John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American
self-trained artist,
naturalist, and
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species of North America. He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations, which depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book titled ''
The Birds of America
''The Birds of America'' is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and ...
'' (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon is also known for identifying 25 new species. He is the eponym of the
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...
, and his name adorns a large number of towns, neighborhoods, and streets across the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Dozens of scientific names first published by Audubon are still in use by the scientific community.
Early life
Audubon was born in
Les Cayes
Les Cayes ( , ), often referred to as Aux Cayes (; ht, Okay), is a commune and seaport in the Les Cayes Arrondissement, in the Sud department of Haiti, with a population of 71,236. Due to its isolation from the political turmoil of the capita ...
in the French colony of
Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
(now
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
) on his father's
sugarcane plantation. He was the son of Lieutenant Jean Audubon, a French naval officer (and
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
) from the south of
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
,
and his mistress, Jeanne Rabine, a 27-year-old chambermaid from
Les Touches, Brittany (now in the modern region
Pays de la Loire
Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" ().
...
).
[Rhodes, Richard ''John James Audubon: The Making of an American''](_blank)
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004, p. 4, accessed April 26, 2011.[Souder 2005, p. 18] They named him Jean Rabin.
Another 1887 biographer has stated that his mother was a lady from a Louisiana plantation. His mother died when he was a few months old, as she had suffered from tropical disease since arriving on the island. His father already had an unknown number of
mixed-race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
children (among them a daughter named Marie-Madeleine),
[DeLatt, Carolyne E., ''Lucy Audubon: A Biography'' (LSU Press, 2008), p. 21] some by his mixed-race housekeeper, Catherine "Sanitte" Bouffard
(described as a
quadroon
In the colonial societies of the Americas and Australia, a quadroon or quarteron was a person with one quarter African/ Aboriginal and three quarters European ancestry.
Similar classifications were octoroon for one-eighth black (Latin root ''octo ...
, meaning she was three-quarters European in ancestry). Following Jeanne Rabin's death, Audubon renewed his relationship with Sanitte Bouffard and had a daughter by her, named Muguet. Bouffard also took care of the infant boy Jean.
The senior Audubon had commanded ships. During the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, he had been imprisoned by Britain. After his release, he helped the American cause. He had long worked to save money and secure his family's future with real estate. Due to slave unrest in the Caribbean, in 1789 he sold part of his plantation in Saint-Domingue and purchased a 284-acre farm called
Mill Grove
Mill Grove is a historic house and estate on Pawlings Road in Audubon, Pennsylvania. Built in the 1760s, it is notable as the first home in America of painter and naturalist John James Audubon (1785-1851), for whom the community is named. The ...
, 20 miles from
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, to diversify his investments. Increasing tension in Saint-Domingue between the colonists and the African slaves, who greatly outnumbered them, convinced the senior Jean Audubon to return to France, where he became a member of the
Republican Guard
A republican guard, sometimes called a national guard, is a state organization of a country (often a republic, hence the name ''Republican'') which typically serves to protect the head of state and the government, and thus is often synonymous wit ...
. In 1788 he arranged for Jean and in 1791 for Muget to be transported to France.
[Souder 2005, p. 20]
![La Gerbetière à Couëron 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/La_Gerbeti%C3%A8re_%C3%A0_Cou%C3%ABron_2.JPG)
The children were raised in
Couëron
Couëron (; ) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. It is part of the historic French Brittany.
Couëron is one of the 24 communes of the Nantes Métropole.
Geography
Physical geography
Couëron is located 10 mi ...
, near
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
, France, by Audubon and his French wife, Anne Moynet Audubon, whom he had married years before his time in Saint-Domingue. In 1794 they formally adopted both the children to regularize their legal status in France.
They renamed the boy Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon and the girl Rose.
From his earliest days, Audubon had an affinity for birds. "I felt an intimacy with them...bordering on frenzy
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
must accompany my steps through life." His father encouraged his interest in nature:
He would point out the elegant movement of the birds, and the beauty and softness of their plumage. He called my attention to their show of pleasure or sense of danger, their perfect forms and splendid attire. He would speak of their departure and return with the seasons.
In France during the years of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
and its aftermath, the younger Audubon grew up to be a handsome and gregarious man. He played flute and violin, and learned to ride,
fence
A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length.
...
, and dance.
[Rhodes 2004, p. 5] A enjoyed roaming in the woods, often returning with natural curiosities, including birds' eggs and nests, of which he made crude drawings. His father planned to make a seaman of his son. At twelve, Audubon went to military school and became a cabin boy. He quickly found out that he was susceptible to seasickness and not fond of mathematics or navigation. After failing the officer's qualification test, Audubon ended his incipient naval career. He returned to exploring fields again, focusing on birds.
Immigration to the United States
![41 Ruffed Grouse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/41_Ruffed_Grouse.jpg)
In 1803, his father obtained a false passport so that Jean-Jacques could go to the United States to avoid conscription in the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. 18-year-old Jean-Jacques boarded ship, changing his name to the anglicized form John James Audubon. Jean Audubon and Claude Rozier arranged a business partnership for their sons John James Audubon and
Jean Ferdinand Rozier to pursue lead mining in Pennsylvania. The Audubon-Rozier partnership was based on Claude Rozier's buying half of Jean Audubon's share of a plantation in Haiti, and lending money to the partnership as secured by half interest in lead mining at Audubon's Pennsylvania property of Mill Grove.
[Sharpe, Mary Rozier and James, Louis, ''Between the Gabouri, History of the Rozier Family'', 1981][Rhodes, ''John James Audubon'' (2004), p.]
Audubon caught
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...
upon arrival in New York City. The ship's captain placed him in a boarding house run by
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
women. They nursed Audubon to recovery and taught him English. He traveled with the family's Quaker lawyer to the Audubon family farm,
Mill Grove
Mill Grove is a historic house and estate on Pawlings Road in Audubon, Pennsylvania. Built in the 1760s, it is notable as the first home in America of painter and naturalist John James Audubon (1785-1851), for whom the community is named. The ...
. The homestead is located on the
Perkiomen Creek
Perkiomen Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Schuylkill River in Berks, Lehigh and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania.Gertler, Edw ...
a few miles from
Valley Forge
Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the B ...
.
Audubon lived with the tenants in the two-story stone house, in an area that he considered a paradise. "Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment; cares I knew not, and cared naught about them."
Studying his surroundings, Audubon quickly learned the ornithologist's rule, which he wrote down as, "The nature of the place—whether high or low, moist or dry, whether sloping north or south, or bearing tall trees or low shrubs—generally gives hint as to its inhabitants."
![1 Wild Turkey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/1_Wild_Turkey.jpg)
His father hoped that the lead mines on the property could be commercially developed, as lead was an essential component of bullets. This could provide his son with a profitable occupation. At Mill Grove, Audubon met the owner of the nearby
Fatland Ford estate, William Bakewell, and his daughter
Lucy Bakewell.
