Hocken Digital Collections

Richdale, Lancelot Eric : Papers

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Reference NumberARC-0476Date1912-1980CreatorRichdale, Lancelot Eric, Dr, 1900-1983DescriptionThis collection mainly consists of material created by Richdale during his vast ornithological studies of penguins, albatrosses and petrels. Papers include diaries, field notes and notebooks, manuscripts, galleys and reprints of his publications and working papers. Other material includes glass lantern slides, film reels, photographs and negatives. There is some correspondence with fellow naturalists and ornithologists relating to his research fellowships and subsequent publications and educational certificates.
Only part of this collection is digitised and available through Digital Collections. Information about other items can be found on the Hākena catalogue, through the Library Catalogues link above.History / BiographyDr Lance Richdale was born at Marton in the North Island and educated in Wanganui. He was a pioneer of Dunedin's albatross colony, a founding member of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand and a world authority on seabirds. He obtained a teaching qualification before going to Hawkesbury Agricultural College near Sydney and then being appointed instructor in agriculture with the Otago Education Board in 1928. He studied at the University of Otago where he gained his BA in 1935 and MA in 1936. In 1935 he became interested in the yellow-eyed penguins on the Otago Peninsula, banding them and recording their lives. His study spanned over 18 years and involved over 1,300 personal visits to breeding areas. He also became interested in the royal albatrosses at Taiaroa Head, guarding a nest and successfully hatching a chick in 1937. From 1938 he began studying petrel species nesting off Stewart Island in great depth, making his first visit to Whero Island. From 1939 he began publishing articles and booklets on penguins, albatrosses and petrels, which eventually totalled over 105. In the 1950s and 1960s he was awarded many fellowships and awards for his ornithological research, including a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950 where he studied at Cornell University and a Nuffield Research Fellowship from 1952 to 1955 where he worked under Professor David Lack at the Edward Grey Institute in Oxford. It was during these times that he completed his major works, 'Sexual Behavior in Penguins' (1951), 'A Population Study of Penguins' (1957), 'Biology of the Sooty Shearwater' (1953) and 'Biology of the Birds of Whero Island' (1965). He was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1961 and was made OBE in 1982. He died in 1984 being survived by his wife Agnes whom he married in 1933. They had no children (From: 'Southern People', ed. Jane Thompson, Dunedin, 1998).
Lance Richdale's papers were inscribed to the UNESCO Aotearoa/New Zealand Memory of the World Register in 2016.

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Richdale, Lancelot Eric : Papers

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