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John Howard Moore (December 4, 1862 – June 17, 1916) was an American zoologist, philosopher, educator, and social reformer. He wrote on animal ethics, ethical vegetarianism, humane education, socialism, temperance, and evolutionary biology. In The Universal Kinship (1906), Moore set out a secular ethic that applied the Golden Rule to all sentient beings and used Darwinian ideas of evolutionary continuity between humans and other animals.

Born near Rockville, Indiana, Moore spent much of his youth in Linden, Missouri, and later lived in Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa. He studied at Oskaloosa College, Drake University, and the University of Chicago, where he earned an A.B. in zoology in 1896. During his studies he rejected Christianity, adopted vegetarianism, became a socialist, helped found the university’s Vegetarian Eating Club, and won a national oratorical competition on prohibition. He later taught at Crane Technical High School and other schools in Chicago, while publishing books, articles, essays, and pamphlets.

Moore was associated with the Chicago Vegetarian Society and the British Humanitarian League. His publications included Why I Am a Vegetarian (1895), Better-World Philosophy (1899), The Universal Kinship (1906), The New Ethics (1907), Ethics and Education (1912), The Law of Biogenesis (1914), and Savage Survivals (1916). His work was read by members of the humanitarian, socialist, and animal protection movements, including Henry S. Salt, Clarence Darrow, Mark Twain, Jack London, and Eugene V. Debs. After years of illness, chronic pain, and depression, Moore died by suicide in Jackson Park, Chicago, in 1916.

John Howard Moore was born on December 4, 1862, near Rockville, Indiana.^[a] He was the eldest of the six children of William A. Moore and Mary Moore (née Barger).^[2]: 224 He had three brothers and two sisters.^[5] When Moore was six months old, his family moved to Linden, Missouri.^[3] Over the next 30 years, the family moved between Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa.^[6]

Moore was raised in a Christian household. According to Donna L. Davey, his childhood religious teaching presented humans as having dominion over the Earth and other animals. Moore later wrote that, while growing up on a farm, he hunted and accepted the view that animals existed for human purposes.^[2]: 224

Moore studied at High Bank School in Linden until the age of 17, then attended a college in Rock Port, Missouri, for one year.^[3] He studied at Oskaloosa College in Iowa from 1880 to 1884, but did not graduate.^{[2]: 224 [7]: 117} He later attended Drake University. Davey writes that Moore’s study of science introduced him to Darwin’s theory of evolution, leading him to reject Christianity and to argue for an ethic that did not treat animals as valuable only for their use to humans.^[2]: 224 Moore also studied law under C. H. Hawkins in Cawker City, Kansas.^[3]

In 1884, Moore was appointed as an examiner for the Board of Teachers in Mitchell County, Kansas.^[8] In 1886, he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives and finished last out of five candidates.^[6] During this period, he adopted vegetarianism for ethical reasons.^[2]: 224

In 1889, Moore was employed by the National Lecture Bureau. Newspaper coverage called him the “silver tongue of Kansas”, a “youthful Luther“, and a speaker known for his oratory and singing voice.^[9] In the summer of 1890, he studied voice culture in singing and speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.^[10] From 1890 to 1893, Moore lectured in Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa.^[2]: 224 He also lectured for the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.^[11]

In 1890, Moore published his first pamphlet, A Race of Somnambulists. Davey describes it as a criticism of the treatment of animals for food, sport, and fashion. In the pamphlet, Moore attacked Thanksgiving as a day of gluttony and killing, and argued that the sympathy that had been applied to slavery and women’s rights should also be applied to animals.^[2]: 224

During this period, Moore lived on a farm south of Cawker City and worked as a reporter for The Beloit Daily Call, submitting rural correspondence about local events.^[12]

In 1894, Moore entered the University of Chicago with advanced academic standing.^[6] He graduated in April 1896 with an A.B. degree in zoology.^{[7]: 117 [13]}

