Here's some information about another person who worked on promoting
'birdless hats'
Linda Wilson
Manager, Audience Research and Evaluation
John G. Shedd Aquarium
1200 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60605
PH (312) 692 3261 FAX (312) 939 8677 [log in to unmask]
John F. Lacey, Iowa's (Almost) Forgotten Conservationist
by Greg Beisker
Father of American Conservation. This title could apply to many great early
conservationists. Among them would be: Henry David Thoreau, John Muir,
Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt and Steve Mather. Each excelled in their
own field of conservation. However, this title has also been bestowed upon
the relatively unknown Major John F. Lacey, who was called superlative
titles: "Father of Federal Conservation Legislation," "First Congressional
Champion for Birds and Wildlife," and "Father of Federal Game Protection."
Lacey served as U.S. Representative for Iowa's Sixth District for 16 years
(1889-1891,1893-1907). As chairman of the House Public Lands committee for
12 years he helped usher in the turn-of-the-century conservation movement by
authoring and sponsoring most of the early legislation affecting our
national parks, forests, and wildlife. His environmental concern, legal
know-how, and political savvy established him at the right man in the right
place at the right time to do a great and lasting work for his fellow
countrymen. While Lacey's first concern was for the care of wild birds, he
also secured protective legislation for other wildlife, national forests,
and national parks and monuments. He truly was a prominent brain child and
actuator of the early conservation movement.
In 1888 Lacey was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. While
he received ridicule from his fellow Congressmen for his early concerns
about wildlife protection, he soon silenced them by proving himself to be
one of the ablest legislators in Washington. By 1907 when Lacey returned to
private life, he had become recognized at THE Congressional authority on all
conservation fronts. Lacey himself admitted that during his 12 year tenure
as chairman of the Public Lands Committee very few pieces of conservation
legislation passed Congress which he had not authored or at least rewritten.
Theodore Roosevelt leaned heavily on Lacey during these years in pursuing
his conservation policy. By this time, conservation issues had become an
important and legitimate concern of the nation and congress could no longer
consider them trivial or laughable.
Lacey's conservation concerns were many and diverse. Those areas in which he
expressed the greatest concern included bird protection, wildlife
protection, establishment of federal wildlife sanctuaries, management and
expansion of federal forest reserve system, management and expansion of the
national park system, proper management of the rest of the public domain
(unsettled federal lands), and preservation of antiquities (Indian ruins).
The Lacey Bird Act of 1900 was the Major's first effort as far as bird
protection was concerned. This act was an extension of interstate commerce
regulation. It outlawed the interstate transport of game taken illegally
according to state laws. Before this law went into effect, once illegally
taken game was transported across state lines, both state and federal law
enforcement officials became powerless to do anything to stop the
lawbreakers. This law helped eliminate the huge, illegal portion of the game
market enterprise. Many consider this law to be Lacey's greatest legislative
victory.
At the turn-of-the-century, it was fashionable for women to wear hats
adorned with bird plumage and sometimes even entire birds. As grotesque as
it may seem, this was the millinery fashion rage. Lacey tried to raise the
conscience of women in that day towards conservation of the wild birds via a
change in fashion. On May 12,1905 Lacey addressed the Iowa Federation of
Women's Clubs in Waterloo, Iowa. After praising them for their many good
deeds and thanking them for their support of forest preservation he then
chided them. "In the preservation of our birds, the women of America were
slow to act, but they are now doing a great part. We have a wireless
telegraph, a crownless queen, a thornless cactus, a seedless orange, and a
coreless apple. Let us now have a birdless hat!" His appeal was heard and
the Federation went on to become one of Iowa's strongest conservation
organizations in the 1910's and 1920's.
