iyO Deane, Unpublished Letter of Audubon. [~Apr 



A HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF 

 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



BY RUTHVEN DEANE. 



It is extremely interesting to read any of Audubon's original 

 letters, particularly those touching upon certain birds or subjects 

 which we are familiar with by frequent reading of his works. The 

 following short letter written on the completion of his drawing of 

 the Golden Eagle (Aquita chrysaetos) has but recently come into 

 possession of his granddaughter, Miss M. R. Audubon, and 

 through her kindness I am able to present it here. In his 

 ' Ornithological Biography ' Vol. II, in the article on the Golden 

 Eagle, Audubon writes: "In the early part of February 1833, 

 while at Boston in Massachusetts, I chanced to call on Mr. 

 Greenwood, 1 the proprietor of the Museum of that city, who 

 informed me that he had purchased a very fine Eagle, the name 



of which he was desirous of knowing I recognised it at once 



as belonging to the species whose habits I have here to describe, 

 and I determined to obtain possession of it, .... I sat up nearly 

 the whole of another night to outline him, and worked so con- 

 stantly at the drawing, that it nearly cost me my life, I was sud- 

 denly seized with a spasmotic affection, that much alarmed my 

 family, and completely prostrated me for some days ; but thanks 

 to my heavenly Preserver, and the immediate and unremitting 

 attention of my most worthy friends Drs. Parkman, 2 Shattuck, 3 



1 Ethan A. Greenwood bought out the management in a Museum, January 

 1, 1825, and located on Court St., Boston. This was known as the New Eng- 

 land Museum and was at that time considered valuable and was very popular. 

 Three years previous to this date Greenwood had bought the larger part of 

 a collection which had been sold at auction by one Wood. In 1839 the 

 assignees of Greenwood (N. E. Museum) sold the collection to Moses Kim- 

 ball for his Boston Museum, which was opened in 1841 on the corner of Tre- 

 mont and Bromfield Sts., and in 1846 was moved to the new museum building 

 near Court St. This Museum afterwards became celebrated as a theatre, a 

 portion of it being still reserved for a natural history collection, where, in 

 1900, the types of many of Wilson's birds were found. 



2 Dr. George Parkman, born 1791, died 1849. 



3 Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck, born 1783, died 1S54. 