Audubon set about to study American birds, determined to illustrate his findings in a more realistic manner than most artists did then. He began drawing and painting birds, and recording their behavior. After an accidental fall into a creek, Audubon contracted a severe fever. He was nursed and recovered at Fatland Ford, with Lucy at his side.
Risking conscription in France, Audubon returned in 1805 to see his father and ask permission to marry. He also needed to discuss family business plans. While there, he met the naturalist and physician Charles-Marie D'Orbigny, who improved Audubon's
taxidermy
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proce ...
skills and taught him scientific methods of research. Although his return ship was overtaken by an English
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
, Audubon and his hidden gold coins survived the encounter.
Audubon resumed his bird studies and created his own nature museum, perhaps inspired by the great museum of natural history created by
Charles Willson Peale
Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American Painting, painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolu ...
in Philadelphia. Peale's bird exhibits were considered scientifically advanced. Audubon's room was brimming with birds' eggs, stuffed raccoons and opossums, fish, snakes, and other creatures. He had become proficient at specimen preparation and taxidermy.
Deeming the mining venture too risky, with his father's approval Audubon sold part of the Mill Grove farm, including the house and mine, but retaining some land for investment.
Banding experiment with Eastern Phoebes
In volume 2 of ''Ornithological Biography'' (1834), Audubon told a story from his childhood, 30 years after the events reportedly took place, that has since garnered him the label of "first bird bander in America".
The story has since been exposed as likely apocryphal.
In the spring of 1804, according to the story, Audubon discovered a nest of the "Pewee Flycatcher", now known as
Eastern Phoebe
The eastern phoebe (''Sayornis phoebe'') is a small passerine bird. The genus name ''Sayornis'' is constructed from the specific part of Charles Lucien Bonaparte's name for Say's phoebe, ''Muscicapa saya'', and Ancient Greek ''ornis'', "bird". ...
(''Sayornis phoebe''), in a small grotto on the property of Mill Grove. To determine whether the other phoebes on the property were "descended from the same stock", Audubon (1834:126) said that he tied
silver thread
Goldwork is the art of embroidery using metal threads. It is particularly prized for the way light plays on it. The term "goldwork" is used even when the threads are imitation gold, silver, or copper. The metal wires used to make the threads hav ...
s to the legs of five nestlings:
I took the whole family out, and blew off the exuvia
In biology, exuviae are the remains of an exoskeleton and related structures that are left after ecdysozoans (including insects, crustaceans and arachnids) have moulted. The exuviae of an animal can be important to biologists as they can often b ...
e of the feathers from the nest. I attached light threads to their legs: these they invariably removed, either with their bills, or with the assistance of their parents. I renewed them, however, until I found the little fellows habituated to them; and at last, when they were about to leave the nest, I fixed a light silver thread to the leg of each, loose enough not to hurt the part, but so fastened that no exertions of theirs could remove it.
He also said that he had "ample proof afterwards that the brood of young Pewees, raised in the cave, returned the following spring, and established themselves farther up on the creek, and among the outhouses in the neighbourhood … having caught several of these birds on the nest,
ehad the pleasure of finding that two of them had the little ring on the leg", but multiple independent primary sources (including original, dated drawings of European species) demonstrate that Audubon was in France during the spring of 1805, not in Pennsylvania as he later claimed.
Furthermore, Audubon's claim to have re-sighted 2 out of 5 of the banded phoebes as adults (i.e., a 40% rate of natal
philopatry
Philopatry is the tendency of an organism to stay in or habitually return to a particular area. The causes of philopatry are numerous, but natal philopatry, where animals return to their birthplace to breed, may be the most common. The term derives ...
) has not been replicated by modern studies with much larger sample sizes (e.g., 1.6% rate among 549 nestlings banded; and 1.3% rate among 217 nestlings banded). These facts cast doubt on the truth of Audubon's story.
Marriage and family
![Zenaida macrouraAWP17AA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Zenaida_macrouraAWP17AA.jpg)
In 1808, Audubon moved to Kentucky, which was rapidly being settled. Six months later, he married Lucy Bakewell at her family estate, Fatland Ford, Pennsylvania, and took her the next day to Kentucky. The two shared many common interests, and began to explore the natural world around them. Though their finances were tenuous, the Audubons started a family. They had two sons, Victor Gifford (1809–1860) and
John Woodhouse Audubon
John Woodhouse Audubon (November 30, 1812, Henderson, Kentucky – February 21, 1862, New York City) was the second son of the famed ornithologist and painter, John James Audubon. Like his father, he was primarily a painter of wildlife, but als ...
(1812–1862), and two daughters who died while still young, Lucy at two years (1815–1817) and Rose at nine months (1819–1820). Both sons eventually helped publish their father's works. John W. Audubon became a naturalist, writer, and painter in his own right.
Starting out in business
Audubon and
Jean Ferdinand Rozier moved their merchant business partnership west at various stages, ending ultimately in
Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Ste. Genevieve (french: Sainte-Geneviève ) is a city in Ste. Genevieve Township and is the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,999 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1735 by French Canadian coloni ...
, a former French colonial settlement west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
and south of
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
. Shipping goods ahead, Audubon and Rozier started a
general store in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
on the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
; the city had an increasingly important slave market and was the most important port between
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
and
. Soon he was drawing bird specimens again. He regularly burned his earlier efforts to force continuous improvement. He also took detailed field notes to document his drawings.
Due to rising tensions with the British, President
Jefferson Jefferson may refer to:
Names
* Jefferson (surname)
* Jefferson (given name)
People
* Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States
* Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...
ordered an embargo on British trade in 1808, adversely affecting Audubon's trading business.
[Streshinsky 1993, p. 64] In 1810, Audubon moved his business further west to the less competitive
Henderson, Kentucky
Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and is the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,757 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville Metropolitan Area, locally known as the ...
, area. He and his small family took over an abandoned log cabin. In the fields and forests, Audubon wore typical frontier clothes and moccasins, having "a ball pouch, a buffalo horn filled with gunpowder, a butcher knife, and a tomahawk on his belt".
He frequently turned to hunting and fishing to feed his family, as business was slow. On a prospecting trip down the Ohio River with a load of goods, Audubon joined up with
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
and
Osage hunting parties, learning their methods, drawing specimens by the bonfire, and finally parting "like brethren". Audubon had great respect for
Native Americans: "Whenever I meet Indians, I feel the greatness of our Creator in all its splendor, for there I see the man naked from His hand and yet free from acquired sorrow." Audubon also admired the skill of Kentucky riflemen and the "regulators", citizen lawmen who created a kind of justice on the Kentucky frontier. In his travel notes, he claims to have encountered
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...
.
Nine enslaved people worked for the Audubon family while he was in Henderson, until he needed money, then he sold them. Audubon was condemned for owning slaves and his overall support for enslavement by abolitionists who were working to free the enslaved. In return, he dismissed abolitionists in both the USA and the United Kingdom.
