Governor Lamont proclaims June 4, 2023, as Connecticut Audubon Day in the state!
May 30, 2023 — The state of Connecticut is celebrating our organization’s 125th anniversary with an official proclamation by Governor Ned Lamont declaring June 4, 2023, as Connecticut Audubon Society Day.
Then on June 7, the celebration of the founding continues as Connecticut Audubon presents two programs in conjunction with the Fairfield Museum and History Center.
In addition, Senator Richard Blumenthal entered an official “recognition” of Connecticut Audubon into the Congressional Record on May 10.
It was on June 4, 1898, that the Audubon Society of the State of Connecticut held its first annual meeting of members. Two hundred and fifty people crowded into Fairfield Town Hall on that Saturday.
The members named Mabel Osgood Wright as president and Helen Wardwell Glover as chair of the executive committee.
John H. Sage of Portland, Connecticut, a longtime member of the American Ornithologists Union, read a paper at the meeting called “Statistics regarding the destruction of birds in the United States.”
Frank M. Chapman, the influential ornithologist and conservationist from the American Museum of Natural History, read a paper called “Reasons for the study of birds.”
Helen Glover then rose and nominated Chapman as Connecticut Audubon’s first official honorary member.
Mabel Wright, Helen Glover and the other founders — among them Theodora Wheeler, Harriet Glover, Elizabeth Child, Mary Kippen, Annie Burr Jennings and Sarah Sturges — will be the focus of two Connecticut Audubon programs with the Fairfield Museum and History Center on Wednesday, June 7.
At 7:30 a.m., Milan Bull, Connecticut Audubon’s senior director of science and conservation, will lead a bird walk through historic Oak Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield.
Miley is renowned throughout the state for his knowledge of birds and of Connecticut Audubon history, as well as for his storehouse of anecdotes and tales.
Participants are likely to see and hear Baltimore Orioles, Yellow-throated Vireos, Great-crested Flycatchers, Gray Catbirds and many other breeding birds.
Miley will lead the group through the section of Oak Lawn that contains the gravesites of five of Connecticut Audubon’s founders.
Space is limited. Register through the Fairfield Museum and History Center’s website.
At noon on Wednesday, June 7, the museum will be the site of a History Bites presentation called “The Fairfield Women Who Founded the Connecticut Audubon Society 125 Years Ago” by Tom Andersen, Connecticut Audubon’s communications director,
Through photographs and stories gathered from primary sources, Tom will describe how a group of remarkable women came together to create and sustain an organization that has been protecting birds for 125 years.
Two of the women — Mabel Osgood Wright and Annie Burr Jennings — have long-established reputations in the history of bird conservation. Tom’s presentation will restore the others to their rightful place alongside them.
The presentation is free with museum admission, and no registration is required. Bring your lunch and prepare to hear about an amazing group of women whose careers spanned the Gilded Age through World War I to the Jazz Age.
