John James Audubon's Birds of America
January 9, 2008 11:31 PM Subscribe
John James Audubon's Birds of America with Audubon's original text. It's laid out by family and genus but there is also an alphabetical list of plates which has bigger versions of the bird pictures. There are also links to the state birds as well as birds driven to extinction since Audubon's time.
Audubon's writing is often vivid and fun to read. Here are the first two paragraphs of the text about the Great Auk. Extremely telling:posted by Kattullus at 11:39 PM on January 9, 2008
Wonderful! Too bad the scans are low-res.
posted by honest knave at 11:44 PM on January 9, 2008
posted by honest knave at 11:44 PM on January 9, 2008
A friend who is a painter ruined these for me. At first blush, Audobon's work seems so incredible for being lifelike, but the more you study them, the more unreal they look. They are stiff because he painted dead specimens, sometimes not even attempting to hide the fact. Wings "in flight" are two chevrons. Even the backgrounds have problems - the same iconic rocks used repeatedly, everything too tidy, etc. See for yourself - these paintings are oddly lacking in depth (by that I mean literally a flattened perspective). My friend went as far as to label them naive. Of course, as Americana, and as a sadly historical catalog/beastiary, it's great.
posted by AppleSeed at 4:17 AM on January 10, 2008
posted by AppleSeed at 4:17 AM on January 10, 2008
I believe Audubon insisted on his pictures being life-size (tricky with some of the really big birds) so presumably he would not really have liked them being reproduced on the internet - unless they could only be seen on huge screens the same size as the original page?
posted by Phanx at 4:49 AM on January 10, 2008
posted by Phanx at 4:49 AM on January 10, 2008
I'm glad to see this today. I'm home from work with a cold, and I love birds, and I don't have any particular book to read, and I don't have cable, and, well, this will be exciting to read. I agree, though, that it's sad the pictures are low-res.
Ah well.
posted by Stewriffic at 5:51 AM on January 10, 2008
Ah well.
posted by Stewriffic at 5:51 AM on January 10, 2008
Dis here Audubon, dis fella drew dem boids real nice. Real nice.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:17 AM on January 10, 2008
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:17 AM on January 10, 2008
Ooooh. What else is going to be fun to do is figure out how Audubon's bird names have changed over time. Like, what's the Louisiana Tanager called now?
Heading over to Cornell's All About Birds website to work on the puzzle. Fab. Again, thanks!!
posted by Stewriffic at 6:18 AM on January 10, 2008
Heading over to Cornell's All About Birds website to work on the puzzle. Fab. Again, thanks!!
posted by Stewriffic at 6:18 AM on January 10, 2008
Outstanding post. I have longed to see Audubon's plates online. Thanks, Kattullus!
posted by Lynsey at 10:12 AM on January 10, 2008
posted by Lynsey at 10:12 AM on January 10, 2008
The breeding site of the Great Auk that Audubon refers to is probably Funk Island (although that island is off the northeast coast of Newfoundland). One of my profs did research into Great Auk diet using bones that were/are still on the island.
Anyway, this is a great site. I'm going to have fun looking through them.
posted by hydrobatidae at 11:50 AM on January 10, 2008
Anyway, this is a great site. I'm going to have fun looking through them.
posted by hydrobatidae at 11:50 AM on January 10, 2008
It looks like the Louisiana Tanager is now called the Western Tanager, and doesn't even occur in Louisiana.
posted by hydrobatidae at 11:55 AM on January 10, 2008
posted by hydrobatidae at 11:55 AM on January 10, 2008
Thank look life-like because he killed them.
"I have never drawn from a stuffed specimen," Audubon claimed in 1828. "Nature must be seen first alive." Like nearly everything else he said about himself, this statement was, at best, a half-truth. Audubon killed thousands of birds; before photography and high-resolution binoculars, that was the only possible way to render accurate images of them. But before Audubon shot them, he watched his subjects intensively, noting how they moved and behaved, the plants or habitats they preferred. When he had his bird in hand, he used wires to arrange the specimen in a characteristic pose. [source: Time, P. Gray]
And incidentally, I am writing this about four houses down from James Audubon's Key West residence. In fact.
posted by humannaire at 3:01 PM on January 10, 2008
"I have never drawn from a stuffed specimen," Audubon claimed in 1828. "Nature must be seen first alive." Like nearly everything else he said about himself, this statement was, at best, a half-truth. Audubon killed thousands of birds; before photography and high-resolution binoculars, that was the only possible way to render accurate images of them. But before Audubon shot them, he watched his subjects intensively, noting how they moved and behaved, the plants or habitats they preferred. When he had his bird in hand, he used wires to arrange the specimen in a characteristic pose. [source: Time, P. Gray]
And incidentally, I am writing this about four houses down from James Audubon's Key West residence. In fact.
posted by humannaire at 3:01 PM on January 10, 2008
Key West, humannaire? Damn, I could use a little Key West right now. You lucky summuvvabitch!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:48 PM on January 10, 2008
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:48 PM on January 10, 2008
I hadn't realized Carolina Parakeets had been common in this area. Now I really feel deprived.
posted by dilettante at 5:08 PM on January 10, 2008
posted by dilettante at 5:08 PM on January 10, 2008
If you ever have the chance to see the elephant folios in person, do so. The books are 60-70 pounds, with leather-wrapped wood covers, and turning the pages takes half an hour and three people.
posted by djb at 6:53 PM on January 10, 2008
posted by djb at 6:53 PM on January 10, 2008
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