MHS News
Current newsletterMassachusetts Audubon Society Collection Guide Complete
The MHS is thrilled to announce that the newly processed records of the Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS) are now available to researchers. More than 100 record cartons chronicle the organization from its founding in 1896 as the first Audubon Society in the country through the 20th century as it became a leader in environmental education and advocacy. On deposit from the MAS since 2008, the collection will continue to grow.
The collection documents the administrative, educational, scientific, and environmental activities of the organization from its founding to 2011. Included are administrative and financial records, records related to individual sanctuaries, historical records, ornithological records, records of related organizations, printed material, photographs, and audio-visual material. "This has been a time-consuming and challenging project over several years, and we certainly appreciate all of the MHS’s many and varied efforts to bring us to this point, both safeguarding the original records and now making them available to researchers," states Bancroft R. Poor, Vice President for Operations/CFO, Massachusetts Audubon Society.
The MAS was founded in 1896 when Boston residents Harriett Lawrence Hemenway and Minna B. Hall formed a group to discourage "ladies of fashion" from wearing the brightly-colored feathers of non-game birds in their hats, a market that had caused the birds to be hunted almost to extinction. Recruiting leading ornithologist William Brewster as their first president, the group became the first state Audubon society in North America. Headquartered in Boston, it was instrumental in the passage of an 1897 Massachusetts law outlawing trade in wild-bird feathers and the 1900 Lacey Act, prohibiting interstate shipment of animals killed in violation of local laws. The Massachusetts organization, which remains independent, also helped to organize the National Association of Audubon Societies (incorporated in 1905), which later became the National Audubon Society.