While studying there, he became a socialist and served as vice president of the university’s Prohibition Club.^[2]: 224 He also co-founded its Vegetarian Eating Club,^[14] serving as president in 1895 and as purveyor^[b] the following year.^[2]: 224

In 1895, he won first honors in the Prohibition Club’s annual oratory contest with his speech “The Scourge of the Republic”. That April, he represented the university at the state prohibition contest in Wheaton, Illinois, where he also won first place.^[2]: 225 He later won first honors at the national contest in Cleveland.^[16] A newspaper profile described Moore as a supporter of women’s suffrage.^[2]: 225

Moore was a member of the Chicago Vegetarian Society and the British Humanitarian League. Bernard Unti writes that he modeled the Chicago society on the League.^[13]

In 1895, Moore addressed the Society with a speech later published as Why I Am a Vegetarian and serialized in the Chicago Vegetarian, the Society’s journal, in 1897. He argued for solidarity among sentient beings and explained his refusal to eat meat with the statement, “I never want happiness that gives another pain”. The address attacked meat consumption as part of a wider pattern in which the interests of some beings were sacrificed for the convenience of others.^[2]: 225

Favorable reviews appeared in The Phrenological Journal of Science and Health in 1899 and 1900. Laurence Gronlund, a Danish-born American lawyer, lecturer, and political activist, wrote a pamphlet in response titled Why I Am Not a Vegetarian: Why He is Wrong.^[17] In reply to Gronlund’s critique, Moore asserted that for a carnivore, “every meal is a murder” and argued that explaining why one is “not a vegetarian” is an attempt to justify predation.^[18]

In 1898, Moore was given a full-page column in the Society’s journal, the Chicago Vegetarian.^[7]: 119

After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1896, Moore accepted the chair of sociology at Wisconsin State University, lecturing on social progress, before continuing to teach at the university.^[19][6]

In 1898, Moore began teaching ethics and zoology at Crane Technical High School, a position he kept for the rest of his life.^[2]: 225 He also taught at other schools in Chicago, including Calumet High School and Hyde Park High School.^[20] In 1908, Moore taught courses on elementary zoology, physiographic ecology, and the evolution of domestic animals at the University of Chicago for three quarters.^[6]

In 1909, Illinois passed a law requiring the teaching of morals in public schools for 30 minutes each week. Davey writes that, unlike many of his colleagues, Moore welcomed the law and began preparing educational materials.^{[2]: 228–229}

In February 1912, a meeting of the Schoolmasters’ Club of Chicago, of which Moore was a member, was disrupted because some members objected to his views. Moore responded: “I am a radical and a socialist, but I do not allow my radicalism nor my socialism to enter into my teachings.”^[8]

Moore opposed the Chicago Board of Education‘s attempt, between 1913 and 1914, to stop teaching sex hygiene. He wrote to the board in support of the subject.^[2]: 229 In January 1914, he spoke on the issue at Hull House in Chicago.^[21] The board later dropped the proposal.^[2]: 229

In 1899, Moore published his first book, Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis. Davey summarizes the book as an argument that sentience is the basis of ethical consideration and that non-human animals should be included within moral concern. The book also discusses eugenics, procreation, childhood moral education, and the relation between self-love and concern for others.^[2]: 225

The book received mixed reviews.^[2]: 225 Lester Frank Ward praised its independent thought, and David Starr Jordan praised its style and conclusions.^[22]

In 1900, Moore published Fermented Beverages: Their Effects on Mankind. The book examined the physiological, psychological, and social effects of alcohol, discussed both harms and possible benefits, and questioned some strict prohibitionist arguments.^[23]

Moore published The Universal Kinship in 1906.^[2]: 226 In the book, he discussed Darwinism and the physical, mental, and ethical relationship between humans and other animals.^[24]: 386 Moore drew on evolutionary writers including Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel, Romanes, and Lubbock.^[25]

Moore argued that Darwinian evolution undermined strict human-animal separation and required humans to extend the Golden Rule to all sentient beings.^{[2]: 223–224}

