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The Women Who Fought the Feather Fad
In the early 1900s, women organized to save vanishing birds.
© Patrick Kavanagh
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the human fascination with bird feathers went a little too far. Women’s hats and dresses featured extravagant feathers from birds both near and far. The trade in feathers drove several species, from the Little Egret to the Great Crested Grebe, to near-extinction. Fed up with the killing of wild birds for fashion, a group of British women met to put an end to this cruelty. The organization became the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, or RSPB, which continues to be a leader in bird conservation today.
BirdNote®
The Women Who Fought the Feather Fad
Written by Richa Malhotra
This is BirdNote.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the human fascination with bird feathers went a little too far. Women’s hats and dresses featured extravagant feathers from birds both near and far.
To fulfill the growing demand for feathered hats in the U.K., birds were imported to the fashion hub of London from all over the world. The trade in feathers drove several species, from the Little Egret to the Great Crested Grebe, to near-extinction.
[Great Crested Grebe, XC 668294]
Fed up with the killing of wild birds for fashion, a group of British women led by Emily Williamson met in 1889 to put an end to this cruelty. The group, called the ‘Society for the Protection of Birds,’ united with another group of protesting women—the ‘Fur, Fin and Feather Folk,’ founded by Eliza Phillips.
The organization became the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, or RSPB, which continues to be a leader in bird conservation today.
The RSPB rallied for a ban on the import of feathers for three decades until the British Parliament passed the Importation of Plumage Prohibition Act in 1921.
Thanks to a group of women who challenged the feather fad, many species of birds were protected from extinction.
[Great Crested Grebe, XC 668294]
For BirdNote, I’m Ariana Remmel.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Great Crested Grebe Xeno Canto 668294 recorded by A. Celmin.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote August 2022 / September 2024 Narrator: Ariana Remmel
ID# rspb-01-2022-08-15 rspb-01
References:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/original-woke-women-took-cruel-f…
https://www.tessaboase.com/post/looking-for-emily-williamson-rspb-found…
Richa Malhotra
Writer