John James Audubon (1785-1851)

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Naturalist and artist

Background. After his death John James Audubon’s descendants claimed him to be the lost dauphin (prince) of France. In actuality, although his ancestry included no royalty, he did descend from French origins, the son of a sea captain and a Creole mother on the island of Santo Domingo (now Haiti). Audubon grew up near Philadelphia and developed an early interest in ornithology. After moving to Kentucky and failing in several business ventures, Audubon wandered the countryside, studying and sketching birds in their natural surroundings. When his business career ended in 1819 following bankruptcy and a brief imprisonment for debt, Audubon decided to publish a collection of paintings of North American birds. Eventually he settled in Louisiana, working as an instructor of music and drawing.

Travels and Works. Audubon’s drawings attracted the notice of publishers in England and Scotland, where his collection Birds of America (1826–1838), consisting of eighty-seven parts containing more than four hundred life-sized engravings made from his watercolors, achieved recognition as a masterpiece of natural study. With the Scottish naturalist William MacGillivray, Audubon authored an accompanying text, Ornithological Biography (1831–1839), a work that made him well known in the United States. Following his success, Audubon extended his zoological curiosity to other animals. He collaborated with the naturalist John Bachman to prepare a collection on quadrapeds, for which he traveled and researched extensively. In 1843 Audubon journeyed from St. Louis up the Missouri River to the mouth of the Yellowstone, where he examined and recorded natural flora and fauna. His logs formed the basis for The Vivaparous Quadrapeds of North America (1852–1854).

Legacy. Audubon’s colorful, lifelike drawings reflect his artistic talent in the naturalist school, which sought to depict panoramic landscapes and minute details of animals in their pristine states. American artists who followed Audubon’s style tried to combine the artist’s skill of visual assessment with the scientist’s knowledge of anatomy and botany in order to replicate nature onto a canvas. Audubon’s work lent itself in subsequent decades to the conservation movement. Founded in 1905, the National Audubon Society tries to advance public understanding about water, soil, and wildlife conservation. Environmentalists today recognize Audubon as an early precursor to John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and other Westerners who taught intelligent use of nature by trying to understand nature’s limits.

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John Francis McDermott, ed., Audubon in the West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965).