The book received several favorable reviews.^[2]: 226 It was endorsed by Mark Twain, Jack London,^[24]: 387 Eugene V. Debs, Mona Caird, Richard F. Outcault, and Ella Wheeler Willcox.^[26] It also received favorable mentions in British publications, including The Humanitarian, Reynold’s Newspaper, and the Manchester News.^[26]

In 1907, Moore published The New Ethics. Davey describes the book as an extension of his argument that Darwinian evolution required a wider ethics and a rejection of anthropocentrism.^[2]: 227

In 1912, Moore published Ethics and Education, a book for teachers responding to the new Illinois requirement to teach morals in public schools. It discussed physical, vocational, intellectual, and ethical aspects of education and argued that moral instruction should include concern for all sentient beings.^[2]: 228

Before publication, Moore drew controversy after circulating extracts that criticized the courts and marriage. In an interview, he defended the book and invited the Board of Education to investigate him.^[2]: 228

In the same year, he published High-School Ethics: Book One, intended as the first part of a four-year high school ethics course. It covered school conduct, care for pets, women’s rights, birds, animal products such as sealskin and ivory, and habits.^{[2]: 228–229}

Moore also published The Ethics of School Life, a pamphlet based on a lesson he gave to students at Crane Technical High School.^[2]: 223

In 1914, Moore published The Law of Biogenesis: Being Two Lessons on the Origin of Human Nature, a collection of 32 discourses first developed as lectures for Crane Technical High School. The book includes an introduction by Mary Marcy, a radical socialist writer and editor of the International Socialist Review.^[2]: 229 Moore used the term “biogenesis” for physical and mental recapitulation, defining it as the process by which beings repeat the evolutionary development of their ancestors.^[27]

A reviewer for Life, in 1915, described the book as authoritative and straightforward.^[2]: 229

Moore published Savage Survivals in 1916. The book compiled 63 lectures delivered at Crane Technical High School and was divided into five sections on domesticated animals, human ancestry, and the survival of traits that Moore regarded as primitive within modern society. It contained 27 illustrations by Roy Olson and L. F. Simmons.^[2]: 229

F. Stuart Chapin‘s 1917 review in the American Journal of Sociology praised the book as a presentation of organic and social evolution for children and as a treatise on prehistoric human evolution, but stated that some of its anthropology was outdated.^{[2]: 229–230}

Moore wrote articles and pamphlets for humane organizations and journals, including the Humanitarian League, Millennium Guild, Massachusetts SPCA, American Anti-Vivisection Society, American Humane Association, and the Order of the Golden Age.^{[13][24]: 385 [28]} His subjects included vegetarianism, animal rights, human-animal relations, temperance, and humane education.^{[2]: 223 [24]: 280}

Moore criticized American imperialism and the Philippine–American War in his 1899 article “America’s Apostasy”.^[2]: 321 He argued that the United States had abandoned its principles of liberty and justice and compared American soldiers in the Philippines to British redcoats during the American Revolution.^[29]

In 1908, he criticized Theodore Roosevelt and his hunting expedition to Africa in an article.^[2]: 228 In another article, published in 1910, he described Roosevelt as a forceful personality with an intense interest in killing animals.^[24]: 535

In June 1916, Moore published “The Source of Religion” in the International Socialist Review. The article argued that religion was a human creation that arose early in mental development and persisted through tradition after science had given natural explanations for the world.^[30] The article provoked discussion.^[8]

An obituary in the Los Angeles Times stated that Moore had completed a book titled The Life of Napoleon, but it was not published.^[31]

Moore gave public speeches throughout his career as a teacher and lecturer. His speeches were often printed and distributed as pamphlets or handed out for free. Davey writes that he spoke on vegetarianism, fur, socialist candidates, animal rights, ethics, women’s suffrage, hunting, war, and alcohol.^{[2]: 223–224}

