Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
One minute to pause and wonder at John James Audubon's monumental masterpiece, Birds of America; from Original Drawings, one of the crown jewels in McGill's Blacker Wood Natural History Collection.
Audubon painted 435 life-sized watercolours of birds. From the smallest hummingbird to the long-legged flamingo – his stunning illustrations were accurate down to the millimetre. His meticulous paintings were transformed into carefully hand-coloured copperplate etchings.
Each print from those plates is stunning for its detail, size, and the way it captures the life of the bird. To quote Don Boarman – “Audubon’s gift for observation… his attention to minute detail, his ability to spin a yarn in watercolour or in words, his gift of consciousness and emotion to the birds, and his tenacity have given the world not pictures… but portraits”. -- Foreword. Steiner, Bill. 2003. Audubon Art Prints: A Collector's Guide to Every Edition. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press.
Find out more about this stunning work: mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/8320196
Email us with research questions: rarebooks.library@mcgill.ca
Narration: Lauren Williams, McGill Library
Video Editing: Jacquelyn Sundberg, McGill Library
Appearing in video: Lauren Williams and Jacquelyn Sundberg
Filmed by: Elena Petkovic, McGill Communications Services
One minute to pause and wonder at John James Audubon's monumental masterpiece, Birds of America; from Original Drawings, one of the crown jewels in McGill's Blacker Wood Natural History Collection.
Audubon painted 435 life-sized watercolours of birds. From the smallest hummingbird to the long-legged flamingo – his stunning illustrations were accurate down to the millimetre. His meticulous paintings were transformed into carefully hand-coloured copperplate etchings.
Each print from those plates is stunning for its detail, size, and the way it captures the life of the bird. To quote Don Boarman – “Audubon’s gift for observation… his attention to minute detail, his ability to spin a yarn in watercolour or in words, his gift of consciousness and emotion to the birds, and his tenacity have given the world not pictures… but portraits”. -- Foreword. Steiner, Bill. 2003. Audubon Art Prints: A Collector's Guide to Every Edition. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press.
Find out more about this stunning work: mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/8320196
Email us with research questions: rarebooks.library@mcgill.ca
Narration: Lauren Williams, McGill Library
Video Editing: Jacquelyn Sundberg, McGill Library
Appearing in video: Lauren Williams and Jacquelyn Sundberg
Filmed by: Elena Petkovic, McGill Communications Services
