The monument at New Orleans, mentioned below, was erected under the auspices of the Audubon Association, at a cost of $10,000, most of which was secured through the efforts of Mrs. J. L. Bradford, $1,500 having been contributed by residents of the Crescent City. The figure is in bronze, and stands on a high pedestal of Georgia granite.
The beautiful bust of Audubon at the American Museum of Natural History is by William Couper, of Newark, N. J.
[6] As will later appear, this was in reality the 120th anniversary.
[7] The first Audubon Society, devoted to the interests of bird protection, was organized by Dr. George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, in 1886, and 16,000 members were enrolled during the first year; Dr. Grinnell was also the father of the Audubonian Magazine (see [Bibliography, No. 190]), which made its first appearance in January, 1887; by the middle of that year the membership in the new society had increased to 38,000, but with the disappearance of the Magazine in 1889 the movement languished and came to a speedy end. In 1896 a fresh start was taken by the inauguration of State societies in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and the movement gathered greater force through the inauguration in 1899 of the admirably conducted magazine, Bird-Lore, as its official organ. The State societies were federated in 1902, and the National Committee then created gave place in 1905 to the National Association. See Gilbert Trafton, Bird Friends, for an excellent summary of the work of the Audubon Societies, and the "Twelfth Annual Report of the National Association of Audubon Societies," Bird-Lore, vol. xviii (1916).
[8] In this year Charles Lanman, writer, and at a later time librarian of the Library of Congress, wrote to Victor Audubon as follows: "Are not you and your family willing now to let me write a book about your illustrious father? I feel confident that I could get up something very interesting and which would not only help the big work, but make money. I could have it brought out in handsome style, and should like to have well engraved a portrait and some half dozen views in Kentucky, Louisiana, and on the Hudson. Write me what you think about it." Lanman's letter is dated "Georgetown, D. C., Oct. 8, 1856"; on November 1 Victor Audubon replied, declining the proposal.
[9] Messrs. C. S. Francis & Company, of 554 Broadway, New York.
[10] The publishers in this instance do not appear to have been better informed, for the text of the Quadrupeds, from which they quote, was written by John Bachman, and the first volume of it was issued in London in 1847; see [Bibliography, No. 6].
[11] Rev. Dr. Adams was rector of this parish for twenty-five years, from 1863 to his death in February, 1888; he was the author of three volumes on religious subjects and various smaller tracts; from 1855 to 1863 he had charge of a church in Baltimore, Maryland, and while there published an anonymous pamphlet entitled "Slavery by a Marylander; Its Institution and Origin; Its Status Under the Law and Under the Gospel" (8 pp. 8vo. Baltimore, 1860).
[12] Buchanan said that the manuscript submitted to him was inordinately long and needed careful revision; he added that "while he could not fail to express his admiration for the affectionate spirit and intelligent sympathy with which the friendly editor discharged his task, he was bound to say that his literary experience was limited." After copying a passage from one of Audubon's journals, this editor had the unfortunate habit of drawing his pen through the original; in this way hundreds of pages of Audubon's admirable "copper-plate" were irretrievably defaced.
[13] Robert Buchanan, The Life of Audubon ([Bibl. No. 72]), p. vi.