In the early 1800s, when passenger pigeons comprised one quarter of the bird population east of the Mississippi, a flock flying over what’s now Chicago could darken the sky for three days. By 1874, when an Evanstonian named J.G. Allyn killed this specimen and donated it to the Chicago Academy of Sciences (where it was preserved and stuffed), hunters in Wisconsin could bring down 1,200 pigeons before breakfast and cooks could buy birds ready for eating by the barrel. And in 1914, Martha, the very last passenger pigeon, died in the Cincinnati Zoo.
In order to raise awareness of how humans have contributed to the destruction of other species, the museum has declared 2014 the year of the passenger pigeon. “The underlying story here,” says Sullivan, “is how our actions impact other species. We have no right to cause extinctions of other animals. It’s against our own best interests.”
