Visitors to the Forestdale School will notice a display case dedicated to Thornton Burgess, Sandwich’s own naturalist, writer, conservationist and advocate for the environment. Forestdale Science Teacher Mary Beers spent many years as the education director at Green Briar Nature Center, which is dedicated to Thornton Burgess, and is sharing her professional and personal reflections about Thornton Burgess with our Forestdale Family. The featured artifacts were loaned by Barbara Knoss of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, and several pieces are from Shirley Stolte, librarian at Green Briar.

Burgess’s goal was “to inspire in youth a reverence for wildlife and a concern for the environment,” and he himself was inspired by his experiences exploring nature in the forests, fields, ponds, and seashore of Sandwich.

This year marks the 150th Birthday of Thornton Burgess and there will be many activities at all our schools and throughout the town of Sandwich to mark his birthday. As our students learn more about Burgess, we invite all the adults in our community to learn about him as well. He was a very impressive guy!

Learn more about Thornton Burgess’s birthday celebrations in this Sandwich Enterprise article.