A Love Affair with Birds: The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts

The father of Minnesota ornithology, whose life story opens a window on a lost world of nature and conservation in the state’s early days

Imagine a Minneapolis so small that, on calm days, the roar of St. Anthony Falls could be heard in town, a time when passenger pigeons roosted in neighborhood oak trees. Now picture a dapper professor conducting his ornithology class (the university’s first) by streetcar to Lake Harriet for a morning of bird-watching. The students were mostly young women—...