John James Audubon

1785-1851

Today is John James Audubon's birthday.  It took him eighteen years to create The Birds of America, a book of 435 images, with portraits of every bird then known in the United States – painted and reproduced in life size. 

The book was two feet wide and three feet tall, with hand-colored plates. It is known as the Double Elephant folio, after its double elephant paper size.  Over 50 colorists worked on the drawings in an assembly-line, and the cost of printing the entire work was $115,640 (over $2,000,000 today.)  Audubon was a good salesman with an engaging personality, and the book was paid for in advance by subscriptions, exhibitions, commissions and animal skins, which he hunted and sold.

It is considered the greatest masterpiece of ornithology. In 2010, an original copy of The Birds of American sold in London for $11.5 dollars, a record for any printed work. It was purchased by London book dealer Michael Tollemache, who said, “I think it’s priceless, don’t you?”

To put this in perspective, on the same day a copy of William Shakespeare's 1623 First Folio sold for (just) $2.5 million.