Blue Jay

1829–1830

Elected to the Royal Society of London

While Audubon was in America, he was elected to the Royal Society of London.

1830

Dinner with President Andrew Jackson

On 1 January 1830 the Audubons left Louisiana and visited New Orleans, New York and Washington, where they dined with President Andrew Jackson (Audubon's works were then on show in Congress, which bought a copy), before boarding a steamship.

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.

1831

Elected to the American academies: fame on both sides of the ocean

In 1831, while Ord was in England, Audubon was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, which had earlier refused him, and the American Philosophical Society. By then he was a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic, and the newspapers tracked his movements.

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.

spring – summer 1833

The Labrador expedition

In the spring of 1833 Audubon set out for Labrador with his son John Woodhouse and several young assistants to observe water birds in breeding plumage. The trip was not very successful, yielding 23 drawings and 73 prepared birds besides a collection of sea animals and plants, but a nest of the blackpoll warbler that he found, in his words, paid for the whole journey.