In November 1906, Moore’s speech “The Cost of a Skin” caused controversy at the American Humane Association‘s convention. In the speech, Moore denounced the use of fur and feathers in fashion as “conscienceless and inhumane”. Audience reaction was mixed; some applauded, others remained silent, and two women left before the speech ended. The speech was later published as a chapter in The New Ethics (1907), as a pamphlet by the Animals’ Friend Society of London,^{[2]: 226–227} and in The Herald of the Golden Age.^[32]

On October 25, 1908, Moore addressed the Young People’s Socialist League in support of Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for U.S. president. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that Moore argued that Debs would imprison wealthy people rather than the usual prisoners, and that young people and university students were receptive to socialist teaching.^[2]: 227

The Millennium Guild, founded in 1912 by Emarel Freshel, was the first animal rights society established in the United States.^[33] In 1913, Moore was listed as a member of the Boston branch.^[34]

In 1913, Moore spoke at the International Anti-vivisection and Animal Protection Congress in Washington, D.C. He argued that vivisection and meat consumption arose from anthropocentrism and that Darwin’s On the Origin of Species had weakened claims of human superiority or uniqueness.^[2]: 229

In the early morning of June 17, 1916, at the age of 53, Moore died after shooting himself in the head with a revolver on Wooded Island in Jackson Park, Chicago.^[8] He had often visited the island to observe and study birds.^[20]

Moore had experienced illness and chronic pain for several years after an abdominal operation for gallstones in 1911.^[8][20] He had also expressed despondency about human indifference to animal suffering.^{[24]: 387 [35]} In a note found on his body by a police officer,^[8] he wrote to his wife:^[2]: 230

The long struggle is ended. I must pass away. Good-by. Oh, men are so cold and hard and half conscious toward their suffering fellows. Nobody understands. O my mother, and O my little girl! What will become of you? And the poor four-footed! May the long years be merciful! Take me to my river. There, where the wild birds sing and the waters go on and on, alone in my groves, forever.^[c] O, Tess,^[d] forgive me. O, forgive me, please!

Moore’s death was ruled a suicide caused by a “temporary fit of insanity”.^[2]: 230 His wife requested that his body be cremated and that his ashes be sent to Mobile County, Alabama, for burial on land he owned.^[31] His brother-in-law, Clarence Darrow, was affected by his death.^[36]

A funeral service was held at Oakwood Chapel in Chicago on June 19.^[3] Darrow delivered a eulogy, calling Moore a “dead dreamer” who had died while “suffering under a temporary fit of sanity”.^[37] The eulogy was later published in The Athena.^[38] Moore’s body was returned to his former home near Cawker City, where a funeral service was held at Plainview Church. He was buried alongside his father in Excelsior Cemetery, Mitchell County, Kansas.^[3]

Moore married Louise Jesse “Jennie” Darrow on February 21, 1899, in Racine, Wisconsin.^[3] She was the sister of attorney Clarence Darrow and worked as a schoolteacher.^[e] She also supported animal rights and vegetarianism.^[40] Both Moore and his wife admired the character Tess from Thomas Hardy‘s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and Moore used “Tess” as a pet name for his wife.^[8] He was also an enthusiast of the works of Alexandre Dumas, which he first encountered at the Cawker City library.^[8]

Moore first came to the attention of Henry S. Salt, co-founder of the Humanitarian League and author of Animals’ Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress, when he published Better-World Philosophy in 1899. Salt reviewed the book and began a correspondence with Moore that became a close friendship.^[2]: 225

In a letter to Salt, Moore described writing as a demanding process and said that he was often immobilized by feelings of horror. He wrote that he disliked writing and believed he could be relatively content without the pressure to produce literary work.^[2]: 227

On March 25, 1911, Moore wrote to Salt about depression and a breakdown caused by overwork. He said that although his books might not accomplish much, he had put a great deal of effort into them.^[2]: 228

