Ornithology Presentation

RECORDED PRESENTATION HERE

CORRECTION TO THE RECORDING: Volcher Coiter was a student of Andreas Vesalius', NOT of Aldrovandi's

Ornithology

Before the 17th century, interest in birds was mostly centered around folklore, proverbs, and symbolism, with the exception of falconry. Throughout the Middle Ages, birds were painted in illuminated manuscripts- sometimes stylized and sometimes naturalistically, but almost always serving as Christian symbols, not as subjects of scientific study.

Page from a 13th century Latin translation of Moamin's book

in the collection of Yale

Falconry is an ancient sport, and so it is not surprising that the first books on ornithology were written about falcons and other birds of prey.

Bas-reliefs from the 8th century BCE depicting men with falcons on their arms have been found in Assyria. The practice is thought to date back even further, possibly to ancient Egypt, circa 1500 BCE. Knowledge of the sport was transmitted to the Europeans through Islamic civilization and it grew in popularity throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.

European falconers were influenced by a treatise on the sport written in the 9th century by an Arabic author given the western name of Moamin, whose true identity remains unclear. His work was influenced by more extensive books about birds and their flight patterns by two of his contemporaries.

Maomin's treatise was written in five volumes that covered birds of prey in the first; thier diseases and treatments in the second and third; and training and care of hunting dogs in the final two.

His work was translated into Latin in the 13th century by the philosopher and naturalist, Theodore of Antioch, who served in the court of Frederick II. This treatise began to circulate throughout Europe, copied into the vernacular as it spread.

Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250)

Frederick II held many powerful positions. He served as the Holy Roman Emperor, the King of Sicily, of Italy, of Germany, and briefly, as the self-proclaimed king of Jerusalem. He was a leading figure in the political and cultural conflicts between the Papacy and the rising nation states of Europe and was excommunicated several times.

He was also a patron of the arts, sciences, and poetry. He ruled over the multi-cultural region of Sicily and was very interested in Arabic culture. He was introduced to falconry through personal contacts in the Islamic court. He became an expert falconer and helped correct the errors in Theodore's translation of Moamin's treatise.

Frederick then wrote his own book, De Arte Venandi cum Avibus, or The Art of Hunting with Birds, completed in the 1240s. He divided hunting into three categories. The first category addressed hunting with the use of inanimate objects, like bows and arrows, nets, snares, and other devices. The second category laid out the details of hunting with live animals, including dogs and other four footed animals and birds of prey; and the third category was a combination of the two.

In his opinion, hunting with falcons was the noblest form. He described the process of capturing and training falcons. They cannot be bred in captivity and so acquiring a falcon and learning to train one takes extraordinary patience and commitment.

His interest in studying falcons led to a more general interest in ornithology. He experimented with eggs to see if they could hatch in the warmth of the sun and even blind-folded vultures to see if they relied upon their sense of smell while hunting.

These illuminated manuscripts include illustrations of falconry techniques and of birds of prey with the specific birds and animals they hunt.

Frederick's book also includes descriptions of all the birds in his region, with notes on their nesting habits, diet, clutch size, physical attributes, and more.

His descriptions of bird flight and migratory patterns are still relevant and are notable because they were written at a time when improbable theories were abundant. For example, he expressed skepticism that the so-called Barnacle Goose came not from an egg but from the inside of the barnacles found on the shores of Ireland.

The Art of Hunting Birds is divided into six books that include the following:

habits and physical descriptions of birds
capturing and training birds of prey
various types of lures and their uses
hunting cranes with a gerfalcon
hunting herons with a saker falcon
hunting water-birds with smaller falcons

Historiated Initials: The large letters with paintings inside (left)

Drolleries: people or creatures painted into the margins (below)

from The Book of St. Albans, pub. 1486

The Book of St. Albans was an eight volume set devoted to the interests of "gentlemen" of the era, printed in 1486. It was edited and reprinted a century later by Gervase Markham and published in 1585 with the title The Gentleman's Academic.

The volume on the sport of hunting, which includes both falconry and weapons, was the first of its kind written in English and published with the title The Book of Hawking, Hunting, and Blasing of Arms.

The sections on falconry and birds of prey were written by Dame Juliana Berners. She covers the training and feeding of hawks and other birds of prey, as well as medicines to treat their ailments- including treatments for hawks that have lost their "lust and courage." Little is known of her life, but she was most likely born into nobility, considering her access to field sports and higher education. She was the prioress (position in a convent below the abbess) of the Priory of St. Mary of Sopwell.

The treatise on hunting with birds was informed by an earlier manuscript called The Booke of Hawkyng after Prince Edwarde King of Englande. It was intended as an owner's manual that provided an introduction to the technical language of falconry and practical information for the care of birds of prey. It also included the ranking of these birds and their human counterparts.

click here for more intriguing art on falconry

woodcut from a later edition of the The Book of St. Albans

The hierarchy of birds of prey and their human counter-parts

Emperor: eagle, vulture, merlin
King: gyrfalcon
Prince: gentle falcon: or a female peregrine falcon
Duke: falcon of the loch
Earl: peregrine falcon
Baron: buzzard
Knight: saker falcon
Squire: lanner falcon
Lady: merlin
Young man: hobby (a small, swift falcon)
Yeoman: goshawk
Poor man: male falcon
Priest or holy water clerk: sparrowhawk

According to the Book of St. Albans, this hierarchy had real world implications. Anyone caught hunting with a bird above their rank was punished with the loss of both hands. Harming a bird's nest or their eggs or young was also a crime. For example, one could spend a year in prison for destroying a falcon's egg. Poaching a falcon from the wild could result in the loss of both eyes.

