CHAPTER XXXVI
AFTERWORD: AUDUBON'S FAMILY IN AMERICA
Bachman completes his text on the _Quadrupeds_—Victor
Audubon's success in canvassing—John Woodhouse
Audubon's family—New houses at "Minnie's Land"—Second
octavo edition of the _Birds_—Victor Audubon's illness
and death—Attempt to reissue _The Birds of America_
in America—The residual stock of this imperfect
edition—Death of John Woodhouse Audubon—His career
and work as an artist and field collector—Mrs. Audubon
resumes her old vocation—Fate of "Minnie's Land"—Death
of Mrs. Audubon—Her share in her husband's fame—Story
written on Audubon's original drawings—Fate of the
original copper plates of the _Birds_—A boy comes to the
rescue—"Minnie's Land" today—The "Cave"—A real "Audubon
Park."
After the death of the elder Audubon, his sons, under the leadership
of Bachman, continued the work on the _Quadrupeds_ until the third and
last volume of the letterpress was completed in 1852. On March 13 of
that year Bachman wrote to Edward Harris:[229]
Rejoice with me, the book is finished. I did not expect
to have lived to complete it. But Victor Audubon came
on, and I made him hold the pen, while I dictated with
specimens and books before me, and we went on rapidly;
we worked hard, and now we are at the end of our labors.
I have, at last, prevailed on them to give the Bats. At
the end of the work, I intend to give a synopsis and
scientific arrangement of all our American species,
including seals, whales and porpoises. This will be
included in the letter-press of the Third Volume.
Here I will venture to consult you in regard to the
publication of additional plates of species, not figured
in the Large Work. A very small Arvicola and Shrews, we
may not obtain, and they cannot be figured; but nearly
all are within our reach. Some of the subscribers have
bound up their plates, and there cannot be a sufficient
number to make even half of another Volume. I propose,
as all these figures will be contained in the _Small
Work_, that they should be inserted in the letter-press
of the _Large Work_, so that subscribers, by merely
paying the cost of the small plates, would have the work
complete—what do you think of this?
What do you think of Victor's obtaining one hundred and
twenty-nine subscribers in about three days, and I think
he will double the number, next week; so, if the "Large
Work" will not pay, the "Small" one, and this is large
enough, is sure to do it.
When Victor was canvassing the South for the second or composite
edition of this work, Bachman wrote to a friend in Savannah, on March
25, 1852:[230]
My son-in-law, Victor G. Audubon, is on a rapid visit to
the South, and has a week or two to spare, which he is
desirous of devoting to the obtaining of subscribers to
the "American Quadrupeds." The Work (Miniature) will be
complete in about thirty numbers, furnished monthly at
$1.00 per number.
The figures were made by the Audubons, and the
descriptions and letter-press were prepared by myself.
I have no pecuniary interest in this work, as I have
cheerfully given my own labors without any other reward
than the hope of having contributed something toward
the advancement of the cause of Natural History in
our country. I am, however, anxious that the Audubons
should, by a liberal subscription, receive some
remuneration for the labors and heavy expenses incurred
in getting up this work. Of the character of the work it
does not become me to say much. I will only add that in
my department is summed up the result of investigations
pursued through a long life, and, I think, the figures
have never been equalled in any publication either in
Europe or America.
May I bespeak from you a little aid to my esteemed
son-in-law, Mr. Audubon, in assisting him to procure
subscribers. He is a stranger in your city; his time
is limited, and his stay among you will necessarily be
short.
By the aid of two friends here, he obtained two hundred
and fifty subscribers in a few days.
On the 9th of April Bachman wrote to his son-in-law: "Will you not
return to New York by the way of Charleston and sail from here, take a
manuscript volume in your pocket, and four hundred good and true names
on your list?"
The reception accorded to the illustrations and text of this work had
encouraged the brothers to do for the _Quadrupeds_ what their father,
with their aid, had so successfully accomplished for the _Birds_, by
presenting text and plates, as Bachman said, in "Miniature." In this
they succeeded as admirably as before, John reducing all the large
plates, by the aid of the camera lucida, for the octavo edition which
was published in 1854.
The following historical evidence of the appreciation which Audubon's
works have received at the hands of the National Government I owe
to Mr. Ruthven Deane, to whom the reader of these pages is already
indebted for many illuminating facts. Dr. Theodore S. Palmer was
recently inspecting governmental records at Washington, when he
accidentally came upon the following entry:
Chap. CXXIX.—An act making appropriations for certain
Civil Expenses of the Government for the Year ending the
thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven.
To enable the Secretary of State to purchase one hundred
copies, each, of Audubon's "Birds of America" and
"Quadrupeds of America," for presentation to foreign
governments, in return for valuable works sent by them
to the Government of the United States, sixteen thousand
dollars.
[Act of August 18, 1858 (LL State., 90).]
In John Woodhouse Audubon's family there were two sets of children,
two by his former wife, Maria R. Bachman, and seven by Caroline Hall,
to whom he was married on October 2, 1841. Victor Gifford Audubon, who
had no children by his first wife, May Eliza Bachman, was married on
March 2, 1843, to Georgiana Richards Mallory, an Englishwoman, and six
children were born to them between 1845 and 1854. Of the naturalist's
fifteen grandchildren, six are believed to be now living (1917).[231]
[Illustration: HOUSE FORMERLY BELONGING TO VICTOR GIFFORD AUDUBON,
EAST FRONT, AS IT APPEARS TO-DAY; MRS. JOHN JAMES AUDUBON KEPT HER
PRIVATE SCHOOL IN THE CORNER ROOM ON THE SECOND FLOOR.]
