news from the community

BOOKS, WEBSITES AND OTHER MEDIA

We recently heard of two books you may want to add to your library or to that of your favorite Audubon fan. The first book is of special interest for those who are curious about Audubon's development as an artist.  Audubon: Early Drawings is a large-format slip-cased book (Harvard University Press, 2008), and is the winner of the 2008 PINE (Printing Industries of New England) Pinnacle Award.  Listing for $125, this beautiful 288-page book includes illustrations of 116 early Audubon drawings now held by the Houghton Library and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. The book includes an introduction by Richard Rhodes, scientific commentary by Scott V. Edwards, and a foreword by Leslie A. Morris describing the history of the collection, once owned by Edward Harris and purchased by him from Audubon in an act of friendship and early patronage. We are not selling this book, but it is available through online and some bricks-and-mortar bookstores, as well as from the publisher.  More Information.

Listing for $12.99, The Composite Plates of Audubon's Birds of America by Jeff Holt and Albert Filemyr (Booksurge.com, 2008) is for those who are deeply interested in every aspect of the Havell Edition.  The "composite plates" are thirteen prints Robert Havell made upon Audubon's instructions, each of which combined elements of two existing Birds of America plates into a single composition. This brief, but very interesting, book provides extensive information and photos of these rare Havell Edition prints, of which no more than a few copies were pulled.  It also includes a detailed analysis as to the how and why the plates were created, and includes 73 color illustrations (including depictions of all thirteen composite plates).  We do not sell this book, but it is available through Amazon and other online bookstores.

Carolyn E. DeLatte's book Lucy Audubon: A Biography, has been reissued by Louisiana State University Press with a new forward by Christoph Irmsher.  The LSU Press recently published another very interesting Audubon book, this one by Danny Heitman.  Entitled A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House, the book explores the events behind Audubon's very productive summer in 1821 with the Pirries of St. Francisville, Louisiana.  In May 2008, we visited Oakley Plantation.  Read about our impressions.

Our good friend, Matthew Spady, has a new website, AudubonParkNY.com, that describes the history of the interesting and unique neighborhood that grew up around the Audubon family's Manhattan home. 

We have been remiss in failing to mention until now the superb website featuring the Double Elephant Folio and text of the Ornithological Biography that has been generously made available on the web by the University of Pittsburgh.  It is part of the Darlington Digital Library Collection and lets you get up close and personal with a full set of the Havell Edition.  Or read Audubon's text at your leisure!

AMERICAN MASTERS John James Audubon: Drawn From Nature will be broadcast nationally on PBS on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 9:00 PM.  Check your local listings for details. This excellent documentary was produced by Florentine Films/Hott Productions, and provides a wonderful introduction to Audubon's life and art.

MUSEUMS SHOWS AND OTHER MEDIA

NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY:    February 13, 2009 to April 5, 2009
The New-York Historical Society is now offering the final installment of its series of exhibitions of Audubon's original watercolor paintings.  This last of five "Audubon's Aviary" exhibits is titled, AUDUBON'S AVIARY: SOME THINGS OLD, SOME THINGS BORROWED, BUT MOST THINGS NEW. According to the N-YHS website, "The 2009 Aviary...will examine Audubon's debts to his predecessors alongside his radical innovations, to illuminate his major contributions to the history of ornithological illustration and to the sophisticated development of watercolor as a medium."  The exhibit is outstanding, and includes commentary on each of the 40 paintings.  Also included are discussions and examples of other artists' work including Catesby, Wilson, and Selby.  Among the specific highlights are both Wild Turkeys (the painting of the female notable for its elaborate background), the magnificent Osprey, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (worth a close examination of the iridescent effect that Audubon achieved), the Yellow-breasted Chat (which includes a depiction of a bird that Audubon apparently considered too outrageous for the print), the Black-billed Cuckoo (notable for its beautiful setting in a magnolia tree), the Golden-winged Woodpecker, and the Bird of Washington (immature Bald Eagle).  See more information. 

MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM: December 18, 2008 to March 22, 2009
The Koss Gallery of the Milwaukee Art Museum will be presenting a new exhibit on natural history art entitled Catesby, Audubon, and the Discovery of a New World: Prints of the Flora and Fauna of America..  The exhibition will feature around sixty-five prints of North American plants, birds, mammals, and reptiles, most from the Museum’s Collection. Works of Alexander Wilson and George Edwards are also included.  There will be some talks and other events associated with this exhibit, including a lecture by Richard Rhodes, author of the important biography John James Audubon, The Making of an American (2004).  The lecture will be at 6:15 PM on January 22, 2009 with a reception and book signing to follow.  Visit the Museum website for more information.  

