page_title: Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey
section_title: Activism to protect birds
hierarchical_section_title: Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey / Life and work / Activism to protect birds
caption_attribution_description: Florence Merriam Bailey
context_page_description: Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey was an American ornithologist and nature writer. She was born in the hamlet of Locust Grove in Lewis County, New York. The youngest of four children, she was the younger sister of Clinton Hart Merriam. She organized early Audubon Society chapters and was an activist for bird protection. She wrote what is considered the first bird field guide in the modern tradition, Birds Through an Opera-Glass, published in 1890. Her extensive field work in the American West, often with her husband Vernon Bailey, was documented in several books, chief among them Handbook of Birds of the Western United States and The Birds of New Mexico.
context_section_description: At the time that Merriam became interested in birds, most bird study was based on collections and skins; however, she was more interested in studying living birds and their behavior in the field.  Also at this time, it was fashionable among women to wear bird feathers on their hats. Repulsed by this custom, in 1885, Merriam wrote the first of several newspaper articles arguing against the practice.  In 1886, in collaboration with the like-minded George Bird Grinnell and classmate Fannie Hardy, she organized the Smith College Audubon Society (SCAS), a local chapter of Grinnell's nascent National Audubon Society.  The SCAS invited naturalist John Burroughs to visit, and in 1886 he participated in the first of a series of nature walks with the group.
  Once she moved to Washington, Merriam helped organize the Audubon Society of the District of Columbia in 1897, and she began teaching bird classes for that organization the following year.  Meanwhile, she became active with the Committee on Bird Protection of the American Ornithologists' Union.
  Bailey was dedicated to showing and telling people about the value of living birds, and continued to work for their protection. As a result of her efforts and others', the Lacey Act of 1900 prohibited interstate trade in wildlife that had been illegally taken, transported or sold. This was a first step in stopping the slaughter and decreasing the number of victims, especially among seabirds such as pelicans and grebes. Eventually, more legislation, changing styles, and continued education stopped the killing of birds for hat decoration and clothing.
caption: Portrait from Bird Lore (1916)
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