Adelaide Pollock: Bird Woman of Seattle and AAUW Seattle Former President
September 16, 2024
Recently Adelaide Lowry Pollock, President of the Seattle Branch from 1915 to 1917, was featured in a Mossback episode on Channel 9 called The Bird Woman of Seattle. Hope you can watch it!
Here’s a brief biography of her that we have featured on our website under About. Check out our Past Presidents page, as many of these women were quite extraordinary.
Miss Adelaide Lowry Pollock was a pioneer Seattle school teacher, prominently identified with Seattle club affairs, and widely known for her books, articles, and lectures on bird life. She was born in 1861 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and crossed the plains to Oregon in a covered wagon in 1864. She came to Washington in 1889. In 1901, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Leland Stanford Jr. University.
When she returned to Seattle, she taught in a little school at 23rd Avenue and East Madison Street but was transferred to the Central School the following year. She was president of AAUW Seattle from 1915 to 1917.
During World War I, Miss Pollock was sent overseas and worked in the educational department of the US Army in France, where she visited numerous American camps.
Upon her return to Seattle, she lent her best efforts to educational and club centers in the city. She was a member of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), one of the founders of the Women’s University Club, and vice chairman of the committee for the Conservation of Birds. She served six years on the zoning committee of the City Planning Commission until relieved of that work by the City Council in September 1930.
Miss Pollock was well known for the book, Wings Over Land and Sea, which she wrote in 1930. Other articles and lectures on bird life have gained wide recognition. She was a member of the Seattle Audubon Society.
Miss Pollock was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Lambda Theta, the Daughters of Pioneers, a life member at large of the DAR, the National League of Pen Women, the Queen Anne Fortnightly Club, and the Administrative Women in Education.
She died on May 3, 1938, at the age of 78.