Jessica Crabtree

April 26, 1785: Birth of John James Audubon

Audubon could aptly be called the “Bird Man of the Early American Frontier.” Born in Haiti, raised in France, and devoted to his adopted American homeland, he became a world-famous icon of the wilderness. His natural sketches comprise perhaps the world’s greatest illustrated volume.

Audubon was born Jean Rabin, the illegitimate son of a naval officer and plantation owner in the French Caribbean. He was reared in France from his early years after his father took him to live with his stepmother in Nantes. When she formally adopted the elder Audubon’s children in 1794, young Jean received the name Jean Jaques Fougere Audubon (which he later anglicized upon coming to the US).

As a young man he was charming, inquisitive, athletic, with strong interests both in the arts and the natural world. His father encouraged these pursuits but also intended him to become a sailor. Young Audubon was prone to seasickness and had little aptitude for math or navigation; and when faced with the military draft upon the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, his father helped him immigrate to the US covertly, where he had arranged a joint venture in the hopes of launching his son’s business career.

John James Audubon, as he was now known, aged 18, settled in Pennsylvania and promptly fell in love with the American wilderness. The place held many attractions for him: the vigorous frontier life appealed to his sense of adventure; he formed many important relationships, including that with his future wife; and above all he was overwhelmed by the lush natural beauty of his new home, prompting his childhood fascination with birds and other animals to grow into a naturalist’s passion.

He made painstaking observations of the region’s bird life and carried out detailed studies to learn about their behaviors. Among these experiments were some of the earliest documented uses of bird-banding. He became an expert in taxidermy and amassed a huge collection of specimens.

On a trip to Philadelphia, he visited Charles Willson Peale’s museum of natural history and determined to make a visual record of his own natural studies. (continue reading…)