John James Audubon’s The Birds of AmericaJOHN JAMES AUDUBON (1785–1851) set out to paint and describe all of the birds in North America. This resulted in the iconic Birds of America, which was originally printed between 1827 and 1838 and contains 435 hand-colored, watercolor prints. The dramatic, life-sized bird portraits were originally sold by subscription; they were periodically issued in …