When firearms were introduced to hunting, England introduced laws to protect falcons and other birds of prey.

Eleanor of Arborea (1340-1404)

This bird is named after Eleanor of Arborea- a highly-respected Sardinian judge who legislated protection for hawks and falcons in the Carta de Logu in 1392, passing one of the earliest-known bird-protection laws.

LEFT: Eleanora’s Falcon

Frontispiece from

Ulisse Aldrovandi's book on birds

Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605)

We've discussed Aldrovandi in the Collectors presentation, but his interests and contributions to natural history touch on multiple fields of biology.

He left home at sixteen to travel as a Christian pilgrim to Spain, France, and Jerusalem. He returned to Bologna to study logic, philosophy, law, and math, but ultimately devoted himself to natural history.

Aldrovandi was the first professor of natural history at the University of Bologna in Italy and established the botanical gardens there. He wrote extensively, though little of his work was published. He wrote a large, general book on natural history, called Opera Omnia. The thousands of drawings used to illustrate this encyclopedia were produced over a thirty year period by multiple artists. Many of the specimens were drawn from observing those in his collection, but others were copied from the work of Konrad Gessner.

Aldrovandi's writing included a three volume book about birds. He fairly accurately described their appearance, habitats, and habits, he included their usefulness to humans. He tried to classify them, dividing them first into categories that included dust-bathers, water-bathers, water birds, birds that "sing well," and birds that have "hard beaks.". He then sub-divided them into groups based on habitat, diet, and beak shape.

They were presented in his books according to "dignitas." Volume one opens with the eagle, which was associated with Saint John, used often in the iconography of the Habsburg empire, and found in many coat of arms of Italian nobility. The first volume also includes falcons and other birds of prey, parrots, ostriches, bats, and mythical birds like the gryphon and harpy.

The second book covers domestic birds, songbirds, and other small birds of the woods and fields and the third book covered aquatic and web-footed birds.

Aldrovandi studied the writings of Aristotle, Galen, and Pliny. He studied the behavior of living birds and observed dissections of others to study their anatomy. He occasionally conducted experiments to prove or disprove ancient theories. For example, he tested Pliny's assertion that cedar waxwings glowed in the dark by keeping one in his home for three months until satisfied that they did not glow.

However, his books are not purely scientific. Aldrovandi includes the roles of the birds and animals in mythology, proverbs, omens, moral tales, and symbolism.

Images from Aldrovandi's books on ornithology and chickens

Chicken breeding dates back to at least 2,000 BCE. Their ancestry can be traced back to four species found in the jungles of Southeast Asia, although the clade found in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas originated in India. After centuries of selection and breeding, there are approximately 350 combinations of physical traits recognized today.

Aldrovandi on Chickens, published in 1598, was a comprehensive book that compiled all available knowledge on domestic chickens that combined fact and folklore.

It included details on reproduction and embryology based on his experimentation and first hand observations. It also included notes on ancient and contemporary practices of artificial incubation, descriptions of flock behavior, and practical tips on housing and feeding. There were also notes on the beneficial effects of chickens upon humans and recipes for both food and medicine derived from chickens.

Along with all of this useful information was a section devoted to rare birdsin a chapter called "Freak Chickens." Many of the descriptions and illustrations were based on testaments provided by distant contributors.

Aldrovandi claimed that the image (left) of this rooster was based on one that he observed in the possession of Francesco I di'Medici. It was said to be a terrifying bird.

In his words,

"Its head was not adorned with a fleshy crest as with ordinary roosters, nor were its wattles fleshy; both were made of feathers similar to the apex on a helmet. It had in front two feathers, or rather the quills of feathers (for they were naked), standing up straight like two horns. There were also two others on each side of the beak near the nostrils; at their extremities were very thin feathers like bristles, together with another quill on top of the head, which almost from the beginning was adorned with the same kind of bristles. The colour of the entire body was rather dark; the roots of the feathers were white. The feathers were of such a form that they resembled scales over the entire body. Near the rump, where the tail grows forth, there was a round whitish tubercle. The tail was not made of feathers like that of birds, but was fleshy like the tail of quadrupeds – free of hairs, but with a lock at the extremity as usually is found in the tails of four-footed beasts. The lock was whitish. The tail was rather blue. The tibiae were covered with greaves or leggings."

Pierre Belon- (1517-1564)

Like a true Renaissance man, Pierre Belon pursued multiple interests. He studied medicine and botany, traveled extensively, wrote about nature based on observations, and dissected hundreds of birds. He wrote several books, including one on birds, one about trees, and two on fish, which included his extensive studies on dolphins and their embryos.

