Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)Herrick, Francis Hobart
History
Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Herrick, Francis Hobart
Audubon, John James, 1785-1851
In recent times Audubon's name has become a household word through the
medium of the most effective instrument which has yet been devised for
the conservation of animal life in this or any country, the National
Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and
Animals. This has become the coördinating center for the spread and
control of a great national movement that received its first impulse
in 1886.[7] Launched anew ten years later, it has advanced with ever
increasing momentum, until now it is the governing head of twenty-nine
distinct State societies, as well as eighty-five affiliated clubs and
similar organizations. In 1916 it counted a life membership of 356,
with 3,024 sustaining members, and realized a total income of over
$100,000. It should be added that during the past six years over 2,900
Junior Audubon Clubs have been formed in the schools, through which
nearly 600,000 children have been instructed in the principles of the
Audubon Society. Well may it be that this admirable organization, with
its successful efforts for remedial legislation in state and nation;
its initiative, with the aid of the National Government, in establishing
Federal reservations or sanctuaries for the perpetuation of wild life;
its educational activities through the extension of its influence to
the pupils of the public schools; and its watch and ward over all the
varied interests of its cause, will keep the name of Audubon greener to
all future time than the most cherished of his works.
Of Audubon's works the public now sees but little and knows even less,
all without exception having been long out of print. His admirable
plates of birds and mammals have been widely copied and still serve for
the illustration of popular books, but most of his publications were
projected on too large and expensive a scale for general circulation,
having been first sold to subscribers only and often at great cost. No
complete reprint, revision or abridgment of his principal volumes has
been made for half a century (see Bibliography, Appendix V). No complete
bibliography of Audubon has ever been prepared, and none will remain
completed long, for it is hard to imagine a time when comment on his
life, his drawings, and his adventures will altogether cease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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