[Illustration: HOUSE FORMERLY BELONGING TO JOHN WOODHOUSE AUDUBON,
SOUTH FRONT, AS IT APPEARS TO-DAY; AT THE RIGHT IS "THE CAVE,"
WHERE THE COPPER PLATES OF "THE BIRDS OF AMERICA" WERE STORED.]
In 1852-3 Audubon's sons built houses for their growing families on
their mother's estate; Victor's was placed just north of the original
homestead, and John's not far away. On the slope behind John Audubon's
house, a small building, later known as the "Cave," was specially
constructed for the safer keeping of the famous copper plates, which
had already passed through fire,[232] and not wholly unscathed. Mr.
John Hardin, now (1915) a serene and clear-eyed man of eighty-four,
who settled in that neighborhood in 1852 and who was intermittently
employed by the younger Audubons for a decade, has told me that he
boxed with his own hands all of the copper plates, after wrapping
each in tissue paper, and stored them in that building; whenever John
Audubon wanted a plate, John Hardin would go to the "Cave" and get it
for him.
In 1856 Victor Audubon published a second reduced edition of his
father's _Birds of America_, in which the text and plates of the first
octavo were reproduced with little or no change. At about that time
Victor suffered an injury to the spine,[233] and after 1857 he was
completely invalided; he died in his own home, August 18, 1860.
To quote the daughter of John W. Audubon:[234]
During this long period of my uncle's illness all the
care of both families devolved on my father. Never a
"business man," saddened by his brother's condition,
and utterly unable to manage, at the same time, a fairly
large estate, the publication of two illustrated works,
every plate of which he felt he must personally examine,
the securing of subscribers and the financial condition
of everything—what wonder that he rapidly aged, what
wonder that the burden was overwhelming! After my
uncle's death matters became still more difficult to
handle, owing to the unsettled condition of the southern
states where most of the subscribers to Audubon's
books resided, and when the open rupture came between
north and south, the condition of affairs can hardly
be imagined, except by those who lived through similar
bitter and painful experiences.
In 1858 or 1859 John W. Audubon entered upon an ambitious project,
which the outbreak of the Civil War, aided, it is believed, by the
unscrupulous dealings of business partners, rendered disastrous.
In association with Messrs. Roe Lockwood, & Son, New York, and the
lithographers, Messrs. J. Bien & Company, Number 180 Broadway, with
whom considerable money had been invested, a second and American
edition of his father's great folio on _The Birds of America_ was
attempted. An atlas of 106 double elephant plates, reproduced in colors
on stone with slight but numerous changes from the original copper
plates, was completed as Volume I in 1860;[235] the war, which broke
immediately afterwards, completely ruined the enterprise, so that but
few copies of the work were dispersed and an immense stock of plates
was rendered useless; the burden of debt was undoubtedly increased by
the issue of seven octavo volumes of text.[236]
Many years later, hundreds of persons who knew of Audubon's work only
through its great reputation, and who had never learned to discriminate
between a hand-colored copper-plate engraving and a lithograph, were
deceived by an adroit, but essentially spurious advertisement of these
inferior reproductions when they were being exploited by a firm of
Boston book dealers. The original bulk of these large lithographs must
have been vast indeed, if the following story, which was attributed
to a member of the firm in question, be true: "We bought the entire
stock of those plates, many years ago," so this man is reported to have
said, "and, though the sales of every succeeding year since have been
sufficient to cover the original cost, the number of plates has not
appreciably diminished."
When this larger venture failed, one of the publishers, who was not
satisfied with the surplusage of books and plates left on his hands,
is said to have placed encumbrances upon the Audubon estate. At
about this time John W. Audubon's health broke down; "Worn out," as
his daughter has said,[237] "in body and spirit, overburdened with
anxieties, saddened by the condition of his country, it is no matter of
surprise that my father could not throw off a heavy cold which attacked
him early in 1862." He died at the age of forty-nine, on the 18th of
February of that year.
John Woodhouse Audubon, like his brother, Victor, had inherited decided
artistic abilities, and from a youth had been his father's assistant,
field companion and friend. Victor Audubon, on the other hand, was
never a field collector, but aided his father more in a financial and
secretarial capacity. Both in adult life were fond of music and good
cheer, and at one time John was probably as devoted to adventure and
sport as his father had ever been in his palmiest days. One of his
youthful pranks is thus guardedly referred to by the senior Audubon
when writing at American Harbor, on the coast of Labrador, June 25,
1833:[238] "The young men, who are always ready for sport, caught a
hundred codfish in half an hour, and _somewhere_ secured three fine
salmon, one of which was sent to the 'Gulnare' with some cod." Whether
the fishermen at American Harbor, who had obstinately refused to sell,
ever missed those fine salmon from their pounds, is not recorded.
Another adventure has been related by Mr. Fraser,[239] whose family was
on intimate terms with the Audubons and MacGillivrays at Edinburgh,
when John Audubon, John MacGillivray (William MacGillivray's eldest
son), and himself were caught in the Ravelston woods while shooting
birds; the boys, he said "were rather roughly handled," but got off by
giving up their guns.
