Call Number:

C0006

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 6 boxes
• 6 volumes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); John James Audubon Collection; Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1788-1970 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Audubon, John-James, 1785-1851

Form:

Correspondence -- 19th century and Manuscripts -- 19th century.

Abstract:

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was a nineteenth-century ornithologist, artist, and naturalist who published his illustrations of American birds and quadrupeds. This collection includes several original manuscripts, transcripts and photostats of manuscripts, correspondence of John James and Lucy Bakewell Audubon (originals and copies), and other printed materials related to Audubon, which have been assembled from various sources.

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was an ornithologist, artist, and naturalist, best known for his drawings and paintings of North American birds. Audubon was born Jean Rabin Fougère in Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (now Haiti), the son of Captain Jean Audubon, a French sea captain, plantation owner, and enslaver, and Jeanne Rabin (or Rabine), a French chambermaid. Later in his childhood he moved to France, and when he was 18, he moved to the United States to manage Mill Grove, his family's farm outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He married Lucy Bakewell, the daughter of a neighboring landowner in 1808. Audubon began to develop an interest in North American birds as he unsuccessfully moved through careers as a mine owner, a shopkeeper, and a businessman. Eventually settling into whatever odd jobs he could obtain, Audubon began seeking a printer in Europe to publish his drawings of American birds. In 1838, Audubon finally published his The Birds of America through publisher Robert Havell of London. From 1839 until his death in 1851, Audubon remained primarily in New York, working on another edition of his book and a new book, Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, with his sons.

Consists of materials created by and related to John James Audubon (1785-1851) that were collected from various sources. These include original manuscripts and correspondence, photostat copies and transcripts of additional manuscripts and correspondence, printed materials relating to Audubon's life and work, and files pertaining to a 1959 Princeton University Library exhibition titled "The World of John James Audubon." Much of this material was assembled by Dr. Howard C. Rice, Jr., former head of Special Collections at Princeton University Library.

Original Audubon manuscripts include several descriptions used in his Ornithological Biography (Edinburgh: A. Black, 1831-1839); manuscript descriptions to accompany plates 1-7, 10, 13-17, 19, 23, 25, 28, 31-32, 34, 36, 38, 40-41, and 45 in his Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (New York: J. J. Audubon, 1845-1848); and over 50 letters by Audubon to Lucy Bakewell Audubon (his wife), John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford Audubon (his sons), Robert Havell (the English engraver of Birds of America), and others. In addition, there are original letters by Lucy Bakewell Audubon, John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford Audubon, John and Julia Bachman, members of the Bakewell family, and Francis Herrick. Accompanying an 1834 letter to Robert Havell is also an original proof for "Summer Red Bird" (plate 44) in Birds of America.

More than 30 photostat copies and 6 bound volumes of Howard Corning's transcripts extend the collection's coverage of Audubon's correspondence. Corning's transcripts also cover Audubon's journals from 1820-1821 and 1840-1843. Subject files of printed materials include clippings, pamphlets, catalogs, and related correspondence pertaining to exhibitions about Audubon, his life in Florida, Robert Havell, portraits by and of Audubon, and Mill Grove, Audubon's Pennsylvania estate. Material related to Princeton's 1959 comprehensive Audubon exhibition includes related correspondence, publicity, and research files.