Indigo Bird

spring 1827

London: the engraver Robert Havell Jr.

In the spring of 1827 in London Audubon learned of a strike at Lizars's workshop and began looking for a new engraver: this is how he met Robert Havell Sr. and his son Robert Havell Jr. With the help of the younger Havell four volumes of “The Birds of America” were produced.

January 1827

Edinburgh: a meeting with Walter Scott

In January 1827, after Audubon's watercolour exhibition opened at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the meeting with Walter Scott that he had dreamed of took place, although the writer had just been declared bankrupt and had lost his wife. Scott wrote that he wished he had gone to see the drawings, but had heard so much about them that he resolved not to see them; Audubon showed him his paintings during a second visit.

February 1828

Elected to the Linnean Society of London

In February 1828 Audubon was elected to the Linnean Society in London and wrote several articles for scientific journals; because of his poor English the articles raised a mass of questions whose answers took up much of his time. In May a London journal published William Swainson's review of the first numbers of “The Birds of America”.

August 1828

Paris: subscribers, Cuvier and Redouté

After his family declined his invitation to join him in London, Audubon went to the continent in August 1828 with Swainson and his wife; while Swainson did research at the Paris Jardin des Plantes, Audubon looked for subscribers. In France he met Baron Georges Cuvier and the master of botanical illustration Pierre-Joseph Redouté, with whom he exchanged several works, and he avoided Nantes for fear that the circumstances of his birth would come out.

October 1830

Begins publishing the “Ornithological Biography”

Having toured the British Isles with his wife, Audubon settled in Edinburgh in October 1830 and began publishing the “Ornithological Biography”, the text describing the species shown in “The Birds of America”. The five volumes, issued in 1831–1838, run to more than three thousand pages.

October 1831

Charleston: meeting John Bachman

In October 1831 at Charleston Audubon met John Bachman, who was interested in ornithology and a good shot: his huge house had a separate room for a taxidermist. Bachman's sister-in-law Maria Martin lived there, and Audubon hired her to paint background details; it was then that they agreed on a future book on quadrupeds.