Through his publishing and Sierra Club connections, Muir’s trips to New York were filled with social obligations. He met and spent a lot of time with Henry Fairfield Osborn (from the American Museum of Natural History and professor of zoology) and his family. Years after Muir death in 1914, Osborn became an active supporter of the pseudo-science of eugenics – a heavily racially biased method of “improving” humankind that had some followers in early 20th Century American Conservation Movement.

“Charming views of Hudson bends from Osborn heights. Enjoy clean light bed, charmingly pure and fluffy, dainty embroidery on bureau cover, coffee in bed. Nov 3rd. [1897] Prof [Osborn] gone to city. Walked with Mrs. O selecting trees for transplanting...”

From Muir's Journal July-November 1897, Botany Trip with Sargent and Canby