Wolfrid Rudyerd Boulton (April 5, 1901 – January 24, 1983) was an American
ornithologist
Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...
who worked extensively in Africa. Boulton held positions at the
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
and the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by List of people from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Pit ...
and traveled widely on expeditions to Africa. With his first wife,
ethnomusicologist
Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...
Laura Boulton
Laura Boulton (January 4, 1899 – October 16, 1980) was an American ethnomusicologist. She is known for the many field recordings, films and photographs of traditional music and its performances and practitioners from Egypt, the Sudan, U ...
, he made the first recordings of African tropical bird calls. Boulton was recruited into the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...
(OSS) during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
because of his knowledge of Africa and his experience in foreign travel. He was responsible for monitoring the supply of
uranium ore
Uranium ore deposits are economically recoverable concentrations of uranium within Earth's crust. Uranium is one of the most common Chemical element, elements in Earth's crust, being 40 times more common than silver and 500 times more common than ...
from the
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...
for the
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
. Boulton transferred to the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
(CIA) in 1947 and resigned in 1958.
Boulton moved to
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...
in 1959 with his third wife and established the
Atlantica Foundation, a charitable organization to encourage the study of African birds. Atlantica's connection with the CIA was never established, although Boulton was interviewed by Rhodesia's
Central Intelligence Organisation
The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is the national intelligence agency of Zimbabwe. It was conceived as the external intelligence-gathering arm of the British South Africa Police Special Branch in the early 1960s, under the Southern Rh ...
over his links to the organization. Atlantica lost much of its funding following
Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was a statement adopted by the Cabinet of Rhodesia on 11 November 1965, announcing that Rhodesia (previously Southern Rhodesia), a British crown colony in southern Africa that had respon ...
in 1965 and Boulton closed the foundation in 1978. He died in
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
(Rhodesia).
Early life and career
W. Rudyerd Boulton was born in
Beaver
Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...
, Pennsylvania, on April 5, 1901.
His first name is given variously as Wolfrid and Wilfred but was generally not used, being known as "W. Rudyerd Boulton", "Rudyerd Boulton" or "Rud".
[ He joined the ]American Ornithologists' Union
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...
at around the age of 15 – he would remain a member for the whole of his life. He attended Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
and then the University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
, from which he graduated with Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree in 1924. Immediately after graduation Boulton was made research assistant at the American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
's ornithology department. He was a participant of Arthur Stannard Vernay's 1925 expedition to Angola and in the same year married the ethnomusicologist
Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...
Laura Boulton
Laura Boulton (January 4, 1899 – October 16, 1980) was an American ethnomusicologist. She is known for the many field recordings, films and photographs of traditional music and its performances and practitioners from Egypt, the Sudan, U ...
(''née
The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
'' Crayton).[
Boulton transferred to the ]Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by List of people from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Pit ...
in 1926 as assistant curator of birds and in 1929 joined the Sarah Lavanburg Straus expedition to Nyasaland
Nyasaland () was a British protectorate in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. After ...
(Malawi), Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
and Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
. In the course of this, with his wife, he made the first ever recordings of the calls of African tropical birds.[ Boulton was also a member of the 1929–30 Carnegie Museum African expedition and the 1930-31 Vernay-Lang Kalahari Expedition.] In 1931 Boulton was appointed assistant curator at the Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...
and, the same year, accompanied Ralph Pulitzer
Ralph Pulitzer (June 11, 1879 – June 14, 1939) was an American heir, newspaper publisher and author. He served as the president of the Press Publishing Co., which published the ''New York World'' and the '' Evening World''.
Early life
Ralph Pu ...
on his expedition to Angola.[ During the expedition he discovered a previously unknown species of ]warbler
Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous.
Sylvioid warblers
T ...
that he named in honour of his wife.[ In 1933 he published a children's book entitled ''Travelling with the Birds''.][ Boulton was a member of the 1934 Field Museum-Straus expedition that traveled 12,900 km from Dakar to ]Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
via Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
and later took part in expeditions to Panama
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
, the West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
and the Galapagos Islands. Boulton was promoted to curator of birds in 1937, a position he retained until 1946.[ He separated from his wife in 1938 and remarried four years later to Inez Cunningham Stark, an heiress, poet and ]patron of the arts
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...
.[ In 1948 he donated extensive film documentation of his research expeditions to the Field Museum.
]
OSS/CIA career
Boulton was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...
, which was then the US intelligence agency, in 1942 due to his knowledge of Africa and overseas experience. He was appointed divisional deputy for Africa in the Secret Intelligence Branch
The Secret Intelligence Branch of the United States' Office of Strategic Services was a wartime foreign intelligence service responsible for the collection of HUMINT, human intelligence from a network of field stations in Asia, Europe, and the M ...
