The Plume War

Delve into the history of the fifty-year struggle to save birds from fashion’s exploitation and discover how this fight sparked animal rights activism world-wide.

In the late 1800s, feathers were the height of fashion in the West. They were expensive so wearing a hat with plumage conveyed a person’s wealth and social status. But by the 1870s, mass production and mail-order catalogs made feathered hats available and affordable to the average woman. Birds were exploited as a large-scale commodity, to the point where many species became endangered or went extinct. The fashion industry spread false news, which temporarily obscured the public’s understanding of the gravity many bird species were facing.

Fortunately, there were heroes—activists such as Frank Chapman, Harriet Hemenway, Guy Bradley, Etta Lemon, and Ned McIlhenney, whose efforts lead to the development of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the National Audubon Society, among other animal rights organizations. 

The Plume War should be read as a cautionary tale about how fashion trends can have deadly consequences. This horrific tragedy helped bring global awareness to the animal rights movement and establish protections for animals.