Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing
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The American Fly Fisher Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing SPRING 2013 VOLUME 39 NUMBER 2 Fishtories CATCH AND RELEASE THE SPIRIT OF FLY FISHING Our Mission: The American Museum of Fly Fishing is the steward of the history, traditions, and practices of the sport of fly fishing and promotes the conservation of its waters. The museum collects, preserves, exhibits, studies, and interprets the artifacts, art, and literature of the sport and uses these resources to engage, educate, and benefit all. ISHING: ART, LITERATURE, philosophy, fishing literature: George Washington FRIENDS OF THE MUSEUM and other stories naturally spring up Bethune, Henry Ward Beecher, and Henry E. M. Bakwin Faround it. For some of us, fishing sto- Van Dyke. Their promotion of solitary Thomas Belk Jr. ries—the ones we hear, the ones we tell oth- communion with nature and of fly fishing Harold Brewer ers, the ones we tell ourselves—shape iden- as contemplative and soul-searching sport tity and personal history. In this issue, for influenced today’s American nature ethic. A. S. Cargill example, a man remembers his beginnings Brent Lane offers up a brief history in Gary Grant on the water; another describes the end of “Piscatorial Prot estants: Nineteenth-Cen - Tim Hixon his fishing days. One discusses fishing’s tury Angling and the New Christian Wild - James Houghton connection with the spiritual realm; anoth- erness Ethic.” It begins on page 2. Peter Kellogg er shares a bit of the humor in the sport. Among the leading cartoonists of Lon - Charles Lee Jr. Like streams in so many urban and sub- don’s humor magazine Punch was Henry Melvyn Harris urban areas, Miller Creek in Minnesota Mayo Bateman, whose works depicted many Stephen Myers doesn’t look exactly as it did when Harry L. aspects of London life, including sport. A Joseph R. Perella Peterson was a boy growing up by its small volume published in 1960, The Evening Walter Shipley banks. Residential and commercial devel- Rise: Fifty Years of Fly Fishing, recounted opment have brought with them the usual many of his fishing experiences in word and suspects: runoff, erosion, and higher water illustration. In “H. M. Bateman: Cartoonist STAFF temperatures. Efforts are being made to Extraordinaire and Fish er man for Life” Catherine E. Comar salvage and restore Miller Creek. Peterson (page 14), James D. Heckman introduces us Executive Director recalls his fishing beginnings on this to this prolific cartoonist and shares some of water—as well as his first fishing buddy, his favorite Bateman cartoons with us. Yoshi Akiyama Gordie—in “A Boy’s Trout Stream” (page 9). Lefty Kreh was the museum’s honoree at Deputy Director Gordon M. Wickstrom, like most of us, this year’s New York City dinner; coverage Lindsey Anderson wants last things to be beautiful and fulfill- of that event can be found on page 20. And Coordinator of Events ing. However, as he notes, “Last things tend turn to page 19 to meet our new Junior Sarah Foster to be down and dirty, tough and ugly.” In Committee, a group recently established to Development Assistant “The End,” Wickstrom faces his own aging, raise awareness of the museum and its mis- and, in his infinite wisdom, suggests that sion among people in their twenties and Laura Napolitano anglers prepare for the end of their angling thirties. Coordinator of Membership and Operations days “and come to it with a good grace— We were saddened to learn in February Patricia Russell and on their own terms.” In fact, he pro- of the death of fly-fishing writer and editor Account Manager poses a ceremony of the end, a taking con- John Merwin, this museum’s second execu- trol of one’s own rite of passage. His advice tive director. Cathi Comar, our own execu- Sara Wilcox begins on page 12. tive director, pays tribute to him on page 21. Director of Visual Communication For we twenty-first-century anglers, the Each spring we try to thank everyone idea of finding God in nature is a familiar who worked to make the museum a success THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER one. But into the nineteenth century, many during the previous year, donating money, Kathleen Achor religious types held that it was Satan who resources, and time to continue the preser- Editor lurked both in the wilderness and in leisure vation of fly-fishing history. A list of our time. Joining the nature writers and social 2012 donors begins on page 22. Thank you. Sara Wilcox reformers promoting wilderness retreat Design & Production were three Protestant ministers whose KATHLEEN ACHOR Sarah May Clarkson work added to the burgeoning catalog of EDITOR Copy Editor TRUSTEES Michael Bakwin Bradford Mills Foster Bam David Nichols Pamela Bates Erik R. Oken Jane Cooke Stephen M. Peet Peter Corbin Leigh