J.J. Audubon (1785-1851)
Snowy Owls
Published by The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee
Deeptone offset print, 1948, 21 ½” x 17 ½”
Donated by Nancy Fiske

Born to French parents in Haiti in 1785, artist and naturalist John James Audubon (1785-1851) grew up in the French countryside where he developed a love of wildlife, especially birds.  At 18, to avoid being drafted into Napoleon’s army, he came to America where he managed his family’s farm property near Philadelphia.  During the early 1820s, he produced 435 hand-colored engravings for The Birds of America, which he published first as large “double elephant” folios, and then as a smaller “octavo-sized” version, which included 65 additional plates.  By 1840 he had settled in New York City, and he made his final expedition to the western part of the country in 1843 for a book of mammals called The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, a collaboration with his friend the Reverend John Bachman.  By the time of his death in 1851, he had produced 150 hand-colored lithographs for Quadrupeds, which was completed posthumously by his sons, son-in-law, and Bachman.  The National Audubon Society was incorporated and named in his honor in 1905 to “conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.”

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