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Book Backdrop The Last Egret

The Plume Bloom:

Murderous Millinery or Necessary Narcissism?

Blue-bird lady though you be, with your hat perched careless-wise; 1914http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.28048

The DocumentsDocument A – Young Egrets unable to fly (photograph)

Document B – A Bird of Prey (political cartoon)Document C – The Value of a Feather (excerpt)

Document D – Murderous Millinery – The North American Story (chart)Document E – The Plumage Bill (excerpt)

Document F – Model wearing “Chanticleer” hat (photograph)Document G – The Price of Feathered Hats (newspaper advertisements)

Document H – The Lady with the Furs (political cartoon)Document I – Women Milliners (excerpt)

Document J – Death of a Game Warden (obituary)Document K – The Plumage Act (excerpt)

Document L – The Lady Cop (political cartoon)

Updated 9/23/14 by E. Howe Grade 11 Student Copy

No such likeness do I see, / Blue-bird lady though you be; / You are more than that - to

me / You're a Bird of Paradise! / Blue-bird lady

though you be, / With your hat perched careless-wise

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.28048


Instructions for teachers:

This DBQ is meant to be paired with the children’s book The Last Egret by Harvey Oyer however it can be done on its own. It can also be paired with science standards on the Everglades and conservation.

Each student should have their own copy of the DBQ which includes one document analysis per document per student. Although document analysis sheets have been provided, teachers or students can choose to use a different analysis sheet.

For differentiation purposes the number of documents can be narrowed down by the teacher. Teachers can also show parts of the short videos posted below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHMQnNqFds0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Jz18OPZ4s start at 6:02

Instructions for Students:

You will journey through this DBQ investigating primary and secondary source documents to gather evidence to support the answer to the question:

The Plume Bloom – Murderous Millinery or Necessary Narcissism?

Then you will read the book The Last Egret by Harvey Oyer and discuss what you think Charlie Pierce and his comrades will do when they face the Plume Bloom of the late 19th and early 20th Century.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Jz18OPZ4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHMQnNqFds0


HOOK EXERCISE:

Directions:

You are a frontiersman in the early 1900’s in West Palm Beach in the Florida Everglades. You are a skilled hunter and live off of the land and ecosystem provided by the Everglades. But, your family has fallen on hard times and is having trouble paying for food and basic necessities. You have heard from several locals and Seminole Indians that the plumes of the Snowy Egret, water birds that call the Everglades home, are highly coveted by northern milliners and worth their weight in gold!! However, feathers are light as air and gathering enough plumes requires killing hundreds, even thousands, of egrets to have enough to make the hats so highly coveted by the society’s elite. Currently the rookeries in the Everglades are numerous.

Task:

What would you do? Would you become a plume hunter to help support your family? Why or why not?

If the other locals in your area did the same thing as you do, what do you think will happen to the Snowy Egret of the Florida Everglades?



BACKGROUND ESSAY:

John James Audubon, the pre-eminent 19th-century painter of birds, considered the snowy egret to be one of America’s surpassingly beautiful species. The egret, he noted, was also abundant. “I have visited some of their breeding grounds,” Audubon wrote, “where several hundred pairs were to be seen, and several nests were placed on the branches of the same bush, so low at times that I could easily see into them.”

Audubon insisted that birds were so plentiful in North America that no depredation—whether hunting, the encroachment of cities and farmlands, or any other act of man—could extinguish a species. Yet little more than half a century after Audubon’s death in 1851, the last passenger pigeon—a species once numbering in the billions—was living out its days in the Cincinnati Zoo, to be replaced shortly thereafter by a final handful of Carolina parakeets, also soon to die in captivity.

The snowy egret—and its slightly larger cousin, the great egret—were similarly imperiled by the late 1800s, when fashionable women began wearing hats adorned with feathers, wings and even entire taxidermied birds. The egrets’ brilliant white plumage, especially the gossamer wisps of feather that became more prominent during mating season, was in high demand among milliners.

