The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts presentsBirds of the Enlightenment, Predecessors and Rivals of J.J. Audubon an exhibition on view March 17 to June 10, 2012.
Red Tailed Hawk; John and Thomas Doughty The Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports with illustrations, Philadelphia.
On voyages of discovery from the 17th to the 19th centuries explorers sought out new species of animals and collected specimens or drawings that would be brought home to eager colleagues ready to carefully delineate new species, make engravings or lithographs, and publish them for presentation to the public all across Europe and America. These are the early years of scientific inquiry, best known as The Enlightenment. Dozens of publications organizing and describing the natural world appeared from the middle of the 16th century to the end of the 18th.
This exhibition from the personal collection of Professor Thomas Puryear of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, includes original bird illustrations from some 75 different publications that involved more than twice that many artists, editors, engravers, writers, printers, and illustrators who gave direction to this endeavor of cataloging the natural world.
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, a department of the City of Montgomery, is supported by funds from the City of Montgomery and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association. Programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
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One Museum Drive
Montgomery, Alabama 36117
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 334.240.4333
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