One of JCSM’s cornerstone collections, the Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection, has inspired far-reaching investigations into the artistic and scientific representations of the natural world, particularly in North America. Within that collection, one of the true gems is a complete set of the bound volumes of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, a publication John James Audubon began working on almost immediately after he completed his more well-known project, The Birds of America. The Quadrupeds was published in three volumes between 1845 and 1848, though work on the project began in the early 40s.

JCSM’s set is particularly beautiful, since the original binding is of high quality, the set has been cared for and the individual prints have had little exposure to light and other damaging environmental factors.

JCSM will exhibit the three-volume Imperial Folio and a selection of unbound prints on loan from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Loans have been arranged for other materials, such as paintings by John Woodhouse Audubon produced as part of the original folio production process, maps of the journey and assorted ephemera from the Edward Harris Collection at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.