John James Audubon was an American artist and naturalist who lived in the 19th century. A naturalist is a person who is an expert in nature, plants or animals. At the time he lived, there was no profession known as “naturalist”. His drawings were the first record of the birds found in America at that time. His book of drawings, Birds of America was greatly popular, especially in England.
Audubon was born in April, 1785 on the island of Haiti. His father was a Frenchman. His mother was a native of Haiti and she died when he was a baby. His father sent him to France where his wife lived. She was kind to young John and took care of him when he was growing up. Audubon had no interest in school as a child. Instead he wanted to spend all his time exploring the outdoors. When he was 18, Audubon’s father sent him to America to earn a living.
Finding his callingIn America, Audubon tried his hand at different businesses but they all failed. All he wanted to do was roam the woods and discover plants and animals that lived there. At this time he met a young woman named Lucy Bakewell and married her. After his store went out of business in 1819, he gave up trying to be a businessman. He now had time to study nature and paint. His wife, Lucy ran a school to support the family.
Before drawing or painting birds, Audubon would first kill them, and then arrange them into a natural position. This seems like a terrible thing to do but because he studied each bird closely before drawing it, his watercolour pictures were more life-like and scientific than any earlier pictures. Audubon tried to publish his pictures in the form of a book, but he did not succeed at first. He did not give up and took his pictures to England, where people were interested. This was the first time that people in England could see American birds in their natural surroundings. His book called Birds of America was published by an English publisher in 1827.
After the success of his book, Audubon became famous as a “man of science”. He encouraged younger scientists in their work. Audubon was the first to tie coloured strings on birds to tag them to track their movements and habits. Scientists today also tag birds and animals to study them.
John James Audubon died in January, 1851. Some years later, a student of his wife Lucy, George Bird Grinnell, was concerned about the number of birds that were being hunted for their feathers. He founded a society dedicated to the preservation of birds and named it after Audubon. Today the National Audubon Society is a major bird conservation society and prints wonderful nature guides in the US.
Check out Audubon’s paintings from Birds of America on this website: www.audubon.org/birds-of-america .