Through the study of human and bird skeletons, he became a pioneer in comparative anatomy and regrouped birds according to habitat and anatomical similarities. His six groups included: “birds of prey; water birds with “flat” feet; water birds without flat feet; ground-nesting birds of the field; small birds inhabiting hedges and thickets; and birds that range among several habitats.” His classification system has not held up very well over time.

Illustrations for Pierre Belon's book, L’Histoire de la nature des Oyseaux (Natural History of Birds) in 1555, by multiple anonymous artists.

He was eventually hired by the French government to travel through the Mediterranean on diplomatic missions and to study the flora and fauna described by the ancient Greeks. He collected the birds described by Aristotle and Pliny in order to try to match them to those of France and published L’Histoire de la nature des Oyseaux (Natural History of Birds) in 1555. Many of the illustrations were based on drawings done from field specimens. He credits the painter Pierre Goudet with developing the illustrations, though the woodcuts based on the originals were cut by several artisans.

Volcher Coiter (1534-76)

Dutch physician Volcher Coiter was a student of Andreas Vesalius'. He studied human and avian embryology, the nervous system and sensory organs, and osteology. His research into comparative anatomy covered amphibians, reptiles, birds an mammals. He made some important discoveries regarding the muscles, nerves, and glands of the eye.

Coiter was especially interested in birds and made some important observations, like recognizing that beak shapes were suited to specific diets and that shorebirds were able to walk on top of the mud without sinking because of the wide spreading of their toes. He produced many accurate studies of bird skeletons and their internal structures, included in his book, De Differentiis Avium (around 1572), that described skeletal structure and habits.

study of Birds of Paradise by Rembrandt, 1630

Study by Zacharias Wehme, c. 1580

Birds of Paradise

According to legend, birds of paradise lived in the air and subsisted on dew, falling to the ground when dead. They were associated with the divine and believed to provide invincibility to their possessors.

Europeans first became aware of these birds through a pair of skins with the legs removed that were prepared by natives of New Guinea and presented to the King of Spain in the 1520s. This gift helped perpetuate the myth that birds of paradise were heavenly creatures that glided through the air, subsisting only on dew, and falling to earth when dead.

Europeans only had access to preserved specimens, and so accepted this as fact for decades. Though full skins with feet intact became available by the early 1600s, artists and writers continued to portray the more romantic or fantastic versions.

Birds of Paradise were among the most highly prized objects in 16th century Europe. They were given as gifts between royalty, used in diplomatic arrangements, and highly sought after by the wealthiest collectors. Their ethereal beauty and extraordinary feathers contributed to the religious associations and mythology that developed around them.

This excerpt from a letter written by Maximilianus Transylvanus, who was the secretary to Charles V, and sent to the cardinal-archbishop of Salzburg in the 1520s gives us an understanding of the reverence for the birds of paradise. The letter, which I’m lifting from Rarities of These Lands, by Claudia Swan, describes the Maluku Islands, where the birds of paradise were made available only as diplomatic gifts from Moluccan rulers to European ones as means of negotiating trade agreements and establishing relationships. The birds therefore became emblems of power.

“One produces cloves, another nutmegs, and another cinnamon. All are near to each other, but small and rather narrow The kings began to believe that souls were immortal a few years ago, induced by no other argument than that they saw that a certain most beautiful small bird never rested upon the ground nor upon anything the grew upon it; but they sometimes saw it fall dead upon the ground from the sky. And as the Mahometans, who traveled to those parts for commercial purposes, told them that this bird was born in Paradise, and that Paradise was the abode of the souls of those who had died, these kings embraced the sect of Mahomet, because it promised wonderful things concerning this abode of souls. They call the bird Mamuco Diata, and they hold it in such reverence and religious esteem, that they believe that by it their kings are safe in war, even though they, according to custom, are placed in the front lines of battle.” (p194)

Willem van Aelst, “Hunt Still Life With a Velvet Bag on a Marble Ledge” (circa 1665)

Game Still Lifes

Game still-lifes produced in northern Europe in the 16th century symbolized wealth, as they reflected the aristocratic interest in hunting. And the genre evolved to include the exotic birds flooding into northern Europe through Dutch expansion in trade and colonizing efforts. Though there was not a large noble class in Holland, aristocrats and wealthy merchants purchased hunting still lifes as prestige symbols.

There was a large market for exotic birds which were kept as pets and they appeared often in painting. They were often painted from observation- dead or alive- which made the extraordinary textures and subtle color shifts possible. These paintings gave artists a chance to show off their skills in rendering a variety of textures, like velvet, feathers, horn, leather, and metals. In the midst of the Reformation and Counter Reformation, artists felt obligated to express the folly of materialism while also celebrating it.

Cornelius de Heem, Still life with Parrot, Basket of Fruits, and Flowers, 1640s

Caspar Netscher,

Woman Feeding a Parrot, with a Page, 1666

Many paintings of the Dutch Golden Age feature people, often women, with parrots. Birds were popular pets among the wealthy and these paintings focus not just on the luxurious interiors and exotic birds, but on the body language of both birds and humans and the interactions between them. In Dutch painting of this period, they were understood as metaphors for sexuality because the word for birding, “vogelen,” also meant to engage in sex. Birds inside the cage represented marital felicity and outside of the cage, freedom from constraints.

