On March 4, 2021, Doc Chat kicked off Women's History Month by examining the intersection of gender, conservation, activism, fashion, and birds—yes, birds!—in the early 20th century. 

A weekly series from NYPL's Center for Research in the Humanities, Doc Chat pairs a NYPL curator or specialist and a scholar to discuss evocative digitized items from the Library's collections and brainstorm innovative ways of teaching with them. In Episode Eighteen, NYPL's Meredith Mann and Roberta J.M. Olson, Curator of Drawings at the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, discussed the early days of the wildlife conservation movement, the Audubon Society's campaign to stop the killing of birds for women's hats and clothing, and the role of women activists in those efforts.

Doc Chat Episode 18: Fancy for Feathers and the Fight to Save Birdsn from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.

A transcript of this event is available here.

The presentation slides are available here.

Below are some handy links to materials and sources suggested in the episode.

Episode Eighteen: Primary Sources

Roberta and Meredith focused their document analysis on this document:

Here is the finding aid for the National Audubon Society records, which are held in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of The New York Public Library.

The sheet music cover for the song “The Bird on Nellie’s Hat” depicts, as the title suggests, an elaborate hat decorated with a bird, which playfully reveals Nellie’s true thoughts and intentions to her prospective suitors. The song suggests the cultural ubiquity of such fashion; listen to a 1906 recording of the song here.

Lewis Hine’s series of Photographs Concerning Labor, Housing and Social Conditions in the United States include images of the preparation of feathers for the millinery industry.

May Riley Smith wrote “The Cost of a Feather” for the Audubon Society to further their efforts in bird protection. Smith was also an accomplished poet and the president of Sorosis, the first professional women’s club in America; you can read collections of her poetry here.

Episode Eighteen: Readings and Resources

Florence Merriam Bailey, Birds Through An Opera-Glass (The Chautauqua Press, 1889).

Jesse Greenspan, The History and Evolution of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Audubon.org, May 22, 2015.

Carolyn Merchant, Spare the Birds!: George Bird Grinnell and the First Audubon Society (Yale University Press, 2016).

National Audubon Society, Creating Bird-Friendly Communities, Audubon.org.

National Audubon Society, Rollback of Migratory Bird Protections Delayed by New Administration, Audubon.org, February 4, 2021. 

Oliver Orr, Jr., Saving American Birds: T. Gilbert Pearson and the Founding of the Audubon Movement. (University Press of Florida, 1992).

Emily Silber, Seven Women Who Made the World Better for Birds and People, Audubon.org, March 31, 2016.

John Taliaferro, Grinnell: America's Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save the West (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2019). 

Mable Osgood Wright, Birdcraft: A Field Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water Birds (The Macmillan Company, 1897).

Mable Osgood Wright, Citizen Bird: Scenes from Bird-life in Plain English for Beginners (The Macmillan Co., 1897).

Website for the New-York Historical Society exhibition “Feathers: Fashion and the Fight for Wildlife” and Roberta Olson’s blog post, Behind the Scenes:  "When is a Parakeet a Canary?

Early issues of Bird Lore and The Auk, journals of the National Audubon Society and the American Ornithologists’ Union (today the American Ornithological Society).

The Audubon Mural Project, a collaborative public art project initiative of the National Audubon Society and Gitler & Gallery

Battle on the Booming Grounds: Last Dance of the Prairie Chicken. Trailer for a film by Timothy Barksdale on modern efforts to preserve the Greater Prairie Chicken’s habitat from encroachments by the industrial sector.

Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, French and English organizations dedicated to the protection of birds.

Join the Doc Chat Conversation

Doc Chat episodes take place on Zoom every Thursday at 3:30 PM.  Over the next several months, we are covering a range of topics: visual culture in 19th-century Mexico, Zine-making,  the history of New York City tenements, Russian propaganda posters, and much more.

Check out upcoming episodes on NYPL's calendar,  and make sure you don't miss an episode by signing up for NYPL's Research newsletter, which will include links to register. A video of each episode will be posted on the Research Channel of the NYPL blog shortly after the program. There you can also explore videos and resources for past episodes. See you at the next Doc Chat!