It is a part of the Todd Wildlife Sanctuary, which includes an additional 30 acres (12 ha) on the mainland across from the island, as well as the current home to the Audubon Camp in Maine operated by the Seabird Restoration Program (Project Puffin) of the National Audubon Society.
In the late nineteenth century, it was a summer home to The Point Breeze Inn and Bungalows, a recreational settlement.
By 1910, Hog Island became a project of Mabel Loomis Todd, original editor of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
Together with her husband, David Peck Todd (head astronomer at Amherst College), they built a rustic summer camp there that was occupied by family members and their friends into the 1960s.
The only Todd child, daughter Millicent Todd Bingham, negotiated with John Baker of the National Audubon Society to have a nature study facility established on the island at the more developed Point Breeze site.