H. Perkins Deborah Pratt Dawson William Platt E. Bruce DiDonato, MD Frederick S. Polhemus Patrick Ford John Rano Ronald Gard Roger Riccardi Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing George R. Gibson III Eric W. Roberts James Heckman, MD Kristoph J. Rollenhagen SPRING 2013 VOLUME 39 NUMBER 2 Arthur Kaemmer, MD Philip Sawyer Karen Kaplan Franklin D. Schurz Jr. Piscatorial Protestants: Nineteenth-Century Woods King III Robert G. Scott Angling and the New Christian Wilderness Ethic.......2 William P. Leary III Gary J. Sherman, DPM Brent Lane Christopher P. Mahan Ronald B. Stuckey Walter T. Matia Richard G. Tisch A Boy’s Trout Stream .......................9 John R. McMahon David H. Walsh Harry L. Peterson William C. McMaster, MD Andrew Ward The End ..............................12 Peter Millett, MD James C. Woods Gordon M. Wickstrom Nancy W. Zakon H. M. Bateman: Cartoonist Extraordinaire TRUSTEES EMERITI and Fisherman for Life .....................14 Charles R. Eichel James D. Heckman W. Michael Fitzgerald James Hardman The American Museum of Fly Fishing William Herrick Junior Committee .........................19 David B. Ledlie New York City Dinner Honoring Lefty Kreh ........20 Leon L. Martuch Paul Schullery In Memoriam: John Merwin...................21 OFFICERS Museum Donors .........................22 David H. Walsh Museum News ...........................26 Chairman of the Board James Heckman, MD Contributors ............................28 President ON THE COVER: H. M. Bateman, The Last Trout. From the Tatler, c. 1930. Gary J. Sherman, DPM Vice President ©H. M. Bateman Designs, www.hmbateman.com. Richard G. Tisch Vice President We welcome contributions to the American Fly Fisher. Before making a submission, please review our Contrib utor’s Guidelines on our website (www.amff.com), or James C. Woods write to request a copy. The museum cannot accept responsibility for statements and Secretary interpretations that are wholly the author’s. Charles R. Eichel The American Fly Fisher (ISSN 0884-3562) is published four times a year by the museum at P.O. Box 42, Manchester, Clerk Vermont 05254. Publication dates are winter, spring, summer, and fall. Membership dues include the cost of the journal Philip Sawyer ($50) and are tax deductible as provided for by law. Membership rates are listed in the back of each issue. All letters, man- uscripts, photographs, and materials intended for publication in the journal should be sent to the museum. The muse- Treasurer um and journal are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, drawings, photographic material, or memorabilia. The museum cannot accept responsibility for statements and interpretations that are wholly the author’s. Unsolicited manu- JUNIOR COMMITTEE scripts cannot be returned unless postage is provided. Contributions to The American Fly Fisher are to be considered gra- tuitous and the property of the museum unless otherwise requested by the contributor. Copyright © 2013, The American Parker Corbin Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont 05254. Original material appearing may not be reprinted without prior per- mission. Periodical postage paid at Manchester, Vermont 05254; Manchester, Vermont 05255; and additional offices (USPS Bailey Hallingby 057410). The American Fly Fisher (ISSN 0884-3562) EMAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.amff.com Woods King IV POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Casey Knoll The American Fly Fisher John Neukom P.O. Box 42 Manchester, Vermont 05254 Albert Nichols David E. Nichols Jr. space for FSC info Ben Pastor Jason M. Scott Jeff Yates Piscatorial Protestants: Nineteenth-Century Angling and the New Christian Wilderness Ethic by Brent Lane S HISTORIANS OF American sport affected the purity of the wilderness. With fishing in express response to Puritan like John F. Reiger have noted, the future of society’s principles and the concerns appeared most often in the Arecreational anglers became a dri- American frontier hanging in the balance, works of Puritan descendants themselves. ving force in the late-nineteenth- and a source of unity to temper the effects of Protestant ministers represented the early-twentieth-century conservation modernity emerged in the increasing most visible vanguard of popular movements and helped usher in a new popularity of “truehearted” angling.3 angling for gentlemen in America. They respect for the American wilderness.1 Initially, although some evidence indi- forged a new image of the respectable, Influential men of the nineteenth centu- cates that nearly all men in seventeenth- masculine, and, above all, pious fisher- ry, though perhaps not always noted pri- century New England fished, Puritan cul- man. Along with perceived righteous- marily for fishing prowess, understood ture did not readily associate angling with ness, the Christian angler experienced