eagerly) by
salmon.
However, a spare slim build seems to
be the planned feature of the modern
salmon fly, producing a sort of streamlined effect, noticeable as a popular
characteristic in a number of different
compositions at the present time, dominated as it is by the rage for speed.
There may be something to be said for it
in relation to the salmon fly, which, as
has previously been remarked, is a very
artificial thing, so that any expedient
which can be applied to mask its artificiality is probably a help to the angler.
Economy of material in dressing checks
a too flagrant visibility, and the streamlining which is at the same time
achieved facilitates smooth and unobtrusive passage through the water, producing a transient impression of something alive and in motion, merely
glimpsed and affording scant opportunity for close scrutiny. The salmon has
to make up its mind quickly about it.
That is a theory which is perhaps no less
plausible than other theories, being
based on the assumption that the
salmon, fool though it may be, is not a
complete idiot and, impelled by the
predatory instinct rather than by
hunger, has sense enough to be warned
by a too obvious subterfuge if it is allowed to see overmuch. Nor is there
anything inconsistent in this with the
fact that the more slowly moving surface fly, at the end of a greased line, is at
times taken readily enough.
This affair of visibility is clearly of
importance. It probably accounts for
the proliferation of patterns, these being
the expression of succeeding generations of anglers
as to what is considered
u
suitable under particular conditions in
particular circumstances. Associated
with it is the question of size, which at
the outset had relation essentially to visibility, but it is now acknowledged is
also influenced by the temperature of
the water (and air). Speculation on both
subjects is endless, discussion sometimes engendering a certain amount of
heat, with the honours of debate frequently being carried off by the cynically inclined who aver that guessing plays
the predominating role -one guess being as good as another.
Nevertheless, ideas have continued to
smoulder and from the embers there
can perhaps be recovered something not
wholly without significance; at all events
as regards the form and structure of the
salmon fly as at present found acceptable by anglers- leaving the fish out of
the account for the time being.
The fairly well-marked stages in the
process of evolution, so to speak, of the
salmon fly in recent years are illustrated
in the black-and-white photographs.
The Jock Scott in Figure 1 is typical
of the Kelson convention. It was dressed
by a professional and was the accepted
concept at the beginning of the present
century. It is modelled on expansive
lines, aldermanic in proportions, and
resplendent in raiment, being generously furnished with the exotic plumes,
deemed essential at that period, and
procurable now with difficulty, if at all.
The built wing, the outer covering being
of married strips from five different
feathers, plus strands of peacock her1
and an overall strip of brown mallard, is
embellished with jungle cock sides and
blue chatterer cheeks: blue macaw horns
and a couple of golden pheasant toppings completing an imposing structure
calculated to catch the eye-of the angler at all events. The jointed body is designed on the same generous lines, the
tag being carried down so as to occupy
an appreciable portion of the hook
bend, with the object perhaps of forestalling the possibility of any cavilling at
stinting of material. The head is
large -inevitably so having regard to all
the stuff that had to be tied in-with
the thick twisted gut loop and all to add
to the general plethora. It is, in fact,
rather remarkable that the head is not
larger, and redounds to the credit of the
tyer, as indeed does the whole fly,
which, as an example of fly dressing,
leaves little to criticise.
Somewhat different in appearance is
the fly in Figure 2, which was dressed by
Ernest Crosfield, facile princeps in the
art of fly making, the salient features being the slim, sloping wing, the small
neat head, the designedly abbreviated
body and the manifest restraint exercised in the quantity of hackle applied.
Though the wing is of small bulk it is
composed of six different feathers, viz.
golden pheasant tippet strands, fibres of
golden pheasant breast feather, golden
bird of paradise crests (two of them),
strips of Amherst and golden pheasant
tail, and brown mallard scapular feather
over all. The slope of the wing is almost
horizontal. This is achieved partly by
the natural set of the feathers selected
and partly by tying in all but the brown
mallard covering strip behind the throat
of blue barred jay, in the small space between the throat and the yellow ribbing
hackle, an expedient characteristic of
Crosfield's patterns and which, moreover, made it possible to achieve the
small neat head, for which they were
likewise noted. Wing and tail tips coincide at a point not far behind the posterior edge of the hook bend, and the hinder end of the tag is in front of the barb
on the vertical from the shank. Crosfield
considered it important to refrain from
encroaching on the bend of the hook
with any part of the dressing so as thus
to leave the bend clear and without involving any of the dressing, more particularly the tag, in the risk of being
chewed and damaged by the teeth of the
fish after the hook had got hold. The
whole fly is thus not only esthetically
pleasing but it is very definitely designed
with practical considerations in view.
Although dressed on a substantial hook
with a wide gape (Crosfield liked a hook
which could take a "good bite of meat"),
it is free from grossness, and its streamlined build would ensure a smooth and
steady swim in the water.
Economy of material, carried a stage
further in the process of slimming, is
very marked in the fly shown in Figure
3. This is one of the Kilroy series of patterns (produced by the late Surgeon
Captain L. Kilroy, R.N.) inspired by the
exiguous fashion set by A. H. E. Wood
in the patterns favoured by him for use
with the greased line. The wing consists
of strips of the symmetrically disposed
feathers from the breast, neck, upper
coverts, flanks, and back of certain
birds, left adhering to the stalk or central quill, the latter being tied in
on top of the hook shank, in such
fashion as to cause the strips, each
of the same length, to lie horizontally on either side, in much the
same style as is to be seen in the
Dee strip-winged patterns. The fly
in Figure 3 carries four strips,
paired, from two such feathers
(one from a teal flank and one
from a cock pheasant upper covert
feather). An Amherst pheasant
topping, tied beneath the central
stems of the strips, lies horizontally over the hook shank. The body
consists of the bare hook, ribbed
with ribbon tinsel and oval gimp. There
is no ribbing hackle. Two turns of a ginger cock hackle and one turn of dyed
guinea fowl breast feather comprise the
throat. The posterior end of the tag, on
which some emphasis is laid, lies in
front of the hook point on the vertical from the shank. The tips of tail
and topping, coinciding at a point, do
not extend as far back as the outer
edge of the hook bend. It will be observed that abbreviation, as well as attenuation, is a feature here.
