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Nationalism, Nostalgia, and the Campaign to Save the Bison

in Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology

In early 1886, William Temple Hornaday, the chief taxidermist at the U.S. National Museum, had bison on the brain. A decade before, the species that had come to symbolize the Great Plains had been ... More

In early 1886, William Temple Hornaday, the chief taxidermist at the U.S. National Museum, had bison on the brain. A decade before, the species that had come to symbolize the Great Plains had been all but obliterated from the southern portion of its once extensive range. Now increasingly frequent predictions about its extinction in the north seemed to be coming to pass. After several months of correspondence about the status of the species, Hornaday reached a grim conclusion: fewer than 300 bison remained throughout the entire United States. He issued a call for a Smithsonian-affiliated zoo that would shelter the breeding stock of endangered species and help educate the public about their plight. In December 1905, the American Bison Society was founded, with Theodore Roosevelt as honorary president, Hornaday as president, and Ernest H. Baynes as secretary. In addition to nationalism and nostalgia, biology may have also played a role in the success of the conservation campaign to save the bison. The success of the bison restoration efforts contrasted greatly with the story of the passenger pigeon.Less

Teetering on the Brink of Extinction: The Passenger Pigeon, the Bison, and American Zoo Culture in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Mark V. Barrow

in The Ark and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation

This chapter examines how American zoological gardens responded to the rapid, nearly simultaneous decline of two iconic species at the turn of the nineteenth century: the bison and the passenger ... More

This chapter examines how American zoological gardens responded to the rapid, nearly simultaneous decline of two iconic species at the turn of the nineteenth century: the bison and the passenger pigeon. The North American continent once supported extensive populations of both species, which inspired awe and wonder in the European settlers who encountered them. During the second half of the nineteenth century, however, habitat destruction, competition from exotic species, and especially large-scale commercial exploitation facilitated by newly constructed rail networks produced dramatic declines in both populations. As a result, the bison and the passenger pigeon were both facing extinction by the end of the nineteenth century. Wildlife conservationists successfully mobilized to save the bison, and the New York Zoological Park (opened in 1899) began a captive bison herd that helped repopulate several newly created federal reserves in the West. They failed, however, to rally behind the passenger pigeon, and the last known specimen perished at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914. The New York Zoological Park’s captive breeding experiments proved the exception rather than the rule during this period, when zoos remained primarily focused on entertaining and educating the public, rather than trying to save endangered species.Less

Each Time Unique: The Poetics of Extinction

Cary Wolfe

in Animalities: Literary and Cultural Studies Beyond the Human

Wolfe’s chapter takes up the question of species extinction in relation to a particular example, that of the Passenger Pigeon. Focusing primarily upon an art installation titled “Requiem: Ectopistes ... More

Wolfe’s chapter takes up the question of species extinction in relation to a particular example, that of the Passenger Pigeon. Focusing primarily upon an art installation titled “Requiem: Ectopistes Migratorius” by Michael Pestel, Wolfe explores the poetics of extinction that are exemplified in the various elements of Pestel’s work, as well as related issues, from the technology and mass killings that led to the extinction of the species to the present discussion of “de-extinction” projects stemming from revived DNA. Installations such as Pestel’s help us to recognize species as “spaces” rather than codes or scripts, in which systems and environments—like the performances and performativity within the installation itself—continue to evolve and change.Less

The Anthropocene and the Catawba

Scott Huler

in A Delicious Country: Rediscovering the Carolinas along the Route of John Lawson's 1700 Expedition

This chapter explores Lawson’s observation of nature and the history of the Catawba. Huler reviews Lawson’s recordings of birds, particularly the Carolina parakeet and the passenger pigeon. During ... More

This chapter explores Lawson’s observation of nature and the history of the Catawba. Huler reviews Lawson’s recordings of birds, particularly the Carolina parakeet and the passenger pigeon. During Huler’s stay in Catawba, he takes interest in the pottery displays at the Native American Studies Center. Huler compares the land from Lawson’s period to modern time and describes Lawson’s experience with the Indians there and their loss of territory.Less

