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The new Mark Catesby Centre at the University of South Carolina brings attention to the innovative work and influence of 17th-century English naturalist Mark Catesby.
An artist, scientist and explorer, Catesby (1683 – 1749) spent years traveling on foot through the wilderness of Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas and the Bahamas. Supported by some wealthy Fellows of the Royal Society in London, he collected plant and animal specimens, and he wrote about and sketched those wildlife wonders. The result was his monumental Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, first published in London in 1731 – 43. The two volumes included 220 plates of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, mammals and plants “It was the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America, and it provided an important model for ornithologists and scientists, including John James Audubon, who followed in Catesby’s footsteps about a century later,” said Catesby Centre Director David Elliott. The Centre is now part of UofSC Libraries, where the University’s first, second and third edition copies of Natural History are housed. “The Catesby Centre creates the opportunity to highlight the University’s strong holdings in Catesby and in natural history, in general,” said Tom McNally, UofSC Libraries Dean. “It will interest students and other researchers who study any number of disciplines, including the history of science, colonialism and botany. It also provides an outreach opportunity to introduce Catesby to K-12 students and their teachers, and to the wider community.” An exhibit about the diversity and abundance of wildlife in North America in the early 19th century as witnessed by artists and ornithologists, paired with their own prophetic warnings about wilderness loss during their time. Images of now-extinct birds illustrated by Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon will be on display. February 7 through May 3, 2020.
John and Peggy Maximus Gallery Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History 2559 Puesta del Sol Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Bell Museum
2088 Larpenteur Ave W St Paul, MN 55113 See Audubon’s Birds of America come to life in this multimedia exhibition! Walk into the immersive video room “The Audubon Experience” and find yourself surrounded by a virtual swamp and forest where 20 of Audubon’s birds are brought to life through motion and sound. “The Audubon Experience is unique,” says Don Luce, Bell curator of exhibits. “It’s a walk-in, immersive experience using Audubon’s art animated in an environmental setting.” The exhibition will also include selections from the Bell’s rare double elephant folio of Birds of America, one of fewer than 120 in the world. See these original, recently conserved prints from our collection, as well as interpretive panels and materials from our Audubon and the Art of Birds exhibit. https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/audubon-animated/www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/audubon-animated/ Dates: February 21–May 4, 2020
Location: Asheville Art Museum (2 South Pack Square, Asheville, NC 28801) A Telling Instinct: John James Audubon & Contemporary Art is curated by Associate Curator Cindy Buckner, with the assistance of Marilyn Laufer, director emerita of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. It includes prints by John James Audubon from the private collection of Bill & Peg Steiner, and recent works in diverse media by Bo Bartlett, Beth Cavener, Laurie Hogin, Adonna Khare, Anne Lemanski, Kate MacDowell, Mark Messersmith, Joel Sartore, and Tom Uttech. The museum displays volume four in the Duke of Portland set of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America: from Original Drawings. Featured in the Objects of Wonder: From the Collection of the National Museum of Natural History exhibition, Birds of America offers visitors a portal into the natural world through more than 100 life-size, hand-colored illustrations of North American birds. The volume is on loan from an anonymous lender and is on public view for one year during which the pages will be turned every Monday and Thursday to reveal different birds.
Mapping a Nation: Shaping the Early American Republic” at the American Philosophical Society traces the creation and use of maps from the mid-18th century through 1816 to investigate the way maps, as both artworks and practical tools, had political and social meaning. It features historical maps, surveying instruments, books, manuscripts, and other objects to show how maps were used to create and extend the physical, political, and ideological boundaries of the new nation while creating and reinforcing structural inequalities in the Early Republic.
Mapping a Nation draws on the APS’s extensive Library and Museum holdings. Highlights of the exhibition include a 1757 copy of the John Mitchell map of the British Empire in North America, manuscript maps from the American Revolution, surveying instruments, the first map of Tennessee as a state, George Washington’s copy of the 1792 map of Washington, D.C., and maps from the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition along with the copper plates used to publish them. Even though Audubon started painting birds as a teenager in France, it took some time for him to mature in his painting technique that resulted in the amazing bird images we see in his monumental classic, The Birds of America. Some of his very early images can be seen in the book "Audubon: Early Drawings" by Harvard University Press, (2008), ISBN-13: 978-0674031029. Some early images by Audubon from his time at Hendeson, KY can be seen in the post "Audubon's Hendesron Drawings" on the website for their Audubon Museum (see the link under John James Audubon).
9/14/2019 Professor Gary Mullen of Auburn University gave a very informative and engaging talk at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, describing the life and work of the British naturalist, Phillip Henry Gosse (1810-1888) who spent 8 months as a teacher at the Belvoir plantation near Pleasant Hill, Alabama (in the Black Belt region). During this period, he painted images of the local flora and fauna, and in particular the insect life in Alabama. His work was described in Letters from Alabama (1859), and in the unpublished work Entomologia Alabamensis. For additional information, please see the Auburn University digital collection at the following link: http://diglib.auburn.edu/collections/phgosse/
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