Passenger Pigeon.
Stone lithograph, printed and colored by J. T. Bowen after a drawing by John James Audubon.
In: John James Audubon’s The Birds of America: From Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories, [Royal octavo ed.] vol. 5 (New York and Philadelphia, 1842).
Audubon’s double elephant folio of The Birds of America secured his fame, but not continuing income. Thus, he planned a more affordable version of the book in smaller scale (octavo) and with less elaborate scenery that would reach a wider audience than had the magnificent original. Rather than separating text and image, the seven-volume octavo edition combines them, with the illustrations printed through lithography rather than etching, and it sets the birds in a more systematic scientific order according to family.