Exterior of the Connecticut Audubon Society Birdcraft Museum & Sanctuary in Fairfield, CT. Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
The Connecticut Audubon Society’s history page says a small group of women in Fairfield founded it in 1898, including Wright, Helen Glover, Theodora Wheeler and Harriet Glover. A profile of Wright , written by a later chair of the society’s board and republished in 2023, puts the founding in January 1898 and says Wright served as president until 1924. The profile counts 27 books, beginning with The Friendship of Nature in 1894. Her 1895 bird guide, Birdcraft , was reprinted nine times and served as the most popular bird guide until Roger Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds appeared in 1934. She joined the founding board of the National Association of Audubon Societies in 1905, though the Connecticut society stayed independent when that group became the National Audubon Society in 1940. After Wright died in 1934, the sanctuary changed drastically. The construction of Interstate 95 in 1957 took nearly half of Birdcraft Sanctuary’s land, according to the Connecticut Audubon Society’s profile of Wright. The final settlement was $42,000, which the profile says fell far short of covering the loss.
Because it did not recognize the property’s value as a sanctuary, the state initially offered $20,000 in compensation, and appeals failed. Wright was also a prolific author.
Nearly 1,000 visitors came in the first month, and the birds vanished, according to the profile of Wright. This resulted in the creation of a one-room museum with seasonal displays, this time funded by Jennings, the construction of which began in late November 1914 and which opened in March 1915. By July 1, 1915, the sanctuary had received 1,300 visitors, and 52 nests were recorded in its first year. The society she helped form backed legislation on hunting control in 1907, protection of birds and eggs from collectors in 1911, sandpipers in 1912 and the International Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, according to the profile. It opposed a bounty on Bald Eagles in 1919. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993. More than 150 bird species have been recorded there, and it is a federally licensed bird banding station, according to the society’s Birdcraft web page. The society opened the Center at Fairfield in 1971, the Coastal Center at Milford Point in 1995 and the Center at Pomfret in 2000, and it launched its Science in Nature program in 2012, according to its history page. Since 1974, its Hartford advocacy program has contributed to every major environmental initiative in Connecticut. Birdcraft did not found the bird protection campaign in Connecticut, as it was established by the society back in 1898.
The public reaction almost ruined the whole plan. Instead of limiting access, however, the board came up with a different idea. Visitors would keep bringing dead birds and asking about them, so the caretaker, Frank Novak, who was also a taxidermist, would mount them. It also followed the harsher management practices of its era: cats were not allowed, and predatory birds were removed as well. Her efforts transcended the fence line. Once the bills were approved, Wright campaigned for their enforcement. Frank Chapman described Birdcraft in Bird-Lore as “an object lesson in conservation and museum methods. ” Birdcraft became a model for other projects. Bird-Craft also inspired the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Sanctuary in Oyster Bay, after Roosevelt’s widow visited while seeking a fitting memorial. However, even then, the place continued serving its purpose. Even so, the sanctuary kept serving its purpose: migrating birds still use the pond and dense vegetation between the highway and the railroad. This information makes a cautious interpretation of the legacy of the sanctuary justified. However, it provided this campaign with its public location, a way of teaching people about birds, and a record of success, and it continues to work as an organization.