Kilroy used celluloid varnish freely
to provide a film over the tinsel, the
object -and the effect -being to secure a firmer cohesion of the tinsel
turns and at the same time protection
from the tarnishing commonly resulting from exposure to the atmosphere. An excellent notion, which,
moreover, can be extended to embrace
floss silk, in bodies and tags, a similar
protective covering providing an impermeability proof against the discoloration which is liable otherwise to
occur after immersion in peat-stained
or dirty water.
The attenuation of the Kilroy style
might be considered by many as excessive for normal requirements. A
compromise between it and the Crosfield style would perhaps be deemed
to be more in accordance with practical, everyday needs. The professors of
the greased line cult, however, will
doubtless particularise as to the patterns considered appropriate for that
speciality, an exiguous abbreviation of a
somewhat emphatic brand being the
recognised article. Wood himself
favoured a fly which had been shorn of
most of its feathery adjuncts. He, in
teach quite a lot. And they did catch
fish. Without being able to give convincing reasons they knew that a large
fly, fished slowly and deep, was the most
likely to be effective in the early part of
the season when the water was cold; and
that a small fly kept playing on the
surface was the better alternative
later in the year when weather and
water had warmed up. At other
times they used flies in varying
sizes, fished in what was considered the orthodox manner, more
+- or less submerged below the water
surface.
Except possibly in a more conscious application, the position at
the present time does not appear
to be so very different. Large fiies,
well sunk, are still used early in the
Figure I . Jock Scott (Old style)
season when the water is low in
temuerature. Small flies fished
quired during the last thirty years or so close to the surface are the acknowlhave cleared up some of the things that edged prescription later on when the
heretofore were regarded as mysteries. water temperature has risen. And there
As a consequence the present generation still remains -unexpurgated -the fly of
is apt to be somewhat contemptuous of medium size fished in what can be
termed midwater, used regularly and
with success by a conservative majority, notwithstanding the dicta of the
greased line enthusiasts who believe
that these medium sizes are of no
practical significance and can be ignored.
There would thus appear to be at
the present day, as was the case formerly, a practicable trio grouping applicable to salmon flies; the flies
themselves, though substantially the
same as they were fifty or even loo
Figure 2. Dirty Yellow (Crosfield)
years ago, "modernised" in accordance with what. in deferential terms,
the older school of empiricists for fail- might be described as the sophisticated
ing to see what now seems obvious. refinement of the midtwentieth century
Those old stalwarts, it is true, did not salmon fly fisherman. The components
include a thermometer in their equip- of this trio grouping could appositely, if
ment, nor were they very inquisitive irreverently, be labelled as (i) bottom
grubbers, (ii) midwater swimmers,
(iii) surface riders. The flies reproduced in the accompanying colour
plate purport to exemplify these three
groups.
The four uatterns in the two tor,
rows [of the color plate] represent the
sort of thing intended for presentation at a depth below the surface.
Larger sizes are used (up to 3% inch)
Figure 3. Kilroy Pattern
but the available space hardly admits
room for the inclusion of anything
about the chemical reactions of the wa- larger than the 2 % inch hook which
ter in which they fished. They were not carries the Delfur Fancy. As a matter of
scientifically minded. They contemplat- fact it will be found that this is auite a
ed angling as an art rather than as a sci- considerable implement to heave out at
ence. But they were not by any means the end of a long line on a day of buffetmentally deficient. They could and did ing winds. One of the desirable features
fact, came to use, apparently with success, a bare hook the shank of which
had been painted red or blue. Simplification could hardly be carried further
than that.
The experience and knowledge ac-
SUMMER
1994
17
of the patterns comprising this group is long way after Reynolds." The twelve Per1 Max (which is short for Perla maxisimplicity of design; a freedom from ex- patterns in the fifth and sixth rows [in ma, the big stone fly, much in evidence
traneous embellishments with which it the color plate] indicate, some of them, on most salmon rivers during April and
would go ill when subjected to the hard what the professors of the greased line May), March Brown (which might be
slogging involved, not to mention the might perhaps consider appropriate. Rithrogena haarupi, commonly seen beformidable dentition of the well-mend- The long-shanked, lightly ironed hooks ing taken by salmon during a hatch),
ed kelts likely to be in evidence at that which have become the accepted form Sally (which might be mistaken for the
time of the year. Thurso Canary and for such patterns are commended be- subimago of Ephemera danica), Invicta
Beaulieu Peacock are appropriate Sam- cause "they swim well, and, in a stream, (possibly suggesting a caddis fly).
The fact that the sizes used are subdo not hold the water" (A. H. E. Wood).
ples of this simplicity.
The eight patterns which make up They certainly seem to be suited to the stantially larger than the natural insects
the third and fourth rows [of the color spare and abbreviated dress characteris- is held to be immaterial, inasmuch as
their relative size to the
plate] are of the more or less
From Salmonia (1870)
adult salmon is approxistereotyped brand modified
mately the same as was the
in an attempt to conform to
the "new look." They are
natural insect to the fish
when it was a parr. It is an
what the salmon angler of
intriguing notion, which,
the conservative type might
however, does not explain
see fit to use in the ordinary,
the indisputable efficacy of
old-fashioned mode of presentation, that is to say
the patterns which cannot
somewhere near midwater,
reasonably be associated
with any insect; nor, for
or at all events well below
that matter, with anything
the surface; a pull rather
else, alive or dead.
than a rise being expected
from a taking fish.