Under his father's tuition John Audubon became an observant and
self-reliant collector in the field, and an animal painter and
draughtsman of no mean powers. At twenty-one, as we have seen, he
accompanied his father's expedition to Labrador, was with him and
Harris in Florida and Texas in 1837, made successive visits to England,
and traveled again in Texas and in Mexico, all in the interests of his
father's works. He painted nearly one-half of the large plates of the
_Quadrupeds of North America_, besides reducing all the drawings for
the smaller editions of the _Birds_ and _Quadrupeds_, an enormous labor
in itself, representing the redrawing, with numerous alterations, of
655 elaborate octavo plates. After his return from California in 1850,
he began to bring out an account of his western travels, —projected
for ten monthly numbers, but this never advanced beyond the first
part.[240]
If not a "business man" by instinct or training, John Audubon
in emergencies could turn his hand to many things. For a time he
superintended the building of houses, including his own and Victor's,
which were completed in 1853, as well as another that was built on
the Audubon estate for Mr. Hall, a brother-in-law; he also took charge
of lighting the streets, and at another time was superintendent of a
quarry in Vermont. "He was a bluff, gruff, but friendly man," writes
George Bird Grinnell,[241] and was always willing to talk about
birds, mammals, or, indeed, any natural history object, to any boy
who asked him questions." On the other hand, an ardent sportsman,
who had lived with the family for years,[242] has described him as a
lovable companion, "genial in speech, full of anecdote, and a capital
conversationalist;... in person of more than median height, and of
commanding appearance, his face told plainly of the humanity of the
man; he was as tender-hearted as a girl, and his expressive voice could
command any key of which the vocal organs were capable; to the last he
retained the Southern habit of softly clipping the ends of words."
John Woodhouse Audubon will be remembered chiefly as his father's aid
and companion, although in his _Western Journal_,[243] written in his
thirty-eighth year but not published until forty-two years after his
death, he has left a record of which anyone could be rightfully proud.
Mrs. John James Audubon was very active in body and mind for a long
period after her husband's death, and in 1857, when in her seventieth
year, she returned in a degree to her old vocation of school teaching,
which had been so successfully followed in Ohio and Louisiana when her
husband was on the threshold of his extraordinary career. Her pupils
now consisted of some of her numerous grandchildren and a few others
drawn from the neighborhood; among the latter was the well known writer
and father of the original Audubon Society, George Bird Grinnell, who
pointed out to me the room in Victor Audubon's old house where his
revered and venerable teacher had gathered her little flock. "She loved
to read, to study, and to teach," said one who had known her, and "she
knew how to gain the attention of the young, and to fix knowledge in
their minds. 'If I can hold the mind of a child to a subject for five
minutes, he will never forget what I teach him,' she once remarked;
and, acting upon this principle, she was as successful, at three score
and ten years, in imparting knowledge, as she had been in early life
when she taught in Louisiana."
Mrs. Audubon's own house was rented and eventually sold. Meanwhile, it
seems, she lived for a number of years with the family of her eldest
son, and it was at Victor's house, as just noticed, that she started
a small school. Finally, in 1863, at the age of seventy-five, bereft
of children and fortune, she left the scenes of her once happy home,
then "Minnie's Land" no longer, and for a considerable period lived
with a granddaughter at Washington Heights, as that section on the
river, including Carmansville, came to be called, and a little later
at Manhattanville, a short distance below; there at the home of the
Reverend Charles Coffin Adams, who prepared the original draft of the
_Life_ of her husband, the history of which has been given,[244] she
passed a number of years after 1865.
In a letter written to a relative from "Washington Heights, N. Y., July
11, 1865," Mrs. Audubon spoke thus of the present, while memories, not
untinged with sorrow, filled the retrospect:
We have passed through a very cold winter which tried
both my Granddaughter ... and myself much. I have hoped
until I almost despair that [she] would have a short
Holiday so that we could go up to Hudson for a week
and see you all and mingle with those who sympathize
and care for us, but in a Boarding house, one seems
a stranger in the world, and as I pass my days alone
generally from breakfast till our dinner hour six
o'clock evening when [my granddaughter] comes home from
her music Pupils of whom she has now ten, and from that
time I am glad when she is invited out to refresh her
mind.
I seldom leave home but to go up to see my other Grand
Daughter Lucy Williams, but being sixteen miles off we
do not go there often....
I have heard from my Sister Gordon lately of Orleans,
she has her Son at home! but they are likely to lose
all their Property on account of Sister's Son having
been engaged in the Confederate War. It does seem to me
... as if we were a doomed family for all of us are in
pecuniary difficulty more or less. As to myself I find
it hard to look back patiently upon my great ignorance
of business and the want of a wise adviser who I now
find could have saved me half the property I have under
errour and ignorance sacrificed and have just enough
left to keep us but not enjoy life by any travelling
about in this beautiful World. I sat on Sunday night
after Church on the Piazza, contemplating the beautiful
Moon & its Creator, and I cannot yet say I wish to
leave it, notwithstanding all my disappointments and
mortifications. Excuse this long detail about myself. I
cannot help looking back as well as to the present and
future.
After Mrs. Audubon had passed her eightieth year she left New York and
again made her home in the West. In 1874, when with a granddaughter at
Louisville, she dictated and signed the following letter to a gentleman
who had asked for an autograph of her husband:
_Mrs. Audubon to William R. Dorlan_
LOUISVILLE _Jan. 30 1874_
MR. WM. R. DORLAN
DEAR SIR
I regret that your letter of Jan. 10th has remained
so long unanswered, but my granddaughter who usually
writes for me, is so constantly occupied with her pupils
that until to-day she has not been able to find time to
write to you. I regret that I cannot give you a letter
of my husband _John James Audubon_ with the autograph
attached.
The enclosed, the best I have to send you is one from
which the autograph and a portion of the letter were cut
off many years ago.
