A Nature Magazine for Chattanooga

Ray Zimmerman’s photo of the historic cabin at Audubon Acres. Interior photos appear on the website, rayzimmermanauthor.com.

Chattanoogans now enjoy a lovely outdoor magazine, Get Out! published by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, but this is not our community’s first foray into outdoor publications. Beginning in 1944, the Chattanooga Audubon Society produced Flower and Feather. I have heard this publication referred to as the early newsletter of the Chattanooga Audubon Society, but after the first volume, it became a magazine. 

The directors produced one issue in 1944. Volume 1 Number 1 is a typewritten document, mimeographed from an original. It is four pages, printed on one side. A bird guide to Audubon Acres was attached to the newsletter.

The newsletter included reports on the acquisition of the property and its suitability as a nature sanctuary. The directors announced a plan to build a suspension bridge and a wading bird habitat. Plans also included a small library and museum with Dr. W.K. Butts as the curator. The directors formed a committee, chaired by Sarah Key Patton, to restore the historic log cabin.

Robert Sparks Walker inspired the founding of the Chattanooga Audubon Society and personally sponsored a poetry competition with over 3,000 entries to help promote the organization. Some of these poems appeared in later issues of Flower and Feather.

Beginning with volume II, the newsletter became a 48-page nature magazine. Walker was well equipped to spearhead this effort, having published Southern Fruit Grower magazine from 1900 through 1921. Beginning in 1945, the directors produced one yearly volume, with four issues per volume: January, April, July, and October

The January 1945 issue began with reports by four members who remembered seeing the extinct Passenger Pigeon. Walker later included some of this information in As the Indians Left It. A poem by Robert Sparks Walker concluded the issue. 

Dr. W.K. Butts wrote the lead article for the April issue. The masthead lists Walker as the editor starting in July 1945. From that time forward, Walker provided a lead story and a concluding poem for each issue.

Each quarterly issue of Flower and Feather had a monochrome photograph on the cover. Chattanooga Audubon held a photography contest which may have been the source of these images.

Volume XI, January 1955, includes an article on Maclellan Island. The acquisition of this property was a significant growth opportunity for the Chattanooga Audubon Society.

The October 1960 issue was prepared just before Walker's death on September 26, 1960. It included an announcement of the revised edition of State Flowers and Birds, forthcoming in October, and Walker's article, "An All-American Thanksgiving Dinner." The report of Walker's death appears in the January 1961 issue.

Walker had written several editions of the lead article, which carried the publication through 1971. His son Wendell Walker served as editor. The organization produced two issues in 1972 and ceased production. In 1980, the Board of Directors resumed publication. The second series continued through 1983. 

A complete bound collection of Flower and Feather resides at the Local History Department of the Chattanooga Public Library. The Chattanooga Audubon Society has some bound volumes and some issues  collected in ring binders in sheet protectors. The Special Collections of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Library has a set, according to the search engine worldcat.org. 

In our contemporary society with full color magazines and websites that incorporate technology ranging from audio and video recordings to animation and personalized responses to the reader, Flower and Feather may seem quaint, perhaps even rustic. During the years of its publication, it was an appropriate publication valued by subscribers.