No useful purpose
would be served by burNormally, in the range of
sizes associated with this
dening a dissertation such
as this with the details of
group (from 1% inch down
fly making. Two hints perto 1% inch), a date in midtinent to the subject have,
April registers the transition, which is apt to be sudden, from tic of these patterns. The relatively nar- however, earlier been transmitted,
midwater to surface presentation, when row bend, by restricting the weight of culled from the technique of two finthe water temperature is approaching metal, no doubt co-operates in main- ished experts, relating respectively to the
the 50 degrees mark on the Fahrenheit taining the fly close to the water surface. production of a small neat head and the
scale. There are, however, many occa- Whether this advantage adequately provision of a protective and strengthsions subsequently, especially in a cold, counterbalances the risks entailed by the ening covering for tinsel and floss silk;
wet summer, the air being often colder shallow hold is a question on which dif- these being considerations of practical
than the water, when it is profitable to fering opinions might well be enter- importance applicable generally. Parenrevert to the midwater presentation tained. The hooking in the angle of the thetically, as regards the first of these
with flies of the sizes indicated. This also jaw, which is the aim of refraining from hints, it would be as well to bear in
applies to the early autumn fishing, striking and letting the fish hook itself, mind that the size and form of the metal
sometimes and in some localities as ear- must quite often fail to result through a eye can exercise a dominating influence.
ly as mid-August.
very human inability to follow what A large, heavy eye, especially when
These patterns exemplify eight of the would seem to be a counsel of perfec- turned too much up or down, can neganine recognised modes of winging, the tion too exacting for a great many.
tive any effort to produce a small, neat
However, this mode of presentation, head.
winging of a fly being the chart by
which the salmon fly dresser steers his which at times might appear to be
The eyes of the hooks illustrated in
course when familiarising himself with rather overemphasised by the enthusi- the [color] plate may not be too aggresthe details of his craft. The eight modes asts and too apt to be advocated almost sively impossible in this respect, though
in question are the simple strip wing as of universal application at all times they fall short of the near-to-perfection
(Joe Brady), Spey wing (Lady Caroline), and in any circumstances, will probably style indicated in Figure 2. The metal
topping wing (Iris), Dee strip wing undergo a process of adjustment in due eyes of many of the hooks on the mar(Gled Wing), built wing (Jock Scott), course; and, among other things, the ket still leave much to be desired. The
mixed wing (Silver Doctor), whole form of the hook may be changed.
attention of the hook makers could useIt has been suggested that the re- fully be directed to this important defeather wing (William Rufus), layered
wing (Black Silk). The ninth mode is in- sponse of a salmon to a surface riding tail. At the same time it might be very
much to the point to reconsider, on the
dicated in the Beaulieu Peacock (q.v. fly-buoyed up by a greased line-is
above); if a bunch of her1 tied in with- prompted by memories of the days basis of mechanics and statics, the form
out any particular order can be regarded when it was a parr feeding in the river and dimensions of the hook itself. It
as a wing. Incidentally, Gled Wing and on natural insects. Hence, doubtless, the may well be that the hitherto popular
Black Silk were two of Crosfield's fa- attempted resemblance among these Limerick has had its day. Another type
mous patterns. But the specimens fig- patterns to some of the larger and more might be better.
ured were not, of courser tied by that prevalent insects frequenting the neighmaster craftsman. They are, in fact, "a bourhood of rivers. As, for instance, (Reprinted from The Field Annual, 1952)
-
18
T H E AMERICAN FLY FISHER
G A L L E R Y
A
S T E L L A R C A S T of characters whose names read
like the Who's W h o of Fly Fishing have contributed
to the history of fly fishing, but some have also remained relatively obscure.
One such individual was rodmaker Omar Needham.
Born June 28,1904, in Minot, Maine, he grew up with an
active interest in the outdoors and was only fourteen
when an itinerant Scotsman introduced him to the fine
art of split-cane rodmaking. Over the next fifteen years he
experimented with designing his own tapers.
Married in 1934, he settled into a small food store busihis own tools and
ness in Norwav.
, Maine. He designed
"
equipment for constructing bamboo rods, and made rods
and guided clients in his spare time.
On a business trip to Albany, New York, in 1936, he
stopped in Manchester, Vermont, for the evening and
wandered into the Charles F. Orvis showroom. Omar became intrigued with the rodmaking operation and within
a week went to work for Orvis for the staggering sum of
$10 per week. The company was then still operated by the
Orvis family, Bert and Robbie, Charles's two sons, but had
fallen on hard times.
In 1939 the Orvis Company was purchased by Bart
,
Photograph by Cook Neilson
Arkell and D. C. "Duckie" Corcoran and its fortunes
changed. Wes Jordan was brought in to manage and
Needham stayed on to oversee the varnish work on the
Orvis rods.
Omar Needham's rods shared a consistency in both
workmanship and action -a trueness of tapers not always
found in more reknowned makers' works. He built his
own ferrules and reel seats. The one common feature of
his reel seats was the use of flat threads that keep the
screwlock from binding on the reel foot. It is estimated he
produced approimately 400 rods in his career.
By 1946 Omar decided to leave Orvis; three years later
he returned to Maine and bought Quimby Pond Camps
in Rangeley. For the next twenty-five years he ran the
camps, tied flies, built rods, and served as a fishing guide
until the time of his death in 1975.
On display at the Museum is a cornucopia of objects
from the Omar Needham collection: flies tied by wellknown tyers of the period and displayed on driftwood;
plastic boxes, fly books, wooden box envelopes filled with
Needham flies; a hand-drawn fly signed "Austin Hogan";
and sundry rodmaking objects from a lifetime of devotion.
CRAIGTHOMAS
SUMMER
1994
l9
N O T E S
&
C O M M E N T
Thomas Bewick
Wood Engraver
by Jeffrey Norton
THE A S G L E R AND THE L I T T L E F I S H .
O N E O F T H E F A V O R I T E graphic resources of this Museum's two-person publishing operation is the paperback that
Art Director Randall Perkins keeps by her
desktop publishing center called 1800
Woodcuts by Thomas Bewick and His
School. In this well-thumbed volume reside many of the line illustrations we've
chosen to enliven numerous articles in
The American Fly Fisher. We turn to
Thomas Bewickj work because he adds to
our pages the vision of life a century or
two ago, as well as a warmth about that
era's domesticity and the natural world
around it that remains telling all these
years later. And, not-in-the-least, because
the work is copyright free!
Member Jeff Norton briefly profiles the
Newcastle-upon-Tyne artist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) whose somewhat idealized imagery of rural England reflects the
country of his childhood, which he described as "altogether a paradise to me."
