Kentucky (FOX 56) — Nestled off of U.S. Highway 41 and adjacent to a wildlife flora and fauna reserve in Henderson resides John James Audubon State Park.
The state park is named after the famed Haitian ornithologist and author of “The Birds of America,” an over 400-page book filled with portraits of numerous birds across the U.S.
Audubon’s life leading up to ornithology
Born Jean-Jacques Rabin on April 26, 1785, he left for the U.S. in 1803, where he changed his name to John James Audubon.
By 1808 he moved to Louisville and started a general store on the banks of the Ohio River. President Thomas Jefferson issued an embargo on British trade due to rising tensions between Great Britain and the U.S., prompting Audubon to move his business to the much smaller and less competitive Henderson.
In 1812, Audubon officially became a U.S. citizen and built up great success in Henderson. He bought land and slaves and founded a flour mill.
His ornithological career was launched after going bankrupt and being thrown in jail for debt in 1819.
Regarding his time in jail and working making deathbed sketches Audubon once wrote, “My heart was sorely heavy, for scarcely had I enough to keep my dear ones alive; and yet through these dark days I was being led to the development of the talents I loved.”
In 1820, he moved to Louisiana and worked teaching drawing to the young daughter of a plantation owner, which afforded him a lot of time to paint in the woods; his muse being birds.
With the help of his many explorations and numerous paintings, Audubon began compiling a collection of his bird portraits in 1827 and completed his pinnacle work, “The Birds of America.”
Legacy of John James Audubon
Throughout his travels, he drew nearly 500 species of American birds. He also wrote five volumes of stories about birds and pioneer life. His work gained him so much notoriety he even was invited to dine with presidents, like Andrew Jackson.
He coined himself the “American Woodsman.”
Audubon was one of two Americans elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, which was the top scientific organization of its day. The other American chosen was Benjamin Franklin.
Smithsonian Magazine credits Kentucky and Louisiana as a “paradise of birds” for him to draw, paint, and ultimately dissect and study.
Ken Chowder, a PBS contributor, described Audubon’s work as a “large clear window onto life on the American frontier’ it shows how Europe regarded the still-young United States, and how people on both sides of the Atlantic regarded nature. It creates a meaningful portrait of the state of both Art and Science in the first decades of the 19th century. It shows us a person, and a people: the life and times of John James Audubon.”
Lewis Mumford described Audubon as “An archetypal American who astonishingly combined in equal measure the virtues of George Washington, Daniel Boone and Benjamin Franklin,” and “The nearest thing American art has had to a founding father.”
Smithsonian Magazine said no one has ever drawn birds better and his works left behind have made him a name synonymous with wilderness and wildlife preservation.
His last nine years were spent at Minnie’s Land, 35 acres of land he purchased in upper Manhattan. He died there on Jan. 27, 1851, after suffering from complications of either dementia or Alzheimer’s disease since around 1848.
His wife, Lucy, wrote the following about his death: “All, but the remembrance of his goodness, is gone forever.”
Many thanks to the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Magazine, and PBS for their contributions making this story possible.