 | President Dwight Eisenhower, captured in the photos at left, is among the avid fly fishermen featured in the Peabody Museum exhibition "Seeing Wonders." |
According to legend, the famous American statesman and orator Daniel Webster was a passionate angler who viewed fish as political
adversaries, berating them with lectures and insults when caught.
T H I S
The allure of fly fishing is
explored in museum exhibit
The most stubborn of his catches, it is said, received the harshest accusation:
being called “antifederalist.” Another great fisherman, President
Grover Cleveland, said of Webster: “He was a wonderful orator — and
largely so because he was a fisherman.”
Webster’s B.D. Welch fishing rod is one of the items on view in “Seeing
Wonders: the Nature of Fly Fishing,” an exhibition on the sport opening
on Saturday, Sept. 29, at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
The major exhibition presents a comprehensive overview of the history of the
sport and techniques of fly fishing and fly tying with numerous displays of historical
rods and reels and fly fishing entomology. Among the featured items are fly fishing
stories and equipment of celebrity and presidential anglers, including those
of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Bing Crosby, Zane Grey, Ernest Hemingway, Winslow
Homer, George H.W. Bush, Webster and Cleveland, among others.
The exhibition title comes from what is believed to be the earliest printed book
on angling in Western Europe, published in 1506, in which the author asserts
that “while fishing thou shalt see many wonders.” Charles Ritz, an
avid fly fisherman whose hat, net, fly box and flies are on display, had another
take on the sport. In “A Fly Fisher’s Life” he wrote, “The
charm of fly fishing lies in one’s numerous failures and the unfortunate
circumstances that must be overcome.”
Bing Crosby's reel and hat in a photo from "Seeing Wonders."
An introductory video aims to communicate the enthusiasm generated by the beauty
and wonder of natural habitats and fishermen’s experiences in them. The
Peabody Museum has augmented the main exhibition, on loan from the American Museum
of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vermont, with specimens from its vertebrate zoology collections
that illustrate the diversity of fishes sought after by anglers.
The exhibition also considers how fishing has affected conservation of the natural
world, from the use of feathers for fly tying to the preservation of fish habitats
by Trout Unlimited and other organizations. Bing Crosby — whose Meisselbach
fly reel, Orvis rod, pipe, flies and hat are on display — was especially
successful at fishing for Atlantic salmon in Canada and Iceland, but he worked
vigorously for the protection of that fish from high seas netting, so much so
that his more than 800 musical recordings were banned in Denmark, note the exhibit
organizers.
A series of activities will be held 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday to mark the exhibit’s
opening.
The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, located at 170 Whitney Ave., is open
Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and on Sundays, noon-5 p.m. Admission to most exhibits and programs
is free with admission. Admission is $7; $6 for seniors and $5 for children ages
3-18; and is free for children under age 3, museum members and those with a valid
Yale I.D. There is free admission for all on Thursdays, 2-5 p.m. For further
information, call (203) 432-5050 or visit www.peabody.yale.edu.
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Campus Notes
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