Audubon and Rozier mutually agreed to end their partnership at Ste. Genevieve on April 6, 1811. Audubon had decided to work at ornithology and art, and wanted to return to Lucy and their son in Kentucky. Rozier agreed to pay Audubon
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
3,000 (), with $1,000 in cash and the balance to be paid over time.
The terms of the dissolution of the partnership include those by Audubon:
Audubon was working in Missouri and out riding when the
1811 New Madrid earthquake struck. When Audubon reached his house, he was relieved to find no major damage, but the area was shaken by
aftershocks
In seismology, an aftershock is a smaller earthquake that follows a larger earthquake, in the same area of the main shock, caused as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. Large earthquakes can have hundreds to thousand ...
for months. The quake is estimated to have ranked from 8.4 to 8.8 on today's
moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...
of severity, stronger than the
San Francisco earthquake of 1906
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
which is estimated at 7.8. Audubon writes that while on horseback, he first believed the distant rumbling to be the sound of a
tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
,
but the animal knew better than I what was forthcoming, and instead of going faster, so nearly stopped that I remarked he placed one foot after another on the ground with as much precaution as if walking on a smooth piece of ice. I thought he had suddenly foundered, and, speaking to him, was on point of dismounting and leading him, when he all of a sudden fell a-groaning piteously, hung his head, spread out his forelegs, as if to save himself from falling, and stood stock still, continuing to groan. I thought my horse was about to die, and would have sprung from his back had a minute more elapsed; but as that instant all the shrubs and trees began to move from their very roots, the ground rose and fell in successive furrows, like the ruffled water of a lake, and I became bewildered in my ideas, as I too plainly discovered, that all this awful commotion was the result of an earthquake. I had never witnessed anything of the kind before, although like every person, I knew earthquakes by description. But what is description compared to reality! Who can tell the sensations which I experienced when I found myself rocking, as it were, upon my horse, and with him moving to and fro like a child in a cradle, with the most imminent danger around me.
He noted that as the earthquake retreated, "the air was filled with an extremely disagreeable sulphurous odor."
Citizenship and debt
![Cinnamon bear by J T Bowen after John James Audubon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Cinnamon_bear_by_J_T_Bowen_after_John_James_Audubon.jpg)
During a visit to Philadelphia in 1812 following Congress' declaration of war against Great Britain, Audubon became an American citizen and had to give up his French citizenship. After his return to Kentucky, he found that rats had eaten his entire collection of more than 200 drawings. After weeks of
depression, he took to the field again, determined to re-do his drawings to an even higher standard.
The
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
upset Audubon's plans to move his business to
. He formed a partnership with Lucy's brother and built up their trade in Henderson. Between 1812 and the
Panic of 1819
The Panic of 1819 was the first widespread and durable financial crisis in the United States that slowed westward expansion in the Cotton Belt and was followed by a general collapse of the American economy that persisted through 1821. The Panic h ...
, times were good. Audubon bought land and
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, founded a flour mill, and enjoyed his growing family. After 1819, Audubon went bankrupt and was thrown into jail for debt. The little money he earned was from drawing portraits, particularly
death-bed sketches, greatly esteemed by country folk before photography. He wrote, "
heart was sorely heavy, for scarcely had I enough to keep my dear ones alive; and yet through these dark days I was being led to the development of the talents I loved."
Early ornithological career
![181 Goldon Eagle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/181_Goldon_Eagle.jpg)
Audubon worked for a brief time as the first paid employee of the Western History Society, now known as The Museum of Natural History at The
Cincinnati Museum Center
The Cincinnati Museum Center is a museum complex operating out of the Cincinnati Union Terminal in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It houses museums, theater, a library, and a symphonic pipe organ, as well as special traveling ...
. He then traveled south on the Mississippi with his gun, paintbox, and assistant
Joseph Mason, who stayed with him from October 1820 to August 1822 and painted the plant life backgrounds of many of Audubon's bird studies. He was committed to find and paint all the birds of North America for eventual publication. His goal was to surpass the earlier ornithological work of poet-naturalist
Alexander Wilson. Though he could not afford to buy Wilson's work, Audubon used it to guide him when he had access to a copy.
In 1818,
Rafinesque
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...
visited Kentucky and the Ohio River valley to study fishes and was a guest of Audubon. In the middle of the night, Rafinesque noticed a bat in his room and thought it was a new species. He happened to grab Audubon's favourite violin in an effort to knock the bat down, resulting in the destruction of the violin. Audubon reportedly took revenge by showing drawings and describing some fictitious fishes and rodents to Rafinesque; Rafinesque gave scientific names to some of these fishes in his ''Ichthyologia Ohiensis''.
On October 12, 1820, Audubon traveled into
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
,
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
, and
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
in search of ornithological specimens. He traveled with
George Lehman, a professional Swiss landscape artist. The following summer, he moved upriver to the Oakley Plantation in
Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Feliciana Parish, or New Feliciana, French: Paroisse de Félicianne, was a parish of the Territory of Orleans and the state of Louisiana, formed in 1810 from West Florida territory. Given an increase in population, it was divided in 1824 into ...
, where he taught drawing to Eliza Pirrie, the young daughter of the owners. Though low-paying, the job was ideal, as it afforded him much time to roam and paint in the woods. (The plantation has been preserved as the
Audubon State Historic Site
Audubon State Historic Site is a state park property in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, between the towns of St. Francisville and Jackson. It is the location where noted ornithologist and artist John James Audubon spent the summer of 1821.
Vis ...
, and is located at 11788 Highway 965, between
Jackson
Jackson may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name
Places
Australia
* Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region
* Jackson North, Qu ...
and
St. Francisville.)
Audubon called his future work ''
The Birds of America
''The Birds of America'' is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and ...
''. He attempted to paint one page each day. Painting with newly discovered technique, he decided his earlier works were inferior and re-did them. He hired hunters to gather specimens for him. Audubon realized the ambitious project would take him away from his family for months at a time.
Audubon sometimes used his drawing talent to trade for goods or sell small works to raise cash. He made charcoal portraits on demand at $5 each and gave drawing lessons. In 1823, Audubon took lessons in oil painting technique from John Steen, a teacher of American landscape, and history painter
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history paintin ...
. Though he did not use oils much for his bird work, Audubon earned good money painting oil portraits for patrons along the Mississippi. (Audubon's account reveals that he learned oil painting in December 1822 from Jacob Stein, an itinerant portrait artist. After they had enjoyed all the portrait patronage to be expected in
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...
, during January–March 1823, they resolved to travel together as perambulating portrait-artists.)
[Punke, p. 21][Arthur, pp. 256–57] During this period (1822–1823), Audubon also worked as an instructor at
Jefferson College in
Washington, Mississippi
Washington is an unincorporated community in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Located along the lower Mississippi, east of Natchez, it was the second and longest-serving capital of the Mississippi Territory.
History
This area along t ...
.
Lucy became the steady breadwinner for the couple and their two young sons. Trained as a teacher, she conducted classes for children in their home. Later she was hired as a local teacher in Louisiana. She boarded with their children at the home of a wealthy plantation owner, as was often the custom of the time.
