General Information:
Scientist Name: John James LaForest Audubon
Birth and Death Dates: April 26, 1785/January 27, 1851
Where he was born: Les Cayes, Stanto Domingo (Haiti), France
Field(s) of Science He Studied: Ornithology (a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds) and naturalism (the idea or beliefs that only laws of nature and forces operate in the world)
What field of science is he most famous for: Ornithology
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Interesting Facts: * Audubon married Lucy Bakewell Audubon * Audubon’s father Jean Audubon was a merchant, planter, and a slave dealer * His mother was never married to his father and died after giving birth * There is a school named after him: John James Audubon Elementary School in Kenner, Louisiana * There is a website created after him called www.audubon.org
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Education/Work: Audubon’s education was arranged by his father. He went to a school that wasn’t far and was tutored in math, geography, drawing, music and fencing. He didn’t like school, his parents tried to get him to learn but he refused, he became a spoiled and stubborn kid. He was sent to Paris to study art but disliked it also.
In France he formed a business partnership with Ferdinand Rozier the son of one of his father's associates. Together they came back to America and tried to operate a lead mine on the farm. In August 1807 the partners decided to move west. There their business failed in various cities in Kentucky, caused by Audubon for roaming the woods rather than keeping the store. After the constant failures with Rozier, Audubon, in association with his brother-in-law, Thomas Bakewell, and others, attempted to start several more businesses, the last being a lumber mill in Henderson, Kentucky. In 1819 this venture failed and Audubon was left with only the clothes on his back, his gun, and his drawings. This disaster ended his business career. Audubon made crayon portraits (drawings of individual people) for $5 per portrait. Then he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a taxidermist (one who stuffs and mounts the skins of animals) in the Western Museum. He set out down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, exploring for new birds and paying his expenses by painting portraits. In 1824 Audubon went to Philadelphia to find a publisher. He met with opposition, however, from the friends of Alexander Wilson (1766–1813), the other major American ornithologist with whom Audubon had begun a bitter rivalry in 1810. Audubon finally reached an agreement with a London publisher, and in 1827 volumes of Birds of America began to appear. It took eleven years in all for the publication and reprinting’s of all the volumes. The success of Audubon's bird drawings brought him immediate fame, and by 1831 he was considered the leading naturalist of his country, despite the fact that he possessed no formal scientific training.
Audubon is famous for his studies, drawings and paintings of North American birds.
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How has your scientist’s accomplishment benefitted the world today: Audubon gave the world the first collection of American birds drawn in their own natural habitats. It encouraged and inspired others to do the same. When others did the same they discovered other birds, new birds.
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Mathematics was hard, dull work. Geography pleased me more. For dancing I was quite enthusiastic!
John James Audubon
Mathematics was hard, dull work. Geography pleased me more. For dancing I was quite enthusiastic!
John James Audubon
A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.
John James Audubon
A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.
John James Audubon
Quotes:

How could I make a little book, when I have seen enough to make a dozen large books?
John James Audubon

How could I make a little book, when I have seen enough to make a dozen large books?
John James Audubon

In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests.
John James Audubon
John James Audubon
In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests.
John James Audubon
John James Audubon

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