John James Audubon’s (APS 1831) best known work, The Birds of America, was a monumental undertaking from the start. In the early years of the project, Audubon struggled to garner financial support for his publication, which in 1826, drove him to jump from city to city across the United Kingdom in search of subscribers and engravers. A year later, having found the support he required, he began publishing, over many installments, his Double Elephant Folio. The project took 11 years to complete, 1827-1838, and resulted in 435 plates measuring in at 39.5 inches tall by 28.5 inches wide, split over four volumes (the APS’s set was later rebound into five volumes in the 1890s).
Audubon had set out to make his work unique from the start. The reason for the folio’s massive size had to do with his desire to illustrate each bird species at actual size and to include elements of the bird’s natural environment in the composition. To accomplish this feat, Audubon put to use the skills of his uncredited or under-credited collaborators, many of whom were women, Native Americans, and enslaved African laborers. Today, there are fewer than 120 complete copies of Birds of America available, including the set presented to the APS on Oct. 7, 1831.
The APS Museum’s 2024 exhibition, Sketching Splendor: American Natural History, 1750-1850, presented an opportunity to showcase one of the Double Elephant Folios alongside the works of other naturalist-artists of the period while complicating the traditional narratives of American excellence and exploration these works have upheld. Installing and displaying The Birds of America was an undertaking in its own sense. Once Anna Majeski, curator of Sketching Splendor, had decided how the folio fit within the larger narrative of the exhibition, the next challenge was ensuring the book itself would fit within the gallery space.
Volume I required extensive conservation treatment, professional photography, and the fabrication of a special book mount and display case to accommodate its unique size. From selecting the volume to installing it in the gallery, the museum team collaborated with photographers, audio-visual producers, conservators, art handlers, mountmakers, woodworkers, designers, and exhibition preparators.
Approximately every five weeks since the exhibition’s opening, museum, conservation, and facilities staff gather around the Audubon installation for the turning of the page. The entire process requires four people to lift the heavy plexiglass bonnet off the display case and onto the ground. Then Renée Wolcott, Head of Conservation, turns the folio to the next page, chosen by curatorial staff ahead of time, and the bonnet is replaced. Though only one page of the physical volume is on view at any given time, the exhibition includes a digital interactive so that visitors have the opportunity to view the other pages of this volume. Each page was photographed and added to the digital volume to mimic flipping through the actual pages. The interactive is available online here.
Sketching Splendor marks the first time The Birds of America has been displayed in the Museum in over 20 years. The last day to see this exhibition and the folio on view will be Sunday, December 29. Details on visiting can be found here.