Fashioning A Future


The Legacy of Audubon

The plumage of the birds sparkle with nature’s own tints; you see them in motion or at rest, in their play and in their combat, in their anger and their affection, singing, running, asleep, just awakened, beating the air, skimming the waves, or rending one another in their battles… this picture of a nature so lusty and strong, is owing to the brush of a single man…

~ Critic Philarète-Chasles, about John Audubon

John Syme, John James Audubon (1826).
The White House Historical Association.
During the early 19th century, American naturalist John James Audubon traveled over much of the United States documenting its diverse birdlife. Audubon was a skilled painter with a talent for capturing the essence of his subjects. He depicted birds amid their natural surroundings, exhibiting lifelike poses and behaviors, such as feeding their young. This unique approach is represented in his masterwork, Birds of America (1827-1838), which set a new standard for natural history publications.

It seems ironic that as a transplanted French colonial who spent much of his time shooting birds with his rifle, John Audubon would ultimately inspire an American conservationist movement. However, by presenting birds in a way that accentuated their activities in life, Audubon began to change long-standing sensibilities that often treated birds as objects to be exploited for sport and decorative purposes.

Among those influenced by Audubon’s work was naturalist George Bird Grinnell, a founder of modern conservation in the United States. Defining conservation as the preservation and management of the natural world for generations yet unborn, Grinnell became a leading figure in the protection and restoration of American wildlands. In 1886, he organized the first Audubon Society, and nine years later, the New York Zoological Society, now the Wildlife Conservation Society.


John James Audubon, Carolina parakeets (1833).