Throwback Thursday; The Raptor Center Logos

As most of you know, TRC celebrates our 40^th anniversary this year.  Throwback Thursday is the perfect time to share some of our history with you.  Our topic today is past logos we’ve used.  Dr. Patrick Redig, TRC’s co-founder and Director Emeritus, was kind enough to share background on these. 

Did you know that The Raptor Center was first known as the Raptor Research and Rehabilitation Program?  This was a logo done in-house for us by a woman named Barbara Walker who was the communications person at the time. It was used from approximately 1980 to 1987.
 

It was replaced in late 1987, when the program became known as The Raptor Center (TRC)  with the other logo depicted here at left.  The eagle artwork that you all recognize (see first the early line drawing, and the more robust version at left) was produced from an image taken from a series of drawings done by Rick Volkmar , who was Barb's artist brother.  

Rick had done what he called his "Progressive Action" series.  This was done with funding from a grant from the Bicentennial Commission, a non-profit organization that provided funding for various events and activities associated with the bicentennial celebration of the U.S. Constitution in 1987.  Dr. Redig released a rehabilitated bald eagle, and Rick used a high speed camera to film it.  Rick then rendered a frame-by-frame line drawing of each image in a progressive series as the bird circled around, up and away.

Our 40th anniversary called for a special logo (seen at left), which are using this year to commemorate our accomplishments.

We invite you to hear about both our past and our plans for the future at our annual, free Duke Lecture event.  Dr. Redig is our featured speaker. The event is October 9, at 5:00 pm, at the St. Paul Student Center Theater, on the St. Paul University of Minnesota campus.