In his 1921 memoir, Salt wrote that Moore had reasons for suicide and criticized the cautious coverage of his death in many English animal advocacy journals.^[41] Salt dedicated his 1923 book The Story of My Cousins to Moore and, in his 1930 autobiography Company I Have Kept, wrote about their friendship despite the fact that they never met in person.^[42]

Salt later described Moore’s The Universal Kinship as the “best ever written in the humanitarian cause.”^[42] A selection of Moore’s letters to Salt was included in the appendix of the 1992 edition, edited by Charles R. Magel.^[42]

Moore was a close friend of May Walden Kerr, the wife of Charles H. Kerr, who published many of Moore’s books. After the Kerrs divorced in 1904, Moore and Walden continued corresponding, and Moore and his wife sometimes vacationed with Walden and her daughter.^[2]: 226

In 1885, Moore was struck by lightning, receiving burns to his arm and chest and temporarily losing his sight and speech. He recovered after six days of bed rest.^[8] For the rest of his life, Moore suffered from severe headaches that were attributed to the injury.^[3] In 1908, he published an account of the incident in the Cawker City Public Record.^[43]

Moore advocated wilderness preservation. In 1914, he purchased 116.5 acres (47.1 ha) of land in Alabama, near Mobile Bay. In a letter written on his birthday that year, he described the land as containing many kinds of trees. Moore wanted the property to serve as a wildlife sanctuary and a place for public enjoyment, and stated in his will that the land should be preserved as it was. He described it as remote, inhabited by many animals, and containing about a mile of water from a river and brook.^[2]: 229

Moore’s doctrine of Universal Kinship was a secular Darwinian philosophy based on the evolutionary relationship of sentient beings.^[24]: 365 He argued that human ethical development had not kept pace with physical, material, and technological development, especially in the treatment of animals.^{[2]: 223–224}

Moore regarded moral anthropocentrism as an expression of human arrogance. David Lamb writes that Moore used Darwin’s theory to oppose the idea that humans occupy a special place in nature, quoting Moore’s statement that “Man is not the end; he is but an incident, of the infinite elaboration of Time and Space”.^[45]

Moore argued that “moral provincialism” prevented humans from extending moral consideration to animals. Kerry S. Walters and Lisa Portmess write that Moore compared prejudice against animals with prejudice based on race and gender, and argued that animals, as sentient and conscious beings, had claims to fair treatment and to reduced suffering. Moore maintained that animals should be treated as ends-in-themselves, not merely as means for food or clothing.^[46] Davey connects Moore’s despair over this issue with his suicide.^{[2]: 223–224}

Moore applied the Golden Rule to all sentient beings. He argued that human moral development required people to treat animals with kindness and not as commodities.^{[2]: 223–224}

Moore used the term zoöcentricism for an ethical view centered on sentient beings.^[47]: 144 He argued that every sentient being has a moral relation to other sentient beings, and that actions may be judged right or wrong according to their effects on happiness, welfare, misery, ill-being, or maladaptation. He held that this framework did not apply to the non-sentient universe, which lacked the capacity for moral relations.^{[47]: 79–80} On this basis, he contended that without sentience there would be no ethics.^[48]

Moore argued that vegetarianism followed from ethical concern for sentient beings. In Why I Am a Vegetarian, he connected vegetarianism with compassion, animal suffering, and Darwinian claims about the kinship of humans and other animals. He argued that Darwin’s work widened the scope of ethics by weakening the assumption that humans were separate from other animals.^[49]

Moore presented socialism as a product of human evolution toward cooperation. In Better-World Philosophy, he compared human society with early unicellular organisms forming colonies and argued that society was moving from individualism toward a more organized social organism. He described socialism as a way to reduce hereditary disadvantages and to make the strong support the weak.^{[47]: 228–230}

When reporting Moore’s suicide, the Chicago Tribune called him a misanthrope. Relatives and friends, including his brothers-in-law Clarence and Everett Darrow, described him as kind, committed to universal justice, and devoted to education.^[24]: 387 An obituary in the Humanitarian League’s journal The Humanitarian called Moore “one of the most devoted and distinguished humanitarians with whom the League has had the honor of being connected.”^[50]

