UNDAUNTED: John James Audubon (1785–1851)
Audubon's credentials as an ornithologist may be questionable. But his reputation as an explorer and artist who traveled through the wilderness of Kentucky, the Carolinas and Louisiana, up and down the Mississippi River, into the Florida swamps, and up to Eastern Canada in pursuit his dream to paint the birds of America—life-size—remains unassailable.
Audubon's name adorns one of America's greatest ecological and conservationist organizations, the National Audubon Society. The Birds of America, his famous double-elephant folio ("double elephant" refers to the large size of the paper, 40"x 26½"), contains 435 plates. Along with this monumental work of art he published an Ornithological Biography that interspersed colorful anecdotes from Audubon's adventures in America with descriptions of the birds. Today, there are only 120 complete editions in the world and the one acquired by the American Philosophical Society in 1831 is the centerpiece of this part of the exhibition.
Images: (above, left) Engraver unknown, after Alonzo Chappell, J. J. Audubon, 1861. APS; (above, right) J. J. Audubon, Greater Flamingo, from The Birds of America (1827-38). APS