Roelandt Savery (1576-1639)

Savery was one of the most popular painters of his lifetime. He was a Dutch painter, summoned to Prague to become a court painter of Rudolph II, as were Arcimboldo and Hoefnagel. He studied plants and painted them in great detail in his landscapes.

As was common in this period, his settings referenced Eden or included glimpses of wealthy estates in the background- perhaps reflecting the setting where such menageries of imported species were kept. Savery was able to observe and sketch many live species, as Rudolph kept a large menagerie.

Savery is most famous for his paintings of the dodo- known to the Dutch from their exploration of Mauritius in 1598 . They landed on the island, bringing rats and monkeys with them, and within decades, every bird and egg had been eaten.

The last recorded sighting of the flightless bird was in 1662. Its extinction- caused by humans in less than a century- drew attention to the previously unrecognized potential of humans impact on a species and became a symbol of extinction.

“Ideal scene in the island of Mauritius before its discovery in 1598” lithograph by James Erxleben for Sir Richard Owen

Sir Richard Owen's Memoir on the Dodo, 1866

Sir Richard Owen was an English biologist, paleontologist, and one of the founders of the Natural History Museum in London, which he called the “cathedral of nature.” He recognized the difference between dinosaurs and reptiles and coined the term dinosaur. His religious convictions made him a fierce opponent of Charles Darwin.

Naturalists had been aware of the dodo through mariners’ descriptions of it, but its existence was not confirmed until a couple of centuries after its extinction.

A geologist and ornithologist named Hugh Strickland compiled all knowledge of the dodo, including accounts and illustrations from ships’ logs and contradictory notes on living and dead specimens that had been brought back to Europe. He collaborated with anatomist Alexander Melville and the two were given permission to dissect a head in the Oxford collection. Through this analysis they were able to confirm the theory put forward by a Danish professor named John Theodore Reinhardt that the dodo was a giant ground pigeon. Other naturalists had proposed that it was related to the ostrich, or an albatross or vulture, or a rail, and their theory attracted great interest from the scientific community and sparked a competition to acquire fossil remains.

Left: Dodo from Richard Owen’s Memoir of the Dodo (1866) illustrated by James Erxleben

Right: Johann Conrad Susemihl's dodo from Laurenz Oken’s natural history book, Allgemeine Naturgeschichte

Finally, in 1865, enough fossil remains of the dodo were found in Mauritius to describe the bird’s anatomy. Sir Richard Owen received or perhaps intercepted these remains and was able to publish a limited edition called Memoir on the Dodo. The illustrated book combined written accounts by those that had seen it in the early 17th century with deductions made from studying the fossils.

Owen mistakenly believed that Roelandt Savery had painted the dodo from observation, and so based his reconstruction of the bird on Savery’s painting. He traced Savery’s dodo and drew a skeleton into the silhouette, which resulted in a highly inaccurate reconstruction. The "Ideal scene" ilithograph in his book is a composite of Savery's dodo paintings.

Melchior de Hondecoeter

(1636-1695)

Hondecoeter painted birds in very lifelike poses and portrayed different species together in their true relative sizes- a departure from his contemporaries. He also composed images with birds entering and exiting the edges of the painting. Though he painted birds in motion, their postures were not always accurate.

His birds appeared lifelike and natural, but he grouped birds that would not be found together and placed them in landscapes filled with Italianate architecture and ancient ruins.

Francis Barlow (1626-1704)

Francis Barlow was a well-known British artist, famous for his illustrations of Aesop’s Fables, as well as his popular playing cards and political broadsides.

He traveled to the countryside outside of London to sketch and paint birds from observation and also used his access to the menagerie and aviary of King Charles II. King Charles kept free-roaming ostriches in his garden- he received 30 ostriches as a gift from a Moroccan ambassador.

Barlow’s depictions of birds reflected the public’s interest in the spectacle of the exotic on display and yet were, in most ways, reliable scientific representations of each species. The pyramid behind the ostrich hints at the arid climate they are accustomed to, and also evokes the sense of the exotic that the public desired.

He published two books on birds, including Birds and Beasts in Sixty-Seven Excellent and Useful Prints (1655), and Birds and Fowles of Various Species (1658). He painted in oils and used these paintings as the basis for the illustrations.

His paintings are often life-size and in oil- highly unusual for an artist preparing illustrations for engravers, as this was usually done small and in watercolor. Many of his birds were created by accumulated descriptions from previous writings, often enhanced by the first hand observations of Willoughby and Ray.

There are no surviving preparatory sketches, but it is assumed that he would have made several studies of the live birds, that would be in near-constant motion, and made notes on their size, proportions, color, and texture, and used this to inform his paintings.

He painted birds in motion, usually against a backdrop of classical ruins, and added symbolic animals to the scenes, such as the monkey- used to represent human folly and pride.

He also created many of the paintings which served as the basis for the engravers in the work of two members of the Royal Society of London, John Ray and Francis Willoughby, for their encyclopedia of birds.

