S. Dillon Ripley (second on the left) as a spy in Sri Lanka, 1944.
I am writing this week about spies and birds.
Which brings me to Sidney Dillon Ripley, aka S. Dillon Ripley, the head of the Smithsonian Institution from 1964 to 1984.
The Smithsonian Institution was initially funded by Englishman James Smithson who left his personal fortune to the US Government for the creation of a museum even though Smithson had never so much as visited the US!
Government being what it is (and was), the Government promptly lost all the money.
It seems Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury decided to invest all of Smithson's gold in high-return (6 percent) bonds being offered by two new states, one-year-old Michigan and two-year-old Arkansas. Both states quickly defaulted and 100 percent of the money was gone.
To the great credit of John Quincy Adams, Congress was forced to fund the full replacement of the money lost by Woodbury's bad investments.
The Smithsonian's "castle" building was subsequently built between 1849 and 1855 from Seneca red sandstone cut from the Seneca Quarry near Riley's Lock where I often bird in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Back to S. Dillon Ripley.
Ripley was born into wealth and power in New York city. His father was Louis Arthur Dillon Ripley, a wealthy real estate agent while his grandfather -- Sidney Dillon -- was twice President of the Union Pacific Railroad and left an estate of $6,000,000 to his his uncle (and namesake) Sidney Dillon Ripley I who had a massive 48-room estate on Long Island and a massive five-story limestone house in downtown New York City.
For purposes of understanding, $6,000,000 in 1892 is equal to well over $200 million in today's dollars. In short, S. Dillon Ripley, born in 1913, was a product of the Gilded Age.
As a child of immense wealth and privilege, Ripley attended the best private schools, traveled to Europe and Asia, and eventually graduated from Yale.
What to do now? Why study birds of course!
The seed here (pun intended) had been planted in 1926 when 13-year old Sidney visited India, Kashmir, and Tibet with a friend of his father, John Raleigh Mott, who founded the YMCA and who later won the Nobel Peace Prize. Some friends!
While in Kashmir, young Ripley flew falcons with famed soldier-naturalist John Biddulph, and apparently the birding hook was set.
While in Kashmir, young Ripley flew falcons with famed soldier-naturalist John Biddulph, and apparently the birding hook was set.
Ripley later learned how to taxidermy and mount birds from famed ornithologist Frank Chapman, the fellow who came up with the idea of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count and who was curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History when he was instructing young Ripley. Yes, money and power has its privileges!
After graduating from Yale, Ripley enrolled at Columbia University to study zoology. As a part of his study, he participated in the Denison-Crockett Expedition to New Guinea in 1937-1938 where he was the expedition zoologist, shooting and collecting over 1,200 birds from 300 species, as well as discovering three new subspecies of marsupials.
In 1939 Ripley was the designated "bird collector" for the George Vanderbilt Sumatran Expedition after which he attended Harvard University, completing his PhD Ph.D. in Zoology in 1943.
In 1939 Ripley was the designated "bird collector" for the George Vanderbilt Sumatran Expedition after which he attended Harvard University, completing his PhD Ph.D. in Zoology in 1943.
And in 1944, Ripley became a spy.
Ripley was all of that -- a man born with a gold spoon in his mouth who had no trouble sleeping on the ground with mosquitoes buzzing in his nose and the roar of tigers in the bush.
Ripley was once airlifted to meet a Thai King. He jumped out of the airplane holding a machine gun, but with a tuxedo in his backpack.
Very James Bond -- if James Bond had been an ornithologist (joke intended)
Sidney Dillon Ripley was eventually put in charge of American intelligence services in Southeast Asia, but in truth he spent an inordinate amount of time birding.
Asked in an interview in 1984 whether he was using the "disguise" of a bird-watcher to spy on the Japanese in South Asia, he laughed it off.
Ripley was the kind of person the Office of Strategic Services under "Wild Bill" Donovan was looking for -- someone with culture and education, who had seen the world and could take a licking and keep on ticking.
Ripley was once airlifted to meet a Thai King. He jumped out of the airplane holding a machine gun, but with a tuxedo in his backpack.
Very James Bond -- if James Bond had been an ornithologist (joke intended)
.
While other spies used birding as a cover, Ripley was mostly being a spy as cover for his birding!
'Curiously enough, the British, and I suppose the Indians, Pakistanis, Ceylonese and so on, thought that it was such a marvelous part of an old-fashioned cover. Their theory was that most obviously we were spies. It never seemed to be realistic because I never could discover what someone out in the bushes could discover in the way of secrets.
A bit of fun trivia: while knocking about Kandy, Sri Lanka he met his future wife Mary Livingston and her roommate Julia Child (then Julia McWilliams) both of whom were working for the OSS. It was while developing a recipe for shark repellent for the OSS that Julia Child began her cooking career!
After the war, Ripley continued to study birds, write books, and teach.
From 1964 to 1984 he was Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution where he transformed that institution from "the nation's attic" to a reinvigorated and expanded Smithsonian we know today.
Ripley was instrumental in creating the Anacostia Community Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, the National Design Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Renwick Gallery, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African Art, the Enid A. Haupt Garden, and the underground quadrangle complex known as the S. Dillon Ripley Center, as well as the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
In 1967, Ripley helped found the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and in 1970 he helped found Smithsonian magazine.
In 1967, Ripley helped found the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and in 1970 he helped found Smithsonian magazine.
In 1985 S. Dillon Ripley was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States. He was awarded honorary degrees from 15 colleges and universities, including Brown, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Cambridge.
Through it all Ripley remained a dedicated birder, authoring and co-authoring numerous books on the birds of Southeast Asia, as well as his specialty interest-- rails.
Through it all Ripley remained a dedicated birder, authoring and co-authoring numerous books on the birds of Southeast Asia, as well as his specialty interest-- rails.
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