[Arthur, pp. 258–59]
In 1824, Audubon returned to Philadelphia to seek a publisher for his bird drawings. He took oil painting lessons from
Thomas Sully
Thomas Sully (June 19, 1783November 5, 1872) was a portrait painter in the United States. Born in Great Britain, he lived most of his life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He painted in the style of Thomas Lawrence. His subjects included nationa ...
and met
Charles Bonaparte, who admired his work and recommended he go to Europe to have his bird drawings engraved. Audubon was nominated for membership at the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natura ...
by
Charles Alexandre Lesueur
Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1 January 1778 in Le Havre – 12 December 1846 in Le Havre) was a French Natural history, naturalist, artist, and explorer. He was a prolific natural-history collector, gathering many type specimens in Australia, ...
,
Reuben Haines, and
Isaiah Lukens
Isaiah Quinby Lukens (24 August 1779 – 12 November 1846) was an American clockmaker, gunsmith, machinist, and inventor from southeastern Pennsylvania. He was a founding member and first vice president of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. ...
, on July 27, 1824.
However, he failed to gather enough support, and his nomination was rejected by vote on August 31, 1824;
around the same time accusations of scientific misconduct were levied by Alexander Lawson and others.
''The Birds of America''
![Campephilus principalisAWP066AA2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Campephilus_principalisAWP066AA2.jpg)
With his wife's support, in 1826 at age 41, Audubon took his growing collection of work to England. He sailed from New Orleans to
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
on the cotton-hauling ship ''Delos'', reaching England in the autumn of 1826 with his portfolio of over 300 drawings. With letters of introduction to prominent Englishmen, and paintings of imaginary species including the "Bird of Washington",
Audubon gained their quick attention. "I have been received here in a manner not to be expected during my highest enthusiastic hopes."
![Brooklyn Museum - American Crow - John J](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Brooklyn_Museum_-_American_Crow_-_John_J._Audubon.jpg)
The British could not get enough of Audubon's images of backwoods America and its natural attractions. He met with great acceptance as he toured around England and Scotland, and was lionized as "the American woodsman". He raised enough money to begin publishing his ''
The Birds of America
''The Birds of America'' is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and ...
''. This monumental work consists of 435 hand-colored, life-size prints of 497 bird species, made from engraved copper plates of various sizes depending on the size of the image. They were printed on sheets measuring about .
[Rhodes 2004, p. 403] The work illustrates slightly more than 700 North American bird species, of which some were based on specimens collected by fellow ornithologist
John Kirk Townsend
John Kirk Townsend (August 10, 1809 – February 6, 1851) was an American naturalist, ornithologist and collector.
Townsend was a Quaker born in Philadelphia, the son of Charles Townsend and Priscilla Kirk. He attended Westtown School in ...
on his journey across America with
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an England, English botany, botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841.
Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle, North Yorkshire, S ...
in 1834 as part of
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth (January 29, 1802 – August 31, 1856) was an American inventor and businessman in Boston, Massachusetts who contributed greatly to its ice industry. Due to his inventions, Boston could harvest and ship ice internati ...
's second expedition across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
The pages were organized for artistic effect and contrasting interest, as if the reader were taking a visual tour. (Some critics thought he should have organized the plates in Linnaean order as befitting a "serious" ornithological treatise.) The first and perhaps most famous plate was the wild turkey. Among the earliest plates printed was the "Bird of Washington", which generated favorable publicity for Audubon as his first discovery of a new species. However, no specimen of the species has ever been found, and research published in 2020 suggests that this plate was a mixture of plagiarism and ornithological fraud.
The cost of printing the entire work was $115,640 (over $2,000,000 today), paid for from advance subscriptions, exhibitions, oil painting commissions, and animal skins, which Audubon hunted and sold.
Audubon's great work was a remarkable accomplishment. It took more than 14 years of field observations and drawings, plus his single-handed management and promotion of the project to make it a success. A reviewer wrote,
All anxieties and fears which overshadowed his work in its beginning had passed away. The prophecies of kind but overprudent friends, who did not understand his self-sustaining energy, had proved untrue; the malicious hope of his enemies, for even the gentle lover of nature has enemies, had been disappointed; he had secured a commanding place in the respect and gratitude of men.
Colorists applied each color in assembly-line fashion (over fifty were hired for the work). The original edition was engraved in
aquatint
Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used h ...
by Robert
Havell, Jr., who took over the task after the first ten plates engraved by
W. H. Lizars were deemed inadequate. Known as the Double Elephant folio for its
double elephant paper size, it is often regarded as the greatest picture book ever produced and the finest aquatint work. By the 1830s the aquatint process had been largely superseded by
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
. A contemporary French critic wrote, "A magic power transported us into the forests which for so many years this man of genius has trod. Learned and ignorant alike were astonished at the spectacle ... It is a real and palpable vision of the New World."
![Brooklyn Museum - Green Heron - John J](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Brooklyn_Museum_-_Green_Heron_-_John_J._Audubon.jpg)
Audubon sold oil-painted copies of the drawings to make extra money and publicize the book. A potential publisher had Audubon's portrait painted by John Syme, who clothed the naturalist in frontier clothes; the portrait was hung at the entrance of his exhibitions, promoting his rustic image. The painting is now held in the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
art collection, and is not frequently displayed. The
New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...
holds all 435 of the preparatory watercolors for ''The Birds of America''. Lucy Audubon sold them to the society after her husband's death. All but 80 of the original copper plates were melted down when Lucy Audubon, desperate for money, sold them for scrap to the
Phelps Dodge Corporation
Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the o ...
.
King
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
was among the avid fans of Audubon and subscribed to support publication of the book. Britain's
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
recognized Audubon's achievement by electing him as a fellow. He was the second American to be elected after statesman
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
. While in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
to seek subscribers for the book, Audubon gave a demonstration of his method of supporting birds with wire at professor
Robert Jameson
Robert Jameson
Robert Jameson FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854) was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist.
As Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, developing his predecessor John ...
's
Wernerian Natural History Association. Student
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
was in the audience. Audubon also visited the dissecting theatre of the anatomist
Robert Knox
Robert Knox (4 September 1791 – 20 December 1862) was a Scottish anatomist and ethnologist best known for his involvement in the Burke and Hare murders. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Knox eventually partnered with anatomist and former teache ...
. Audubon was also successful in France, gaining the King and several of the nobility as subscribers.
![Large Audubon Spoonbill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Large_Audubon_Spoonbill.jpg)
''The Birds of America'' became very popular during Europe's Romantic era.
[National Audubon Society Inc. (n.d.) ''John James Audubon'' Retrieved fro]
/ref> Audubon's dramatic portraits of birds appealed to people in this period's fascination with natural history.
Later career
Audubon returned to America in 1829 to complete more drawings for his magnum opus. He also hunted animals and shipped the valued skins to British friends. He was reunited with his family. After settling business affairs, Lucy accompanied him back to England. Audubon found that during his absence, he had lost some subscribers due to the uneven quality of coloring of the plates. Others were in arrears in their payments. His engraver fixed the plates and Audubon reassured subscribers, but a few begged off. He responded, "''The Birds of America'' will then raise in value as much as they are now depreciated by certain fools and envious persons." He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1830 and to the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1831.