Their intention in compiling “Ornithology” was part of the mission of the Royal Society to separate the ‘“knowledge of nature” from the “colors of rhetoric, the devices of fancy, or the delightful deceit of fables.”

Mark Catesby (1682-1749)

The influx of exotic plants and a broad interest in plants, flowers, birds, and insects led to a burgeoning garden culture in 17th century England. There was a particular interest in Virginia after the first English settlement was founded in Jamestown in 1607.

Mark Catesby was an Englishman interested in horticulture. He'd been introduced to a circle of prominent naturalists in London, including John Ray, and these connections would enable his future travels and research. After many years of making detailed notes and paintings, he published Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands in two parts, between 1729-1747.

He came to America in 1712 to visit his sister and stayed for seven years. During this period, he explored the southern US, documenting its flora and fauna. Several botanists had come from England to study indigenous plant species, in search of those with ornamental, scientific, economic, or medicinal value. Catesby was interested in the wildlife that depended on these plants and aspired to develop a comprehensive survey of native species.

He had some experience in water color painting but no formal training. He developed his skills through several years of working from observation. He returned to England with a wealth of new information. The naturalists in London were impressed with his work and sponsored a second trip to America to continue his research. When he returned to England the second time, he took a job as a horticulturalist and worked on his book, which would take twenty years to complete.

As was fairly common, it was up to Catesby to raise the money needed to publish the book. He exhibited his watercolors and issued a prospectus outlining his intentions, which included the names of the prominent naturalists who supported his efforts. This enabled him to earn subscribers, who paid in advance for a copy and helped offset the cost of production. However, to have the 220 copper plates engraved by a professional would have been prohibitive, and so Catesby learned the etching process from a professional and engraved the plates himself.

left: Eagle right: Nightjar

Catesby developed a personal style of etching. Rather than using the traditional method of cross-hatching, he followed the lines and contours of each form that he was drawing. This was a great innovation in illustration that influenced those that came after him. The specimens appeared far more natural, though the process was more difficult. He also depicted the plants associated with the birds that used them for nesting or food, which was an innovation in illustrating nature. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society for his contributions to the field.

Catesby's observations of species in the wild informed his approach to composition.Notice the narrative included in this illustration- it shows the eagle grabbing a fish out of mid-air, perhaps dropped by the osprey in the background. In the background is an Indian rowing a canoe.

The nightjar was well known in Europe . It digs a tunnel underground with powerful forelegs and resides there. It feeds on worms, insect larvae, and plant roots, and also eats insects while in flight.It is pictured with a mole cricket, but this is considered an unlikely part of its diet. Its scientific name, Caprimulgus, means goatsucker, based on the myth that it takes milk from goats. This name probably comes from the fact that nightjars are seen around pens or barns where animals are kept, probably attracted by the insects attracted to animal droppings.

The Ivory-billed woodpecker is about the size of a raven that Catesby probably saw in many parts of Florida and the Bahamas. By the 1970s it was believed to have gone extinct, though several unproven claims of a sighting have called that into question in recent decades.

A woodpeckers’ brain is protected from the shock of hammering into trees by three things that absorb the force:

a spongy type of bone in its skull
a long tongue that attaches between the eyes and wraps over the skull
thick neck muscles

left: Ivory-billed Woodpecker, by Mark Catesby

William Bartram (1739-1823)

William Bartram wrote Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, published in 1791. He was influenced by both the reason and experimentation of the Enlightenment era and the Romantic movement, which held that reason alone was not enough to understand the world. The Romantics valued imagination, emotion, and sensory experience as much as hard science. His writing was valued as much for his Romantic descriptions of nature as his scientific observations. He influenced poets Coleridge and Wordsworth, who used some of his phrases in their poems.

In his own words, he was “Continually impelled by a restless spirit of curiosity, in pursuit of new productions of nature, my chief happiness consisted in tracing the infinite power, majesty and perfection of the great ‘Almighty Creator’ ”

Bartram was born into a Quaker family in Kinsessing, Pennsylvania. His father, John, was well regarded in European horticultural and scientific circles for his trade in American plants and seeds and he was appointed the King’s Botanist in 1765. William went with his father on plant-hunting trips up and down the east coast of the British colonies of North America, drawing the flora and fauna and making notes along the way.

He studied at the Philadelphia Academy, which would become the University of Pennsylvania, but did not take drawing classes. He learned to draw by studying the books in his father's collection, which included the work of Catesby, Sir Hans Sloane, and George Edwards.

William Bartram

At age 34, William Bartram decided to strike out on his own to pursue his interests. He explored Georgia and Florida on foot, and by horseback, sailboat, and dugout canoe. He was exposed to storms, mosquitos, bears and alligators, and armed traders. Undaunted, he returned to the same regions to compare seasonal changes to the species he documented. At times, he lived with plantation owners or traders who would take him to visit Native American towns and settlements. His drawings of the Creek and Cherokee people are considered highly valuable for their accuracy.

William 's exploration of the southeastern colonies took place between 1773 and 1777- the time of the American Revolution. He understood the importance of developing scientific studies and institutions that were independent from England. He recognized the need for Americans to take an inventory of the flora and fauna for their own purposes. His travels were disrupted by the dangers presented by the fighting of the Revolutionary War and he returned to Philadelphia to concentrate on completing and publishing his book.