With many regrets that I cannot more fully grant your
request
I am dear Sir
Yours respectfully,
LUCY AUDUBON
Mrs. Audubon's closing days were spent at the home of her
sister-in-law, Mrs. William G. Bakewell, at Shelbyville, Kentucky,
where she died, with her mental faculties unimpaired, at the age of
eighty-six, June 13, 1874, having outlived this sister-in-law and
her younger sisters, Mrs. Alexander Gordon, of New Orleans, and Mrs.
Nicholas Augustus Berthoud, of St. Louis.
Not long after John W. Audubon's death, his family disposed of
their house on what had been the "Minnie's Land" estate, and lived
successively at Harlem, New Haven, Connecticut, and Salem, New York,
where Mrs. John W. Audubon died, and where her daughter, Maria Rebecca,
the biographer of her father and grandfather, with a sister, still
resides. Victor Audubon's family, with some of their kinsfolk, remained
at the Hudson River place, which was included in the section known as
"Audubon Park," until May, 1878, when they took a house in New York,
where Mrs. Victor Audubon died in 1882.
A brother of Mrs. Victor Audubon, Mr. E. Mallory, in writing to a
friend in Buffalo from "Audubon Park, August 31, 1874," said that it
was a source of deep regret to Mrs. John James Audubon that her last
years were not passed with them, under the shadow of her old home on
the Hudson; and he continued: "She was a kind and good friend, very
intelligent, and much beloved here; I remember her telling a young
lady, who asked her if she had read some fashionable novel, that
she had no time; 'at my age,' said she, 'I must make the most of my
time.' As she was a wide reader, it was a great trial when, in age,
her eyesight completely failed her. The minister who pronounced her
eulogy[245] said:
Many of you can recall that aged form and benignant
countenance, as she moved along these streets upon
errands of usefulness and benevolence, with benedictions
on her tongue, and smiles that were a blessing to all
who met her.
Madame Audubon interested herself in all that pertained
to the welfare of the neighborhood where she lived.
Although it was not without a pang that she saw her
sylvan home invaded by the growth of the city, and all
old associations broken up, she did not treat those who
came to live near her as strangers. She had a large
and generous heart, and with her husband had always
exercised a liberal hospitality and hearty kindness
towards all. In prosperity and adversity she was equally
sincere and humble, a friend of all worthy people....
Mrs. Audubon, during the period of her husband's greatest activity,
had traveled much and met people distinguished in every walk of life.
If, as some have thought, when Audubon was struggling for recognition,
he was somewhat oblivious of the privations which his wife endured, in
the sunshine of later years, when fame and fortune had smiled upon him,
he showed by every token of affection how fully he realized his debt.
Let it also be remembered that the monument by which Americans have
signalized their appreciation of his labors, is honored by the ashes of
his beloved Lucy, which rest by his side.
[Illustration: LUCY BAKEWELL AUDUBON
AFTER AN UNPUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1871. PUBLISHED BY
COURTESY OF MISS FLORENCE AUDUBON.]
[Illustration: LUCY BAKEWELL AUDUBON
AFTER A MINIATURE PAINTED BY FREDERICK CRUIKSHANK IN LONDON, ABOUT
1831. PUBLISHED BY COURTESY OF CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.]
The original drawings of the plates of _The Birds of America_ were
sold by Mrs. Audubon on June 2, 1863, to the Historical Society of New
York,[246] and a few of them are now displayed in its building in that
city; it is still hoped that a fire-proof and adequately lighted hall
can be constructed so that the whole of this great series of pictures
may be exhibited under more perfect conditions. The artistic beauty
and historical value of these drawings, with the added charm which
personal association has so richly supplied, would render Audubon's
"Book of Nature" one of the most unique and interesting exhibits in the
New World. The collection appears to be nearly complete, although some
notable pieces, such as the Wild Turkeys, are lacking, but there are
other drawings, and some of early date, which were never reproduced;
all are inclosed in the original portfolios, scarred by hard knocks
and the tooth of time, massive, leather-bound containers, which two
strong arms would raise with difficulty from the ground. Most of these
originals are mounted on a gray backing, with plate margins in each
case indicated by ink lines. As was noticed in an earlier chapter,
many original legends and notes written by Audubon's pencil or pen
still remain on the drawings, though many have been trimmed off or
erased; these include names of localities and dates, and directions to
the engraver for changes in the background and composition or for any
improvement of the whole or a part.
As a further illustration of the care which Audubon exercised over the
minute details of his great undertaking, we will reproduce the penciled
orders on the drawing of the Great White Heron (Plate cclxxxi), which
shows an adult male performing the gymnastic feat of seizing a large
striped fish, a view of Key West forming the background: "Keep closely
to the sky in depth & colouring! have the water a _Pea-green_ tint.
Keep the division of the scales on the leg in fact white in your
engraving—The colouring over these will subdue them enough! finish the
houses better from the original which you have; have the upper back
portion very mellowing in the outline." Again, on the drawing of the
Great Cinereous Owl (Plate cccli), we read: "Raise the bird about 4
inches on the copper—higher than in the Drawing, and put in a landscape
below of Wild Mountains," a direction which in this instance was not
followed, for the bird was eventually shown on a branch against the
sky.
In many instances towards the end of his work, Audubon furnished Havell
with drawings of the birds only, with directions to supply "an old
rotten stick" for perch, or to "amend this rascally sky and water"; as
we have already seen, he often depended upon him to combine several
detached pictures into one plate, but not always with happy results.
