Audubon, John James, 1785-1851. | Tulane University Special Collections

Name: Audubon, John James, 1785-1851.

Variant Name: Audubon, Jean Jacques Fougère.

Historical Note: John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter, was probably best known for his Birds of North America (1827-1839). He was born in Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue, on his father's sugar plantation. His father, Lieutenant Jean Audubon was a French naval officer. Audubon and his sister were both illegitimate, and were adopted and raised by their father and his wife near Nantes, France. Audubon, who had been renamed Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon upon adoption, boarded ship for emigration to the United States in 1803 and changed his name to the more familiar anglicized form: John James Audubon. Jean Audubon and Claude Rozier arranged a business partnership between their sons to pursue in Pennsylvania. The partnership between John James Audubon and Ferdinand Rozier moved west at various stages. They established a general store in Louisville, but the store suffered the effects of the Embargo Act and the business failed in 1810. They then moved on to Kentucky to reestablish their store. By then, Audubon had married Lucy Bakewell. The unsuccessfulness and dissolution of the partnership in 1818 forced Audubon to rely on his scientific and artistic skill as a means of support.

Sources: Manuscripts Collection 628

Note Author: LAC Group

Records or Manuscript Collections Created by Audubon, John James, 1785-1851.