Alexander Wilson (1766-1813)

left: Passenger Pigeon and Goldfinch

middle: Carolina Parakeet

right: Woodpeckers

(middle) The Carolina Parakeet was hunted to extinction for its colorful feathers, which were used by hat-makers.

(left) The passenger pigeons traveled in flocks so large they were said to block out the sun when passing overhead. They were so numerous in the 18th century that they were thought to make up 25-40% of the bird population in the United States. Huge numbers were needed for optimal breeding purposes. Once pigeon meat was determined to provide a cheap source of protein, they were hunted to extinction.

Alexander Wilson is an important contributor to American ornithology and author/illustrator of American Ornithology, published between 1804 and 1814. His was the first scientific work on American birds, which included 264 of the 363 species known to the country at that time. Thirty- nine of the species he described were new to science and he described 23 of them in enough detail to differentiate them from their European relatives.

Wilson was born in Scotland. He apprenticed with a weaver, composing stories and poems as he worked. He published a piece of satire addressing poor working conditions in Scotland, was sent to prison for libel, and left for America once freed.

His trip by sea took 53 days, leaving from Belfast and arriving in New Castle, DE. From there, he walked to Philadelphia and was fascinated by the unfamiliar flora and fauna he saw along the way. He found work as a schoolmaster in Gray’s Ferry. There he met William Bartram and spent his free time in Bartram’s library, studying the work of Mark Catesby, George Edwards, and other famous European ornithologists. After observing American birds for a few years, he felt that he could correct the errors found in these works, and so decided to illustrate and publish his own book on American birds. He spent days hunting and collecting specimens in the field and evenings drawing and painting by candlelight, showing his work to Bartram for feedback.

He corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, sending some original drawings in hopes of getting a position as collector on the Zebulon Pike Expedition along the Mississippi in 1806, but Jefferson never received his artwork. However, Wilson found employment with the assistant editor of Rees’s New Cyclopedia, which covered the arts and sciences. The publisher was interested in Wilson’s bird project, with the condition that he financed it with a subscription service. This meant that he would have to find paying customers for each series of prints so that the publisher would be able to cover their expenses.

Wilson supplied original paintings to the printmakers, who made engravings from them. These were then hand-colored by a group of specialists.

He intended it to be a 10 volume work, with six books devoted to land birds and four to seabirds, but died at age 47 of dysentery while finishing the eighth volume. It contains very few errors and has still relevant accounts of migration patterns and bird behavior. Four of the species documented are now extinct, making the information especially valuable.

Wilson's plover, illustrated by John James Audobon

George Ord was a naturalist who lived in Philadelphia and was a member of the two important scientific societies of the era- the American Philosophical Society and the Academy of Natural Sciences. When Alexander Wilson died, Ord completed the last volume of American Ornithology for him. Ord wrote several descriptions for the last volume and named Wilson’s plover after his friend. Wilson collected the type-specimen in Cape May, NJ in 1816.

Sarah Stone (c.1760-1844)

Sarah Stone is one of the rare female natural history painters whose work has been preserved of the 18th century. She was hired by the Lever Museum in England to document the specimens and ethnographic items collected by British expeditions to the Americans, Africa, Australia, and the far East, including the objects gathered on Captain Cook's expeditions.

Stone was a self taught painter who learned some coloring tips from her father, a fan painter. Her paintings were exhibited in London in the late 1700s at many venues, including a show at the Royal Academy. She was hired as a colorist by John Latham to produce his General Synopsis of Birds, pub. between 1781-1801.

Illustrations by Johann Conrad Susemihl (1767-1847)

for Laurenz Okenfuss,

better known as Oken (1779-1851)

Oken was a German naturalist, ornithologist, botanist, and biologist. He was raised on a poor farm in Bavaria and became a renowned zoologist in the early 19th century. His book, Grundriss der Naturphilosophie, der Theorie der Sinne, mit der darauf gegründeten Classification der Thiere, or Outline of the philosophy of nature, the theory of the senses, with the classification of animals based thereon, established him as a leading voice of the natural philosophy movement in Germany. He also wrote a 13 volume book on natural history that covered fossils and geology, plants and animals, and human anatomy. It was published between 1833 and 1843 and included an additional volume of hand-colored engravings by Johann Susemihl. Most of the illustrations were based on published works of others, not first-hand observation.

Oken was a colleague of Goethe’s and Cuvier’s. He taught in Germany and Switzerland, founded and edited a highly respected journal, and wrote several books. He is also known for his theories on the laws of chemistry and physics.