The following note was written on a drawing of the Carolina Parrot,
reproduced in a very striking plate (No. xxvi), in which seven gaudy
individuals of this nearly extinct species are represented feeding on a
favorite weed, the cockle-bur: "The upper specimen was shot near Bayou
Sarah, and appeared as very uncommon having 14 Tail feathers all very
distinct—uniformly affixed in 14 distinct receptacles that I drew it
more to exhibit one of those astonishing fits of nature than anything
else—it was a female.—The Green headed is also a Singular although not
so uncommon a variety as the above one. Louisiana—December (1821?) J.
J. Audubon." The upper bird, which is here referred to, is noticed in
his "Biography" of the species as "a kind of occasional variety."
On the drawing of the Swamp Sparrow (Plate lxiv), which was published
in 1829, Audubon wrote, evidently with the wish of having his wife's
name appear: "Drawn from Nature by Lucy Audubon, Mr. Havell will please
have Lucy Audubon name on this plate instead of mine...!"
Vandalism is always short-sighted, but seldom has its vision been more
myopic and sinister than in the case of the copper plates of _The Birds
of America_, most of which were sold for old metal and converted into
copper bars. Had they been preserved to this day, their value would
have been an hundred-fold greater than that of the few paltry tons of
metallic copper which they were supposed to represent. Mr. Ruthven
Deane, whose researches in the field of "Auduboniana" have added
greatly to this subject, has given a history of these plates,[247] and
of the interesting way in which a remnant came to be snatched, as it
were, from the very mouth of the furnace, through the persistence and
enthusiasm of a lad of fourteen. To follow this writer's account, it
seems that shortly after the death of her son John, Mrs. Audubon sold
the copper plates to a firm in New York, where they remained until
about 1865, stored in the warehouse of Messrs. Phelps, Dodge & Company.
Not far from that time the plates were sorted and a few were given
away; the large remainder was sent to a brass and copper company, of
which William E. Dodge was president, at Ansonia, Connecticut. How some
of these were fortunately rescued, in about the year 1873, is told in
a letter to Mr. Deane from Mr. Charles A. Cowles, of Ansonia:
At that time I was about fourteen years old. I was
beginning the study of taxidermy, and was naturally
deeply interested in birds. I happened to be at the
refinery watching the process of loading one of the
furnaces, and noticed on one of the sheets of copper
that a man was throwing into the furnace, what appeared
to me to be the picture of a bird's foot. I took the
plate from him, cleaned it with acid, and thereupon
discovered the engraving, or as I termed it, the
picture, of a bird (Plate cvi, Black Vulture), I made
an immediate but unsuccessful request to the foreman of
the furnace not to melt the plates; and then I appealed
to the superintendent, but without avail. I next brought
the matter to the general manager of the concern, my
father, from whom I received no encouragement. This
sort of treatment was evidently what I needed, for
I hastened back to the works in a state of mind so
determined that I succeeded in having all the plates,
that had not been melted, removed to a place of safety.
This occurred in the spring of that year; and the plates
remained undisturbed until the annual inventory was
taken the first of the following year. At that time the
disposition of the plates was taken up. I appealed to
my mother and interested her to such an extent that she
drove to the factory and looked at one of the plates.
She of course recognized that they were Audubon plates;
and instructions were given by my father to keep them
intact. The plates were subsequently submitted to a
treatment which removed all oxidation and then taken to
the main office of the company, and to the best of my
recollection, distributed as follows: Mr. Wm. E. Dodge,
president of the company, had a few plates sent to the
American Museum of Natural History, New York City, and a
few plates to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington,
D. C., and I think he retained one or two for himself.
The remainder of them, with the exception of two, my
father kept; and they have since come into my possession
by purchase from the estate. The two plates just
excepted were Nos. xxii and lxxxii [Purple Martin and
Whippoorwill], and they particularly struck my fancy,
so much that when the plates were first discovered I
managed to secure them on the quiet, cleaned them myself
and hid them; and when the plates were distributed no
one knew of the existence of these two and they later
became my property.
It was thought possible that some of these plates had been sold in New
York City before the bulk of them were condemned as junk and sent to
Connecticut, but in 1898 Mr. Deane was able to give the designation
and resting place of only thirty-seven;[248] among these, however, were
the Wild Turkeys, Canada Goose, Great Northern Diver, Raven, American
Robin, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird, all among the finest of the
original 435.
Under the guidance of Mr. George Bird Grinnell, on April 6, 1916, I
paid a visit to "Audubon Park," now "Minnie's Land" no longer, where
country roads have given way to business streets and forests to subways
and skyscraper apartment houses. Notwithstanding the momentous changes
which the extension of upper New York City has effected both above
and below ground during the recent era of rapid transportation, the
old Audubon houses still remain, like boulders amid stream, the impact
of the city which has flowed around and beyond them being checked for
the moment by a rampart of solid masonry, the retaining wall of the
far-famed Riverside Drive, which rises above Audubon's old house close
to its rear veranda and there makes a wide turn. For Mr. Grinnell this
was a return to the scenes of his boyhood; the home of his father,
Mr. George Blake Grinnell, stood on the hill just above the Audubon
house, not far from the present "Riviera" building at One Hundred and
Fifty-Seventh Street; the Grinnell apartment house which towers aloft
close at hand stands in their old cow pasture, while their garden site
is marked by the present entrance to the subway station on Broadway.
