Bibliotheca Herpetologica 17(4)

Jacobs, H. J. 2023. Heinrich Rost’s facsimile of Hermann Schlegel’s “Abbildungen neuer oder unvollständig bekannter Amphibien”. A unique volume – looted, rediscovered, and repatriated to the Lübeck Library. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 17(4):32–45. Published May 1, 2023.

Looting is obviously a general feature of war in all times. This is true not only for a number of cultural and archaeological objects that we still see in museums today, but also for a large number of mostly smaller objects that are often in private hands. Such is the case with the book discussed here: Hermann Schlegel’s “Abbildungen neuer oder unvollständig bekannter Amphibien” (1837–44) was meticulously and precisely copied as part of a 69-volume collection of similar natural history works by Heinrich Rost, the director of an educational institute and an enthusiastic naturalist, and used to organise his extensive collection of natural objects as well as for teaching purposes. After Rost’s death, the entire collection was bequeathed to the renowned Lübeck City Library. The collection was stored in mine tunnels during the Second World War and transported with a myriad of other artifacts to Russia in 1946. Here the trace of many volumes is lost, but one copy, on which this article focuses, turned up in the USA at the end of the last century and is now being returned to the Lübeck City Library by its owner.

Arthur Loveridge – Comic Book Hero

Arthur Loveridge (1891–1980) is today well-known for his contributions to herpetology. He served as an Associate in Zoology and later as Curator in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University for 33 years (1924–1957), where his specialty was African herpetology. Loveridge published numerous papers and monographs based on his time as first Curator at the National Museum of Kenya (Nairobi) (1914–1921), his service as Game Warden in Tanganyika (1921–1924), and his later five long expeditions to East Africa over the period 1926 to 1949. Additional information on Loveridge is in Kraig Adler’s Contributions to the History of Herpetology, Volume 1 (1989, SSAR Contributions to Herpetology No. 5, pp. 111–112).

While in Kenya, Loveridge was a member of the East African Mounted Rifles during World War I. During three years of service, he traveled extensively through what was then German East Africa (now Tanzania), naturally collecting amphibians and reptiles throughout his military travels despite the wartime danger.  Loveridge later published a popular book on his adventures in East Africa, Many Happy Days I’ve Squandered (1944, Harper & Brothers, 278 pp.), which was republished in several editions, including an Armed Services Edition published by the U.S. Government for the troops during World War II. It was likely this latter edition that led to Loveridge’s entry into the world of comic books.

It Really Happened was published from 1944 to 1947 by William H. Wise & Company in New York City. The series of 11 issues was printed in comic book format on newsprint quality paper because of the wartime scarcity of better-quality paper. The series featured stories of biography and history, and issues highlighted real war accounts of actual events and acts of heroism and courage. Most of the non-war stories focused on adventure and unusual or interesting people and places. Copies sold for US 10¢.

In 1944, It Really Happened included a story entitled “Savage Safari” focusing on Arthur Loveridge. The artist and story editor are uncredited. The story covers five unpaginated pages (see Figures below) published in Issue 4 (Vol. 2, No. 1, total of 52 pp. in issue, including covers and advertisements). It traces Arthur’s interest in nature, particularly reptiles, through his museum appointment in Kenya and his adventures in the Mounted Rifles and time as Game Warden. Snakes are prominently featured. In “Savage Safari,” Arthur Loveridge may be the only herpetologist to have his story depicted in a widely-circulated comic book. Other comics, such as “Mark Trail” by Ed Dodd (no relation), have featured amphibians and reptiles, but not personalities.

Submitted by C. Kenneth Dodd, Jr.

Figs. 1–5: “Savage Safari” from It Really Happened (Issue 4, 1944). Author’s collection.

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliotheca Herpetologica 17(3)

McKeever, B. 2023. Mark Catesby’s Snakes of Carolina: A Review. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 17(3):10–31. Published April 2, 2023. With his 1747 two-volume work, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, (The Natural History) Mark Catesby published the first illustrated guide to a North American flora and fauna. He illustrated, in color, over 400 plant and animal taxa including twenty he identified as snakes, although one of them (his plate 59) is actually the Eastern Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis). Beginning with Linnaeus (1758, 1766), identification of some of the remaining nineteen has been uncontroversial, and others problematic. His plate 58 (the Wampum Snake), continues to elude complete confidence in its identification. James L. Reveal (2015) wrote “Taxonomic disagreements among experts, especially regarding the identity of Catesby’s fishes and snakes, exist and are bound to continue.” Although he was known to have preserved snakes in alcoholic spirits, specimens are not known to be extant, and Linnaeus’s system of using ventral and subcaudal scale counts to classify snakes was developed decades after Catesby’s work. Each of his accounts includes a color figure of the snake in question, an English language name, a Latin descriptive name, and a description that most often includes color, pattern, size, and natural history notes.