NYC Audubon drops ‘Audubon’ from name due to the artist and naturalist's slavery ties

The environmental group NYC Audubon voted this week to drop “Audubon” from its name, joining a nationwide movement to reject associations with the 19th century naturalist John James Audubon, due to his ownership of enslaved people and white supremacist views.

The move, said Jessica Wilson, the organization’s executive director in an interview with Gothamist, “symbolizes the inclusiveness of our work and invites everybody in to be a part of conservation and protecting birds.”

In a statement posted on NYC Audubon’s website, the organization stated, “While we value John James Audubon’s contributions to art and ornithology, and the foundation he laid for an appreciation of nature and a conservation ethos in this country, we recognize that his views and actions towards people of color and Indigenous people were harmful and offensive — and that the harm continues today, presenting a barrier to people who might otherwise become involved in or support our work.”

The group has not yet announced a new name, but the move follows the decision by Audubon chapters in Seattle, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Portland and Madison to also cut “Audubon” from their names. At the same time, the National Audubon Society bucked the trend by voting to retain its name last week, a decision made at the end of a yearlong process that prompted three of its board members to resign.

In a statement explaining the decision to retain the name, Elizabeth Grey, the CEO of the National Audubon Society, said that despite John James Audubon’s history as “an enslaver whose racist views and treatment of Black and Indigenous people must be reckoned with,” board members ultimately decided “that the organization transcends one person’s name. ‘Audubon’ has come to symbolize our mission and significant achievements that this organization has made in its long history.”

The national organization and chapters have attempted to be transparent about the life of Audubon, whose writings and illustrations of wildlife strongly informed the American environmental movement.

In “The Myth of John James Audubon,” an essay posted on the website of the National Audubon Society, historian Gregory Nobles wrote that “John James Audubon was a man of many identities: artist, naturalist, woodsman, adventurer, storyteller, mythmaker,” who traveled across the continent in the early 1800s in an “epic quest” to chronicle the avian life of North America.

Just in the last day since we made this announcement, we’ve seen a number of new people sign up for our email lists and several donations come in as a result of the decision to change our name.

Jessica Wilson, executive director of NYC Audubon

“Audubon was also a slaveholder,” wrote Nobles, “a point that many people don’t know or, if they do, tend to ignore or excuse.”

In one instance, Nobles wrote, Audubon told of encountering the family of a man in a Louisiana swamp and spending the night with them at their encampment. The man and his family had escaped slavery, according to the passage in Audubon’s five-volume "Ornithological Biography."

“The next morning,” Nobles wrote, “Audubon took them back to ‘the plantation of their first master’ and convinced the planter to buy the enslaved people back from the masters to which the family had been divided and sold.”

“In the span of a single story,” wrote Nobles, “Audubon portrayed himself as both a savior of a fugitive family and a defender of slaveholders’ claims to human property rights.”

The first organizations that took the Audubon name formed in the 1890s; the national organization was established in 1905. NYC Audubon was formed in 1979, more than a century after the death of its namesake. Wilson said members of the organization “talked to hundreds of people over the last few months to make this decision,” including “birders of all ages, all colors and backgrounds.”

“What we heard,” said Wilson, “was the very real emotion and sentiment that staff members of color, board members and volunteers of color felt uncomfortable with the name Audubon.”

Wilson said the mood in the wake of the announcement was “really positive,” and that staff, volunteers and board members were excited.

“Just in the last day since we made this announcement, we’ve seen a number of new people sign up for our email lists and several donations come in as a result of the decision to change our name,” she said.

At the same time, she said “a few people” had said they were severing ties with NYC Audubon.

“Which is disappointing,” she said.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct Audubon's full name as John James Audubon.