Presidential Papers, Doc#1539 To Robert Montgomery, 1 August 1955. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower

Document #1539; August 1, 1955
To Robert Montgomery
Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series

The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVI - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part VIII: Toward "statesmanship of a high order"; June 1955 to November 1955
Chapter 16: Summitry at Geneva

 

Dear Bob: At last I have the owl, complete with movable head and wings, the caller and the record. At Gettysburg I did not have a record player so I had to experiment with the caller on my own. This I did for two days.1

Last evening I brought the caller and record down here, and I suppose I will be driving everybody out of the house with my practice until I again go back to the farm. (Incidentally, from the moment the owl arrived until I left last evening, I didn't see a single crow in the neighborhood.)

My grateful thanks for all the trouble you have taken. I am really going to work at the business of getting rid of crows.2 As ever

1 Montgomery and Robert McLean (Litt. B. Princeton 1913) had collaborated in finding a stuffed owl to rid the farm of crows (see also Eisenhower to McLean, Aug. 1, 1955, AWF/AWD).

2 On July 14 Presidential Assistant Bernard M. Shanley had informed the President that according to the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service and the Pennsylvania Game Commission "the use of a stuffed owl . . . as a decoy for crow shooting is not prohibited by Federal law" or Pennsylvania law (AWF/AWD). At the bottom of Shanley's letter Eisenhower had scrolled: "Give to Bob Montgomery." An August 6 notation in the President's daily appointments reads: "The President motored around his Farm from 3:30 p.m. until 4:00 p.m., hunting crows."

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Robert Montgomery, 1 August 1955. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1539. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1539.cfm

 


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