United States
£ GBP
John James Audubon's Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America is the largest and most significant colour plate book produced in the United States in the nineteenth century, and a fitting monument to the genius of America's most famous ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. Measuring an impressive 27¾ × 21¼ inches, the Quadrupeds was published in 1845-48 as a three-volume elephant folio broadsheet edition, the artist's final great natural history work and the first single publication to document America's animals.
Audubon's Last Wilderness Journey reproduces all one hundred and fifty original lithographic prints in colour, with a timeline of Audubon's life and career. Essays by noted experts in art history, wildlife science, and ecology put this remarkable work in context, explaining its technical, artistic, and scientific importance and legacy. They consider the enduring zoological and ecological significance of the Quadrupeds folios, including their scientific value to issues such as classification, and how our relationship towards nature has changed since the 1840s.
Audubon's Last Wilderness Journey additionally includes transcripts from the journal kept by Edward Harris, cashier to the 1843 expedition, describing the everyday details of their journey and the animals they encountered, as well as a letter, written in 1851, from Audubon's son Victor to Harris, detailing the circumstances of his father's death.
This entire work is a remarkable record highlighting the wider importance of the North American wilderness and the significance and beauty of Audubon's detailed illustrations.. This exceptional new volume will have serious appeal to the general public and to art historians, scientists, environmentalists, scholars, researchers, and academics alike.
- Introduction
- The Making of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America by Ron Tyler
- Set in Stone: The Use of Lithography for Audubon's Quadrupeds by Dennis Harper
- Modernization of Natural History: From Audubon to Now by Sarah Zohdy
- Human-Wildlife Interactions by James B. Armstrong
- On the Scientific Value of Quadrupeds by Robert Gitzen
- The Shifting Views of Nature and Wildlife by Christopher A. Lepczyk
- The Quadrupeds Portfolios
- Timeline by Daniel Patterson
- Bibliography by Scott Bishop
- Checklist
- Index
Ron Tyler is the former director of the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX. Charles T. Butler is the former executive director of the Columbus Museum, GA. Dennis Harper is curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University, AL. Daniel Patterson is professor emeritus of English Language and Literature, Central Michigan University. Sarah Zohdy, Chris Lepczyk and Robert Gitzen are assistant professors at the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University. James Armstrong is a professor at the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University.
