Saving American Birds: T. Gilbert Pearson and the Founding of the Audubon Movement

One of the great pioneers of conservation, T. Gilbert Pearson (1873-1943) spent his childhood in rural Florida and his early career in North Carolina, where he established the state's Audubon Society, the South's first agency for wildlife. Orr, coauthor of A Guide to the Study of the United States of America and longtime birder, follows Pearson's life and work in 1911 as representative of the founding of the Audubon movement. Pearson joined the American Ornothologists' Union in 1891 and became active in the struggle to protect birds from exploitation by plume- and market-hunters. He organized a program to teach schoolchildren about the value of birds, lobbied state legislatures for protection laws, spoke widely and raised money. He eventually became the first full-time head of the National Association of Audubon Societies, forerunner of today's powerful force for conservation. Readers interested in the history of conservation would do well to start here. Photos. (May)