Bird Day

Some Overland Friends (detail),
Louis Agassiz Fuertes, artist,
Illustration in The Harriman Alaska Expedition: Chronicles and Souvenirs, May 1899.
Evolution of the Conservation Movement

On May 4, 1894, Bird Day was first observed at the initiative of Charles Almanzo Babcock, superintendent of schools in Oil City, Pennsylvania. By 1910, Bird Day was widely celebrated, often in conjunction with Arbor Day. Statewide observances of the two holidays inculcated conservation training and awareness in a broad spectrum of the public, especially school children.

To learn more about the history of these holidays and their role in the Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920, see Arbor and Bird Day Observance, c.1872-1920: Additional Resources in the Library of Congress.

In 1897, pioneering ornithologists Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues and artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes collaborated on Citizen Bird. Written in an entertaining and fanciful style and dedicated to "All Boys and Girls Who Love Birds and Wish to Protect Them," the popular classic encourages the love of birds and respect for their place in the natural cycle:

Bluebirds have a call-note and a sweet warbling song…He is true blue, which is as rare a color among birds as it is among flowers. He is the banner-bearer of Birdland also, and loyally floats the tricolor from our trees and telegraph wires; for, besides being blue, is he not also red and white?

As a Citizen the Bluebird is in every way a model. He works with the Ground Gleaners in searching the grass and low bushes for grasshoppers and crickets; he searches the trees for caterpillars in company with the Tree Trappers; and in eating blueberries, cranberries, wild grapes, and other fruits he works with the Seed Sowers also. So who would not welcome this bird, who pays his rent and taxes in so cheerful a manner, and thanks you with a song into the bargain?

Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues, Citizen Bird, page 90.
Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920

When the Mocking Birds are Singing in the Wildwood, H. B. Blanke, music, Arthur J. Lamb, words, 1906.
Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920

• Discover other important dates in the history of conservation. View the special presentation Documentary Chronology of Selected Events in the Development of the American Conservation Movement, 1847-1920.
• Read observations about bird life by naturalists and find Acts of Congress related to the protection of birds. Search on bird in Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920.
• From the Collection Connections section of the Learning Page select the collection Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920. There you will find ideas for using that collection to teach and to learn more.
• Search on the keyword bird in The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820 to see ornithological biographies by Alexander Wilson and by John James Audubon.
• View photographs of birds. Search on bird in Washington as It Was, 1923-1959.
• Also, be sure to see the Today in History feature on artist and naturalist John James Audubon, famous for his drawings and paintings of North American birds

Early Manhattan

Map of Manhattan
by Joan Vinckeboons, 1639.
Discovery and Exploration
Map Collections (1500-Present)

On May 4, 1626, Dutch colonist Peter Minuit arrived on the wooded island of Manhattan in present-day New York. Hired by the Dutch West India Company to oversee its trading and colonizing activities in the Hudson River region, Minuit is famous for purchasing Manhattan from resident Algonquin Indians for the equivalent of $24. The transaction was a mere formality, however, as the Dutch had already established the town of New Amsterdam at the southern end of the island.

Under the direction of Minuit, New Amsterdam became the principal settlement of the Dutch West India Company's New Netherland territory. When the British seized the territory in 1664 and divided it into the colonies of New York and New Jersey, they renamed New Amsterdam New York City in honor of England's Duke of York.

Except for a brief recapture by the Dutch in 1673, New York City was controlled by the British until the American Revolution. After New York ratified the Constitution in 1788, the thriving port city was named state capital, a title it held until 1797. In the late 1700s, New York City also served as capital of the United States (1789-1790) and home to Congress (1785-1790). By the close of the 18th century, it was America's largest metropolis.

In the 1800s growth on Manhattan Island boomed, first with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which facilitated trading by linking New York with the Great Lakes region, and second, with the arrival of thousands of immigrants, mostly from Europe. In 1898, Manhattan merged with its neighbors Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island to form the five-borough metropolis we know today as New York City. A center for finance, commerce, and culture, New York rose out of a wooded island to become one of the world's great cities, its Manhattan skyline an icon of the American Dream.

City and Harbor of New York, circa 1896.
Taking the Long View, 1851-1991

• View more photographs of Manhattan. Search on Manhattan in Touring Turn-of- the-Century America, 1880-1920 and Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955, or, search on New York City in Taking the Long View, 1851-1991.
• See more maps of Manhattan. Search across the Map Collections (1500-Present) on New York City.
• The Today in History Archive contains a variety of features pertaining to the development of Manhattan landmarks. Search on New York City to retrieve information about King's College (now Columbia University), the New York Public Library, the New York Stock Exchange and the Guggenheim Museum.
• Learn more about the forces that contributed to the growth of New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. Visit Immigration, a feature presentation of the Learning Page.
• Also, don't miss Life of a City: New York, 1898-1906. This American Memory collection contains 45 early films portraying the construction of skyscrapers, the busy waterfront, street parades, markets, horse-drawn carriages, and new automobiles and subways. To find these cinematic treasures, browse the collection's Film Title List or Subject Index.
• Search across American Memory on the terms fireman, firemen or New York fireman to find more about the individuals who help protect Manhatten from fire and fire related emergencies. See, for example, "The Life of a New York Fireman" from an 1877 issue of Harper's magazine, or the 1888 sheet music "Our Gallant Firemen," which is "dedicated most respectfully to the Members of the New York Fire Department."