Saving American birds: T. Gilbert Pearson and the founding of the Audubon Movement.

Orr, Oliver H.

ISBN 10: 0813011299 / ISBN 13: 9780813011295

Published by Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1992., 1992

About this Item

Octavo,296 pp.,illustrations, fine copy in dustwrapper.

Seller Inventory # 2678

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Saving American birds: T. Gilbert Pearson and the founding of the Audubon Movement.
• Publisher: Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1992.
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813011299
• ISBN 13: 9780813011295
• Binding: Hardcover
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

T. Gilbert Pearson (1873-1943) was one of the most influential ornithologists in North America, crusading for the cause of conservation a century before the current movement to save the Earth's resources. Working in the American Ornithologist's Union, Pearson and other pioneering conservationists radically altered public attitudes towards birds, lobbied laws through state legislature, and involved the government in bird protection. Their activities, documented in this biography of Pearson's early career, spearheaded the movement that led to today's Audobon societies.

From the Back Cover

T. Gilbert Pearson (1873-1943) was one of the most influential ornithologists in North America, crusading for the cause of conservation a century before the modern movement to save the earth's resources. Working in the American Ornithologists' Union, Pearson and other pioneering conservationists radically altered public attitudes toward birds, lobbied laws through state legislatures, and involved the national government in bird protection. Their activities, documented in this biography of Pearson's early career, spearheaded the movement that eventually led to today's Audubon societies. As a boy in rural Florida, Pearson was an avid--even obsessive--"egger". On a particularly lucrative day in 1889 he gathered eggs from the nests of a hawk, mockingbird, grackle, and ground dove and was only momentarily stymied by the discovery of five eggs in a crow's nest located high in a 100-foot pine tree. "Putting three of the eggs in my mouth and taking two in my hand, I descended without mishap", he reported. His love for birds grew in company with an increasing alarm at the extent to which they were killed, not just for sport but for decorating hats, too. In 1892, in college in North Carolina, he participated in a student oratory contest, in which he described the cruelties of plume hunting, concluding, "O fashion! how many crimes are done in thy name!" After joining the AOU in 1891, Pearson organized efforts to protect birds that were vulnerable to commercial exploitation and unregulated hunting. In 1902 he founded the Audubon Society of North Carolina, the South's first state agency for wildlife. By 1911, the year this account ends, Pearson had become the first full-time leader of the NationalAssociation of Audubon Societies. He continued his work with the national organization until 1934, helping to build the association into the strong international force for conservation that it is today.