You don't need to be a bird nerd to know that the name "Audubon" is synonymous with our feathered friends. Less well known is that John James Audubon was a slave-owning racist. That past should disqualify him from having his name attached to Seattle's birding organization and every other Audubon society.
Audubon, like many historical figures, presents a complex story to modern eyes.
He was a central figure in early American natural sciences. His seminal work, "Birds of America," contains hundreds of paintings showing more than 1,000 birds, supposedly every known species in the United States at the time. Those illustrations are awe-inspiring for their accuracy and for their beauty. Any library or museum lucky enough to own an original Audubon folio displays it under glass and turns one page every week or so.
