The Hat That Killed a Billion Birds The Decimation of World Avian Populations for Women's Fashion

About this book

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was common practice for milliners to decorate women's hats with birds' feathers and plumes--and sometimes with the birds themselves. Huge numbers of birds were killed for this fashionable enterprise to the point that entire species were eliminated, and others were placed in endangered categories. Lawmakers and bird aficionados were slow to react to the effects of this practice, which went on almost unabated for a quarter of a century. Then, noted naturalists like George Bird Grinnell, William T. Hornaday, and President Theodore Roosevelt, who recognised the economic benefits birds provided, banded together to pass meaningful legislation to protect them and to curb the production of murderous millinery.

This book explores the troubled history of millinery and its complicated relationship to birds and conservation. Eventually, thanks to the efforts of many individuals and groups, this period of the millinery era did pass, but the author seeks to explore why it took so long for the fad and practice to come to an end.

Contents

Introduction

1. The Birds Start Slipping Away
2. How Did It Happen?
3. Follow the Money
4. Bird Murder and Women's Hats
5. Bicycles, Tricycles, and Fashion Cycles
6. But Did the Ladies Listen?
7. Which Birds Is It Okay to Kill?
8. Who Was to Blame?
9. Fashion Writers Play a Key Role
10. Another Skirmish in the War Between the Sexes
11. Editorial License
12. Blow Guns, Knives, and Other Cruel Weapons
13. There's an Endless Supply of Birds-Isn't There?
14. Save the Birds
15. The Audubon Society Picks Up the Cudgel
16. "Arbird" Day
17. Laws Are Literally for the Birds
18. Who Owns the Birds?
19. The Turning Point Arrives
20. Embarrassment Knows No Boundaries
21. Regional Rivalries
22. The Audubonists' Antithesis
23. Reading the Signs
24. Silz Courts the Supremes
25. Welcome to Finley's World
26. Meet Max Schlemmer
27. Looking at the Moon Without Rose-Colored Glasses
28. Delaware Thanks the Milliners
29. The Law of Fashion Prevails
30. From Missouri to Massachusetts
31. Milliners and Hats Are on Top
32. The Milliners Fight Back
33. Two Sides to the Story
34. The Business of Business
35. Calling All Ladies
36. White Herons and Birds of Paradise
37. The Ostrich
38. Game Wardens
39. The Hunters
40. Birds Don't Have to Die When They Can Be Dyed
41. Those Who Refuse to See the Birds for the Trees
42. The Campaign Goes International

Epilogue: One Good "Tern" Deserves Another
Appendix A: Confusing Bird Protection Laws
Appendix B: Expansion of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Arthur G. Sharp is a Sun City Center, Florida-based writer/editor whose publications include 21 books and more than 2,500 articles on a variety of topics.