Felix Ortt wrote about Moore’s death in the Dutch animal protection magazine Androcles, describing Moore’s work for humanitarian and vegetarian causes, Ortt’s translation of Moore’s writings, and their correspondence.^[51] Louis S. Vineburg, who heard Moore speak at a Young People’s Socialist League lecture in early 1910, later published a personal recollection in the International Socialist Review.^[2]: 230

Jack London had endorsed The Universal Kinship and marked a passage in his personal copy: “All beings are ends; no creatures are means. All beings have not equal rights, neither have all men; but all have rights“.^[52] After Moore’s death, London wrote at the head of a printed copy of Darrow’s eulogy: “Disappointment like what made Wayland (Appeal to Reason) kill himself and many like me resign.”^[53]

Chien-hui Li writes that Moore’s views were more readily received in Britain than in the United States because of support from the Humanitarian League, George Bell & Sons, and The Animals’ Friend.^[54] Jarvis argues that the American humanitarian movement did not become established in the same way, and that, after Ernest Crosby‘s death in 1907, Moore represented much of what remained of it in the United States. Jarvis also writes that World War I ended the wider humanitarian movement.^{[7]: 341–342}

Unti writes that Moore’s Darwinian arguments were respected by contemporaries but did not become central to animal protection after his death, and that no major figure or organization continued his specific approach.^{[24]: 387–388}

In 1915, the International Socialist Review began excerpting Moore’s works and continued to do so for three years. After his death, radical publications, including those of the Industrial Workers of the World, also printed excerpts, especially from Savage Survivals.^{[2]: 229–230}

Several of Moore’s works were translated into other languages. Savage Survivals and The Law of Biogenesis were translated into Croatian; Savage Survivals was translated into Chinese;^{[2]: 229–230} three books were translated into Dutch by Felix Ortt;^[55] The Law of Biogenesis was translated into Slovak;^[56] and four books were translated into Japanese by anarchist and socialist translators, including Ōsugi Sakae, Sakai Toshihiko, Hitoshi Yamakawa, and Yamakawa Kikue.^[57]

Moore received little scholarly attention until The Universal Kinship was republished in 1992 by Charles R. Magel.^[2]: 230 Since then, writers on vegetarianism and animal ethics have described him as an early advocate of ethical vegetarianism.^[58][46] Historian Rod Preece argues that Moore’s ethical vegetarian advocacy was ahead of its time, while also stating that there is no evidence that it directly affected the American intelligentsia.^[59] Preece also identifies Moore, Thomas Hardy, and Henry S. Salt as pre-World War I writers who connected Darwinian evolution with animal ethics.^[60]

Moore’s ethical approach has been compared to Albert Schweitzer and Peter Singer; Walters and Portmess write that Moore anticipated Singer’s analysis of speciesism.^[46] Davey argues that themes in Moore’s writing later became part of the modern animal rights movement.^[2]: 230 James J. Kopp describes Moore as a figure in early twentieth-century advocacy for the ethical treatment of animals.^[61] Bernard Unti states that The Universal Kinship may make Moore the first American animal rights thinker.^[62] Animal rights activist Henry Spira cited Moore as an example of a leftist who was willing to advocate animal rights.^[63]

Simon Brooman and Debbie Legge write that Moore anticipated later criticism of human-centered domination of animals and a philosophy based on the “unity and consanguinity” of living organisms.^[64] Environmental historian Roderick Nash argues that Moore and Edward Payson Evans deserve more attention as early philosophers in the United States who moved beyond anthropocentrism.^[65]: 122

Selections of Moore’s works were included in Jon Wynne-Tyson‘s 1985 book, The Extended Circle: A Dictionary of Humane Thought.^[66] Mark Gold cites Moore and Henry S. Salt as the two main inspirations for his 1995 book, Animal Rights: Extending the Circle of Compassion.^[67]

