Details - The birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories

The birds of America

Title

The birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories

By

Audubon, John James, 1785-1851
MacGillivray, William 1796-1852

Bowen, John T., approximately 1801-1856? , lithographer

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

New York, G.R. Lockwood, [1871], c1839

Notes

Issued in 100 parts, with 5 plates for each part.

"The last, or a reprint of the last, complete edition of Audubon's work on the birds of America. It is not dated ..."--Zimmer, J.T. Ayer Lib., p. 26.

The text is based on Audubon's descriptions of birds in his Ornithological biography (1831-1839), which was written with the assistance of William MacGillivray. The majority of the plates are based on those appearing in the double elephant folio ed., without text, London, 1827-1838, with some changes made to accommodate the reduced octavo size.

"C.A. Alvord, printer"--Verso of t.p.'s.

The plates have lithographed beige or aqua backgrounds with hand-colored details, and use block, rather than italic, lettering for the artists' and printers' attributions (both the colored backgrounds and the block lettering are identifying features for the later octavo eds.).

The plates were done after J.J. and J.W. Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly, and others, and printed and lithographed by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia.

Plate 187 in the text (Townsend's finch) is misnumbered as 188 on the plate, and plate 188 in the text (Brown finch) is misnumbered as 187 on the plate.

"John James Audubon" (a biographical sketch): v. 1, p. i-xv, following table of contents.