The first part of Audubon's original tract to be sold was the easterly
section, extending from what is now the east side of Broadway to the
Bloomingdale Road, and between the present One Hundred and Fifty-sixth
and One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Streets; on that portion John
Woodhouse Audubon built a large frame structure which, for a number
of years, served as a boarding house for workmen employed in the sugar
refinery of Messrs. Plume & Lamont that stood on the river-bank, at the
foot of the present One Hundred and Sixtieth Street. Victor and John
W. Audubon also built three houses on the hill, one of which, between
One Hundred and Fifty-sixth and One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Streets,
was occupied by Mr. Grinnell; another, at one time the dwelling of
Henry A. Smythe, a former Collector of the Port of New York, was on
land now covered by the Numismatic Building, while a third, which was
occupied by Wellington Clapp, was on a part of the Archer M. Huntington
estate, south of One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Street, and stood a little
easterly of the present Riverside Drive; all of these houses have
disappeared. In September, 1842, the Corporation of Trinity Parish
acquired from Richard F. Carman, in Carmansville, the tract of land
later known as "Trinity Cemetery"; this extended from Bloomingdale Road
to the River, and between the present One Hundred and Fifty-third and
One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Streets.[249]
The original Audubon house, standing in the angle nearly opposite One
Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, is all but concealed, except from the
river side, but may be approached by a lane which leads off from One
Hundred and Fifty-eighth Street. In 1913, when this old landmark was
in imminent danger of demolition, the Commissioner of Public Parks
made an eloquent plea for its preservation to the Audubon Societies
and to lovers of birds and nature everywhere. It was then suggested
that instead of permitting the historic structure to be destroyed,
the city should acquire it, float it up the Hudson River to Fort
Washington Park, and re-establish it there as a permanent memorial
to the naturalist; it was also noticed that the public interest was
enhanced by the fact that the father of telegraphy, Samuel F. B. Morse,
had worked upon his invention while Audubon's guest, and that the first
message to be received from Philadelphia came over a wire which entered
his room at the northwest corner of the building.
An early engraving[250] represents the naturalist's house essentially
as it appeared during his lifetime, surrounded by goodly forest trees
of oak and chestnut, but these, when standing at all, are now reduced
to gaunt and scarred remnants. A later print[251] shows the three
Audubon houses, the river, and between it and the lawn "that eye-sore
of a railroad,"[252] which was built not long after Audubon settled
upon his estate. The original house was sold before 1862,[253] and
about eight years later its new owner occupied it, after having given
it a mansard roof and made numerous changes which were sanctioned
by an era of bad taste. The naturalist's house overlooked the river
and commanded a grand view from its high veranda on the front, while
Victor's, which later adjoined it to the north, owing probably to
the encroachments of the railroad, was built to face the hill-slope
opposite; a top studio, at a corner of its roof, is an addition of a
later purchaser.[254]
Adjoining Victor's house on the north was that of his brother, John,
and on the east side of this was built the "Cave" and a barn since
converted into a dwelling; at one time the loft of this barn was piled
with boxes of bird skins and the surplus stock of the _Ornithological
Biography_, good copies of which now bring from $30 to $50.
The three houses which were built and occupied by the great nature
lover and his two sons, though in dire neglect, are not beyond repair;
if such a project were practicable, they should be converted into
a museum, and their walls once more ornamented with those beautiful
pictures of birds and beasts which father and sons united to create.
The triangle of ground between Riverside Drive and the Hudson River
should be spared by the proud city that for years was the home of
America's pioneer naturalist and animal painter, as well as the
scene of his youthful experiments in trade, and converted into a true
"Audubon Park." Such a memorial would contribute to the instruction and
pleasure of all the people, for every generation of Americans that is
to come.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
1. Copy of the original bill rendered by Doctor Sanson, physician at
Les Cayes, Santo Domingo, to Jean Audubon, containing the only record
known to exist of the birth of his son, Jean Jacques Fougère Audubon
(see entry for April 26, 1785). Les Cayes, December 29, 1783-October
19, 1785; paid, June 7, 1787.
DOIT Mr. AUDUBON ngt. A SANSON
Chirurgien aux Cayes
SAVOIR
----
|
L
1783 Xbre " 29 " ipecacuanha pour un
nègre Bossal " 6 " "
" 31 " ipecacuanha pour un
nègre Bossal " 6 " "
1784 janvier " 3 " une medecine pour un
nègre Bossal " 6 " "
" 5 " une medecine pour un
nègre Bossal " 6 " "
" 7 " une medecine pour un
nègre Bossal " 6 " "
" 9 " une medecine pour un
Bossal " 6 " "
" 10 " une medecine pour un
Bossal " 6 " "
" 14 " une medecine pour le
mulâtre joue " 6 " "
" 26 " une medecine pour Mr
Audubon " 10 " "
mars " 27 " inoculé cezard 30 " inoculé
jupiter 30 inoculé
Rose 30 " " 90 " "
avril " 1 " apozême purgatif pour
joue mulâtre " 6 " "
" 3 " une medecine pour le
mulâtre joue " 6 " "
" 8 " apozême purgatif pour
le nègre Dominique " 6 " "
" 10 " une medecine pour
Dominique " 6 " "
" 15 " une medecine pour
Zemire " 6 " "
" 20 " une medecine pour Rose " 6 " "
" apozême purgatif pour
jupiter " 6 " "
" 21 " une medecine pour
Dominique " 6 " "
may " 2 " une medecine pour la
negresse therese " 6 " "
" 11 " pour soins, visites et
remedes pendant la
petite verole du mulâtre
joue " 66 " "
" 21 " Liqueur minerale
d'hoffman pour mlle.
