it directly with Audubon's own copy of The Birds of 

 America, which is held by the H.J. Lutcher Stark Foun- 

 dation in Orange, Texas: both of these sets have the 

 plates bound up in order by species rather than in the 

 normal plate number order, and both contain 13 extra 

 plates not present in other copies. The species order of 

 the plates in both these copies is based on the systematic 

 grouping of birds Audubon adopted in A Synopsis of the 

 Birds of North America (Edinburgh, 1839), written and 

 published after completion of The Birds of America. The 

 13 extra plates were specially prepared in 1838 for 

 inclusion in this systematic arrangement and both copies 

 were subsequently bound up in 1839. These distinctive 

 characteristics shared by the two sets are part of an 

 untold story of one of the most interesting chapters in 

 the history of Audubon's production of The Birds of 

 America. 



Unfortunately this story has been obscured by an 

 erroneous history of Field Museum's copy of 

 the folio that gained wide currency after 

 publication of Waldemar Fries's The Double 

 Elephant Folio. ' Fries believed he had traced the set to the 

 original ownership of Euphemia Gifford, cousin of Au- 

 dubon's wife, Lucy. The physical evidence from the Field 

 Museum copy, however, directly contradicts this notion 

 and the documentary evidence on which it is based. 



The Double Elephant Folio presents the results of 

 Fries's many years of travel and research in an attempt to 

 find and examine every extant copy of The Birds of ^ Amer- 

 ica. His study is indeed a useful compilation of informa- 

 tion on the location and condition of some 135 surviving 

 copies of the folio and Fries merits the respect he has 

 received for this pioneering fieldwork. But many of 

 Fries's attempts to trace the history of particular copies of 

 The Birds of America need to be carefully reexamined. 

 His conclusions about Field Museum's copy in particular 

 provide a clear case of the errors that result whenever 

 studies of provenance wander too far from the physical 

 bibliographic evidence at hand. 



The point of departure in this study of Field 

 Museum's copy of the Audubon folio was the evident 

 contradiction between bibliographic fact and the con- 

 clusions presented by Fries. The pursuit of a correct 

 explanation for the evidence led back through the trail 

 of documentary evidence cited by Fries to the discovery 

 that Audubon's and Field Museum's sets are two of three 

 special copies of The Birds of America that were prepared 

 8 under Audubon's directions for himself, his American 



friend Edward Harris, and his British friend Dr. Ben 

 jamin Phillips. The Harris copy seems no longer trace 

 able, but all the evidence suggests that it is the Phillip 

 copy that now resides at Field Museum. Retracing th< 

 route that led to this conclusion will involve first dispos 

 ing of the erroneous "Gifford provenance" and ther 

 relating the story of the thirteen extra plates and th< 

 origin of these two distinctive copies of The Birds o 

 America. 



Although there are a great many well-informed Au 

 dubon collectors and enthusiasts, and public awarenes 

 of Audubon's work is widespread, a description of th 

 manner in which most copies of The Birds of Americ 

 were produced and distributed will, nonetheless, pre 

 vide a useful background for the discussion of th 

 Museum's special copy. 



Audubon's plan for The Birds of America was im 

 pressive in scope: to depict all the birds of America i: 

 life-size images on 400 hand-colored, copperplate er 

 gravings to be offered to purchasers on a subscriptio: 

 basis. Each subscriber was to receive the prints in parts 

 or "numbers," of five plates each. On each print the pai 

 and plate numbers appear at the top: "No 1" is engrave 

 at the upper left corner of the first five prints, and th 

 consecutive plate numbers are engraved at the uppe 

 right, from "plate i" to "plate v" (Roman numerals wer 

 used for plate numbers, Arabic for part numbers) . Sub 

 scribers were to receive 80 of these numbers and alon 

 with every twentieth number would come an engrave 

 title page to be used in binding the plates into foL 

 volumes of 100 plates each. As the work was drawin 

 toward its conclusion in 1838, however, so many ne^ 

 birds were being discovered that Audubon was forced t 

 go well beyond the planned 400 plates. Ultimately, sut 

 scribers received a total of 87 numbers, or 435 plates. 



The five plates included in each of the numbei 

 were carefully selected to present an appealing variety c 

 images to subscribers as they received each new instal 

 ment. The principal distinction in appearance amon 

 the plates is related to the size of the birds depicted. Th 

 illustrations of the larger birds fill all or most of the sheei 

 while those of the smaller birds often have wide margir 

 around a small pictorial area. By including plates c 

 large, small, and medium-sized birds in each numbe 

 Audubon secured a broader appeal for his plates as h 

 canvassed for new subscribers. This was a shrewd mat 

 keting strategy, but resulted in a random order of th 

 birds in the final bound volumes. 



The original paintings that are reproduced in Th 

 Birds of America were often the result of a collaborativ 

 effort. Audubon himself painted the vast majority of th 