In the early nineteenth century, scientific theories were still considered a branch of philosophy and were not constricted by experiments. Numerology was commonly used by natural scientists at this time and there was a particular interest in threes and fives. Oken published an influential essay that argued that all of nature could be organized along a scale that reflected the degree of the five sensory systems. He stated that there were five animal classes and that they could be classified by their sensory organs. According to Oken, they could be grouped as follows:

Dermatazoa, or invertebrates
Glossozoa, or fish- based on their tongue
Rhinozoa, or reptiles, for their nose
Otozoa, or birds, as their ear opens externally
Ophthalmozoa, or mammals, as they have all of the sensory organ

Johann Conrad Susemihl (1767 – 1847)

Johann Conrad Susemihl was a German artist and copperplate engraver recognized for his illustrations of natural history, landscapes, and architecture. There was a growing interest in illustrated books on ornithology and each country in Europe was eager to produce its own. Susemihl collaborated with several ornithologists to produce a book on the birds of Germany, and it was published between 1800 and 1817 with the title Deutsche Ornithologie.

He oversaw the production of this book, which involved several artists and engravers, including two of his children and his brother. The original paintings provided to the engravers were done from observing specimens provided by local hunters and other naturalists. The book included the usual descriptions of appearance, habitat and habits, diet, and nests.

Elizabeth Gould (1804-1841)

Though her husband John is more closely associated with the famous books of ornithology from the 19th century, it was Elizabeth's illustrations that made them remarkable.

John Gould (1804-1881) became interested in natural history through his father, who was the chief gardener at Windsor Castle under King George the III. John was trained as a gardener but had broader interests. He moved to London, worked as a taxidermist, and was hired as such by the Zoological Society of London, where he became the curator of birds.

John was a curator and taxidermist at the Zoological Society of London. The zoo received a shipment of rare birds from the Himalayas and John recognized the opportunity to make a mark on the world of ornithology. Many of these extraordinary birds were new to Western science.

He had recently married Elizabeth and recognized her artistic talents. She had received some drawing and painting lessons as part of a typical Victorian education. He planned to write the descriptions and asked Elizabeth to produce the illustrations. Shortly after their wedding, they began collaborating on the first of many books- Birds from the Himalaya Mountains.

She learned the complex skill of lithography from their friend, Edward Lear, famous for his limericks. Lear was one of the leading lithographers in Britain at the time and it was a relatively new technology. Incidentally, she was several months pregnant while working on this book. She drew the Himalayan birds from the taxidermied specimens and so they are naturally rather stiff and drab when compared to the living birds. Still, her lithographs are gorgeous and the book was very successful.

When she worked on their next book, The Birds of Europe, (pub. 1832) she painted from live birds and included local botany and landscapes into the background. Her talent was recognized by contemporary ornithologists and naturalists, even though today her contributions are overshadowed by her husband’s.

When Charles Darwin returned from the Galapagos in 1837, he asked the Goulds to identify the species he’d collected. They would then produce an illustrated book of Darwin's research from the Galapagos, called Zoology of HMS Beagle, edited by Darwin and published between 1838 and 1843. Elizabeth illustrated the finches that contributed to Darwin’s theory of evolution.

They next set out to document the birds of Australia. They brought their youngest son with them and left the other three with family. Over the two year period in Australia, Elizabeth gave birth to their fifth surviving child and worked around the clock to produce hundreds of sketches of birds and plants to document many species unknown to western ornithologists.

Unfortunately, she died a year after returning to England at just 37 years old. In the previous 11 years she produced around 650 lithographs that would cement her husband’s reputation in the field of ornithology. The Birds of Australia was published eight years after her passing and included 84 of her color plates, with the Gouldian Finch named in her honor.

John continued to publish new collections illustrated by other artists.

Edward Lear (1812-1888)

Edward Lear, the poet most famous for his limericks and his book, The Owl and the Pussycat, was also a naturalist and highly skilled artist who painted landscapes, birds, and animals. He began painting living parrots at the London zoo when he was 18. He went on to develop a book on parrots, based on studies that he made of parrots in private menageries. His book was a financial failure, but he was an accomplished artist who developed hand-colored lithographs for other ornithologists, including John Gould.

John James Audobon (1785-1851)

John James Audobon was born in Santo Domingo to unwed parents. He was considered illegitimate, and so his father sent him to France to live with family when he was just three years old. He then came to Pennsylvania in 1803 to oversee his family's property in Mill Grove and avoid conscription in Napoleon's army.

Audobon was adventurous and loved the outdoors. He studied books on natural history, copied illustrations from the Compte du Buffon's book, and drew from observation. For a short while, he found work drawing portraits to support his family, but there were simply not enough wealthy patrons in Pennsylvania at the time to make this a reliable source of income. Like Bartram, he was influenced by both the Romantics and the Enlightenment era thinkers. He saw birds as representing a parallel universe to human experience and was inspired by La Fontaine's Fables.

He met Alexander Wilson, who recognized his talents and encouraged him to publish his paintings of birds. According to contemporary reports, Audobon was very critical of Wilson and believed he could create better work. He hunted birds, as was the norm, but used an unusual and sometimes extremely cruel technique to aid his drawing process. He painted a large grid on a wooden board, and used the grid to guide his understanding of the shape of the bird. He then stretched the bird, including live ones at times, across the grid and fastened it into position in order to put or trap them in life-like poses. When possible, he included elements of the landscape that indicated their habitat.