EDITOR
RB
o F The American Fly
Fisher are familiar with Thomas
ewick's engravings for they appear frequently in these pages as spot
art, usually quite small, rarely more
than 3 inches wide. The illustration on
the following page of the cat stealing
part of the day's catch is typical.
What makes Bewick's engravings so
distinctive, and so regularly reprinted
almost zoo years after they were origiEADERS
20
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY FISHER
A N Angler canglit a small Trout, and as lie was
taking it off the hook, and going to put i t into his
Inskct, it opened it3 little throat, and begged most
pitcously that hc would throw it into the river again.
T h e man demandcil what reason it had to expect this
indulgence? Why, says the Fish, because I am so
young and so little, that it is not worth your while
taking me now, and certainly I shall be better worth
your notice, if you take me a tWelvemor~thafterwards,
~rlieiiI shall be grown a great deal larger. That ]nay
bc, replied the Angler, but I am sure of you now;
and I am not one of those who quit a certainty in
expcctntion of an unccl Lninty.
nally created, is their delicacy and shading and the fact that they seem to capture a split-second frieze of action.
Quite unlike the static vignettes produced by all of his predecessors and
most of his successors, each of Bewick's
engravings has a story to tell.
A major reason Bewick wood-block
illustrations surpassed all those that had
gone before him lies in the fact that he
practically invented "wood engraving."
Others who preceded him had produced "wood cuts," which were produced by cutting and gouging with the
grain of the wood. This made it almost
impossible to produce fine lines and
shaded cross-hatching. However, Bewick discovered that if he turned the
block he could produce very fine work
on the end grain. Illustrations produced
from these end-grain blocks are called
"wood engravings."
Almost all Bewick's wood engravings
were made from boxwood, the hardest
and most finely grained of all wood. Final thickness of his blocks exactly
equalled the height of the printing type
(about an inch). Therefore, the block
could be integrated with the type and
the whole page printed at the same
time, something not possible with the
copper and steei engravings used previ-
From The Fables ofAesop (1818)
8
I
I
FABLES.
APPLICATION.
THEY
who neglect the present opportmlity of reaping a snlall advantage, in the hope that they shall obtain a greater afterwards, are far from acting upon a
reasonable and well advised foundation. W e ought
never thus to deceive ourselves, and suffer the favourable moment to slip away; but secure to ourselves
every fair advantage, however small, at the moment
that it offers, without placing a vain reliance upon the
visionary expectation of something better in time t o
come. Prudence advises us always to lay hold of time
by the forelock, and to remember that a bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush."
bL
Above: Portrait of Thomas Bewick.
Lefi: Reproduction of a leaf from the
original edition of Bewick's The Fables
of Aesop, 1818. As the fable reveals,
apparently neither Aesop nor Bewick
were believers in catch-and-release.
ously. This meant that attractive well-illustrated books could be vroduced
cheaply and priced for sale to the masses. As a result, Mr. Bewick and his work
became known and readily recognized
throughout England.
Bewick's most widely known works
are two books, The General History of
Quadrupeds (1790) and the two-volume
The History of British Birds (1797 and
1804). However, he produced countless
(literally) illustrations that appear as vignettes and tail vieces in hundreds of
"
other books. It was from these that it is
possible to select angling illustrations
because Bewick never produced the
work he had planned for many years,
The History of British Fishes. That project, in fact, was left to be done by
William Yarrell in 1836 using the skills of
two of Bewick's most skilled apprentices.
Thomas Bewick had been an angler
and fly fisher most of his life. He had
much to say about his angling interests
and angling philosophy in his Memoirs,
first published in 1862. But no coarse
fisher he: in 1818 Bewick produced an
edition of The Fables of Aesop, one of
which is reproduced on the preceeding
page. The Bewick version begins "An
angler caught a small Trout. . . ." The
same fable in the classic edition of Aesop
by Samuel Croxall (1722) starts with, "A
Man was angling in a River and caught
a small Pearch. . . ."
After years of referring to him as
"Thomas Bee-Wick," I was abashed to
learn from a very gentlemanly British
book dealer that he really was "Mr.
Buick." This was another demonstration
that most Americans do rather poorly
with British names (for example, the
well-known nineteenth-century angling
author H. Cholmondeley-Pennell is
properly pronounced "Chumly-Pennell"
and author John Coloquhoun is "John
Colune").
The most accessible collection of Bewick's angling illustrations appears in a
lovely book by David Lank titled OnceUpon-A-Tyne. This was produced in
1977 for the Atlantic Salmon Association
in a numbered and signed limited edition of 1,000 copies.
-
SUMMER
1994
21
L E T T E R S
Days On the Stream
I am one of the Museum members
that is not prominent but I have been
"with" the Museum from day one, first
as a viewer, as a member, and as a contributor of books and fly-fishing memorabilia. I am a bit ashamed that till now
I have never written to express my
thanks and great admiration for such a
great organization that also publishes
such a fine magazine.
You may not yet know that as we
grow older the memories of yesteryear
become ever more precious and it is in
that department that the magazine does
so well. Hardly an issue goes by that I
am not reminded of days on the stream,
equipment once owned, and people that
I knew well, now mostly having made a
transition to another realm that I know
must have trout and streams.
What impels this letter at such a late
date? Well, on page 16 of the Spring 1994
issue, there is a grammatical error that I
learned in a long-forgotten law class
should not be tolerated. There is a reference to "signatures of notary publics."
Should be notaries public!
Keep up the good work.
Don Owen
Tucson, Arizona
Because we wouldn't want any notaries
mad at us, our error is so noted and hereby corrected. -ED.
From Down Under
I would like to express my appreciation of the great work the Museum is
doing and I look forward to each issue
of the journal. In Australia, we expect to
have our own Fresh Water Angling Museum sometime next year which will be
located at the Salmon Ponds in Tasmania. This is a very historic site as it is
where the first English trout ova were
hatched in 1864.
