It recently came to light that John James Audubon, author of The Birds of America, was quite a racist, who owned slaves and was involved in the buying and selling of enslaved people. A number of local chapters of the Audubon Society have changed their name over this, although the National Audubon Society decided to keep the name and put more emphasis on inclusiveness. All of this controversy made me think about a trip to Key West my father Nelson, mother Mary, sister Susan and I took back in 1978 (or was it '79?) from Stuart, Florida, where my parents had retired to from Chicago a few years earlier. One of the photographs I took was of my mother and Susan in front of The Audubon House and Tropical Gardens, which is located there. Since I have never been interested in birds, I never gave it a second thought, but after looking at that photo, I wondered what Audubon's connection to Key West was. It turns out Audubon visited Key West in 1832, and used images from those gardens in his drawings of local birds. The house wasn't built until 1846, long after his visit. Which seems a bit deceptive to my mind. And should the name of the National Audubon Society, as well as The Audubon House, be changed? For me, when you hear Audubon, you think of birds, not a person, which is one of the reasons the national society decided to keep the name. As for The Audubon House, the connection to Audubon is very tenuous, but I assume they will keep the name in fear of losing tourists if they don't. My opinion is that they should do what was done with the Robert E. Lee House in Virginia - keep the name the same but have a section devoted to Audubon's controversial and racist past.
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