He followed ''The Birds of America'' with a sequel ''Ornithological Biographies''. This was a collection of life histories of each species written with Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray
William MacGillivray FRSE (25 January 1796 – 4 September 1852) was a Scottish naturalist and ornithologist.
Life and work
MacGillivray was born in Old Aberdeen and brought up on Harris. He returned to Aberdeen where he studied Medicin ...
. The two books were printed separately to avoid a British law requiring copies of all publications with text to be deposited in copyright libraries, a huge financial burden for the self-published Audubon. Both books were published between 1827 and 1839.
During the 1830s, Audubon continued making expeditions in North America. During a trip to Key West
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
, a companion wrote in a newspaper article, "Mr. Audubon is the most enthusiastic and indefatigable man I ever knew ... Mr. Audubon was neither dispirited by heat, fatigue, or bad luck ... he rose every morning at 3 o'clock and went out ... until 1 o'clock." Then he would draw the rest of the day before returning to the field in the evening, a routine he kept up for weeks and months. In the posthumously published book''The Life of John James Audubon The Naturalist'', edited by his widow and derived primarily from his notes, Audubon related visiting the northeastern Florida coastal sugar plantation of John Joachim Bulow for Christmas 1831/early January 1832. It was started by his father and at 4,675 acres, was the largest in East Florida. Bulow had a sugar mill built there under direction of a Scottish engineer, who accompanied Audubon on an excursion in the region. The mill was destroyed in 1836 in the Seminole Wars
The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Geography of Florida, Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native Americans in the United States, Native American nation whi ...
. The plantation site is preserved today as the Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park
Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park is a Florida State Park in Flagler Beach, Florida. It is three miles west of Flagler Beach on CR 2001, south of SR 100, and contains the ruins of an ante-bellum plantation and its sugar mill, built of ...
.["Dedication ceremonies for Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park – Bunnell, Florida"](_blank)
Florida Memory, accessed March 14, 2015.
In March 1832, Audubon booked passage at St. Augustine, Florida, aboard the schooner ''Agnes'', bound for Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
. A gale forced the vessel to berth at the mouth of the Savannah River
The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the norther ...
, where an officer of the on Cockspur Island
Cockspur Island is an island in the south channel of the Savannah River near Lazaretto Creek, northwest of Tybee Island, Georgia, United States. Most of the island is within the boundaries of Fort Pulaski National Monument. The island was so n ...
where Fort Pulaski
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
was under construction, transported Audubon upstream to Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
, on their barge. Just as he was about to board a Charleston-bound stage coach, he remembered William Gaston, a Savannah resident who had once befriended him. Audubon stayed at City Hotel, and the next day sought out and found the acquaintance, "who showed but little enthusiasm for his ''Birds of America''" and who doubted that the book would sell a single copy in the city.[''Ease and Elegance, Madeira and Murder: The Social Life of Savannah's City Hotel'', Malcolm Bell, Jr. (1992), p. 558] A dejected Audubon continued to talk to the merchant and a mutual friend who, by chance, had appeared. The merchant, having further considered his position, said, "I subscribe to your work", gave him $200 for the first volume, and promised to act as his agent in finding additional subscriptions.[
In 1833, Audubon sailed north from Maine, accompanied by his son John, and five other young colleagues, to explore the ]ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
of Labrador
, nickname = "The Big Land"
, etymology =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Canada
, subdivision_type1 = Province
, subdivision_name1 ...
. On the return voyage, their ship ''Ripley'' made a stop at St. George's, Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
. There Audubon and his assistants documented 36 species of birds.
Audubon painted some of his works while staying at the Key West house and gardens of Capt. John H. Geiger. This site was preserved as the Audubon House and Tropical Gardens
The Audubon House & Tropical Gardens is located at 205 Whitehead Street, Key West, Florida.
Brick-pathed gardens offer a lush view of orchids, bromeliads, and other tropical foliage, an herb garden and 1840-style nursery.
The house has many ...
.
In 1841, having finished the ''Ornithological Biographies'', Audubon returned to the United States with his family. He bought an estate on the Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
in northern Manhattan. (The roughly 20-acre estate came to be known as Audubon Park in the 1860s when Audubon's widow began selling off parcels of the estate for the development of free-standing single family homes.) Between 1840 and 1844, he published an octavo
Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...
edition of ''The Birds of America'', with 65 additional plates. Printed in standard format to be more affordable than the oversize British edition, it earned $36,000 and was purchased by 1100 subscribers. Audubon spent much time on "subscription-gathering trips", drumming up sales of the octavo edition, as he hoped to leave his family a sizeable income.
Death
Audubon made some excursions out West where he hoped to record Western species he had missed, but his health began to fail. In 1848, he manifested signs of senility or possibly dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
from what is now called Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
, his "noble mind in ruins". He died at his family home in northern Manhattan on January 27, 1851. Audubon is buried in the graveyard at the Church of the Intercession in the Trinity Church Cemetery
The parish of Trinity Church has three separate burial grounds associated with it in New York City. The first, Trinity Churchyard, is located in Lower Manhattan at 74 Trinity Place, near Wall Street and Broadway. Alexander Hamilton, Albert Gal ...
and Mausoleum at 155th Street and Broadway in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, near his home. An imposing monument in his honor was erected at the cemetery, which is now recognized as part of the Heritage Rose District of NYC.
Audubon's final work dealt with mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
s; he prepared ''The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America'' (1845–1849) in collaboration with his good friend Rev. John Bachman of Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
, who supplied much of the scientific text. His son, John Woodhouse Audubon, drew most of the plates. The work was completed by Audubon's sons, and the second volume was published posthumously in 1851.
Art and methods
Audubon developed his own methods for drawing birds. First, he killed them using fine shot. He then used wires to prop them into a natural position, unlike the common method of many ornithologists, who prepared and stuffed the specimens into a rigid pose. When working on a major specimen like an eagle, he would spend up to four 15-hour days, preparing, studying, and drawing it. His paintings of birds are set true-to-life in their natural habitat. He often portrayed them as if caught in motion, especially feeding or hunting. This was in stark contrast to the stiff representations of birds by his contemporaries, such as Alexander Wilson. Audubon based his paintings on his extensive field observations. He worked primarily with watercolor early on. He added colored chalk or pastel to add softness to feathers, especially those of owls and herons. He employed multiple layers of watercoloring, and sometimes used gouache
Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...
. All species were drawn life size which accounts for the contorted poses of the larger birds as Audubon strove to fit them within the page size. Smaller species were usually placed on branches with berries, fruit, and flowers. He used several birds in a drawing to present all views of anatomy and wings. Larger birds were often placed in their ground habitat or perching on stumps. At times, as with woodpeckers, he combined several species on one page to offer contrasting features. He frequently depicted the birds' nests and eggs, and occasionally natural predators, such as snakes. He usually illustrated male and female variations, and sometimes juveniles. In later drawings, Audubon used assistants to render the habitat for him. In addition to faithful renderings of anatomy, Audubon also employed carefully constructed composition, drama, and slightly exaggerated poses to achieve artistic as well as scientific effects.