The plume trade was a sordid business. Hunters killed and skinned the mature birds, leaving orphaned hatchlings to starve or be eaten by crows. “It was a common thing for a rookery of several hundred birds to be attacked by the plume hunters, and in two or three days utterly destroyed,” wrote William Hornaday, director of

the New York Zoological Society and formerly chief taxidermist at the Smithsonian.

The main drivers of the plume trade were millinery centers in New York and London. Hornaday, who described London as “the Mecca of the feather killers of the world,” calculated that in a single nine-month period the London market had consumed feathers from nearly 130,000 egrets. And egrets were not the only species under threat. In 1886, it was estimated, 50 North American species were being slaughtered for their feathers.

Egrets and other wading birds were being decimated until two crusading Boston socialites, Harriet Hemenway and her cousin, Minna Hall, set off a revolt. Their boycott of the trade would culminate in formation of the National Audubon Society and passage of the Weeks-McLean Law, also known as the Migratory Bird Act, by Congress on March 4, 1913. The law, a landmark in American conservation history, outlawed market hunting and forbade interstate transport of birds.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-two-women-ended-the-deadly-feather-trade-23187277/?no-ist

Background Essay Questions and Check for Understanding


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-two-women-ended-the-deadly-feather-trade-23187277/?no-ist

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=plumes&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=atcuTZ0Sm-lDYM&tbnid=YbEi3cmYDmKFlM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://aima007.blogspot.com/2012/12/adolphe-millot.html&ei=RyUPVLCdC9eUgwSxroGYCQ&bvm=bv.74649129,d.eXY&psig=AFQjCNEUY-xGEysvfnmCg6n569-cUEl-FQ&ust=1410365081432601


Write a two-sentence summary of the Background Essay. The first sentence should describe time and place. The second sentence should summarize the story or sequence of events described in the Background Essay.

Questions:1. Audubon initially stated that “birds were so plentiful in North America that no depredation –

whether hunting, the encroachment of cities and farmlands, or any other act of man – could extinguish a species”. He died in 1851. What might his statement have been if he had been alive in the early 1900’s?

2. Why was the plume trade considered a sordid business?

3. What drove hunters to become plume traders?

4. How did the fate of the Snowy Egret and other birds change in the wake of The Plume Bloom?

Timeline:

Mid 1800’s – Feathered hats and accessories become a fashion trend and status symbol

1890’s – Middle class women are seen wearing feathered hats

1896 – Massachusetts Audubon Society founded

1900 – Lacey Act passed, bird conservation legislation that stalled millinery trade and brought many water bird species under protection

1901 – State level Audubon societies help establish the first National Wildlife Refuge in the US, Pelican Island, Fl

1903 – Feathers and plumes valued at $32 an ounce, twice the price of gold – Florida facilitates the hiring of game wardens

1905 – National Audubon Society founded

1918 – President Wilson signed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Understanding the Question and Pre-Bucketing



Understanding the Question

1. What is the analytical question asked by this Mini-Q?

2. What terms in the question need to be defined?

3. Rewrite the question in your own words.

Pre-Bucketing

Directions: Using any clues from the Mini-Q question, think of logical categories for organizing the documents and label the buckets. We suggest a three-bucket format.

Document A


Murderous Millinery

Necessary Narcissism


Sources : Young Egrets, unable to fly, and starving. The parent birds had been killed by Plume Hunters. Photograph: Hornaday 1913 http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/

Document Analysis:

What do you see in this picture?

What do you think has happened?

How will the baby Egrets survive?

How does this help answer the question?


http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/


Document B

http://fashioningfeathersdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/a-bird-of-prey-punch-18922.jpg

Document Analysis:

What type of document is represented?

Who is being represented in the document?

What is the purpose of this document?

Is there bias in this document?


http://fashioningfeathersdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/a-bird-of-prey-punch-18922.jpg


Document C

http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/

Document Analysis:

What was the price of gold in 1903?

Why do you think the plume and millinery industry exploded in the early 20th century?