Epilogue

Helmut Satz

in The Rules of the Flock: Self-Organization and Swarm Structure in Animal Societies

Although swarm structure can lead to negative consequences, such as the extermination of passenger pigeons and (almost) of the American buffalo, it generally greatly enhances the survival of the ... More

Although swarm structure can lead to negative consequences, such as the extermination of passenger pigeons and (almost) of the American buffalo, it generally greatly enhances the survival of the species. Today, the most numerous societies are those of insects, using a self-organized caste system.Less

Everyone’s Property is No One’s Property

Geoffrey Heal

in Endangered Economies: How the Neglect of Nature Threatens Our Prosperity

Much natural capital is common property – owned by no one. Important examples are water and fish. Such property is generally greatly overused – the lamentable histories of the American bison and the ... More

Much natural capital is common property – owned by no one. Important examples are water and fish. Such property is generally greatly overused – the lamentable histories of the American bison and the passenger pigeon illustrate the power of this tendency. Commercially valuable fish are today going through the same process. But there are ways of avoiding this, by establishing property rights or in other ways limiting access and usage. Such mechanisms have worked well for some fisheries and some aquifers, but fishing on the high seas is still out of control.Less

The Land, the River, and the People : The Connecticut Valley, 1790-1830

John T. Cumbler

in Title Pages

On Wednesday morning September 21, 1795, only a year after he was appointed president of Yale College, forty-four-year-old Timothy Dwight began the first of his thirteen excursions through New ... More

On Wednesday morning September 21, 1795, only a year after he was appointed president of Yale College, forty-four-year-old Timothy Dwight began the first of his thirteen excursions through New England and upstate New York. On six of his thirteen trips, he traveled through the Connecticut Valley, a valley he was familiar with since childhood and was linked to by both family and sentiment. The Connecticut River Valley was changing, as Dwight made his several trips through it. It was transformed under the impact of human activity. Increasingly, mill dams and factory villages were being built along the river and its tributaries. Technology, science, and the market were restructuring the way people were interacting with their environment. The land became less wild. That “civilizing” of nature, as Dwight called it, began first on the alluvial soils of the lower and central valley in the eighteenth century and then spread north and up into the hill country in the early years of the nineteenth century. By the end of the fifth decade of the nineteenth century, this new world had pretty much taken shape, and valley residents began to take stock of the changes that had occurred. Dwight began this process of accounting at the beginning stages of that transformation. And it was in the Connecticut River Valley that the changes made the biggest impact on him. At the center of the Connecticut Valley runs New England’s largest waterway. The Connecticut River flows south some four hundred miles from a series of small lakes in the swampy district of northern New Hampshire on the Canadian border. It eventually spills into Long Island Sound at Saybrook, Connecticut. To the west and east of the river are mountain ranges, the Housatonic and Green Mountains to the west and the White Mountains to the east. In northern New Hampshire and Vermont, the river travels through a narrow and rough mountain valley. As the river moves south into central Vermont and New Hampshire, the valley widens, particularly on the river’s western shore, and is intersected with tributary rivers and valleys. Less

A Family Man

Sue Leaf

in A Love Affair with Birds: The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts

This chapter looks into the life of Thomas Sadler Roberts as he began his medical career. At the same time he had to be a dutiful son to an ailing father, and a good husband, and father. Following ... More

This chapter looks into the life of Thomas Sadler Roberts as he began his medical career. At the same time he had to be a dutiful son to an ailing father, and a good husband, and father. Following his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in 1885, Roberts returned briefly to Minneapolis to see his parents and to propose to Jennie Cleveland. After a period of residency, he returned in 1886 where he got married and was able to buy a home. That space would also serve as his office. Soon after, Roberts became a father to three children, Thomas Cleveland, Catharine Lyon, and John Carroll. Adjacent to changes in Roberts’ life, Minnesota was experiencing changes of its own brought by rapid modernization and urbanization, which Roberts noted in his journal, severely affected the wildlife. One notable example was when he discovered that the last Passenger Pigeon was recorded in 1895.Less