The Bedford Audubon Society Turns 90!
Notes from the Past
By John Askildsen, President (2003)
Founded in February, 1913, the Bedford Audubon
Society was undoubtedly Westchester’s first environmental organization. Beset
with the task of creating a “culture of conservation” from the ground up, the
new leadership wasted no time in recruiting as many of Bedford’s citizenry as
possible.
Of course, preservation of the local birdlife was
central to Bedford Audubon’s mission. In the first Annual Report dated 1914, the
Society’s first president, Dr. Henry M. Howe of Bedford, reported that “970
gourds and 704 bird nesting boxes had been sold to more then 40 different
buyers.” Dr. Howe went on to say, “Bedford’s returning birds will find an
embarrassment of riches that may well help them to decide to return to Bedford
next year as well.” It did not take any time at all, and by 1915, BAS members
were already traveling to Albany and Washington to lobby elected officials on
wildlife conservation issues.
In its first two years of operation, Bedford
Audubon leadership recruited almost 300 members. The membership role read like
the Who’s Who of Bedford. Here are just a few names that even today may
be recalled even today.
As of 1914: Mrs. Gordon Bell, Miss Mary A Clark,
Mr. William Fahnestock, Mr. Charles Haines, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Wheeler, Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Lounsbery, Mrs. Eugene and Agnes Meyer, Mrs. James Wood, Mrs. Joseph
Lapsley, Mrs. William Sloane, Miss Delia Marble and Miss Eloise Luquer.
The following names were taken from a May 1949
Newsletter: Mrs. E. D. Appleby, Mrs. Charles Darlington, Miss Tallulah Bankhead,
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Patterson, Miss Helen Clay Frick, Rev. Arthur Ketchum, Dr.
and Mrs. Nicholas A. Shoumatoff, and their sons, “Alex” and “Nick” Shoumatoff,
Mrs. John E. Lockwood, Norman J. Marsh, Mrs. Carll (Brady) Tucker, Carll Tucker
Jr., H. B. “Bregy” Van Cleve, Dewitt and Lila Wallace, Mrs. Thomas Waller, Mrs.
Harold C. Whitman.
The first Friday of the month quickly became
known as “Audubon Night” across Bedford and neighboring towns, and the social
event that seemingly few would ever want to miss. Former BAS President Ralph
Odell described Bedford Audubon as having become somewhat of an institution
among Bedfordites in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Dinner parties were held all over
town on the first Friday, and then following dinner and cordials, everyone would
adjourn to the Bedford Hills Memorial House for “Audubon Night.”
Some of the early notable visiting guest
lecturers are considered conservation giants by today’s measure: Dr. Arthur
Allen, founder of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Edward Howe Forbush,
Massachusetts State Ornithologist; Allen D. Cruikshank, noted Ornithologist and
author; and Louis Aggazis Fuertes, world renowned wildlife artist and
illustrator. Roger Toru Peterson spoke to Bedford Audubon Society as well.
The late Bedford Audubon President Robert J.
Hammerschlag wrote in the 1949 Annual Report the following timeless passage: “As
I see it, our first job is to teach, and in teaching, for ourselves we learn the
vital roles that wildlife, water, soil and forest play in maintaining the life
and standards of people. Conservation makes survival possible; but even more
important, it makes survival worth while.”
Click
for the BAS 90th Anniversary Celebration
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