I would also like you to accept on my
behalf, for your library, a complimentary copy of my own book, Angling in
Australia: Its History and Writings, which
may give you some of the background
to how the sport has developed "down
under" over the past loo years or so. A
22
T H E A M E R I C A N FLY FISHER
couple of chapters deal with fly fishing,
although the definitive history of Australian fly fishing still needs to be written. I am also currently working on a
book on Australian fishing reels as this
area of collecting, as in the U.S., is
spreading very quickly. Although our
Australian heritage of locally made reels
only goes back to the turn of the century, it nevertheless includes some very interesting reels designed particularly for
Australian conditions.
I wish you well with the Museum.
Bob Dunn
Sydney, Australia
A Dog Tale
Congratulations on your 25th anniversary issue of The American Fly
Fisher. Having been a member for most
of those twenty-five years, and having
copies of every issue of your fine magazine, I really enjoyed reminiscing about
some of these articles from years past.
Now for the bad news. Before I could
read everything, my dog chewed off part
of the cover and corners of all pages.
Why did she choose this magazine from
a pile of several?Who knows?
In any event, so that my complete
run of TAFF will remain intact and I can
finish reading the anniversary issue,
could you please send me another copy?
Ed Collins
Wilton, Connecticut
Although this letter was received over a
year ago and we're just publishing it now,
please rest assured that we promptly replaced Mr. Collins's copy. We never heard
the fate of the dog.-ED.
Past Masters Are Appreciated
At this time I wish to thank you for
your continued support of our club's
endeavors. We certainly have been
blessed with a sterling group of individuals who deservedly have established
our club among the finest in the Northeast. The Museum's contributions to
help maintain the rich history of fly
fishing and fly-tying knowledge for future generations have always been enlightening and noteworthy. Every member of our club is profoundly indebted
to you for your noble efforts to keep
alive the knowledge of the past masters
of these crafts and to help them in their
own insight of historical perspective.
Ronald Lewis, President
Green Mountain Fly Tyers Club
Brandon, Vermont
From President Bush
The Museum recently presented President
Bush with a new Orvis fly rod and received the following self-typed letter as
thanks.
That sensational fly rod is here now. I
can't believe how special it is. We leave
for Maine in about ten days, and, believe me, the rod will be at my side.
It is perfect in every way and I thank
you from the bottom of this fisherman's
heart.
George Bush
Houston, Texas
More Congratulations on Accreditation
1 want to extend my personal congratulations to you, your staff, and the
directors of the Museum for the accreditation received from the American Association of Museums and also for the
Award of Excellence received from the
Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance.
These accomplishments are very
meaningful to me as a member of the
Museum and as a lifelong affiliate of the
fly-fishing industry.
The membership can well be proud
of what has been accomplished by all
concerned. May your success continue.
Harold Demarest
President, Charles Demurest, Inc.
Bloomingdale, New Jersey
Congratulations and best wishes to
you on receiving accreditation from the
American Association of Museums!
May the coming year be even more
eventful and exciting for a most deserving group of people.
Mary and Alan Fried
Livingston Manor, New York
My congratulations to you on receiving accreditation from the American
Association of Museums. A great honor
for a great museum.
Peter Kriendler
New York, New York
I was pleased to learn of the Museum's accreditation. I know how much
superb effort went into your qualifymg.
Don Flint
Chesterfield, Missouri
I N
M E M O R I A M
Ed Zern
1910
1994
F
are born honest, but they get over it, Ed
Zern wrote. No one could
ever accuse Ed of not having gotten over it. For more than seventy
years he brought an irreverent
voice to the sporting world as well
as the world of advertising. His
sardonic eye searched for and
found humor everywhere; after
reading a Zern piece if you didn't
exit laughing, you at least left with
a chuckle. As a storyteller, on the
page or on the podium, he was
without peer.
"He is the ultimate court jester.
He is a Mark Twain, a Ring Lardner, an Irwin S. Cobb -all rolled
into an incredible character who
looked into every corner of outdoor
sport and found mirth in it all!" That
was written about Ed Zern some years
ago and no more fitting epitaph could
be found. For centuries the sporting
world, and particularly the insular
world of fly fishing, was cloaked in a
shroud of solemnity; in his world nothing was sacred and everything was good
for a laugh.
On March 25, 1994, that irreverent
voice was stilled forever when he died of
Parkinson's disease at eighty-three.
Edward G. Zern was born in West
Virginia in 1910, but grew up in western
Pennsylvania. He caught his first trout
in West Virginia's Cheat River, a battling
5-inch brook trout he intended for his
supper, but unfortunately lost on his
way home. His father, a mining engineer and a professor of engineering, was
a keen sportsman who passed that love
along to his son, but it would be a good
many years before Ed would fish for
trout again.
After graduating from Penn State
College in 1932 Ed went to Paris with the
intent of writing a novel. Within four
months, before even the first chapter
was completed, his money ran out and
he left Paris to work as a merchant seaman for a year. Back in the United
ISHERMEN
Photograph by Sandra TVeiner
States, he went to work as a copywriter
at the N. W. Ayer advertising agency in
Philadelphia.
He carried his sense of irreverence
over into his work as an advertising
copywriter. Ever the iconoclast, he shattered the mold of advertising which
held that the product and the sponsor
were sacrosanct. To poke fun at either
bordered on blasphemy. Ed broke with
tradition by kidding both the product
and the sponsor, thus introducing humor into the world of advertising. Humor in advertising has since become
more commonplace, but at that time it
brought gasps of incredulity.
Subsequently, he made his way to
New York and the B. F. Gyer agency.
There, in 1950, he created a series of
pun-filled advertisements for the Nash
automobile. For those ads, he wrote the
copy, illustrated them with cartoons he
drew, and signed each one (until then
also unheard of in advertising). The reason he did that, he explained, was to
make it clear that the ads were created
by an individual and not some faceless
corporation. The campaign ran successfully for nine years, during which he
created more than loo of the ads. Some
of the more memorable ones were later
collected in his book Hunting and Fish-
ing from A to Zern, the last of seven books he wrote. His first, To
Hell With Fishing, published in
1945, sold several hundred thousand copies.
In November 1959, his first "Exit
Laughing" column appeared in
Field ei. Stream magazine and continued for more than thirty years.
