Overview
Correspondence and manuscripts of American ornithologist and artist John James Audubon.
Dates
- Creation: 1813-1880, (bulk) 1828-1855.
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
1.25 linear feet (3 boxes)Contains professional correspondence, mostly letters from Audubon to Robert Havell, Jr., the English engraver for The Birds of America; John Bachman, the naturalist with whom Audubon collaborated on Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America; and Thomas Mayo Brewer, the ornithologist and oðologist; also letters from Audubon's wife, Lucy, and son, Victor, to Havell and Bachman; letters from Brewer to Bachman; and some correspondence with other naturalists. Also includes a few manuscript drafts by Audubon for his Ornithological Biography and some financial papers.
The final series includes 2 typescript transcript volumes [item (378)] of the "Audubon-Bachman Correspondence, 1833-1855".
Biographical / Historical
Audubon was an American artist and ornithologist.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Correspondence
- II. Miscellanea
- III. Transcripts
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
42M-2089. Deposited by Museum of Comparative Zoology; received: 1941.
- Title
- Audubon, John James, 1785-1851. John James Audubon papers, 1813-1880: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00325
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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