Audobon was said to be rather difficult to get along with, which may explain why he was not embraced by the scientific circles in Philadelphia. He was concerned about deforestation and in 1841, wrote to the Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, to propose the formation of a Natural History Institution. Audobon then suggested that he be put in charge of this organization, but he did not receive a reply.

Given his lasting influence, it's hard to believe the great lengths that Audobon had to go to in order to have his book published. It was a years long project that required extraordinary commitment and effort. Audobon couldn't find an engraver in Philadelphia willing to put up the expense of publishing his work, so he sailed to England. Once there, he mounted exhibitions of his watercolor paintings to develop interest in the series and then charged admission to the shows to build up funding. Though his work was well received, it took several years to get the who series of prints produced. They were especially expensive to produce because of their size- an unusual 26 by 40 inches, which he chose so that he could show the birds at life size. He stayed in England for many months, living his wife and children to fend for themselves back in America, so that he could oversee production of the plates.

Production finally began at a printshop in Edinburgh, but the colorists went on strike after the 10th plate was printed and he had to find another. He finally met a collaborator, named Robert Havell, Jr., who used etching and aquatint and then hand-coloring to mimic Audobon's original paintings as closely as possible.

lithograph by Joseph Wolf (1820-1899)

for author Daniel Giraud Elliot (1835-1915)

Little is known about Ellio's personal life, but he was a scientific founder of the American Museum of Natural History (1869) , which includes his personal collection of North American birds. He made multiple trips to South America, the Middle East, and Europe to study and collect specimens, usually traveling for years at a time. He published hundreds of papers, including many folio (full sheet of paper) sized monographs on mammals and birds. He was influenced by the work of Audubon.

He compiled the available information about each species in a group and added new information whenever possible. His first passion was birds, but he was also interested in cats, and eventually went to work as curator of zoology for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He wrote countless articles and many books, including catalogs on North American mammals.

Elliot studied birds in the wild and in the museums and libraries. His research was made possible by wealthy sponsors. He assembled his collection through dealers and from the collections of royalty and the wealthy. He traveled to Europe, Turkey, Palestine, West Indies, Egypt, and Brazil and also to the Olympic Mountains in Washington state, bringing back large numbers of specimens and copious notes. His monograph on the birds of Paradise was published as a series of hand-colored lithographs by artist Joseph Wolf. The hand-coloring was done by John Douglas White. It is unusual for a single person to be responsible and credited with the hand coloring.

Joseph Wolf

Joseph Wolf was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He was recognized for his ability to painting animals in life-like gestures and for paying close attention to the texture and patterns of their feathers. He was the preferred illustrator for prominent naturalists like Alfred Wallace, David Livingstone, John Gould, and Henry Walter Bates.

Johannes Gerardus Keulemans (1842 – 1912)

Johannes Kuelemans was a Dutch artist who collected animal specimens for the museum in Leiden. The director sent him on an expedition to West Africa in 1864. He collected birds there and in Principe and Cape Verde and afterwards moved to England. He illustrated numerous important books on birds, written by others. He produced between 4 and 5 thousand illustrations of birds and other animals and insects, usually in lithography. He did the drawing onto the litho stone, which would be printed in black ink. At this time, the coloring was done by semi-skilled laborers. If the depicted colors did not match those of the birds, the value of the finished product was diminished.

the art of Prachtwerk, written by Emil Schachtzabel and illustrated in lithography based on the paintings of Anton Schoner, pub. in 1906

Emil Schachtzabel was a German government administrator with a passion for birds. He was appointed president of the Federation of German Poultry Breeders, but is best known for his reference book, Magnificent Illustrated Work of All Pigeon Breeds.

The lithographs were based on the watercolor templates by Anton Schoner. Expansion and improvements to the postal service and to train and shipping networks of the late nineteenth century allowed pigeon breeders to access more birds for their crossbreeding experiments, which led a wide variety of colors and plumage in pigeons.

Evidence of pigeon breeding dates back 5,000 years, to cuneiform tablets in Mesopotamia and it is believed to go back even as far as 8,000 BCE. Their homing ability made pigeons useful in delivering messages, which was crucial in times of war. When the New World was colonized, they were used as a source of protein and for delivering messages. By the 18th century, Europeans became interested in breeding them. Schachtzabel's book demonstrates the variety of plumage and colors that emerged through the breeding process.

Pauline de Courcelles Knip (1781-1851)

Pauline de Courcelles Knip borrowed from the work of ornithologist Coenraad Temminck's study of pigeons to develop her illustrations for his book on the Natural History of Pigeons and Gallinules. She produced 147 images for the engravers to work from. She also painted porcelain at the Sevres factory in Paris.

Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio by Genevieve Estelle Jones

Jones became interested in nests and eggs as a child, as she and her father (with the help of his cocker spaniel) collected them for his cabinet. This led to her broader interest in ornithology. When she tried to locate and identify a nest she had found in one of their natural history books, she could not find an illustration. After seeing Audobon's Birds of America on display at the Centennial World's Fair in Philadelphia, Jones decided to create her own book of illustrations of the nests and eggs missing from this work. She learned to paint from her mother and when Genevieve died of typhoid before completing the book, her mother would take over and complete the last of the illustrations.

The book was very well received and earned praise from her contemporaries.

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