Plume trading had become a very lucrative business. In 1903, the price for plumes offered to hunters was $32 per ounce, which made the plumes worth about twice their weight in gold. As a result at the turn of the century many millions of birds were being exterminated by plume hunters each year.

http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http:/fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/



Document D

MURDEROUS MILLINERY – THE NORTH AMERICAN STORYDuring two walks along the streets of Manhattan in 1886, the American Museum of Natural History’s ornithologist, Frank Chapman, spotted 40 native species of birds including sparrows, warblers, and woodpeckers. But the birds were not flitting through the trees – they had been killed, and for the most part, plucked, disassembled, or stuffed, and painstakingly positioned on three-quarters of the 700 women’s hats Chapman saw in New York. The North American feather trade was in its heyday:

Frank Chapman’s 1886 Feathered Hat Census

BIRD SPECIES

# HATS SEEN

BIRD SPECIES

# HATS SEEN

BIRD SPECIES

# HATS SEEN

Grebes 7 Northern Saw-whet Owl 1 Blackburnian

Warbler 1

Green-backed Heron 1 Northern

Flicker 21 Blackpoll Warbler 3

Virginia Rail 1 Red-headed Woodpecker 2 Wilson’s

Warbler 3

Greater Yellowlegs 1 Pileated

Woodpecker 1 Tree Sparrow 2

Sanderling 5 Eastern Kingbird 1 White-throated

Sparrow 1

Laughing Gull 1 Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

1 Snow Bunting 15

Common Tern 21 Tree Swallow 1 Bobolink 1Black Tern 1 Blue Jay 5 Meadowlarks 2

Ruffed Grouse 2 Eastern Bluebird 3 Common

Grackle 5

Greater Prairie Chicken 1 American

Robin 4 Northern Oriole 9

Northern Bobwhite 16 Northern

Shrike 1 Scarlet Tanager 3

California Quail 2 Brown

Thrasher 1 Pine Grosbeak 1

Mourning Dove 1 Bohemian

Waxwing 1

Mourning Dove 1 Cedar

Waxwing 23

http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/

(Modified from Strom, 1986.)

Document Analysis:

Where did Frank Chapman see all of these species of birds?

What parts of the birds were seen on the hats?

Do you trust the information provided by Frank Chapman? Why or why not?





Document E

However, while Lady So-and-So is a creation of a patriarchal system of male production and wealth and a patriarchal aristocracy, she is also a reflection/product of patriarchal society as produced and consumed by women. Lady So-and-So’s existence as a consumer, and a flawlessly finished consumer icon at that, was at least partly the work of women producers of luxury goods or services. For example the ‘lemon coloured egret’ was almost certainly dyed by female hands; in 1889, in London and Paris over 8000 women were employed in the millinery trade and the majority of the 83,000 people employed in New York City in 1900 in the making and decorating of hats were women.

Excerpt from “The Plumage Bill” by Virginia Wolf, First published in the Woman’s Leader, 23 July 1920.

Document Analysis

Who was responsible for the making of the feathered hats? Why was this an important point for Virginia Wolf?

Who is “Lady SO-and-SO?

What bias can you identify in this excerpt?



Document F

Head and shoulders of model wearing "Chanticleer" hat of bird feathers; 1912http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005691560/

Document Analysis:

What type of women do you think this picture portrays? Explain your answer.

How many birds to think it took to make this hat?


http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005691560/


Document G

Document Analysis:What types of documents are being used in this investigation (Document G)?

Why are these types of documents so important to use in the analysis of the DBQ question?

What happened to the price of feathered hats across the four documents?



The evening world. (New York, N.Y.), 08 March

1920. Chronicling

America: Historic

American Newspaper

s. Lib. of Congress.

<http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1920-03-

08/ed-1/seq-

The Washingto

n times. (Was

hington [D.C.]), 24

Nov. 1918. Chro

nicling America: Historic

American Newspaper


<http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn8402

The evening

world. (New York,

N.Y.), 25 Jan.

1922. Chronicling America: Historic

American Newspaper


<http://chroniclingamerica.loc.go

The evening world. (New York, N.Y.),

31 Oct. 1922. Chron

icling America: Historic

American Newspapers.

Lib. of Congress.