SHELBURNE MUSEUM: May 20, 2007 TO October 28, 2007
Opening later this month is a new exhibition (titled John James Audubon: The Prints) at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne VT that will include a selection of prints from the 120 Audubon originals in the museum's collection. 

NED SMITH CENTER FOR NATURE & ART:   April 17, 2007 to September 29, 2007
The Ned Smith Center for Nature & Art in Millersburg PA (in Dauphin County in central Pennsylvania) has a new show, The Mysterious John James Audubon, in their Olewine Gallery now through late September. Among Audubon items on exhibit is a complete four volume Havell Edition set (Double Elephant Folio) of The Birds of America, on loan from the National Audubon Society and the Smithsonian Institution. On public exhibit for the first time is an early Audubon painting of a tree sparrow dated April 1812, found recently in a private collection.  The exhibit includes several other items loaned by the National Audubon Society and the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove.  Among the most impressive is Audubon's dramatic oil painting, The Eagle and the Lamb.  Painted in London in 1828, this massive work is over seven feet wide.   The exhibit also includes original animal paintings and prints from Audubon's second great work, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. The public grand opening celebration (including special gallery tours, educational programs, and children’s activities) will be held Saturday, April 28th from noon to 4 p.m. at the Center.  More information.

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY:    March 31, 2007 to January 6, 2008
From March 31, 2007 to January 6, 2008, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City will inaugarate its newly renovated Audubon Gallery with an exhibition of Audubon's great animal works.  The exhibit, titled The Unknown Audubons: Mammals of North America, highlights the Museum's extensive collection of original paintings, drawings, and prints by John James Audubon and his sons John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford Audubon. According to the Museum's website, the historic Audubon Gallery, a 3,100-square-foot gallery unavailable to the public for over fifty years, "provides a setting almost as stunningly dramatic as the art on display."

The new exhibition features more than 50 depictions of animals, including oils, watercolors, and hand-colored lithographs. The Museum's exhibition opened concurrently with a showing of a selection of Audubon's original bird paintings at the New-York Historical Society (see discussion below). If attending both exhibitions on the same day, visitors be given free admission to the second exhibit upon presentation of a receipt from the first.  (This offer runs until the end of the N-YHS show on May 20, 2007.)

In addition to highlighting Audubon's important animal works, the exhibition strives to impart an ecological message. As the website states, "the exhibition documents the virtually complete loss of the prairie grasslands—the largest ecosystem in North America. On the Missouri River expedition in 1843, Audubon found himself at the beginning of the transformation of the American heartland. The prairie was being converted to towns and farmland, and the commercial exploitation and slaughter of the buffalo had begun. John James Audubon is our witness to this transformation—the wildlife he went west to document was starting to disappear. Today, less than 1 percent of this landscape remains unchanged by human activity. The exhibition will show visitors what that ecosystem was like, what has been lost, and why."

THE WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE: March 23, 2007 to May 20, 2007
The Wildlife Experience, an interactive museum in Parker CO (Denver area), is hosting an exhibit of Audubon's folio animals entitled Spectacular Achievements: Audubon’s Animals of North America.  The exhibit, comprised of selected works from the collection of the Museum of the Southwest (located in Midland, TX), includes 70 original folio prints from The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845-1848).  The exhibit runs from March 23 to May 20th.  More information.

NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY:    March 30, 2007 to May 20, 2007
The New-York Historical Society's 2007 showing of Audubon's Aviary: Natural Selection opens March 30 and runs through May 20.  The emphasis in this year's exhibition of over forty paintings will be Audubon's working process as a painter.  The exhibition will include small groupings that show the changes in Audubon's depiction of a given species.  These groupings provide insight into Audubon's thinking as to how best to depict each bird.  The works cover a thirty-year period from 1808 to 1838. According to the N-YHS website, "Viewed together, they reveal Audubon's intellectual and artistic processes, his growing artistic sophistication and the maturation of taxonomic classifications."  Art that will be on display at the 2007 Audubon's Aviary: Natural Selection exhibit include:

The show will once again be supplemented with recorded birdcalls from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and video and many other significant items. For those who cannot make the exhibit, some of these sounds can be heard on the N-YHS website (links are marked "Listen" and can be found in the "field notes" for the New York City area birds).