Though he was best known as
an outdoor humorist, Ed was an
exceptionally skilled hunter and
fisherman. His pursuit of those
sports took him to thirty-four
countries on five continents. He
was also a sometime landscape
painter and flamenco guitarist.
Along with all that, Ed was a dedicated conservationist, a dedication that was reflected in affiliation with
numerous conservation-oriented organizations. Among them were the Atlantic
Salmon Federation, the Boone & Crocket Club, the Explorers Club, and the
American Museum of Fly Fishing, for
which he served as a conscientious
trustee for more than ten years. He was
active in establishing both Trout Unlimited and the Federation of Flyfishers. He
was a founder and the first president of
the Theodore Gordon Flyfishers in 1962
and received its Arnold Gingrich Literary Heritage Award. In 1954 he created a
major conservation award for the American Motors Company, a program he directed until shortly before his death.
Ed lived in Scarsdale, New York, for
many years. His wife, Evylen, died a
number of years ago. He is survived by a
son, Brook, a daughter, Erica, a brother,
Gordon, two granddaughters, and his
cherished companion Sandra Weiner.
Ed will be remembered for many
things, but mainly as the all-time egodeflator, the champion of reminding the
world not to be serious about unserious
things. He put fun back into things that
are always supposed to be that way, but
get mixed up when people lose their
perspective sometimes.
JOE A. PISARRO
SUMMER
1994
23
Museum
Gift Shop
Vest P a t c h . Museum logo,
hunter green with silverlgrey. . . $5
UpIDowner Hat. . . . . . . . . . $16.50
With Durham Ranger fly. Specify
bright blue or tan supplex.
Baseball-style H a t . . . . . . . . . $14
Durham Ranger fly. Corduroy available in burgundy or teal. Supplex
available in bright blue, teal, or
tan.
A Treasury of Reels:
The Fishing Reel Collection of
The American Museum of Fly Fishing
T - s h i r t s . Museum logo, specify
hunter green with white or heather
gray with hunter green . . . . . . . $12
by Jim Brown, photographs by
Bob O'Shaughnessy.
Deluxe edition is handbound and boxed,
with a signed and numbered print by
John Swan. $450 each.
Available in paperback for $29.95.
C e r a m i c M u g with Museum
logo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6
C o a s t e r l p a p e r w e i g h t . Vermont
marble with Museum logo . . . . . $10
N o t e C a r d s . Photographs of personality tackle includes Hemingway,
Crosby, Eisenhower, Webster, Homer,
and Samuel Morse. 12 cards per box,
2 of each image with envelopes
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12.95
25th Anniversary Poster.
Photograph by Terry Heffernan
(20" X 30"). . . . . . . . . . . $19.95
P i n . Museum logo, hunter green
with silver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5
Please add $5 for postage and
handling.
Please make checks payable to AMFF and send to PO. Box 42, Manchester, VT 05254. Telephone orders: 802-362-3300,
Mastercard, Visa, and American Express accepted. $3 postage and handling for first item, $1 for each additional item.
"Lost Pool"
by John Swan (15%" x 26%")
edition of 400
a95 each
L I M I T E DE D I T I O NP R I N T S
Printed on acid-free paper, ample borders.
Each signed and numbered. postage and
handling included.
"Battenkill Afternoon"
by Peter Corbin (30" x 22")
25th Anniversary Edition of 200
$175 each
liiiir
l . \ i i ' R i ~ ~ i O Sn >l,\lA(:tS
('lit1
"World of the Salmon"
"Anglers All: Humanity in Midstream"
"Casting by Winslow Homer
(is" x 24")
"Wind Clouds" by Ogden Pleissner,
(26" x 22")
E X H I B I T I O NP O S T E R S
A*..
I - iVoi,enibo
2r,
rani
linccoii
..**R.
2
.......
"Evening Mist"
by Chet Reneson (27" x 21 ")
Printed on high-quality glossy stock
with ample borders. Each poster is $15.
"Time On the Water"
by John Swan (26" x 20")
X
"Water, Sky, & Time"
by Adriano Manocchia (25" x 22")
"An Artist's Creel"
by Peter Corbin (26" x 23")
Please make checks payable to AMFF and send to PO. Box 42, Manchester, VT 05254 Telephone orders: 802-362-3300.
Mastercard, Visa, and American Express accepted. $3 postage and handling for first item, $1 for each additional item.
SUMMER
1994
25
The
American Museum
of Fly Fishing
Box 42, Manchester,Vermont 05254
Tel: 802-362-3300
JOIN!
Membership Dues (per annum*)
Associate*
$25
Sustaining*
$50
Benefactor
$100
Patron*
$250
Sponsor*
$500
Corporate*
$1,000
Life
$1,500
Membership dues include the cost of a
subscription ($20) to The American Fly
Fisher. Please send your application to
the membership secretary and include
your mailing address. The Museum is a
member of the American Association
of Museums, the American Association
of State and Local History, the New
England Association of Museums, the
Vermont Museum and Gallerv Alliance,
and the International Association of
Sports Museums and Halls of Fame. We
are a nationally accredited, nonprofit,
educational institution chartered under
the laws of the state of Vermont.
SUPPORT!
As an independent, nonprofit institution, the American Museum of Fly
Fishing relies on the generosity of public-spirited individuals for substantial
support. We ask that you give our museum serious consideration when planning for gifts and bequests.
by Donald S. Johnson
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Key Largo DinnerIAuction
A Success
The warmth of breezes blowing off
the bay, palm trees, a historic club, and
a veranda under which presidents have
sipped cool drinks and watched the tide
come in: the Key Largo Angler's Club
was the idyllic setting for the Museum's
first ever Key Largo DinnerIAuction on
March 24,1994.
It was a highly successful venue for
the Museum, thanks to the efforts of a
host of good friends and a strong committee that included Trustee Tom
Davidson as chair and Richard T.
Farmer and Joel Shepherd. Total gross
proceeds for the event topped $60,000.
