Hall of fame honors visionary women

Mabel Osgood Wright, founder of Connecticut Audubon… (contributed photo / Connecticut Post)

Mabel Osgood Wright was destined to be exceptional. After all, the New York native attended grammar school with future President Theodore Roosevelt and published her first essay on nature in the New York Evening Post when she was 16. Yet it wasn’t her education or even her early foray into journalism that cemented Wright’s place in history. It was a fashion trend.

Wright, who eventually moved to Connecticut, wrote numerous books on conservation, particularly about birds. She founded the Connecticut Audubon Society in 1898 and, in 1914, she founded the society’s Birdcraft Museum.

Parents and children walk through the Birdcraft Museum in Fairfield. (Phil Noel/Connecticut Post )

But she might never have achieved those feats had she not been spurred on by a fad of the late 19th century, said Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation at the Connecticut Audubon Society. “It was a time in our country’s history when the fashion industry was using a lot of feathers on ladies’ hats,” he said.

And those feathers weren’t fabricated, but real, plucked from actual birds. Those included the egret, whose plumes, Bull said, were “worth more than their weight in gold.”

This trend was depleting the nation’s songbird population, to the point where one might see more species of birds represented on women’s hats than in nature. This inspired numerous conservationists, including Wright, to establish Audubon societies in the states where they lived.

Not only did Wright found Connecticut’s Audubon Society but, roughly a decade and a half later, she established the Birdcraft Museum, which was the first songbird refuge in the United States. The six-acre site has since documented records of more than 120 species of birds, and hosted hundreds of tours and classes. In 1993, the museum was named a national historic landmark. But, at the time, Wright was a pioneer. Her efforts “really brought bird conservation to a head.”

Wright is one of a number of Connecticut women who played an important role in the state’s history. To acknowledge these women and the way they shaped Connecticut, the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame established the Connecticut Women’s Heritage Trail in 1999. The Hall of Fame, which has offices in Hartford and New Haven, showcases the contributions of women in the state. Nearly 90 women have been inducted since the hall was established in 1994.

The trail is a collection of 14 sites, including the Birdcraft Museum, which were established by or pay tribute to notable women in the state. In addition to the Birdcraft Museum, sites on the trail include the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk and the Osborne Homestead Museum in Derby.

“The idea was to offer a constellation of museums and homes around the state that were dedicated to an interpretation of women’s history,” said Hall of Fame Executive Director Katherine Wiltshire. “Obviously, the point was to highlight women’s lives.”

Highlighting important women in the state is always a goal of the Hall of Fame, but it’s particularly important in March, which is Women’s History Month. When selecting the sites, Wiltshire said, Hall of Fame officials picked places associated with exceptional women, including hall inductees. Wright, for example, was inducted in 1998.

Wiltshire said Wright’s establishment of a bird sanctuary at a time when neither women nor birds were held in high regard was a big deal. “That was a major accomplishment for a woman in the 1900s,” she said.

Mara Neville, Connecticut Audubon Society communications director, agreed and said Wright’s work was instrumental in getting people to care about the environment. “For most people, birds are the way they experience nature and wildlife,” Neville said, adding that bird-watching is the fastest-growing passive sport in America.

But Wright isn’t the only conservation-minded woman whose accomplishments are acknowledged through the trail. Derby’s Osborne Homestead Museum was once home to Frances Osborne Kellogg, a businesswoman, philanthropist and conservationist.

After the death of her father, Wilbur Fisk Osborne, in 1907, 31-year-old Kellogg took over his role in the family business, the brass industry Osborne & Cheesman Manufacturing Company.

This was significant, said Osborne Homestead Museum curator Christiana Jones. “In 1907, women weren’t even voting, let alone running metal companies,” she said.

Kellogg and her husband also went on to be successful dairy breeders. Prior to her death, she deeded her 350-acre property to the state of Connecticut to be used as a state park. Today, Osbornedale State Park, which adjoins the Osborne Homestead Museum, is host to a variety of wildlife, and both the state and museum run a number of educational programs.

Yet the museum wasn’t originally included on the Women’s Heritage Trail. Jones said museum staff wrote the Hall of Fame and requested that the facility be added.

Jones said Kellogg’s accomplishment make her a role model to women of any generation.

“This is the story of a woman who was told so many times ‘You can’t do this, Frances,’” Jones said. “Though she was repeatedly told that in her life, she decided that she could do these things.”

For more information on the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame and the Connecticut Women’s Heritage Trail, visit the Hall of Fame Web site at www.cwhf.org.

by: Amanda Cuda – Connecticut Post