Rabin " 6 " "
juin " 20 " inoculé un petit nègre
Bossal nommé joue " 30 " "
juillet " 20 " Remis a mr audubon le
compte du traitement
de la galle de
marianne et de sa
fille, tout acquité " 36 " "
7bre " 14 " apozême purgatif pour
le nègre jean maçon " 6 " "
" 16 " une medecine pour jean
maçon " 6 " "
" 21 " saigné au bras mr audubon " 3 " "
" 23 " eau de tamarinds
compee. pour mr Audubon " 10 " "
" 24 " une medecine en deux
Dozes pour mr audubon " 10 " "
8bre. " 22 " une medecine pour le
negrillon joue " 6 " "
" 23 " traité soigné et fourni
le medicament a joue
attaqué de piano " 132 " "
---------
L 513 " "
* * * * *
[_Page 2_]
Suite de l'autre part L 513 " "
8bre. " 25 " saigné au bras mlle.
Rabin " 3 " "
" 26 " Liqueur minerale
d'hoffman pour mlle.
Rabin " 6 " "
" 30 " une medecine pour le
negrillon joue " 6 " "
9bre " 15 " une medecine pour le
negrillon joue " 6 " "
Xbre " 8 " une medecine pour joue " 6 " "
1785 janvier " 18 " une medecine pour mr
audubon " 10 " "
" 21 " une medecine pour le
negrillon joue " 6 " "
fevrier " 15 " 2once. manne pour mlle.
Rabin " 3 " "
" 18 " une medecine pour le
tonneliere " 6 " "
mars " 6 " une medecine pour le
tonneliere " 6 " "
" 10 " une medecine pour le
tonneliere " 6 " "
" 11 " trois Dozes de kina
pour le tonneliere " 9 " "
" 12 " trois Dozes de kina
pour le tonneliere " 9 " "
" 13 " trois Dozes de kina
pour le tonneliere " 9 " "
" 14 " trois Dozes de kina
pour le tonneliere " 9 " "
avril " 2 " une visite de nuit pour
mlle Rabin " 10 " "
" 3 " une Lotion pour un
Erésipèle, que mlle.
Rabin a à la jambe. " 6 " "
" 5 " une Lotion pour mlle.
Rabin " 6 " "
" 7 " une Lotion pour mlle.
Rabin " 6 " "
" 8 " une medecine pour le
tonneliere " 6 " "
" 9 " trois Dozes de kina
pour le tonneliere " 9 " "
" 10 " trois Dozes de kina
pour le tonneliere " 9 " "
" 11 " trois Dozes de kina
pour le tonneliere " 9 " "
" 12 " trois Dozes de kina
pour le tonneliere " 9 " "
" 24 " Passé la nuit pres de
mlle. Rabin. en mal
d enfant " 66 " "
" 25 " Passé la nuit pres de
mlle. Rabin " 66 " "
" 26 " mlle. Rabin est
accouchée " ..." "
may " 2 " une visite de nuit et
Liqueur minerale
d'h.p.mlle. Rabin " 16 " "
" 3 " Liqueur minerale
d'hoffman p.mlle.
Rabin " 6 " "
" 4 " six Bouteilles d'eau
blanche pour les
cataplasmes nécessaires
au mal de sein
de mlle. Rabin " 18 " "
juin " 19 " ouvert un abcès au sein
de mlle. Rabin soins
et pour pansements " 36 " "
" 26 " une medecine pour
augustin negrillon " 6 " "
---------
L 897 " "
* * * * *
[_Page_ 3]
Suite de l'autre part L 897 " "
juin " 30 " une medecine pour
augustin L 6 " "
juillet " 1 " une medecine pour la
vielle jeanne " 6 " "
" 16 " une medecine pour
mlle. Rabin " 10 " "
aout " 15 " une medecine pour
mlle. Rabin " 10 " "
" eau blanche pour mr
audubon " 3 " "
" 20 " une medecine pour mr
aubinais commis " 10 " "
" 22 " une medecine pour mr
aubinais " 10 " "
" 24 " tinture de Rhubarbe
pour mr aubinais " 6 " "
" 26 " tinture de Rhubarbe
pour mr aubinais " 6 " "
7bre. " 23 " une bouteille vin
medicinal pour le
nègre enflé " 15 " "
" 27 " une medecine pour la
vielle jeanne " 6 " "
8bre " 7 " une medecine pour le
nègre enflé " 6 " "
" 11 " une medecine pour le
nègre enflé " 6 " "
" 16 " une medecine pour
thérése " 6 " "
" 19 " une medecine pour
therese " 6 " "
---------
acceptée apercu [?] Le 12 octob L 1009 " "
---------
1786
AUDUBON 330
---------
1339 " "
---------
Pour acquit aux cayes ce 7 juin 1787
——
—— SANSON
Recu de Mr
Sanson
7. Juin 1787.
1784 janvier traité mr ...
soins et fourni services 330 "
1a. Translation of the Sanson bill. (For comment, see Chapter IV.)
M. AUDUBON, merchant, to SANSON,
Physician at Cayes
Dr.
