Bird Watchers Promise to Become a More Welcoming Group
July 23, 2021
Students Lyla Mendoza, left, Nesha Moskowitz, second from left, Giovanni Pierre, center, and camp educator Adrian Oller, center right, examine wild sorrel during a hike at Mass Audubon s Boston Nature Center in Boston, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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In 1896, many birds were killed so women of high social standing in the United States could wear hats made with their
feathers.
Two women, Minna Hall and Harriet Hemenway of Boston, Massachusetts, asked their friends to help stop the practice. They chose to name their group, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, after John James Audubon, a naturalist famous for his
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Watching for birds, diversity: Audubon groups pledge change
Philip Marcelo
The Associated Press
BOSTON When Boston socialites Minna Hall and Harriet Hemenway sought to end the slaughter of birds in the name of 19th century high fashion, they picked a logical namesake for their cause: John James Audubon, a naturalist celebrated for his stunning watercolors of American birds.
Now, 125 years after the founding of the Massachusetts Audubon Society for the Protection of Birds, the organization and the nearly 500 Audubon chapters nationwide it helped inspire are reckoning with another side of Audubon s life: He was also a slaveholder and staunch opponent of abolition.
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