6 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



ly twenty years. Later on the Council Chamber in the basement of the 

 building was turned over to the Society for its ever-expanding office. This 

 connnodious room is still occupied in conjunction with the Massachusetts 

 office of the National Association of Audubon Societies, the two societies 

 joining in paying a modest rental. 



An early plan of the newly launched Society was the publication of an 

 educational Audubon Calendar and an Audubon poster w^hich could be 

 used by all who wished to post their land against hunting. These two 

 activities have been continued to the present day, several thousand calen- 

 dars i^being sold yearly throughout the country and the Audubon Poster 

 for the protection of birds being known in every hamlet throughout the 

 State. Another early activity was the devising of a circular advocating 

 Bird Day in the public schools. This was published in the Journal of Edu- 

 cation and reprints were widely circulated amongst superintendents, 

 teachers and others. In response to this first circular eighteen gratifying 

 letters were received saying that Bird Day had been or was to be observed 

 in the schools. Through the persistent influence thus originated Bird 

 Day has since become an established institution in the State, fostered and 

 provided for by the Commonwealth itself. 



During the second year of the Society's existence it was voted to 

 devise and print the first bird chart, the idea being taken from a copy of a 

 German bird chart, exhibited by Ralph Hoffmann, who was an influential 

 member of the Board of Directors and was at one time Chairman of the 

 Board. Mr. Hoffmann was for many years an active worker in the cause, 

 widely known as a lecturer on birds and the author of a valuable Bird 

 Guide. 



In 1909, twelve years after the founding of the Society, Mr. Hoffmann, 

 then Chairman of the Board, issued a circular stating the character and 

 aims ^of the Society. A paragraph from this sums up very well the work 

 of the Society up to that time. "In the past twelve years the Massa- 

 chusetts Audubon Society has by no means confined its educational work 

 to combating the fashion of wearing birds' plumage on hats. It has pub- 

 lished nearly fifty leaflets and distributed them either directly or througli 

 its Local Secretaries; it has published two wall-charts, representing to- 

 gether fifty-two of our common birds ; it has issued seven Audubon Calen- 

 dars; it has instituted three travelling lectures and four travelling libraries, 

 which are sent into communities where there is a lack of this particular kind 

 of educational influence; it has organized in Boston nine courses of pop- 

 ular lectures." 



In the fall of 1903 the Society regretfully accepted the resignation of 

 Miss Richards, its first and up to that time its only secretary, tendered on 

 account of ill health, and Miss Jessie E. Kimball, who for some months had 

 served as secretary pro tern., was elected to the position. Miss Kimball 

 served faithfully in this capacity for a term of ten years, being succeeded in 

 1913 by the present Secretary-Treasurer, Winthrop Packard. 



The work of the Audubon Society since that time, while it has followed 

 consistently the lines marked out for it by the Founders, has been so varied 

 in detail, has touched the public of our State — indeed of the country at 

 large — on so many sides of the bird-protection problem that it would need 

 a book to adequately describe it. The office at 66 Newbury Street is at once 

 a Museum of bird-protection material, an exhibition library, an ever ready 

 source of information and activity in the dissemination of knowledge in all 

 matters pertaining to bird study and bird protection. It has become head- 