If you plan to visit the N-YHS for this exhibit, be sure to leave time to visit the neighboring American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).  AMNH is mounting an exhibition of Audubon's mammals entitled, The Unknown Audubons: The Mammals of North America. During the run of Audubon's Aviary, visitors will be able to attend both museums in the same day by presenting a receipt for admission to the first museum at the second.  This offer will be available from March 31 to May 20th.  More information.

ILLINOIS STATE MUSEUM CHICAGO GALLERY: March 12, 2007 to August 24, 2007 
Running from March 12 to August 24th, 2007 the Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery will be hosting two exhibits on bird art, “John James Audubon: The Birds of America, Prints from the Collection of the Illinois State Museum” and “While All the Tribes of Birds Sang.” The Audubon exhibit will offer a selection of 30 original prints from the Havell and Bien Editions of THE BIRDS OF AMERICA, works by other 18th and 19th century natural history artists (including Catesby, Wilson, and Gould), and some bird mounts from the museum's natural history collection.  The second exhibit will include bird-related art and artifacts that provide a broader visual context of our relationships to the avian world. This exhibit will include items from the Anthropology and Decorative Arts’ collection, artwork from the Museum’s permanent collection, and some works by contemporary Chicago artists.  The gallery will hold a public reception on Friday, March 30, 2007 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.  More information.

CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: February 10, 2007 to April 29, 2007
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History will be hosting a traveling exhibit John James Audubon: American Artist and Naturalist from February 10 through April 29th, 2007 in the Museum’s Corning and Fawick galleries.  This exhibition traces Audubon’s life and development as an artist, and features 60 prints from the Havell Edition of THE BIRDS OF AMERICA, plus some octavo edition prints and a selection of Imperial Folio Edition animal prints.  For more information on the exhibit and related events, visit the museum's website.  The traveling exhibit, organized by Art Services 2000 with the cooperation of the Audubon Museum and State Park in Henderson KY, is scheduled for various US locations into 2009.

OLD NEWS THAT MAY STILL BE OF INTEREST

AUDUBON CONFERENCE AND FILM PREMIERE: October 21, 2006
On October 21, 2006 Leslie Kostrich, owner of minniesland.com, participated in a lively round table discussion on the Audubon octavos at a one-day conference at the Rensselaerville Institute Conference Center (in Rensselaerville NY) hosted by the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve.  The one-day conference featured the world premiere of the PBS documentary John James Audubon: Drawn from Nature (to be shown on the American Masters series -- date not yet available). Conference participants included filmmakers Larry Hott and Diane Garey of Florentine Films/Hott Productions, and Audubon scholars/authors including Christoph Irmscher (editor of the Library of America's John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings), John Chalmers (author of Audubon in Edinburgh), Ron Tyler (author of Audubon's Great National Work: The Royal Octavo Edition of The Birds of America), Bill Steiner (author of Audubon Art Prints: A Collector's Guide to Every Edition), and Tom Blanton (a long-time natural history collector and author of an article on the Audubon octavo fascicles featured in our study area).  The conference was sponsored in part by a generous grant from the W.P. Carey Foundation. For information on purchasing conference proceedings, visit the conference website or call 518-797-3105.

NEW BOOKS OF INTEREST TO COLLECTORS
We are pleased to bring to your attention the re-release of a classic Audubon book, long out of print.  Read about the new edition of Waldemar Fries' THE DOUBLE ELEPHANT FOLIO.

Richard Rhodes recently published a companion volume to his excellent 2004 biography of Audubon (John James Audubon: The Making of An American). Entitled The Audubon Reader, the book (which includes commentary by Rhodes) organizes excerpts from Audubon's journals, letters, and published works to appeal to general readers. It also includes 16 full-color reproductions of Audubon’s watercolor illustrations.

BACHMAN SYMPOSIUM HELD AT NEWBERRY COLLEGE: April 20-23, 2006
Newberry College (Newberry, SC) hosted a symposium April 20-23rd, 2006 on the life and work of the Rev. John Bachman. Bachman was one of John James Audubon's closest friends, and one of his most important collaborators. Among his many accomplishments was the founding of Newberry in 1856. We have just added some wonderful photos to a report on the symposium we received from Bachman descendant Susan Crofoot Davis.  Visit the symposium website.

Last updated 10.20.09