John James Audubon was born on April 26, 1785. He was born in Les Cayes, Haiti. John’s mom’s name was Jean Audubon. She died shortly after Audubon’s birth. His father’s name was Jeanne Rabin a Spanish Creole from Louisiana. A couple of years after his mother died John’s father remarried and John got a stepmother. His stepmother’s name was Anne Moynet. At an early age Audubon loved wildlife and loved to draw wildlife. At age 18 Audubon was sent to Pennsylvania to avoid conscription in Napolean’s army and start a family farm at Mill Grove near Philadelphia.

John Audubon fell in love with and married Lucy Bakewell in 1808. When Audubon was 35 he made “The Birds of America” . He produced 435 sketched engravings and publishing double elephant folios [followed by a smaller octavo-sized, version.] John lived in Europe trough 1827 to 1829 while initiating the engraving process for “The Birds of America”, through Robert Havell of London. In Edinburgh, London, the Scientific Honary societies, acclaimed his work as the highest quality. He developed a noble and royal patronage.

In 1840 Audubon took over the publication of “The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America.” In 1843 Audubon and his four assistants embarked on a journey up the Missouri River, to collect information and images of western mammals. On this adventure Audubon had drawn 61 species. This exposition proved scientifically disappointing to John Bachman. But besides that 150 hand-colored lithographs were published in both an imperial folio.

John James Audubon died on January 27 in 1851 in New York at the age of 76 with plates for the Quadrupeds, but with not all of the text fully completed. Because of Audubon we save and protect animals out in the wild. By the time he died Audubon had published at least 10 books on birds. He was a very talented drawer; he was also a naturalist, painter, and an ornithologist. Audubon also painted, catalogued, and described all of the birds of North America. Audubon loved wildlife. Today we still think of, and thank John James Audubon.

Bibliography

• Website: www.bbhc.org/audubon

Name of article: Biography

Publisher: Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Date: Updated in 2004, January

• Website: www.wikipedia.org/audubon

Name of article: John James Audubon

Publisher: Wikipedia

Date: Updated in 2008, January

• Book: World Book Encyclopedia A Volume 1

Name of article: Audubon, John

Publisher: World Book, Inc.

Date: 1989, Copyright 1990