<http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1922-10-31/ed-1/seq-7/









Document H

New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]), 07 May 1905. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1905-05-07/ed-1/seq-47/>

Document Analysis:

What is woman wearing and what is the fault in her thinking?

Considering the date of this political cartoon, in what level of society would this woman most likely place herself?

If this is a true representation of society, what is the next species that will be hunted?


“Yes dear, I’ve given up feather boas and feathers in my hats – it’s so cruel

to the poor birds.”



Document I

http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/

murderous-millinery/

Document Analysis:

Why was the millinery industry so important to working women?

How do you think the demand for feathered hats impacted women in the millinery industry?


It is difficult to summarize Gamber’s portrait of this female economy. A few tidbits may surprise the reader: millinery and dressmaking were “…the fourth most important occupational category for women in 1870; only domestic servants, agricultural laborers, and seamstresses were more numerous.” In 1900, dressmaking still ranked third while millinery was fourteenth (p. 7). Most proprietors of retail establishments were single women (“man milliner” was an epithet) and in Boston, a quarter were over thirty years old. Gamber also finds strong evidence of the working class origins of many of the “Madams” and, she argues, dressmaking and millinery was one of the few paths to independence for the working class daughter. Although this seems a very female world, men controlled access to credit and in the case of customers, husbands often decided when and which bills would be honored. Millinery and dressmaking was a risky business and few women became wealthy but many did manage to maintain a “precarious independence.”




Document J

Document Analysis:

What can you learn about the Guy Bradley as a person from this document?

What is the most important information in this document?

How does it help you answer the question?


The deceased acted as warden in Monroe County, a wild and thinly settled district, for over three years... During all this time he faithfully guarded his wards, the plume birds, traveling thousands of miles in the launch Audubon, in order to watch over them...A number of well-known ornithologists and members of the Association visited Bradley at different times, and always found him alert and faithful in the performance of his duty, and willing to undergo any hardship to protect the birds. He took a personal interest in his work and was genuinely proud when he could report an increase in numbers. ...Personally he was gentle and somewhat retiring, was pure in thought and deed, deeply interested in and a supporter of the small Union Church near his home. A young wife is left to mourn his sudden and terrible death, and his two children, too young to realize their loss, will never know a father's care.

Guy Bradley Photo reprinted in Bird Lore, 1905.

Bradley's obituary, published in Bird Lore in August 1905 ,

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/dl/rtep00130001.jpg


Document K

http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/murderous-millinery/http://fashioningfeathers.com/

murderous-millinery/

Document Analysis:

What does this document imply was a factor in the decline of feathered?



The Plumage Act entered the Statute Book a year later in 1921. A bill “to prohibit the sale, hire, or exchange of the plumage and skins of certain wild birds”, The Plumage Act was celebrated as the factor that brought an end to the “Age of Extermination”. How much this change was due to the effects of the Acts’ hunting and trade regulations or that a growing inclination toward promoting humanitarian ideals reduced the allure of feathered garb is not clear. What is clear is that dwindling feather sales had as much do, if not more, with changes in the everyday lives of women which simply eliminated opportunities to wear oversized, constraining hats.




Document L

Summary: Illustration shows a policewoman observing a crowd of women outside a store advertising a "Sacrifice Sale of Millinery"; she is torn by her obligation to her duties as a police officer and her desire to take advantage of the sale.

The lady cop

Lynd, J. Norman, 1878-, artistDate Created/Published: N.Y. : Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, Puck Building, 1913 April 16.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Document Analysis:

What is the inner conflict this policewoman is fighting?

What level of society is this document portraying? How do you know?


http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=name&q=Lynd%2C%20J.%20Norman%2C%201878-


Essay

Now that you have read The Last Egret by Harvey Oyer and analyzed the documents in this DBQ you will write an argumentative essay that answers the question:

Was the Plume Bloom of the late 19th and early 20th century Murderous Millinery or Necessary Narcissism?

Make sure to support your answer with specific evidence from the documents and clearly state your arguments. Grammar and organization are important as you complete this essay from the third person point of view.
