Joseph Whitaker (ornithologist)
Encyclopedia
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
-English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
ornithologist, archaeologist and sportsman. He is mainly known for his work on the birds of Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, and for being involved in the foundation of the Sicilian football club U.S. Città di Palermo
U.S. Città di Palermo
Unione Sportiva Città di Palermo is an Italian football club from Palermo, Sicily which currently plays in Serie A, the top level of Italian football. Formed in 1900 as Anglo Panormitan Athletic and Football Club, the club had various names before assuming its final form in 1987 and is currently...
.
Biography
Whitaker's family came from prominent YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
origins. The Whitaker family were wealthy 19th century tycoons from West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, who had developed the fortified wine industry in Marsala, Sicily during 1806, many members of the Whitaker family had moved to Sicily permanently.
His daughter Vera married Sir Harold Bowden, 2nd Baronet
Sir Harold Bowden, 2nd Baronet
Sir Harold Bowden, 2nd Baronet, GBE , was the chairman and chief executive of the Raleigh Bicycle Company and Sturmey-Archer Ltd from his father's death in 1921 until his own retirement in 1938...
of Beeston
Beeston, Nottinghamshire
Beeston is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is southwest of Nottingham city centre. Although typically regarded as a suburb of the City of Nottingham, and officially designated as part of the Nottingham Urban Area, for local government purposes it is in the borough of Broxtowe, lying outside...
, Nottingham, on 7 July 1908.
Joseph Whitaker has a school in Nottinghamshire named after him.
Inheritance of the Vineyard Empire
He inherited vast vineyards and his great grandfather Ingham's banking empire. Choosing PalermoPalermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
over the more provincial Marsala
Marsala
Marsala is a seaport city located in the Province of Trapani on the island of Sicily in Italy. The low coast on which it is situated is the westernmost point of the island...
, he built the Villa Malfitano, an Italian Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
mansion near Zisa Castle on the Via Dante after his marriage to Tina Scalia. Tina was the daughter of General Alfonso Scalia who landed in Sicily with Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
during the years leading up to the Risorgimento. They had two daughters; the elder of which married General Antonio Di Giorgio an Italian Minister of War. Thus the family was firmly established in the upper echelons of Italian Society.
In these years, the Belle Époque
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...
age, the house was the venue for lavish parties attended by British and Italian royalty. Tina Whitaker knew Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
, the Kaiser and Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, Empress Eugenie and Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
. Attracted by homosexual company, she unwittingly found herself in a circle involved in the Irish Crown Jewels
Irish Crown Jewels
The Crown Jewels of Ireland were heavily jewelled insignia of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick. They were worn by the sovereign at the installation of knights of that order, the Irish equivalent of the English Order of the Garter and the Scottish Order of the Thistle...
scandal.
Whitaker himself was founder and president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at Palermo. Also he was a prime factor in the foundation of U.S. Città di Palermo
U.S. Città di Palermo
Unione Sportiva Città di Palermo is an Italian football club from Palermo, Sicily which currently plays in Serie A, the top level of Italian football. Formed in 1900 as Anglo Panormitan Athletic and Football Club, the club had various names before assuming its final form in 1987 and is currently...
in the later 1880s, a football team who he was the first president of.
Birds
In 1891 already a very keen ornithologist Whitaker joined the British Ornithologists' UnionBritish Ornithologists' Union
The British Ornithologists' Union aims to encourage the study of birds in Britain, Europe and elsewhere, in order to understand their biology and to aid their conservation....
.
Collecting expeditions to Tunisia followed. These extended over a period of ten years (1894–1904). Notebooks kept at the time contain information on the natural history of the birds as well as other fauna and also the flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
of Tunisia.
The Tunisian bird and bird nest and egg collection was housed in a villa in the grounds of his home “Malfitano” alongside a very complete collection of Sicilian birds and collections made on his behalf by Edward Dobson
George Edward Dobson
George Edward Dobson FRS was a zoologist, photographer and army surgeon.-Biography:...
in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. To these were added specimens of birds from the Mediterranean littoral.
Some of Whitaker's collection of Tunisian birds are in the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
, London. The Sicilian birds are divided between the Royal Scottish Museum (bird skins) and the Ulster Museum
Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, numismatics, industrial...
(bird mounts, eggs and nests).
Archaeology
Whitaker devoted the last years of his life to archaeology, purchasing the island of MotyaMotya
Motya , was an ancient and powerful city on an island off the west coast of Sicily, between Drepanum and Lilybaeum...
near Trapani
Trapani
Trapani is a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands.-History:...
the site of a Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n townfounded in the eight century BC. He wrote a book on his excavations in 1921. The site may be explored (online) using the Motya
Motya
Motya , was an ancient and powerful city on an island off the west coast of Sicily, between Drepanum and Lilybaeum...
link.
Works
- Notes on some TunisiaTunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
n birds. Ibis 78-100, map. 1894. - Additional notes on Tunisian birds. Ibis 85 -106, map. 1895.
- Further notes on Tunisian birds. Ibis 87 -99, map. 1896.
- On Turnox sylvatica in Sicily Ibis 290-291.1896.
- Exhibition of skins of Sturnix unicolor from Morocco . Bull. Brit.Orn.Club vol.vii.pxvii (p 155 of Ibis 1898). 1897
- Description of Two new species, Garrulus ornops,sp. nov., and Rhodopechys alicna, sp. nov. Bull. Brit.Orn.Club vol.vii.pxvii 1897.
- Further notes on Tunisian birds Ibis 125-132. 1898.
- On the Grey ShrikeShrikeShrikes are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of thirty-one species in three genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes were also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits...
s of Tunisia Ibis 288-231.1898. - On a collection of birds from Morocco with descriptions of Lanius algieriensis dodsoni, subsp. nov. (p. 599) and of Octocorys atlas (p.xiii) Ibis 592-610.1898.
- Description of a new ChatChat (bird)Chats are a group of small Old World insectivorous birds formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, but now considered Old World flycatchers....
, Saxicola caterinae, sp. nov., from AlgeriaAlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and Morocco, and a new crossbill, Loxia curvirostra poliogyna, subsp. nov., from Tunisia Ibis 624-625. 1898. - Description of a new species of Shore-Lark, Otocorys atlas, from the Atlas MountainsAtlas MountainsThe Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...
of Morocco. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. Vol.vii, p.xlvii (p 432 of Ibis) 1898. - On an Abnormal nest of Ardea cinereaGrey HeronThe Grey Heron , is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in the milder south and west, but many birds retreat in winter from the ice in colder regions...
Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. vol. viii, p.xxxvii. 1899. - On the Occurrence of Caprimulgus aeggptius at Palermo Ibis 475-476.
- The Birds of Tunisia, 2 Vols. Pp. xxxii, 294; xviii, 410, 17 full page plates of which 15 are handcoloured after GrönvoldHenrik GrönvoldHenrik Grönvold was a Danish bird illustrator.Grönvold developed an interest in natural history at a young age, and would spend his time drawing the birds and animals around him. After studying drawing in Copenhagen he went on to work as a draughtsman for the Danish artillery from 1880.Grönvold...
, 2 photograv., 1 clr folding map. London, 1st edition. Edition limited to 250 copies only. 1905 - Motya - A Phoenician Colony in Sicily, London. Yorke RA & Davidson 1921.