The highlight of the evening came
when the fly rod and a box of flies donated bv former President George Bush
were prisented to the ~ u s e u m ~ f inor
clusion in its permanent Presidential
collection. The donation of these historically important objects (the Museum
already holds rods, reels, and assorted
tackle of presidents Cleveland, Hoover,
Eisenhower, John Quincy Adams, Jim-
my Carter and First Lady Rosalyn
Carter) was made possible by Key Largo
committee member Richard Farmer, a
personal friend of Mr. Bush. The gift
was formally accepted by Museum Vice
President Arthur Stern.
Special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Tom
Davidson and all the wonderful Museum friends who helped make this initial
event in the Keys such a fabulous success.
Cleveland DinnerIAuction
Sets New Mark
Congratulations are in order to the
Museum's Cleveland DinnerIAuction
committee that organized a record-setting dinnerlauction at the Patterson
Fruit Farm in Chesterland, Ohio, on
April 28,1994.
Though the success of this innovative
event- held in a barn replete with hay
wagon and horse stalls-was due to the
efforts of the entire Cleveland committee, special thanks go to longtime committee chair and Museum Trustee
Woods King, 111, Trustee Dick Whitney,
Sr. (who was honored during the
evening for his exemplary service on the
Museum's board), and Jo Reynolds and
VISIT!
Summer hours (May 1 through October
31) are 10 to 4. Winter hours (November 1through April 30) are weekdays 10
to 4. We are closed on major holidays.
BACK ISSUES!
Available at $4 per copy:
Volume 6, Numbers 1,2,3,4
Volume 7, Numbers 2,3
Volume 8, Number 3
Volume 9, Numbers 1,2,3
Volume lo, Number 2
Volume 12, Number 3
Volume 13, Number 3
Volume 15, Number 2
Volume 16, Numbers 1, 2,3
Volume 20, Numbers 1,2
26
A great day in February 1994.Revel1 Carr, Coiiznzissioner of the Accreditation Comnzittee of the American Association of Museuins (left) looks on as
Museum President Wally Murray and Vice-PresidentArthur Stern present
oficial AAM credentials to Executive Director Don Johnson (right).
Claire Paskevich for their dedicated and
tireless efforts.
We want to encourage our members
and friends to support the Museum by
attending one of its all-important dinnerlauctions during the coming year.
Awards Presented at
Festival Weekend
As is the Museum's custom, several
awards were presented to some highly
deserving volunteers at the Museum's
Annual Museum Festival weekend June
3 to 5,1994.
The 1993 Joe Pisarro Volunteer of the
Year Award was presented to Pamela
Bates Richards of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Pam, daughter of the late anglerlwriter ~oloneljosephD. Bates, has
been an active Museum volunteer for
the last seven years and has served as a
Margot Page
member of the Museum's Boston dinnerlauction committee for nearly all of
that time. In 1993 she succeeded the
hard-working Frank Tardo as chair of
the Boston committee.
Pam hasn't limited her efforts to our
annual Boston fund-raiser. She is the
quintessential goodwill ambassador for
the Museum and regularly helps staff
informational tables at sport shows, attends nearly all Museum functions
within a 300-mile radius of Newburyport, and frequently enlists new members and friends for the Museum. We
thank her for her distinguished service
over the years.
Our 1993 Austin Hogan Award was
awarded to Gordon M. Wickstrom of
Boulder, Colorado. The Hogan Award
was first established in 1985 "to honor
the memory of Austin Hogan and
awarded annually to that person who
makes the most significant contribution
to the Museum's journal, The American
Fly Fisher, founded by the Museum and
Austin Hogan in 1974."
Gordon is a professor of drama,
emeritus, at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. "W. B.
Yeats and the Fly," the latest of his many
contributions to The American Fly Fisher, appeared in the Spring 1994 issue.
Museum Nets Major
Collections
Pam Bates Richards was the recipient of
the 1993 Joe Pisarro Volunteer of the Year
Award. Standing with her is her mother,
Mrs. Helen Bates.
We are pleased to announce that the
Museum has recently acquired two significant and historically valuable collections through the generosity of Hoagy
B. Carmichael and Donald Phillipson.
Mr. Carmichael's gift of twelve su-
Longtime Museum supporters David McClellan, Krista and Bob McClellan, with
young David ashoulder.
perb Everett Garrison rods will enable
the Museum to eventually exhibit what
Jim Brown, author of the Museum's A
Treasury of Reels and one of our most
knowledgeable angling historians, has
called "the finest historical collection of
Garrison rods ever assembled." Included
in this outstanding collection are the
Garrison rods once owned and used by
such fly-fishing notables as Dr. George
Parker Holden (author of Idyll of the
Split Bamboo), the legendary Sparse
Grey Hackle, John Alden Knight, and
Otto Kienbusch. These rods will one
day be exhibited at the Museum and in
its traveling exhibitions.
Mr. Phillipson has presented the Museum with a generous gift of rods, reels,
and ephemera from the personal collection of his father, the late Bill Phillipson,
founder of the famed Phillipson Rod
Company of Denver, Colorado. We are
SUMMER
1994
27
From Papa Hemingway (1966)
particularly excited about this gift because it affords our staff the opportunity to prepare an exhibition that will examine not only the life and times of Bill
Phillipson, but the history of his trendsetting Denver-based rod company as
well.
The Museum is deeply grateful and
highly honored to be able to add these
exceptional gifts to its permanent collections.
Michigan" during the summer of 1995.
1
We have only begun to lay the early
"Hemingway's Michigan"
Trip Planned for 1995
If you've ever read Hemingway's Big
Two-Hearted River or any of his classic
Nick Adams stories, and have wanted to
fish some of the same waters the famed
author fished, or visit some of the
Michigan locales mentioned in his timeless writing, then sign on to our Museum-sponsored trip to "Hemingway's
groundwork for this exciting venture,
but we know that we will be visiting several rivers immortalized by the Nobel
Prize-winning author, including the
Fox, Hemingway's "big two-hearted river." Special guest speakers are being invited and a Hemingway dinner is also
being planned. And, of course, plenty of
time will be built into the trip for our
guests to explore Hemingway country.
