FAQs on Audubon Name

In Spring 2023 after a months-long assessment process, NYC Audubon’s leadership began the process to change the organization’s name by dropping “Audubon” and choosing a new name that better reflects our organizational values and our work.  We embarked on a collaborative and robust process to select a new name that encapsulates who we are and what we do, and that is inclusive and welcoming to all New Yorkers. We will announce a new name in Spring 2024.

Here are some answers to questions that might be on your mind.

What's Your New Name?
We don’t yet have a new name but will announce one in Spring 2024. We have undertaken a robust process to identify a name that encapsulates who we are and what we do, and that is inclusive and welcoming to all New Yorkers.

John James Audubon was a 19th-century artist and naturalist who achieved fame for his series of paintings of North American bird species released in sections between 1827 and 1838. In addition to being collected in the super-sized book The Birds of America, engravings of the birds he painted were sold by subscription and became a hugely popular way to explore avian life. Many of his original paintings and prints can be viewed now at the New-York Historical Society. 

So popular were the paintings and engravings that after his death, Audubon’s name became associated with bird conservation. Many conservation groups now bear his name in tribute, as do numerous parks, streets, zoos, sanctuaries, and birds with “Audubon” in the name. 

However, there is another side to John James Audubon which has emerged recently through historical research and popular discourse. Audubon was a man who owned, purchased, and sold enslaved people. He also wrote about returning escaped enslaved people to their owners and of his strong opposition to the growing abolitionist movement. (Read more about John James Audubon here.)

Was John James Audubon a conservationist?
While John James Audubon did not identify as a conservationist in the modern sense of the word, he did make important contributions to the early conservation movement.

Audubon was born in 1785 and lived during a time when the idea of protecting natural resources was not yet widespread. His main focus was on documenting and illustrating the birds of North America, which he believed were not well-known or appreciated by many Americans at the time.

However, Audubon did recognize the need to protect the habitats where the birds he studied lived. In his writings, he often commented on the destruction of forests and wetlands. In his Labrador Journal of 1833, and elsewhere, Audubon lamented the destruction of wildlife and declining bird population, noting: “Nature herself seems perishing. . . . When no more fish, no more game, no more birds exist on her hills, along her coasts, and in her rivers, then she will be abandoned and deserted like a worn-out field.” Audubon advocated for creation of the country’s first natural history museum and the establishment of bird sanctuaries which could provide safe spaces for birds to breed and thrive.

Audubon’s work inspired the founders of the early groups that took his name. From this work which popularized an appreciation for birds and nature, a national conservation movement was born. Many of today’s important bird conservation actions—the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the ban on DDT—as well as critical community-based science efforts like the Christmas Bird Count, the Breeding Bird Atlas project, and the Great Backyard Bird Count owe a debt to Audubon’s art and the movement it inspired.

The Audubon societies, and the bird conservation movement, were created nearly 50 years after John James Audubon’s death. 

John James Audubon died in 1851. In 1896, Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society, dedicated to stopping the killing of birds for plumage for women’s hats. In 1905, the founders of the National Audubon Society similarly chose the Audubon name for their organization because of its association with beautiful images of birds and Audubon’s important work in spreading knowledge of the diversity of bird species. 

Audubon’s name long conjured strongly positive images for many people, and for more than a century has been synonymous with birds and bird conservation.

But now that positive association has changed, with a spreading awareness of Audubon’s ownership, purchase, and sale of enslaved people and his defense of the practice as an anti-abolitionist. These revelations about Audubon’s activities and beliefs have upended his image and tarnished his legacy. As a result, many of our members, staff, and board believe that continued association with the Audubon name would be at odds with our values and our commitment to equity and inclusion and would do great harm to our efforts to expand our reach and bring more people into bird conservation. 

Audubon owned and sold slaves, as did many peers in the United States in his time. His household was supported by enslaved people and Audubon sold enslaved people to finance his collecting and publishing work. While on a collecting trip to a plantation, he encountered escaped enslaved people and returned them to their owners. Audubon has also been associated with the collection of human skulls from Indigenous people, a practice that some naturalists of his time participated in. Skulls that Audubon found or acquired during his travels made their way to Philadelphia. There, they became study specimens for Dr. Samuel George Morton, whose theories on skull size and intelligence formed the background of scientific racism. (Read more here.) 

During Audubon’s life the abolitionist movement was growing in strength, especially in New York where Audubon lived. By 1820 all of the Northern states had passed legislation to abolish slavery, but Audubon remained a defender of slavery and staunchly anti-abolitionist. (Read more here.)

There are actions taken in the past that have real impact on people today. As an organization, we choose to recognize and acknowledge that for many people, the Audubon name and legacy is now painful, off-putting, a barrier. Living up to our values and our commitment to inclusion means that we cannot have a name that conjures up slavery and discourages involvement from anyone. 

We want all New Yorkers to discover the joy that birds and nature provide, the value of being in wild habitats. We hope to make all people feel welcome in the spaces where we work and bird. Our name change gives us a chance to determine how we want to be known for the bird conservation work we do, and the engagement work that helps it. A name change is an expression of our values of inclusion.

NYC Audubon has been working to engage diverse audiences for a long time and is committed to expanding this work. We are thrilled to share the wonder of birds with our NYCHA in Nature program that engages residents of the city's public housing. We run hundreds of bird outings each year across all five boroughs (most of them free) including several in multiple languages and with physical accessibility in mind. In 2023, we published the city's first Spanish-English bird guide for birders, Las Aves de la Ciudad de Nueva York/The Birds of New York City.  (Read more about the field guide, here.)   In addition, our Young Conservationists group creates community for birders under 35. Though all of these efforts, we continue to work to engage New Yorkers in the amazing world of birds, sharing their challenges and the solutions we can work on together. Read more about our commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accesibility and how we center it in our work here. 

Birds are in peril. Since 1970, the number of individual birds in North America has declined by approximately three billion. And scientists estimate that by 2080, nearly two-thirds of North American bird species will have lost more than half of their range due to urbanization and climate change. (In New York City, you can see which bird species are most in jeopardy using this tool.) 

We are a bird conservation organization. To save birds, we need allies, partners, and broad popular support. A name once chosen for its popular appeal and association with beautiful images of birds is now associated with slavery and racism. As a result, that name has become a barrier to people who might otherwise become involved in or support our work. We have decided we must take active steps to remove that barrier. The more people who hear our message and help us save bird populations, the better. The protection of birds depends on the work and support across all of the City’s communities.  

For the sake of the Philadelphia Vireo, the Golden-winged Warbler, the Cerulean Warbler, the Bobolink, the Saltmarsh Sparrow, the Piping Plover, the Fish Crow, and many other species, we need help. We cannot allow our name to be a barrier to our conservation, advocacy, and engagement work.