TO WIT
----
|
Francs
1783 December " 29 " Ipecacuanha for a negro
Bossal " 6 " "
" 31 " Ipecacuanha for a negro
Bossal " 6 " "
1784 January " 3 " A medicine for a negro
Bossal " 6 " "
" 5 " A medicine for a negro
Bossal " 6 " "
" 7 " A medicine for a negro
Bossal " 6 " "
" 9 " A medicine for a Bossal " 6 " "
" 10 " A medicine for a Bossal " 6 " "
" 14 " A medicine for the
mulatto Joue[255] " 16 " "
" 26 " A medicine for M. Audubon " 10 " "
March " 27 " Inoculated Cæsar, 30f;
inoculated Jupiter,
30f; inoculated Rose,
30f " 90 " "
April " 1 " Purgative decoction for
Joue, [the] mulatto " 6 " "
" 3 " A medicine for the
mulatto, Joue " 6 " "
" 8 " Purgative decoction for
the negro Dominique " 6 " "
" 10 " A medicine for
Dominique " 6 " "
" 15 " A medicine for Zemire " 6 " "
" 20 " A medicine for Rose " 6 " "
" Purgative decoction for
Jupiter " 6 " "
" 21 " A medicine for Dominique " 6 " "
May " 2 " A medicine for the
negress Theresa " 6 " "
" 11 " For attentions, visits,
and remedies during
the smallpox of the
mulatto Joue " 66 " "
" 21 " Hoffman's mineral water
for Mlle. Rabin " 6 " "
June " 20 " Inoculated a little negro
Bossal named Joue " 30 " "
July " 20 " Account rendered to M.
Audubon for treatment
of the _gale_[256]
in Marian and her
daughter, all receipted " 36 " "
September " 14 " Purgative decoction for
the negro, John Mason
[or John, mason(?)] " 6 " "
" 16 " A medicine for John
Mason " 6 " "
" 21 " Bled M. Audubon at
the arm " 3 " "
" 23 " Tamarind water compound
for M. Audubon " 10 " "
" 24 " A medicine in two doses
for M. Audubon " 10 " "
October " 22 " A medicine for the little
negro Joue " 6 " "
" 23 " Treated, attended, and
furnished remedies
for Joue attacked by
the _pian_[257] " 132 " "
---------
L 513 " "
* * * * *
[_Page 2_]
Brought forward from
other part L 513 " "
October " 25 " Bled Mlle. Rabin at
the arm " 3 " "
" 26 " Hoffman's mineral water
for Mlle. Rabin " 6 " "
" 30 " A medicine for the little
negro Joue " 6 " "
November " 15 " A medicine for the little
negro Joue " 6 " "
December " 8 " A medicine for Joue " 6 " "
1785 January " 18 " A medicine for M. Audubon " 10 " "
" 21 " A medicine for the little
negro Joue " 6 " "
February " 15 " Two ounces of manna
for Mlle. Rabin " 3 " "
" 18 " A medicine for the
cooper " 6 " "
March " 6 " A medicine for the
cooper " 6 " "
" 10 " A medicine for the
cooper " 6 " "
" 11 " Three doses of kino[258]
for the cooper " 9 " "
" 12 " Three doses of kino for
the cooper " 9 " "
" 13 " Three doses of kino for
the cooper " 9 " "
" 14 " Three doses of kino for
the cooper " 9 " "
April " 2 " A night visit for Mlle.
Rabin " 10 " "
" 3 " A lotion for an erysipelas
which Mlle.
Rabin has on the leg " 6 " "
" 5 " A lotion for Mlle.
Rabin " 6 " "
" 7 " A lotion for Mlle.
Rabin " 6 " "
" 8 " A medicine for the
cooper " 6 " "
" 9 " Three doses of kino for
the cooper " 9 " "
" 10 " Three doses of kino for
the cooper " 9 " "
" 11 " Three doses of kino for
the cooper " 9 " "
" 12 " Three doses of kino for
the cooper " 9 " "
" 24 " Passed the night with
Mlle. Rabin [who
was] in child-birth " 66 " "
" 25 " Passed the night with
Mlle. Rabin " 66 " "
" 26 " Mlle. Rabin is delivered " .. " "
May " 2 " A night visit and
Hoffman's mineral
water for Mlle. Rabin " 16 " "
" 3 " Hoffman's mineral water
for Mlle. Rabin " 6 " "
" 4 " Six bottles of _eau
blanche_ for
poultices needed in
an affection of the
breast of Mlle. Rabin " 18 " "
June " 19 " Opened an abscess in
the breast of Mlle.
Rabin; for attentions
and dressings " 36 " "
" 26 " A medicine for the little
negro Augustine " 6 " "
---------
L 897 " "
---------
* * * * *
[_Page_ 3]
Brought forward from
the other part L 897 " "
June " 30 " A medicine for Augustine " 6 " "
July " 1 " A medicine for old Jane " 6 " "
" 16 " A medicine for Mlle.
Rabin " 10 " "
August " 15 " A medicine for Mlle.
Rabin " 10 " "
" Eau blanche for M.
Audubon " 3 " "
" 20 " A medicine for M.
Aubinais, clerk " 10 " "
" 22 " A medicine for M.
Aubinais " 10 " "
" 24 " Tincture of rhubarb
for M. Aubinais " 6 " "
" 26 " Tincture of rhubarb
for M. Aubinais " 6 " "
September " 23 " A bottle of medicinal
wine for a swollen
negro " 15 " "
" 27 " A medicine for old Jane " 6 " "
October " 7 " A medicine for the
swollen negro " 6 " "
" 11 " A medicine for the
swollen negro " 6 " "
" 16 " A medicine for Theresa " 6 " "
" 19 " A medicine for Theresa " 6 " "
---------
Accepted viséd [?] October 12 L 1009 " "
---------
1786
AUDUBON 330
---------
1339 " "
---------
Paid at Les Cayes this 7th June, 1787
——
—— SANSON
M. Sanson's receipt
June 7, 1787.
1784 January Treated
M.... For care and
services rendered 330 "
2. Copy of the Act of Adoption of Fougère (John James Audubon) and
Muguet (Rosa Audubon). Nantes, March 7, 1794. (For translation, see