QUANTITY:»

ACQUISITION:	The »papers (donor no. 541) were donated by Pearl Knoop in 1998».
ACCESS:	The »papers are open for research.
COPYRIGHT:	»Copyright has been transferred to the University of Iowa.
PROCESSED BY:	Lindsay Jones, 1998Your name, year».
REVISION:	Bobby Jett, May 8, 1999, version WORD7.

»Biography

Pearl Knoop lived most of her life in Marble Rock, Iowa. She attended Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa) in Cedar Falls and taught in Marble Rock, Iowa, and in South Dakota. She also ran the Marble Rock library and was a correspondent for the Charles City newspaper. Her major hobby was bird watching, and she kept detailed journals of her bird watching activities for over sixty years. Pearl Knoop died on November 25, 1998.

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Scope and Content Note

Begin text here:The Pearl Knoop» papers date from »1933 to 1998 and measure 2.65 linear feet»2.65 linear feet6. The »papers »are a record of Knoop’s bird watching activities during these years; they also contain weather data from newspaper clippings and a card file of her bird sightings. The daily bird watching diaries provide some insight into Knoop’s daily life, noting where she was and what she was doing when she sighted particular birds. On April 28, 1937, for example, she wrote, “Came back from Floyd again Monday evening as school closed on account of Scarlet Fever. Went over to Schwartz’ this afternoon, saw two Shrikes on way over. . . . Clair saw a Franklin Gull today.”

Records from 1933-1940 and 1996-1998 are less complete than records from other periods. The 1967 list contains an article written by Knoop on her bird watching activities for the Charles City Press.»» In “Iowa Birds: Aunt Pearl’s List,” Knoop wrote about how she became interested in bird watching. “We liked our Baltimore Orioles,” she writes. “Now the AOU [American Ornithologist Union] has changed their names to Northern Orioles. I didn’t approve.”

Begin text here:»Box no. Description

Box 1

Bird Lists, 1933-1998

1933-1940

1941-1944

1945-1947

1948-1950

1951

1952

Box 2

1953-1955

1956

1957-1958

1959-1962

1963-1966

1967-1969

Box 3

1970-1972

1973-1975

1976-1978

1979-1981

1982-1985

Box 4

1986-1989

1990-1992

1993-1998

Bird lists (condensed), 1956-1976

Iowa birds checklists, 1956, 1982, and undated

Birds, ducks, and flowers list, 1961-1993

Calendar with bird notes, 1994 [oversize: shelved in map case: drawer 2]

Autobiographical sketch: “Iowa Birds: Aunt Pearl’s List”, 1992

Articles collected by Knoop about bird watching, 1982, 1988, and 1994

Life list of birds sighted, 1933-1993

Box 5

Card file:

Birds by year, 1933-1960

Box 6

Birds, alphabetical with dates sighted