Moore’s last published book, Savage Survivals, has been criticized as an example of scientific racism by the prehistoric archaeologist Robin Dennell.^[68] Mark Pittenger argues that Moore’s racism was influenced by Herbert Spencer‘s The Principles of Sociology and that similar views were held by contemporary American socialists.^[69] Gary K. Jarvis describes Moore as a critic of social Darwinism, writing: “Moore argued that social Darwinists derived their beliefs from the worst examples that evolution offered, not the best.”^[7]: 208

Bernard Unti argues that the Chicago Tribune’s description of Moore as a misanthrope shaped later accounts that placed him within American environmental ethics. Unti states that such interpretations often rely on limited readings that overlook Moore’s criticism of human selfishness, his political commitments, and his wider body of work. According to Unti, Moore’s views were not based on hatred of humanity, but on opposition to domination among humans and over animals. Unti points to Moore’s socialism, his writing on social justice, and the role of Charles H. Kerr, a socialist publisher and ethical vegetarian, in publishing much of Moore’s work.^[24]: 387 Jarvis similarly argues that Moore’s criticism of anthropocentrism and Western civilization was misread as misanthropy.^[7]: 121

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• The Ethics of School Life: A Lesson Given at the Crane Technical High School, Chicago, in Accordance with the Law Requiring the Teaching of Morals in the Public Schools of Illinois. London: G. Bell & Sons. 1912. OCLC 20736690.
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• Savage Survivals. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co. 1916. OCLC 7391868045.

• List of animal rights advocates
• History of animal rights
• History of vegetarianism
• Progressive Era
• Edward Payson Evans – American scholar (1831–1917)
• Beatrice Lindsay – English zoologist (1858–1917)

• Moore, J. Howard (September 15, 1895). “The Vegetarian Eating Club, of Chicago University”. The Vegetarian. 1 (3): 42–44.
• Darrow, Clarence (1916). “Eulogy for John Howard Moore” (PDF).
• Vineburg, Louis S. (August 1916). “Some Personal Reminiscences of Professor J. Howard Moore”. The International Socialist Review. 17 (2): 104–105.
• McCabe, Joseph (1920). “Moore, John Howard”. A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists. London: Watts & Co. p. 528.
• Mighetto, L. (March 1, 1988). “Wildlife Protection and the New Humanitarianism”. Environmental History Review. 12 (1): 37–49. doi:10.2307/3984376. ISSN 1053-4180. JSTOR 3984376. S2CID 156015023.
• Novak, Greg (2004). Toward a Comprehensive Environmental Ethic (PhD thesis). Northern Illinois University.
• Davey, Donna L. (2009). “J. Howard Moore”. In Furey, Hester Lee (ed.). Dictionary of Literary Biography. American Radical and Reform Writers: Second Series. Vol. 345. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale. pp. 223–230. ISBN 978-0-7876-8163-0. OCLC 241304990.
• Jarvis, Gary K. (May 2009). The Road Not Taken: Humanitarian Reform and the Origins of Animal Rights in Britain and the United States, 1883-1919 (PhD thesis). The University of Iowa. OCLC 760887727. Archived from the original on August 22, 2021.
• “Animal Rights: A History J. Howard Moore”. Think Differently About Sheep.
• Keenan, Claudia (2020). “The Anguish of J. Howard Moore”. Waking Dreamers, Unexpected American Lives: 1880-1980. Bowker Identifier Services. pp. 126–128. ISBN 978-0-578-68416-1.

• Works by J. Howard Moore at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about J. Howard Moore at the Internet Archive
• Works by J. Howard Moore at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Works by or about J. Howard Moore at HathiTrust
• J. Howard Moore at The Animal Rights Library
• J. Howard Moore at the Henry S. Salt Society
• Letters to and from J. Howard Moore at the Clarence Darrow Digital Collection
• Photograph of J. Howard Moore and Jennie Darrow Moore at the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
• Archives of the Chicago Vegetarian at Southern Adventist University