File:John James Audubons Plate 76 - Birds of America (Virginian Partridge).jpg, Plate 76 of ''The Birds of America'' by Audubon showing a northern bobwhite
The northern bobwhite (''Colinus virginianus''), also known as the Virginia quail or (in its home range) bobwhite quail, is a ground-dwelling bird native to Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Cuba, with introduced populations elsewhere in th ...
under attack by a young red-shouldered hawk
The red-shouldered hawk (''Buteo lineatus'') is a medium-sized buteo. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico. It is a permanent resident throughout most of its ...
, painted 1825
File:John James Audubons Birds of America - Plate 76 (Detail).jpg, Detail from the adjacent image
Dispute over accuracy
The success of ''Birds of America'' may be considered to be marred by numerous accusations of plagiarism
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
, scientific fraud
Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in the publication of professional scientific research. A '' Lancet'' review on ''Handling of Scientific Misconduct in Scandinavian countrie ...
, and deliberate manipulation of the primary record. Research has uncovered that Audubon falsified (and fabricated) scientific data, published fraudulent data and images in scientific journals and commercial books, invented new species to impress potential subscribers, and to "prank" rivals, and most likely stole the holotype specimen of Harris's hawk
The Harris's hawk (''Parabuteo unicinctus''), formerly known as the bay-winged hawk, dusky hawk, and sometimes a wolf hawk, and known in Latin America as peuco, is a medium-large bird of prey that breeds from the southwestern United States south ...
(''Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi'') before pretending not to know its collector, who was one of his subscribers. He failed to credit work by Joseph Mason, prompting a series of articles in 1835 by critic John Neal questioning Audubon's honesty and trustworthiness. Audubon also repeatedly lied about the details of his autobiography, including the place and circumstances of his birth. His diaries, which might have cleared up some of these issues, were destroyed by his granddaughter, who published a doctored version that realigned the "primary" record with some of his false narratives.
The litany of misconduct in Audubon's scientific career has drawn comparisons to others such as Richard Meinertzhagen
Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, CBE, DSO (3 March 1878 – 17 June 1967) was a British soldier, intelligence officer, and ornithologist. He had a decorated military career spanning Africa and the Middle East. He was credited with creating and e ...
. Similar to early biographies of Meinertzhagen, Audubon's scientific misconduct has been repeatedly ignored and/or played down by biographers, who defend ''Ornithological Biography'' as a "valuable resource and a very good read".
Legacy
Audubon's influence on ornithology and natural history was far reaching. Nearly all later ornithological works were inspired by his artistry and high standards. Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
quoted Audubon three times in ''On the Origin of Species
''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...
'' and also in later works. Despite some errors in field observations, he made a significant contribution to the understanding of bird anatomy and behavior through his field notes. ''The Birds of America'' is still considered one of the greatest examples of book art. Audubon discovered 25 new species and 12 new subspecies.
* He was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
, the Linnean Society
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...
, and the Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
in recognition of his contributions.
* The homestead Mill Grove in Audubon, Pennsylvania
Audubon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was named for naturalist John James Audubon, who lived there as a young man. The population was 8,433 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Audubon is loc ...
, is open to the public and contains a museum presenting all his major works, including ''The Birds of America''.
* The Audubon Museum at John James Audubon State Park
John James Audubon State Park is located on U. S. Route 41 in Henderson, Kentucky, just south of the Ohio River. Its inspiration is John James Audubon, the ornithologist, naturalist, painter, and slaveowner who resided in Henderson from 1810 to ...
in Henderson, Kentucky
Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and is the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,757 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville Metropolitan Area, locally known as the ...
, houses many of Audubon's original watercolor
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
s, oils, engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
s and personal memorabilia.
* In 1905, the National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...
was incorporated and named in his honor. Its mission "is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds ..."
* He was honored in 1940 by the US Post Office with a 1 cent Famous Americans Series postage stamp; the stamp is green.
* He was honored by the United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
with a 22¢ Great Americans series
The Great Americans series is a set of definitive stamps issued by the United States Postal Service, starting on December 27, 1980, with the 19¢ stamp depicting Sequoyah, and continuing through 1999, the final stamp being the 55¢ Justin S. Mo ...
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...
.
* On December 6, 2010, a copy of ''The Birds of America'' was sold at a Sotheby's
Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...
auction for $11.5 million, the second highest price for a single printed book.
* On April 26, 2011, Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
celebrated his 226th birthday by displaying a special Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
on its global homepage.
* Audubon's life and contributions to science and art was the subject of the 2017 film ''Audubon''.
Audubon in popular culture
Audubon is the subject of the 1969 book-length poem, ''Audubon: A Vision'' by Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...
. Stephen Vincent Benét
Stephen Vincent Benét (; July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943) was an American poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, ''John Brown's Body'' (1928), for which he receive ...
, with his wife Rosemary Benét, included a poem about Audubon in the children's poetry book ''A Book of Americans''.
Audubon's 1833 trip to Labrador is the subject of the novel ''Creation'' by Katherine Govier
Katherine Mary Govier (born July 4, 1948) is a Canadian novelist and essayist.
Biography
Katherine Govier was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and was educated at the University of Alberta and York University. She has been made a Distinguished Alumna ...
. Audubon and his wife, Lucy, are the chief characters in the "June" section of the Maureen Howard novel ''Big as Life: Three Tales for Spring''. In the novel ''Audubon's Watch'', John Gregory Brown John Gregory Brown (July 31, 1960 - ) is an American novelist.
Background and education
Brown was born on July 31, 1960 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received his B.A. from Tulane University in 1982, and his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1 ...
explores a mysterious death that took place on a Louisiana plantation when Audubon worked there as a young man.
George Voskovec
Jiří Voskovec (), born Jiří Wachsmann and known in the United States as George Voskovec (June 19, 1905 – July 1, 1981) was a Czech actor, writer, dramatist, and director who became an American citizen in 1955. Throughout much of his career ...
plays Audubon in the 1952 American film ''The Iron Mistress
''The Iron Mistress'' is a 1952 American Western film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Alan Ladd and Virginia Mayo. It ends with Bowie's marriage to Ursula de Veramendi and does not deal with his death at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
...
'', which stars Alan Ladd as James Bowie. The film imagines a friendship between the two men.
In 1985, The National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of cha ...
20C History Project produced a documentary, "John James Audubon: The Birds of America", now widely available online.
In July 2007, PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
's American Masters
''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...
series aired an episode titled "John James Audubon: Drawn from Nature", Supplemental material is availabl
on the PBS website
Audubon appears in the short story "Audubon In Atlantis" by Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed ...
, published in the 2010 collection ''Atlantis and Other Places''.