.[ Boulton was responsible, from 1943, for co-coordinating a joint program with the ]X-2 Counter Espionage Branch The head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), William Donovan, created the X-2 Counter Espionage Branch in 1943 to provide liaison with and assist the British in its exploitation of the Ultra program's intelligence during World War II. A few ...
to monitor the supply of uranium ore, vital to the success of the Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
, which was primarily obtained from the Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...
.[ Despite his experience, Boulton was based primarily in Washington, DC, only once leaving the country – to visit North Africa in 1944.] During the war Adolph W. Schmidt, later to be the American ambassador to Canada, served as one of his intelligence officers.[
By February 1946 Boulton had to resign from his position at the Carnegie so that he could focus on his work for the government, although he remained a research associate of the museum. He transferred to the ]Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
when it was established as the successor to the OSS in 1947. An ornithological expedition Boulton undertook in North Africa in 1952 may have been funded by the CIA as cover for an operation, or if not, by his second wife. A further expedition to Southern Rhodesia and Angola in 1957 was funded by the Carnegie Museum. Boulton resigned from the CIA in April 1958, the same year his wife died.[
]
Rhodesia
Boulton married for the third and final time in April 1959 to Louise Rehm, the widow of a former OSS colleague.[ Within months the couple had moved to ]Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...
where they founded the Atlantica Foundation, a charitable organization to encourage ornithologists, particularly students, to study the birds of Africa. Boulton had a farm near Lake McIlwaine which housed an extensive art collection that was exhibited at the Rhodes National Gallery in December 1960.[ He sold some of his art, including works by ]Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
, Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...
, Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...
and Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
to fund the work of Atlantica. Boulton and his wife made frequent donations to the organization, contributing fully one third of their wealth to it. Although there were suspicions, it has never been documented that Atlantica received financial support from the CIA. The foundation funded scholarships at Nyatsime College
Nyatsime College in Harare Province, Zimbabwe is the country's first technical college specifically for African students. It opened in 1962, as the brainchild of educator and activist Stanlake J. W. T. Samkange, in what was then Southern Rhodesia. ...
and donated books to more than 100 educational establishments.[
In addition to his work at the foundation Boulton was managing editor of ''Rhodesia Science News'' and president of the Rhodesia Scientific Association. He also assisted with early conservation projects in the region to the south-west of ]Lusaka
Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...
, which was established as Lochinvar National Park
__NOTOC__
The Lochinvar National Park lies south west of Lusaka in Zambia, on the south side of the Kafue River.The habitats the national park protects are a large portion of the southern Kafue Flats floodplain, including the Chunga Lagoon, and dr ...
in 1972, and experimented with farming termites as a nutritional foodstuff. Boulton carried out expeditions with a mobile laboratory to the Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid climate, semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African ...
in Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
. The laboratory included advanced listening equipment and map-making tools, which he may well have used to carry out surveys for the CIA. Rhodesia's Central Intelligence Organisation
The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is the national intelligence agency of Zimbabwe. It was conceived as the external intelligence-gathering arm of the British South Africa Police Special Branch in the early 1960s, under the Southern Rh ...
was suspicious of Boulton's CIA connections and advanced equipment and he was interviewed by them.[
Boulton lost his international funding following ]Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was a statement adopted by the Cabinet of Rhodesia on 11 November 1965, announcing that Rhodesia (previously Southern Rhodesia), a British crown colony in southern Africa that had respon ...
in 1965 and the introduction of US sanctions in 1967. As a result, Atlantica was forced to heavily reduce its programs. It may well be that the Boultons would have left the increasingly isolated Rhodesia if Louise was able to, but she was struck by blindness and senility and required 24-hour care. Louise died in 1974 and two years later Boulton returned to the United States to manage the process of closing Atlantica. He transferred the remaining funds to the Conservation Trust of Rhodesia in 1978. The Atlantica properties were used to educate students from within the country and from Mozambique by the new black-majority government of Zimbabwe (which Rhodesia had been renamed).[
Boulton had two strokes in later life and was a wheelchair user.][ He died on January 24, 1983, in Zimbabwe.]
A species of African gecko, '' Rhoptropus boultoni'', is named in honour of Rudyerd Boulton.[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Boulton", p. 35).]
See also
* :Taxa named by Rudyerd Boulton
References
External links
Rudyerd Boulton's expedition films (Reel 1) at the Field Museum Digital Collections
More reels
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boulton, Rudyerd
1901 births
1983 deaths
American ornithologists
People of the Office of Strategic Services
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
People from Beaver, Pennsylvania
Amherst College alumni
University of Pittsburgh alumni
Manhattan Project people
20th-century American zoologists