Lacey was successful in initiating federal wildlife protection. He authored
the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act in 1894. This act turned the
park into the first national wildlife preserve in which all hunting and
trapping was forbidden. He secured funding for the creation of two federal
buffalo herds. The establishment of Witchita Mountain National Wildlife
Refuge, the first Congressionally designated area of this type outside a
national park, was largely Lacey's doing. Lacey was also responsible for
several other wildlife protection measures and national park areas like
Crater Lake, Yosemite, and Yellowstone National Parks.
Forest protection and management was an area of much interest to Lacy. He
helped draft the legislation which created the forest reserve program in
1891. If it weren't for Lacey, the entire program may have been scuttled in
1897. He was continually calling for the proper administration of the
reserve system. The Major worked closely with Gifford Pinchot, the father of
American forestry and the head of the Bureau of Forestry (predecessor of the
U.S. Forest Service), in securing a workable federal forestry program.
Lacey's record of conservation and human rights legislation marked him as a
man of great vision, concern, and drive. Unfortunately, the esteem held for
Lacey by political leaders in Washington and conservationists and sportsmen
across the nation did not pervade his constituents back in Iowa. He had
labeled himself a Standpat Republican, opposed to most economic and foreign
trade reform measures being advocated by the increasingly popular
Progressives. The voters of Iowa viewed him as being out of step with their
wishes on "pocketbook" issues. Consequently they handed him a stunning
defeat in 1906. While Iowans correctly identified Lacey with old fashion,
reactionary economic policies, they largely failed to credit him for his
monumental legislative work for conservation.
The election loss did not stop Lacey's work for conservation reform. He
concentrated his efforts on approval of a migratory bird law and expansion
of the wildlife reserve system. As a member of the American League of
Sportsmen Committee on Conservation, Lacey had a platform from which to
"preach" his message.
Lacey lived to see the enactment of the Weeks-McLean Migratory Bird Act. He
even served on the National Advisory Council which formulated the
regulations by which this act came to be enforced. The growth and management
reforms of the wildlife reserve system came slowly until finally in 1934 the
National Wildlife Refuge System Act was enacted. At last the nation had
"caught up" to where Lacey had been 32 years earlier when he was proposing
that all forest reserves have a wildlife reserve within them.
The results of Major John F. Lacey's selfless dedication to conservation
issues are still evident to us today in the form of national forests,
national wildlife refuges, national monuments, migrating water fowl, and
many other outdoor wonders.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Rainey Tisdale [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 12:48 PM
Subject: Audubonnets
We received a reference question from the National Audubon
Society that we were not about to answer, but it's an interesting
question so I wanted to pose it to the list. Apparently the
Audubon Society was formed in Boston in 1896 when Harriet
Lawrence Hemenway started a movement among her friends to stop
wearing hats with bird feathers on them (they were highly
fashionable at the time and birds were being killed for their
feathers). The organizing going on in Boston caught on and women
across the country started promoting milliners who sold birdless
hats, lobbying for protective legislation, and working to change
what was considered fashionable. Jenna Weissman Joselit relates
this story in "A Perfect Fit: Clothes, Character and the Promise
of America," although it may be in other books as well.
The Audubon Society staffer who contacted us is looking for an
"audubonnet," the term given to the non-feathered hats that the
Audubon Society ladies encouraged milliners to make as an
alternative. She thought we might have one since the movement
started in Boston. Does anyone know of an institution that owns
an audubonnet, or any other artifacts/ephemera (milliner ads?)
related to the birdless hat movement? 1899 and 1900 would
probably be the likeliest years for such hats, although inclusive
dates would be 1896 to 1906ish. It may be that very few hats were
actually labeled "audubonnet" in some way, even though there
might be a number of birdless hats out there that were created in
response to this movement--I just don't know for sure at this
point.
Thanks in advance for any help with this question.
Rainey Tisdale
Collections Manager
The Bostonian Society
206 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02109-1773
617-720-1713 x24
617-720-3289 Fax
For more information about The Bostonian Society, or to become a
member, visit our website: www.bostonhistory.org
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