42 THE’ AUDUBON BULLE (iS 
A. O. U. Meeting at Charleston, 
S. C., Nov. 19-23, 1928 
HE forty-sixth stated meeting of the American Ornithologists 
Union at Charleston, South Carolina, was unique in that it was 
the first meeting held in a southern city, and because of its being 
in a region of unusual historical interest to the ornithologist and bot- 
anist. Charleston has been noted for many years for its wonderful 
gardens of rhododendrons and azaleas, and for being the collecting 
ground of Catesby, Audubon, Bachman, and later of Arthur T. Wayne, 
the latter for the last thirty years devoting his entire time to the study 
of the birds of South Carolina, adding thirty-two species to the State’s 
record. 
Catesby came to South Carolina in 1722, and while he collected in 
other sections, much of his work was done around Charleston. The 
first volume of his work was published in 1731, the second in 1743; 
in this work he described fifty-five species new to the State. 
Audubon’s first visit to Charleston was in 1831, at which time he. 
met Dr. Bachman, beginning a friendship that lasted through their 
lives and which was later cemented by the marriage of Audubon’s two 
sons to two of Bachman’s daughters. Among Dr. Bachman’s notable 
discoveries was Swainson’s warbler in 1833, which was not again 
reported until 1884, when other specimens were collected. 
Dr. Bachman was the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church for sixty 
years, and his resignation was only because of ill health. One evening 
of the A.O. U. meeting was devoted to a memorial for Dr. Bachman 
which was held in the Parish House of St. John’s Church where there 
is a Bachman memorial room in which are kept many relics that be- 
longed to him. His grave is under the chancel. 
The principal part of the memorial program was the reading of a 
paper by Mr. Alexander Sprunt, Jr., of the Charleston Museum en- 
titled, ““Audubon and Bachman Co-workers and Friends,” telling of 
the friendship and work of the two naturalists. 
At this meeting the writer read three letters from Bachman to 
Audubon written from Charleston in 1832-1833. In one letter he de- 
scribed a new warbler which he had collected, which afterwards proved 
to be the type specimen of Bachman’s warbler, and was named for 
Bachman by his friend Audubon. These letters are a part of the writer’s 
collection of letters written by famous ornithologists. 
Dr. Bachman was for many years curator of the Charleston Museum, 
in which the A. O. U. meetings were held, and which is the oldest mu- 
seum in the country. 
