Mabel Osgood Wright

Mabel Osgood Wright
Mabel Osgood Wright photographed by her husband James Osborne Wright.
Born	(1859-01-26)January 26, 1859 New York City
Died	July 16, 1934(1934-07-16) (aged 75) Fairfield, Connecticut
Resting place	Oaklawn Cemetery, Fairfield, Connecticut
Pen name	Barbara
Nationality	American
Subject	nature, gardening
Notable works	Birdcraft: A Field Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water Birds

Mabel Osgood Wright (January 26, 1859 – July 16, 1934) was an American author. She was an early leader in the Audubon movement who wrote extensively about nature and birds.

She was born to Samuel and Ellen Haswell (Murdock) Osgood in New York City on January 26, 1859, and was educated at home and in private schools. On September 25, 1884, she was married to James Osborne Wright, an Englishman; after an extended visit to England, the couple moved to Fairfield, Connecticut.

Wright's first printed work (apart from a few verses), was the essay "A New England May Day", which appeared in the New York Evening Post in 1893. This work was collected with other pieces into her first book, The Friendship of Nature, published by Macmillan in 1894. The following year, Wright released Birdcraft: A Field Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water Birds. A prototype of the modern field guide to birds for a popular audience, Birdcraft featured color reproductions from John James Audubon and other artists to illustrate species commonly encountered at home or in a neighboring park. A later edition credits Louis Agassiz Fuertes as a contributing artist. Frank M. Chapman described it as "one of the first and most successful bird manuals." Two years later, Wright's Citizen Bird: Scenes from Bird-life in Plain English for Beginners, a collaboration with Elliott Coues, appeared.

From its inception in 1899, Wright contributed to Chapman's Bird-Lore, co-editing its Audubon department with William Dutcher. She served as a contributing editor until her death. She helped organize the Connecticut Audubon Society, became its first president in 1898, and served for many years. From 1905 to 1928, Wright was a director of the National Association of Audubon Societies (now the National Audubon Society). Wright became an associate member of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1895, and was one of the first three women raised to elective membership in 1901. Joining her were Florence Merriam Bailey and Olive Thorne Miller. Wright pioneered bird protection by establishing Birdcraft Sanctuary in 1914, near her home in Fairfield. The refuge is the oldest private songbird sanctuary in the United States.