Image: Black-and-white oval photograph of Margaret Hanna, from the 1897 Fort Wayne High School yearbook. Courtesy of Terri Gorney Lehman.
BY TERRI GORNEY LEHMAN
Margaret Hanna was a music teacher by profession. She taught piano from her home in Fort Wayne. She was an active member of the community and belonged to a number of organizations.
What is not well known is that she was active in the birding community the first half of the 20th century. She gave numerous talks on birds, led field trips, and taught adult women’s birding classes. She was also a “lister.” From a note in the Journal-Gazette, we know that in 1916 she had recorded 133 species of birds in the area by June.
She combined her love of music and birds. It was reported in the Fort Wayne newspapers that she could imitate bird calls and songs that she heard.
For the Centennial of Indiana’s statehood in 1916, Margaret was chairman of the Bird Exhibit in the Woman’s Building (the old Fort Wayne High School) for the local Allen County Audubon Society (later known as the Stockbridge Audubon Society). Charles Stockbridge’s collection of bird mounts was placed in the former library. The committee tried to recreate the birds in their natural settings. A Victrola was hidden behind greenery and played the bird preludes of Kellogg and Gorst. Margaret imitated bird sounds with the music.
In Bird-Lore (forerunner to theNational Audubon Society’s magazine), she was noted as organizing classes for bird study not only in Indiana also but in some southern states.
Her bird lectures included speaking engagements at the Indiana University Extension, Fort Wayne Library, Pleasant Lake, and the Irene Byron Sanitarium, among others. She was regarded as an authority on the birds due to her longtime study of her feathered friends. At least one lecture was titled “The Birds of Indiana.”
In 1919, she was asked to speak at the Crawfordsville Audubon and Nature Study Club. Her topic was “Some Phases of Spring Migration.” She illustrated this with lantern slides and bird skins. It was noted that “she has the unusual ability to reproduce bird-calls and songs.”
Margaret died in 1961 at the age of 82. Cheers to a life of music and 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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