Harriet Hemenway (1858–1960) was a Boston socialite who founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
During the Gilded Age, it became fashionable for women to wear plumes in their hats. These plumes came from woodpeckers, bluebirds, owls, herons and warblers, thousands of which were killed each year. In 1896, Hemenway and her cousin Minna Hall contacted the wealthy women of Boston and invited them to join a society for the protection of birds, the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Nearly 1,000 women joined. The group used its political power to have a Massachusetts law passed in 1897 outlawing trade in wild bird feathers.