Happy Birthday John James Audubon

John James Audubon 1826

by Chuck White

“Apparently before hunting birds, this fellow made careful observations of their migrations, nests, and mating habits. After he killed them, he made careful observations of what they tasted like.” – wikiality.wikia.com/Scientist

Within five years of settling just outside of Philadelphia he married his neighbor’s daughter Lucy Bakewell and bake well she did. They first welcomed two sons and later two daughters who both died very young – one at the age of two and the other just short of her first birthday. So, this first confirms that JJ had a thing for the ladies. It was during this time that Audubon began shooting birds – with a gun (pre-camera) – and then wiring them into poses so that he could capture them on canvas.

In the coming years, Audubon was dealt with a series of life twists. He stabbed someone in Philly but escaped jail time with a self-defense plea – only to land in debtor’s prison – and began moving the family around from Pennsylvania to Ohio and then Kentucky. He never however took his eye off the prize. He continued to stay committed to his naturalist ways.

“I concluded that perhaps I could not do better than to travel and to finish my collection of The Birds of America.” – John James Audubon

“I wish I had eight pairs of hands, and another body.” – John James Audubon

On October 12, 1820, Audubon left the family in Cincinnati and headed to New Orleans on a flat boat down the Ohio River. On board he brought his most prized possessions, his thirteen year old assistant, Joseph R. Mason, a former student. They would soon form a symbiotic relationship by which Audubon would paint the birds and Mason, whose forte was painting branches and leaves, would come in afterwards and fill in the backgrounds. On January 7, 1821, seven hundred miles and three months later, Audubon and Mason arrived in The Big Easy.

“It was a hot, sultry day” – from John James Audubon’s journal in reference to the day they arrived.

The Room shared by Audubon & Mason

Soon Audubon and Mason moved to just outside New Orleans to Bayou Sara where Audubon had accepted a tutoring job on the Oakley plantation as a teacher for the owner’s young daughter, Eliza Perry. For board, the two were given a tiny bedroom underneath a staircase in the rear of the master’s quarters which they were to share. In their spare time they continued catching birds and immortalizing them with paint and brushes. Mason would collaborate with Audubon on more than fifty pieces  during this time (considered by many to be Audubon’s renaissance era) before returning home to Ohio.

Audubon’s masterwork, “The Birds of America” began being published as a series of sections beginning in 1827 and ending in 1838.

“Reader, if you have not been in such a place, you cannot easily conceive the torments we endured.” – John James Audubon

In November of 1831, Audubon arrived in St. Augustine to begin a six month journey down the east coast of Florida and into the Florida Keys to document the birds of Southernmost United States. During his Keys’ run, he visited Indian Key, Sandy Key before spending a week in Key West. He was soon off to the Dry Tortugas. He returned to Key West briefly before heading north to Charleston on a cutter.

John James Audubon died on January 27, 1851 in poor health and suffering from senility.

Today in Key West is the Audubon House & Tropical Gardens and located at 205 Whitehead Street and its’ history is an interesting combination of myth and folklore.

Key West Pigeon or Dove by Audubon

According to the Audubon House website, “Audubon visited the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas in 1832. Audubon left Key West having sighted and drawn 18 new birds for his “Birds of America” folio. It is believed that many of those drawings were conceived in the Audubon House garden. Audubon’s painting of the white-crowned pigeon features the Geiger tree found in the front yard of the house.”

Much of this tale is rebuked in an excellent, well-researched dissertation on Audubon’s Key West stay found here. This should not stop you from visiting the Audubon House gardens and Gallery for it is a treasure trove of great Audubon first edition works and Key West history.

In a radiofreekeywest.com telephone interview with Key West’s gay marketing guru, Steve Smith, it was revealed, “Nope. I never heard that one before. It’s definitely not in the script for the Gay Trolley Tour but sometimes the guides do stray. I’ve heard on the other hand stories about Ernest Hemingway being gay but I wasn’t there. Neither were you, Bubba.”

Visit the Aububon House of Key West at www.audubonhouse.org