Author: Robert Francis

On January 6, 1873, the city of New Orleans woke to an uneasy calm as three armed groups gathered in the streets. First was the militia called up by the biracial Republican state government to preserve its authority. Second were the armed White supporters of the conservative Democrats, many carrying the same rifles they bore…

As soon as the five hundred gown- and tuxedo-clad guests filed into the great hall of Chicago’s Grand Pacific Hotel, they stood face to face with about seventy different kinds of animals that they would soon eat. For the last twenty-eight years, John Drake had served Chicago’s leading citizens an annual game dinner that each…

When I traveled to Paris for a wedding a few summers ago, I was obviously excited to explore the city and celebrate with my dear friends. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was nearly as excited to see a bunch of European birds that we Americans don’t often get to enjoy. I…

“You must have a hobby of some kind in these parts, or you will die,” wrote the Reverend C. D. Farrar, “therefore take my tip and go in for birds.”1 Reverend Farrar of Yorkshire was one of England’s more prominent aviculturists at the turn of the century, and he dedicated just as much ink to…

If you talked to me for more than five minutes at any point between 2020 and 2024, I probably rambled your ear off about The Power Broker. In case you haven’t read it (or haven’t patiently listened to me trying to convince you to read it), it’s a biography written by Robert Caro about Robert…

No place in America has occupied a more dramatic intersection between its people and its birds than New York City. It was the end of the rail for birds killed for food, which poured into the city’s markets by the ton. It was the destination for feathers for the Millinery Trade, which defined the country’s…

The disappearance of the Passenger Pigeon caught Americans entirely by surprise. In 1882 there were massive pigeon roosts that stretched mile after mile, so large that they could supply markets with birds measured in the millions. By 1885, pigeons only gathered by the hundreds, or thousands at most. By 1887 any pigeon sighting was considered…

The bird you see here is a Ruddy Duck. Whether you find it in California, North Dakota, or Massachusetts, the powder-blue bill, white cheeks, chestnut body, and cocky sprig of a tail will tell you it’s a male Ruddy Duck. Every field guide, online database, and state hunting guide you consult will agree on its…

To a human, Laysan Island is one of the most isolated locations on the planet. The tiny atoll, measuring only a mile square, barely peeks above the vast Pacific Ocean. The island is about 2,800 miles from Japan and 2,900 miles from California, with precious little in between. Kauai is the closest inhabited island, and…

When you took American History in high school, you probably learned that the country’s conservation movement began in 1872 with the creation of Yellowstone National Park. If you learned about conservation in college, you might have read that organized conservation work didn’t really start until 1887, when Theodore Roosevelt founded the Boone and Crockett Club…