Frances Hamerstrom (December 16, 1907 – August 29, 1998) was an American writer, naturalist and ornithologist known for her work with the greater prairie chicken in Wisconsin, and for her research on birds of prey. Hamerstrom was a prolific writer, publishing over 100 professional papers and 10 books on the prairie chicken, harriers, eagles, and other wildlife topics. Some were translated into German.
Biography
Frances Flint was born in 1907 into a wealthy family in Boston, Massachusetts. As a youth, she attended Milton Academy. As a child Hamerstrom developed a fascination with the natural world. Despite her parents' complaints that such behavior was "unladylike", she kept wild pets, learned to hunt, and tended her own gardens. To keep her family from uncovering evidence of her wildlife adventures, she planted poison ivy along the path that led to where she kept her wilderness gear. (Hamerstrom was naturally immune to its effects). She was uninterested in classes and felt she could learn more from the natural world than in a classroom.
She met her husband, Frederick Hamerstrom (also a naturalist at heart), at a dance. Frances was Leopold's only female graduate student. She earned her master's degree in wildlife management in 1940. During this time, the Hamerstroms both began their research on the imperiled greater prairie chicken, an endangered species in Wisconsin.
Research
thumb|[[Greater prairie chicken]]
In 1949, Frances became the second woman to work as a wildlife professional in Wisconsin. Through her fund-raising campaigns, grasslands near their home sheltered more than 2,000 greater prairie chickens.
The Hamerstroms also conducted a decades-long study of the northern harrier. She wrote Harrier: Hawk of the Marshes, published in 1986 by the Smithsonian Institution Press, with illustrations by her husband. It documented the relationship between the breeding success of harriers and the vole population, which constituted their cyclical food supply.
Frances Hamerstrom was also a licensed falconer.
Wildlife author
As a writer, Frances provided insight into academic science for general readers. She wrote over 100 different technical articles and 12 different books, including several popular children's books. Several notable books include:
- An Eagle to the Sky (1970)
- Birds of Prey in Wisconsin (1972)
- Walk When the Moon is Full (1975)
- Strictly for the Chickens (1980)
- Is She Coming Too?: Memoirs of a Lady Hunter (1989)
Frances was also known as a cook and published a wild game cookbook near the end of her life. Her secret for pie crusts was the use of bear lard. Her readers occasionally sent her bear lard gained from their own kills. Wildfoods Cookbook: From the Fields and Forests of the Great Lakes States was published in 1994, when she was 84, and illustrated by her daughter, Elva Hamerstrom.
By training hundreds of research assistants (nicknamed "gabboons") and by writing formal scientific papers and informal books, Hamerstrom and her husband inspired many generations of future naturalists.
Home life
The Hamerstroms lived in an 1850s-era, Plainfield, Wisconsin home. Never completed, it lacked running water and was heated by wood-burning stoves.
Later years
Following her husband's death, Frances visited Saudi Arabia, Africa, and South America. On an expedition in Peru, at age 86 Hamerstrom broke her hip and was evacuated by helicopter. She returned to the area the following year to observe hunting practices on a tributary of the Amazon River.
- The Prairie Grouse Technical Council and the Raptor Research Foundation offer lifetime achievement awards in the name of Frances and Frederick Hamerstrom.