John James Audubon (1785–1851) was born in Haiti, raised in France, and spent the majority of his …

John James Audubon (1785–1851) was born in Haiti, raised in France, and spent the majority of his career as an ornithologist, naturalist, and painter in the eastern United States. In 1803 he began overseeing a family farm in Pennsylvania where his study of birds began in earnest. He performed the first recorded experiment with bird-banding in the U.S. by tying yarns around the legs of Eastern Phoebes in order to determine that they returned to the same nesting ground year after year. When the Pennsylvania farm failed, he journeyed down the Mississippi River, embarking on his first major bird documentation trip. Using pencil and watercolors, he drew meticulous representations of birds that were far more lifelike than anything his predecessors had created, despite the fact that he hunted and carefully mounted each bird before painting it.

He had difficulty in selling a book of his drawings in the U.S., but it was a remarkable success in Britain, where he raised enough money to publish The Birds of America in stages between 1827 and 1839. This immense, double-folio volume featured hand-colored aquatint etchings. A copy in excellent condition sold at auction for almost $9 million in 2000 and remains the highest price ever paid for any printed book to date.