Title

Deacquisition of Birds-of-Paradise display in the Marx Library

Creator

Lori Harris, University of South AlabamaFollow
Jason Strickland, University of South AlabamaFollow
Lorene Flanders, University of South AlabamaFollow
Mary Duffy, University of South AlabamaFollow
Paula L. Webb, University of South AlabamaFollow
Julie AndelFollow

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Description

These rare birds-of-paradise, native to New Guinea, were presented to Lieutenant General Walter K. Wilson, Jr., Chief of US Army Engineers, by Brig. General Soedarto, Chief of the Indonesian Army Corps of Engineers, in 1963 in appreciation for the US Army Corps of Engineers Mobile Training Team, which spent five months in Indonesia under the Military Assistance Program.

General Wilson (1906-1985), appointed as the 40th Chief of Engineers by President John F. Kennedy, served the Mobile Corps of Engineers' office twice during his distinguished career and chose to retire in Mobile in 1965. The Wilson family donated the birds-of-paradise to the University Library after his death in 1985.

In 2021, in an effort to continue to preserve the donated birds-of-paradise, they were transferred to Jason Strickland, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of South Alabama to properly preserve the birds-of-paradise. Julie Andel, the photographer, took photos of the birds to archive.

On November 30th, 2021 Jason Strickland, Biological Sciences, picked up the donated birds-of-paradise.