Connecticut Audubon founder remembered in New York museum show as conservation pioneer
A fascinating new exhibition at the New-York Historical Society on the passage of a landmark conservation law features items from Connecticut Audubon Society’s Birdcraft Museum collection related to its founder, Mabel Osgood Wright.
“Feathers: Fashion and the Fight for Wildlife,” which explores the history of the ground-breaking Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, includes a first edition of an 1894 book by Wright and a colorful bird chart that she used for her educational programs.
The show places Wright, who founded Connecticut Audubon in 1898, among the pioneering environmentalists who pushed for the law.
The exhibition examines the circumstances that inspired early environmentalists—like Wright, many of them women and New Yorkers—to champion the protection of endangered birds. Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Migratory Bird Act prohibited the hunting, killing, trading, and shipping of migratory birds.
It also regulated the nation’s commercial plume trade, which had decimated many American bird species to the point of near extinction. This seminal legislation was one of several laws backed by Connecticut Audubon in its early years, under Wright’s guidance.
Wright took an interest in birds after her father discouraged her from studying medicine. Her pursuit of knowledge about birds was aided by her friendship with an early curator of New York’s Museum of Natural History.
She became a prolific nature writer, authoring 27 books. One of these, Birdcraft, was the most widely read birding manual in America for nearly 40 years. It was eventually surpassed in popularity by Roger Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds, which is still in print.
Born in New York City, Wright established a “songbird reservation” in 1914 across the street from her later home in Fairfield. Named after her book, Birdcraft was the first private songbird sanctuary in the country.
Educational programs were held at Birdcraft from the beginning and charts like the one featured at the New-York Historical Society would have been shown to eager visitors there. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993, Birdcraft continues today under Connecticut Audubon’s stewardship as Birdcraft Sanctuary (Birdcraft Museum is being renovated). Connecticut Audubon’s state offices are located there.
Wright’s book featured in the show, The Friendship of Nature: A New England Chronicle of Birds and Flowers, was her first. In it, she described Fairfield-area flora and fauna in essays enhanced by her own photographs.
During an era when people worshiped the grandeur of nature, Wright’s book focused instead on connecting people with wonders in their own backyards. The book got favorable reviews in national press including the journal of the American Ornithologists Union and the New York Times.
“Feathers: Fashion and the Fight for Wildlife” is on view at the New-York Historical Society through July 15.