Look for further details on this
unique Museum-sponsored educational
offering in the months ahead. Those
members and friends interested in journeying with Executive Director Don
Johnson to Michigan in 1995 should
contact him at 802-362-3300.
C O N T R I B U T O R S
Jeffrey Norton is a publisher who lives
in Guilford, Connecticut. His company
~roducesself-instructional audio-cassette courses in ninety-one languages.
Obtaining new materials to publish has
provided him with many opportunities
to fish in interesting places, including
Zimbabwe, Tasmania, and the former
Yugoslavia. A book collector for many
years, he bought his first Compleat
Angler while in college, which led in
time to the acquisition of a delightful
Angler by wood engraver Joseph
Crawhall, which led to collecting all of
Crawhall's works, which led in time to
collecting the works of Thomas Bewick,
Crawhall's predecessor and fellow resident of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which
led to an overflowing home library.
28
Museum member Ray R. Smith is an
angler and fly dresser from Fort Collins,
Colorado. He teaches fly tying locally
and has demonstrated tying for the
Federation of Fly Fishers and for Trout
Unlimited. Ray enjoys early angling
literature and collecting older trout flies
and Atlantic salmon flies. His interest in
fly-tying techniques and early fly styles
inspired him to reproduce antique
salmon hooks and to dye materials
using the old methods.
Charles Steinhacker of Wilton, Connecticut, is a noted landscape, wildlife,
and fine arts photographer. He is best
known for his largeIfo;mat photographic books and as an assignment
photographer for National Geographic,
Life, Audubon, and many other magazines. He has taught photography and
exhibited his photo-graphs throughout
the United States. Last year he formed a
company called Classic Images that
specializes in reprinting famous artwork. As its first project the company
has produced reprints of the four
favorite Denton fishes: Brook Trout,
Brown Trout, Striped Bass, and Bluefish.
Steinhacker is currently at work on a
limited-edition book entitled The Fish
Prints of S. F. Denton, a two-volume
portfolio which will collect all of the
Denton fish prints.
From Fishiciansbv Walter DeForest Dav 118651. unoublished original manuscriot
A Life Commitment
I
W A S G R A T I F Y I N G to See SO
many of our friends-trustees, staff
members, and, perhaps most importantly, volunteers -recognized on these
pages during 1993, the Museum's 25th
anniversary year. As I have said before,
the very essence -the life force -of any
organization, especially one like our
Museum that is growing rapidly, is its
volunteers.
We felt it time to pay tribute to a singularly distinguished component of our
T
P. J. Baugh
Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr.
Erik Bedford
Heidi Bedford
Kay Brodney
Hamilton Budge
Mark Canfield
Thomas Clark
Hugh Corrigan
James R. Dalziel
John C. Dorn
John D. Drinko
Cliff Fitzgerald
volunteer complement that, at least
heretofore, has received very little recognition -the Museum's Life Members.
Each and every one of these individuals
has, at one time or another, made a life
commitment to the Museum, deciding
that it is an organization with a future
and a mission worthy of substantial
support. Herewith, we proudly publish
a full listing of these very special friends.
We hope that many of you will, in the
days and weeks to come, consider join-
Michael Fitzgerald
John and Lynn Foster
Tim Foster
Arthur T. Frey
George F. Fry, Jr.
Vernon E. Gallup
Patrick Gilligan
David L. Glaesser
Francis Goelet
Gardner L. Grant
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Hicklin
Gordon Hine
Herman C. Hittenberger
ing the ranks of our Life Members, or
give thoughtful consideration to upgrading your current membership category. Increased member support is obviously necessary if the Museum is to
continue to grow, evolve, and expand its
educational mission. Of one thing we
are certain, your commitment and confidence in this exciting organization will
not be misplaced. Our thanks!
DONALD
S. JOHNSON
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR
Robert J. Hoback
Art Kaemmer
John Kiely
Edward D. Landels
William Levy
John J. Louis
James F. McCloud
Henry P. McIntosh
Payne McIntosh
Dr. W. Harrison Mehn
David D. Perkins
Leigh H. Perkins
Perk and Randall Perkins
Romi Perkins
0. Miles Pollard
Dean E. Richardson
John Schlesinger
Stephen Sloan
Arthur and Ellen Stern
James S. Taylor
Stuart W. Tisdale
Dickson L. Whitney
George Widener
Pete Widener
Earl Worsham
THEAMERICAN MUSEUM O P FLY FISHING,
a nationally accredited, nonprofit, educational institution dedicated to preserving the
rich heritage of fly fishing, was founded in
Manchester, Vermont, in 1968. The Museum
serves as a repository for, and conservator to,
the world's largest collection of angling and
angling-related objects. The Museum's collections and exhibits provide the public with
thorough documentation of the evolution of
fly fishing as a sport, art form, craft, and industry in the United States and abroad from
the sixteenth century to the present. Rods,
reels, and flies, as well as tackle, art, books,
manuscripts, and photographs form the major components of the Museum's collections.
The Museum has gained recognition as a
unique educational institution. It supports a
publications program through which its national quarterly journal, The American Fly
Fisher, and books, art prints, and catalogs are
regularly offered to the public. The Museum's traveling exhibits program has made it
possible for educational exhibits to be
viewed across the United States and abroad.
The Museum also provides in-house exhibits, related interpretive programming,
and research services for members, visiting
scholars, authors, and students.
The Museum is an active, member-oriented nonprofit institution. For information
please contact: The American Museum of Fly
Fishing, P. 0. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont
05254,802-362-3300.

salmon flies. the standard patterns.

Transcription

Similar documents

Memberships from Coast to Coast and Everywhere In Between

Saturday, June 16th 2:00 to 5:00 pm Tickets: $15

WHOLEY NORWEGIAN SALMON FILLETS 1

Will It Fly? | Decorati Access

Paintbrush Ball Invitation - Museum of Art and Archaeology

Gravlax Kit Guide and Information

China 2006 July 7 - 18 Beijing, Xi`an, Shanghai and Hong Kong

Proposal #9: Celebrating Salmon with Big Y

Wednesday January 13 - Cape Cod Trout Unlimited!

Southwest National Park Tour