Photo: Two of Charles Stockbridge’s taxidermy mounts, featuring a Redhead (left) and Pied-billed Grebe (right). Photographed by Terri Gorney Lehman.
BY TERRI GORNEY LEHMAN
Charles Stockbridge was an early driving force in the Allen County Audubon Society. After his death in 1934, the chapter changed its name to Stockbridge Audubon Society in his honor. It remained the Stockbridge Audubon Society until 2024, when the name was changed to Three Rivers Birding.
Charles’s father, Nathaniel Stockbridge, owned one of the first bookstores in Fort Wayne. This is where Charles was born in 1856. As one might expect, he became an avid reader. At a young age, he read a book on birds that sparked his lifelong fascination with feathered creatures.
He was not only a longtime member and volunteer for the local Audubon chapter, but he was also an officer of the Indiana Audubon Society and gave lectures on his knowledge of birds. Many of his talks focused on the need to protect birds. He had a particular interest in the Boy Scouts and encouraged local scouts in their bird and nature studies.
As an adult, Charles tried running his father’s bookstore for a few years but eventually became a mail carrier. Since he enjoyed the outdoors and birdwatching, one would assume that a postal carrier route by horse-drawn wagon was an ideal job.
He also ran a taxidermy business and amassed an impressive collection of bird mounts.
There were a number of articles in Fort Wayne newspapers on Charles and his bird collection. It was through newspaper articles that the history of what is now known as the Stockbridge Collection was uncovered.
In 1905, Charles offered a collection of his bird mounts for display at the library. The school board approved the offer. It appears that local Audubon meetings after 1907 were held in what became known as the museum or natural history room of the Fort Wayne Library. This room held the bird mounts that Charles loaned to the library.
The library housed the Stockbridge Collection from 1907 to 1933. The Fort Wayne News reported, “Each spring the school children of the city, under the direction of their teachers, visit the display of Mr. Stockbridge and get first-hand information.”
From 1933 to 1968 the collection was on loan to the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society Museum, then located in the Swinney Homestead. In 1968, Charles’s daughter, Alathea Stockbridge, donated the collection to the Joseph Moore Museum at Earlham College, where it found a permanent home. Today, the collection is housed in the nature center at Hayes Arboretum, with a few of the mounts still on display at the museum.
The total collection of 235 specimens represents 173 species of birds. Of this number, included in the collection are 113 species of warbler and 15 species of geese and ducks. Among the most interesting and valuable specimens are a now-extinct Passenger Pigeon, a Whooping Crane, and a rare Common Raven found in Ohio. The collection has long served as a teaching resource for nature education. Mounts in the collection have been loaned to the Indiana State Museum and other institutions for exhibits.
James Cope, director of the Joseph Moore Museum in 1968 and educational director of the arboretum, was impressed by the fine quality mounting, proven by the excellent state of preservation of specimens, some of which were a century old.
Cheers to Charles Stockbridge and his lifetime of volunteering and educating people on the value and beauty of birds.
This blog post was written by Hoosier historian and naturalist Terri Gorney Lehman as part of her Flight Paths Through History series, exploring the people, places, and moments that have shaped Indiana birding.
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