Margaret L. Bodine Explained

Margaret L. Bodine (July 27, 1876 — November 24, 1960) was an American naturalist, photographer and filmmaker, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was founder of the Lantern and Lens Gild, a women's photography club in Philadelphia.[1]

Early life

Margaret Lamb Bodine was born in Gambier, Ohio, the daughter of Rev. William Budd Bodine (1841-1907) and Rachel Alice Allen Bodine (1840-1921). Her father was the president of Kenyon College from 1876 to 1891.[2] Judge Joseph Lamb Bodine was her first cousin; their fathers were brothers. She graduated from Harcourt Place Seminary in Gambier in 1891.[3] [4]

Career

In 1905, Bodine was a founder and first president of the Lantern and Lens Gild, a club for women photographers, which grew out of Mathilde Weil's photography classes for women at Drexel University.[5] Bodine and Nina Fisher Lewis shared first prize for a botanical photograph, second prize for an interior photograph, and second prize for a portrait, at the guild's first annual exhibition in 1913.[6] [7]

Bodine photographed plants and animals, especially hummingbirds, finches, and flying squirrels, during summers in Northeast Harbor, Maine,[8] and made documentary films about them.[9] She wrote in detail about the equipment she used and the challenges she faced in this work. "I know of no branch of picture-taking more interesting than this special kind," she said of her work, adding that "there is infinite variety in it, sufficient difficulties to make it absorbing, and a very large proportion of rewarding results."[10]

Bodine was a member of the Amateur Motion Picture Club of America of Philadelphia. Films by Bodine included Humming-birds (1931), Ruby-Throated Humming-bird (1931). Bodine wrote articles about her work, including "Adventures in Taming Wild Birds at Birdbank" (1923),[11] and "Holiday with Humming Birds" (1928) for National Geographic magazine.[12] The latter article described rigging bottles of sweet liquid disguised as flowers to attract hummingbirds, and inspired the creation of blown-glass hummingbird feeders by Laurence and May Rogers Webster, soon after.[13] [14]

Bodine spoke to the Woman's City Club in 1925,[15] the national conference of the National Audubon Society in 1930,[16] and to a meeting of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia in 1939.[17]

Personal life

Margaret L. Bodine and Nina Fisher Lewis worked and lived together for over 40 years, until Lewis's death in 1948. Bodine received a life income from Lewis's estate, "in partial appreciation of her long friendship, devotion, and companionship."[18] She died in 1960, aged 84 years, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Lantern and Lens Gild of Women Photographers records 1904-2004. discover.hsp.org. English. 2018-12-13.
  2. https://books.google.com/books?id=KOE-AAAAYAAJ&dq=Rachel+Alice+Allen+Bodine&pg=PA8 The National Cyclopedia of American Biography
  3. http://www.amateurcinema.org/index.php/filmmaker/margaret-l.-bodine "Filmmaker: Margaret L. Bodine"
  4. https://books.google.com/books?id=l2gxAQAAMAAJ&dq=Margaret+Lamb+Bodine&pg=RA1-PA167 "Collegiate and Academic"
  5. Cary Hutto, "In 1905, a group of women from the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry began a club around this shared interest. What was it?" Historical Society of Pennsylvania (April 20, 2015).
  6. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26198069/margaret_l_bodine_1913/ "Camera Women Exhibit"
  7. John Bartlett, "Lantern and Lens Club Exhibition" Camera (May 1913): 248-255.
  8. Arthur Stupka, "The Northern Flying Squirrel" Nature Notes from Acadia (January–February 1935).
  9. Dan True, Hummingbirds of North America: Attracting, Feeding, and Photographing (University of New Mexico Press 1995): 82, 166.
  10. Margaret L. Bodine, "A Summer on a Porch with a Graflex" The Camera (May 1922): 234-241; quote on page 241.
  11. Margaret L. Bodine, "Adventures in Taming Wild Birds at Birdbank" Farm and Garden (February 1923): 11-17.
  12. Margaret L. Bodine, "Holiday with Humming Birds" National Geographic (June 1928): 731-742.
  13. http://www.hummingbirdmarket.com/hummingbird_articles/origins_of_hummingbird_feeders.html "The Origins & History of Hummingbird Feeders"
  14. Nancy L. Newfield, Barbara Nielsen, Hummingbird Gardens: Attracting Nature's Jewels to Your Backyard (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 1996): 25.
  15. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26199976/margaret_l_bodine_1925/ "Camera Talk Given"
  16. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26200380/margaret_l_bodine_1930/ "Plans Complete for 1930 Meet of Audubon Society"
  17. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26198918/margaret_l_bodine_1939/ Untitled brief news item
  18. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26199044/nina_fisher_lewis_and_margaret_l/ "Miss Lewis had $597,501 Estate"