Details
AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES. Autograph letter signed ("John J. Audubon") to Dr. Richard Harlan of Philadelphia; St. Francisville, Louisiana, 18 November 1829, 2 1/4 pages, 4to, half of page 1 with additional passage written across and signed, address panel, wax seal, silked, dampstains, small loss at seal hole affecting about 8 words -- RICHARD HARLAN. Autograph letter signed to J.J. Audubon (in care of John Bachman), Philadelphia, 11 February 1832, 4 pages, 4to,
address panel on page 4, a chatty letter regarding subscriptions, specimens and mutual friends, telling him "if novelties in ornithology are yr. main object, the country bordering California is the right place to expect them," and that "the eyes of the intelligent part of the world are upon you"; both laid into green morocco gilt protective folder.
Audubon reports on his journey from Philadelphia to Louisiana via Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Louisville, describes the birds about his home and reports that "a friend of mine here says that he has discovered 2 or 3 New Birds!!!" He and Lucy plan "to be on our way towards 'Old England' in January, after a stay in Louisville with relatives, when they will "proceed with the Rapidity of the Wild Pigeon...." Next week, he will begin drawing again, "having much scratching of the pen to perform," and he will soon make a "Large shipment" of "Turkeys, alligators, oppossums, Parakeets" to the Zoological Gardens of London "from the Natural ones of this Magnificent Louisiana!....Should you see Friend [Thomas] Sully remember me to him..." In the boldly written addition on page 1, Audubon enthuses: "...I have just now Killed a Large New Falcon, yes positively a New Species of Hawk...I will skin it!!!...What I have said about the Hawk to you must be Lawful to Academicians and you will be pleased to announce Falco Harlanii by John J. Audubon...."
The physician Richard Harlan (1796-1843), published zoological papers and was an agent for the American edition of his friend's Ornithological Biography. Audubon was not the first to collect specimens of the Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo borealis), but was the first to describe the species. "Sure of its uniqueness, and elated, he sent an extravagant announcement [the present letter] to Harlan..." (Ford, Audubon, p.268, quoting an earlier source).
Apparently unpublished, not in Letters, ed. Corning.
Provenance:
Colonel John Eliot Thayer (1862-1933)
Dr. Evan Morton Evans (1870-1955)
Daniel Webster Evans (1907-1966) (2)
address panel on page 4, a chatty letter regarding subscriptions, specimens and mutual friends, telling him "if novelties in ornithology are yr. main object, the country bordering California is the right place to expect them," and that "the eyes of the intelligent part of the world are upon you"; both laid into green morocco gilt protective folder.
Audubon reports on his journey from Philadelphia to Louisiana via Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Louisville, describes the birds about his home and reports that "a friend of mine here says that he has discovered 2 or 3 New Birds!!!" He and Lucy plan "to be on our way towards 'Old England' in January, after a stay in Louisville with relatives, when they will "proceed with the Rapidity of the Wild Pigeon...." Next week, he will begin drawing again, "having much scratching of the pen to perform," and he will soon make a "Large shipment" of "Turkeys, alligators, oppossums, Parakeets" to the Zoological Gardens of London "from the Natural ones of this Magnificent Louisiana!....Should you see Friend [Thomas] Sully remember me to him..." In the boldly written addition on page 1, Audubon enthuses: "...I have just now Killed a Large New Falcon, yes positively a New Species of Hawk...I will skin it!!!...What I have said about the Hawk to you must be Lawful to Academicians and you will be pleased to announce Falco Harlanii by John J. Audubon...."
The physician Richard Harlan (1796-1843), published zoological papers and was an agent for the American edition of his friend's Ornithological Biography. Audubon was not the first to collect specimens of the Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo borealis), but was the first to describe the species. "Sure of its uniqueness, and elated, he sent an extravagant announcement [the present letter] to Harlan..." (Ford, Audubon, p.268, quoting an earlier source).
Apparently unpublished, not in Letters, ed. Corning.
Provenance:
Colonel John Eliot Thayer (1862-1933)
Dr. Evan Morton Evans (1870-1955)
Daniel Webster Evans (1907-1966) (2)