Audubon's 



»<•! 



The Birds of America 



and the remarkable htelory of field museums copy 



by Benjamin W. Williams 



Associate Librarian and Librarian, Special Collections 



Engraving of Audubon. From The Life of John James 

 Audubon, the Naturalist. 1894. 



John James Audubon's The Birds of America 

 (published in London, 1827-1838) is the most 

 famous and most magnificent of all the great 

 hand-colored bird books. Field Museum 

 Library received its copy* of the Audubon folio in 1969 

 as the gift of Mary W. Runnells, and since 1970 on a 

 rotating basis, one of the four volumes of the set is always 

 on public display in the Museum's North Lounge. Since 

 1981, the volumes not on display have been housed in 

 the Library's Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room, 

 construction of which was made possible by Trustee and 

 Mrs. John S. Runnells, whose continued support of the 

 Rare Book Room has further enhanced the significant 

 collections housed there. 



The Library's set is one of the finest copies of 

 The Birds of America in existence, with the binding and 

 paper in an excellent state of preservation and the 

 plates colored with a care and richness that few other 

 copies can match. Certain other characteristics of Field 

 Museum's copy make it even more exceptional and link 



"The terms "copy," "set," and "folio" are used interchangeably 

 to mean a complete, usually bound, example of The Birds of 

 America, including at least the normal 435 plates. 



