"The Audubon Naturalist Society is dropping the name Audubon. John James Audubon was a famous ornithologist, who was also an enslaver and a grave robber who seized the skulls of Native Americans."
FULL NPR story is HERE.
The Audubon Magazine also published a lengthy article this Spring about his controversial background HERE.
"Audubon enslaved people. He bought and sold humans like horses. That is evidence enough to recast the hero into a different role. The organizations bearing Audubon’s name must press forward in this new light and decide who and what they want to be. Most of their members are white people with enough disposable income to dump into the coffers of overwhelmingly white-led organizations who have no need or desire for John James to be anyone other than the myth. No one willingly pays memberships for discomfort, but if “progress” is the end goal, then it’s a likely partner."(By J. Drew Lanham. a Black American ornithologist. A Black birdwatcher.)
And coincidentally, the Auburn University Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts is hosting an exhibit that includes Audubon's work:
AUMNH is proud to be partnering once again with the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art.
AUMNH's Dr. Melissa Callahan, Entomology Collections Manager worked alongside JCSM staff to display insect specimens pairing them to James Audubon prints. You can check these amazing pieces out now through January 2, 2020 http://jcsm.auburn.edu/exhibitions/outside-in/
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