John James Audubon was born today in 1785 in what is now Haiti. A lifelong aficionado of birds, Audubon is best known for his seminal watercolor collection Birds of America. Published between 1827 and 1838 it consists of 435 life sized prints of the birds native to this country. Each print was made from a hand engraved plate. Many libraries, including ours, have facsimiles of this work, renamed American Birds, but much of the detail is lost by reducing the size of the images for the sake of affordability (and storage). Fortunately, the Audubon Society, which was named in his honor and is the preeminent conservation and educational organization on birds, has the entire collection in digital format for our viewing.
For more information visit The National Audubon Society and marvel at the glorious work of a passionate man, whose name is now synonymous with birds. If you would like to learn more about Audubon we also have two biographies on him, as well as numerous birding guides that bear his name.
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