The choral oratorio ''Audubon'' b
James Kallembach
was premiered on November 9, 2018, in Boston, Massachusetts by Chorus pro Musica. The work depicts scenes of Audubon's life and descriptions of the birds he drew with text drawn from the 2004 biography by Richard Rhodes.
Places named in his honor
* Audubon Park and Zoo in New Orleans, where he lived beginning in 1821
* Audubon
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such org ...
and Audubon Park, both in New Jersey. Many streets in Audubon Park are named after birds drawn by him.
* Audubon, Pennsylvania
Audubon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was named for naturalist John James Audubon, who lived there as a young man. The population was 8,433 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Audubon is loc ...
, also has the Audubon Bird Sanctuary. Most of the streets in this small town are named after birds that he drew.
*Audubon Middle School (formerly Junior High) in the Leimert Park
Leimert Park (; ) is a neighborhood in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California.
Developed in the 1920s as a mainly residential community, it features Spanish Colonial Revival homes and tree-lined streets. The Life Magazine/Lei ...
neighborhood of Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
* Audubon Nature Institute
The Audubon Nature Institute is a family of museums and parks dedicated to nature and based in New Orleans, Louisiana.
It consists of the Audubon Zoo, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, Audubon Louisiana Nature Center, Audubon Park, Woldenberg R ...
, a family of museums, parks, and other organizations in New Orleans, eight of which bear the Audubon name
* Audubon Park and country club in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, is in the area of his former general store.
* Several towns and Audubon County, Iowa
Audubon County is a county in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,674, making it Iowa's third-least populous county. Its county seat is Audubon. The county was named after John James Audubon, the naturalist and a ...
* John James Audubon Bridge (Mississippi River)
The John James Audubon Bridge, completed and opened in May 2011, is a Lower Mississippi River crossing between Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana parishes in south central Louisiana. The bridge has the second longest cable-stayed span (distance ...
, connecting Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana Parishes; over thirty of Audubon's bird paintings were created in West Feliciana Parish.
* The northbound span of the Bi-State Vietnam Gold Star Bridges
The Bi-State Vietnam Gold Star Twin Bridges, (usually referred to as simply The Twin Bridges, despite differences in their widths), are located in Henderson County, Kentucky and connect Henderson, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana, along U.S. Ro ...
was originally named the Audubon Memorial Bridge.
* Audubon Park, in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, is associated with the nearby Botanic Garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
.
* John James Audubon State Park
John James Audubon State Park is located on U. S. Route 41 in Henderson, Kentucky, just south of the Ohio River. Its inspiration is John James Audubon, the ornithologist, naturalist, painter, and slaveowner who resided in Henderson from 1810 to ...
and the Audubon Museum (located within the park) in Henderson, Kentucky
Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and is the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,757 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville Metropolitan Area, locally known as the ...
* Audubon Parkway, also in Kentucky, is a limited-access highway connecting Henderson with Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...
.
* Rue Jean-Jacques Audubon in Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
and Rue Audubon in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France
* Rue Jean-Jacques Audubon in Couëron
Couëron (; ) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. It is part of the historic French Brittany.
Couëron is one of the 24 communes of the Nantes Métropole.
Geography
Physical geography
Couëron is located 10 mi ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
* Lycée Jean-Jacques Audubon in Couëron, France.
* Marais Audubon between Couëron and St Etienne de Mont-luc, France
* Audubon Circle, a major intersection and neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts; Park Drive (parkway)
Park Drive is a mostly one-way, two-lane parkway in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston that runs along the northern and western edges of the Back Bay Fens before ending at Mountfort Street. As part of the Emerald Necklace park system ma ...
, which runs through the Audubon Circle, was formerly named Audubon Road.
* John James Audubon Parkway in Amherst, New York
Amherst () is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. Amherst is an inner ring suburb of Buffalo. As of 2020, the town had a total population of 129,595. This represents an increase from 122,366 as reported in the 2010 census.
The second ...
* Audubon Avenue in New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, New York
* Audubon Bird Sanctuary, Dauphin Island, Alabama
Dauphin Island is an island town in Mobile County, Alabama, United States, on a barrier island of the same name, in the Gulf of Mexico. It incorporated in 1988. The population was 1,778 at the 2020 census, up from 1,238 at the 2010 census. The ...
* Audubon National Wildlife Refuge, Coleharbor, North Dakota
* Audubon Park, a park and neighborhood in Northeast Minneapolis
Northeast is a defined community in the U.S. city of Minneapolis that is composed of 13 smaller neighborhoods whose street addresses end in "NE". Unofficially it also includes the neighborhoods of the University community which have "NE" addre ...
, Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
* Audubon Park, a park and neighborhood in Orlando, Florida
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
. The streets are named after birds, such as Falcon Drive and Raven Road.
* Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center in Joplin, Missouri
Joplin is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, Jasper and Newton County, Missouri, Newton counties in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bulk of the city is in Jasper County, while the southern portion is in Newton County. J ...
* Audubon International
Audubon International is a not for profit 501(c)(3) environmental education organization based in Troy, New York. Established in 1987, the organization works with communities, developments, resorts, and golf courses in 36 countries to plan and i ...
, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that administers a wide range of environmental education and certification programs on properties such as golf courses, hotels, school campuses, ski areas, cemeteries, corporate parks, and agricultural lands
* The Scioto Audubon Metro Park
Scioto Audubon Metro Park is a public park and nature preserve in Columbus, Ohio. The park is managed by the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks and is part of the Scioto Mile network of parks and trails around Downtown Columbus. The park f ...
in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
* Audubon Recreation Center in Garland, Texas
Garland is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located northeast of Dallas and is a part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is located within Dallas County except for small portions located in Collin and Rockwall Counties. At the ...
* Mount Audubon (13223 ft), Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
* Audubon High School
''For the high school in Iowa with the same name, see Audubon Community School District''
Audubon High School is a comprehensive six-year community public high school that serves students in seventh through twelfth grades from Audubon, in Camd ...
in Camden County, New Jersey
Camden County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 523,485, an increase of 9,828 (1.9%) from the 2010 census, making it the state's 8th-largest county. Its county seat is ...
, and many primary schools around the United States
* Audubon Golf Trail – a collection of golf courses spread throughout Louisiana
* John James Audubon Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
* Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Moss Point, Mississippi
Moss Point is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 12,147 in 2020, a decline from the figure of 13,704 in 2010. The Moss Point Historic District and several individual buildings are ...
* Audubon House & Gallery in Key West, Florida
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...
* Audubon Street, home to the Audubon Arts District and The Audubon New Haven apartment building, in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
* Audubon Swamp Garden
Audubon Swamp Garden is a cypress and tupelo swamp on the grounds of Magnolia Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. At one time, the swamp served as a reservoir for the plantation's rice cultivation. The swamp garden includes native flora ...
, part of the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens park along the Ashley River in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
Surviving bird specimens
Some of Audubon's bird specimens survive in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...
, the Academy of Natural Sciences
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natura ...
