Letter to the Editor

Audobon: Recovering from disaster

Friday, March 13, 2015

Dear Editor,

John James Audubon (1783-1851) made his living drawing portraits and teachIng music. His wife was a governess and a teacher.

At an early age, he was taken by ship from Los Cayes, Domingo (now Haiti) to France by his father. His mother was a creole and his father was a French sea captain. His mother died when he was young.

A total of 435 engravings have been made from his water colors. Today, he is remembered as a famous ornithologist and painter of all types of American birds.

Unable to find a publisher for his artwork, he went to Scotland and England.

While he was away on this business trip, a box of more than 200 of his drawings of beautiful birds had been destroyed by rats that chewed through the paper.

He was devastated. The potential income from selling them was gone. Replacing them would take months, even years of dedicated effort. His discouragement caused him to become deeply depressed.

Then he decided that this attitude would have to change. Packing up his notebook and pencils, he went out into the woods and began sketching birds that he observed. Suddenly he was drawing them even better than he had previously.

After experiencing a major setback, Audubon moved forward. The Birds of America (1827-1839) is now one of the best ornithological works ever produced. In his lifetime, he identified 25 new species of birds.

In 1845, Audubon made his last trip along the Missouri River drawing birds

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska

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