by Rose Jeffery
At the Robert Cooper Audubon Society board meeting of August 4, 2026, we discussed whether our society should shed the honorific “Audubon” from our name. This move has been taken by many chapters across the nation, including two prominent Indiana chapters. Amos Butler Audubon Society is now Bird Alliance of Central Indiana and Stockbridge Audubon Society is now Three Rivers Birding. We thought the issue deserved serious consideration.
John James Audubon (1785-1851) was a famous naturalist and artist who made great contributions to ornithology. He was also a slave owner, and stands accused of several instances of untruthfulness, academic fraud, and plagiarism. To quote the National Audubon Society’s main webpage about John James Audubon, “he was a complex and troubling character who did despicable things even by the standards of his day.”
Several important points were made during our discussion:
- We cannot expect perfection from any human being now or in the past. We hope to appreciate the good without excusing the bad in each individual. We should not attempt to expunge or sanitize troubling history. On the other hand, the fact that very flawed people can also create important and positive work should temper our judgments. History is complicated, as are people.
- The Audubon name has now come to stand for so much more than one historic person. The National Audubon Society was founded in 1905 and is one of the oldest conservation groups in the world. From the Audubon Plumage Law in New York (1910) to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, to more modern campaigns to ban DDT and protect the Bald Eagle, the National Audubon Society has taken the lead.
- For good or bad, the name Audubon no longer has much resonance for much of the public. In fact, this is a major reason to consider changing our name. Robert Cooper Audubon Society does not convey well what we stand for to the public.
- A name change would incur some costs both in terms of dollars and of time. We already feel constrained by the lack of time, energy, and volunteers. A name change would necessarily take resources away from our conservation work.
After an open and respectful discussion, we decided to retain the name Robert Cooper Audubon Society but add a new descriptive tagline after our name: “Enjoying birds, protecting nature, educating for tomorrow in East Central Indiana.” This, we hope, will better advertise our goals without requiring a full-scale rebranding. Keeping “Audubon” in our chapter name is to honor not John James Audubon but the National Audubon Society and what it has achieved as one of our oldest conservation groups.
With this new resolve, we are reminded that we need to grow our membership. With more participants—ideally reflecting the diverse backgrounds and ages in our community—we can more easily reach our goals. There is so much work to be done in conservation. We need everyone equipped to act because environmental issues are relevant to everyone and will shape the futures of us all.