, Philadelphia, and there are 5 specimens in the collections of World Museum
World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the ...
, National Museums Liverpool.
File:NML-VZ T8161.jpg, Zenaida dove
The zenaida dove (''Zenaida aurita'') is a member of the bird family Columbidae, which includes doves and pigeons. It is the national bird of Anguilla, where it is locally referred to as "turtle dove".
Description
The Zenaida dove is approxima ...
. NML-VZ T8161 collected by John James Aububon.
File:NML-VZ D3904.jpg, Lewis's woodpecker
Lewis's woodpecker (''Melanerpes lewis'') is a large North American species of woodpecker which ornithologist Alexander Wilson named after Meriwether Lewis, one of the explorers who surveyed the areas bought by the United States of America as pa ...
. NML-VZ D3904 collected by John James Aubudon.
File:NML-VZ D2109.jpg, Violet-green swallow. NML-VZ D2109 collected by John James Audubon.
File:NML-VZ D2124.jpg, Violet-green swallow. NML-VZ D2124 collected by John James Audubon.
File:NML-VZ D2949.jpg, Reddish egret
The reddish egret (''Egretta rufescens'') is a medium-sized heron that is a resident breeder in Central America, The Bahamas, the Caribbean, the Gulf Coast of the United States (primarily Texas), and Mexico. The egret is known for its unusual ...
. NML-VZ D2949 collected by John James Audubon.
Works
Posthumous collections
* John James Audubon, ''Selected Journals and Other Writings'' (Ben Forkner, ed.) (Penguin Nature Classics, 1996)
* John James Audubon, ''Writings & Drawings'' (Christoph Irmscher, ed.)
The Library of America
1999)
* John James Audubon, ''The Audubon Reader'' (Richard Rhodes, ed.) (Everyman Library, 2006)
* ''Audubon: Early Drawings'' (Richard Rhodes, Scott V. Edwards, Leslie A. Morris)
and Houghton Library 2008)
* John James Audubon, '' Audubon and His Journals'' (The European Journals 1826–1829, the Labrador Journal 1833, the Missouri River Journals 1843), edited by Maria Audubon, volumes 1 and 2, originally published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1897 (in
Wikisource
Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...
).
See also
* Audubon House and Tropical Gardens
The Audubon House & Tropical Gardens is located at 205 Whitehead Street, Key West, Florida.
Brick-pathed gardens offer a lush view of orchids, bromeliads, and other tropical foliage, an herb garden and 1840-style nursery.
The house has many ...
, Key West, Florida
* Audubon International
Audubon International is a not for profit 501(c)(3) environmental education organization based in Troy, New York. Established in 1987, the organization works with communities, developments, resorts, and golf courses in 36 countries to plan and i ...
* Audubon Mural Project
* Audubon Park Historic District, New York City
* Audubon State Historic Site
Audubon State Historic Site is a state park property in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, between the towns of St. Francisville and Jackson. It is the location where noted ornithologist and artist John James Audubon spent the summer of 1821.
Vis ...
, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
* List of wildlife artists
This list of wildlife artists is a list for any notable wildlife artist, wildlife painter, wildlife photographer, other wildlife artist, society of wildlife artists, museum, or exhibition of wildlife art, worldwide.
A
* Jackson Miles Abbott
* Jo ...
* National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...
* Passenger pigeon
The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (''Ectopistes migratorius'') is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word ''passager'', meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Anon. (1887)
Sketch of J.J. Audubon
'. ''The Popular Science Monthly''. pp. 687–692.
* Arthur, Stanley Clisby (1937). ''Audubon; An Intimate Life of the American Woodsman''. New Orleans: Harmanson.
*
* Burroughs, J. (1902).
John James Audubon
'. Boston: Small, Maynard & company.
* Chalmers, John (2003). ''Audubon in Edinburgh and his Scottish Associates''. NMS Publishing, Edinburgh, 978 1 901663 79 2
* Ford, Alice (1969). ''Audubon By Himself''. Garden City NY: The Natural History Press
* Ford, Alice (1964; revised 1988). ''John James Audubon''. University of Oklahoma Press
* Fulton, Maurice G. (1917). ''Southern Life in Southern Literature; selections of representative prose and poetry''. Boston, New York tc. Ginn and Co.
view online here
* Jackson E Christine (2013). ''John James Audubon and English Perspective'
Christine E Jackson
* Herrick, Francis Hobart (1917). ''Aububon the naturalist: A History of his Life and Time.'' D. Appleton and Company, New York
Volume I
https://archive.org/details/audnaturalis02herr Volume II]
combined 2nd 1938 edition
*
* Olson, Roberta J.M. (2012). ''Audubon's Aviary: The Original Watercolors for The Birds of America''. New York: Skira/Rizzoli and New-York Historical Society.
* Discusses the series of names assigned to Audubon as a youth.
* Punke, Michael (2007). ''Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West''. Smithsonian Books.
* Rhodes, Richard (2004). ''John James Audubon: The Making of an American''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
*
* Small, E., Catling, Paul M., Cayouette, J., and Brookes, B (2009). ''Audubon: Beyond Birds: Plant Portraits and Conservation Heritage of John James Audubon''. NRC Research Press, Ottawa,
* Souder, William (2005) ''Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America''. New York: Macmillan.
* Streshinsky, Shirley (1993). ''Audubon: Life and Art in the American Wilderness''. New York: Villard Books,
External links
Audubon Birds of America
at New York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...
*
*
Works by John James Audubon
at Toronto Public Library
Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pu ...
*
John James Audubon at American Art Gallery
Audubon's ''Birds of America'' at the University of Pittsburgh
a complete high resolution digitization of all 435 double elephant folios as well as his ''Ornithological Biography''
The John James Audubon Collection
Houghton Library
Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of Art ...
, Harvard University
"Audubon biography"
National Audubon Society
"Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection"
Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art, Auburn University
John James Audubon State Park
in Henderson, Kentucky
Audubon's ''Birds of America''
podcast from the Beinecke Library, Yale University
John James Audubon and Audubon family letters, (ca. 1783–1845)
from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...
* View works b
John James Audubon
online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Watercolors for ''Birds of America''
at the New York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...
Burgwin Family Papers
1844–1963, AIS.1971.14, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh. Includes Audubon-Bakewell family materials.
Identification guide to Audubon print editions
''Blue jay: Corvus cristatus'' by John James Audubon
at the Cleveland Public Library Art Collection
* Victor Gifford Audubon Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Audubon, John James
1785 births
1851 deaths
19th-century American painters
19th-century American zoologists
American adoptees
American bird artists
American illustrators
American male painters
American naturalists
American nature writers
American male non-fiction writers
American ornithologists
American people of Breton descent
American slave owners
American writers in French
19th-century American writers
Artists from New Orleans
Birdwatchers
Burials at Trinity Church Cemetery
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Fellows of the Royal Society
French emigrants to the United States
Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Painters from Kentucky
People from Les Cayes
People of Saint-Domingue
Scientific illustrators
Botanical illustrators
Writers who illustrated their own writing