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carolina-parakeet
The avian visions of John James Audubon, America's finest wildlife artist, are coming to life as never before.
On display now through May 19 at the New York Historical Society is the first of three installations in Audubon's Aviary: The Complete Flock, the society's unprecedented exhibition of 474 paintings.
Most are so-called preparatory watercolors, the drafts Audubon made while working towards The Birds of America, the famed series of hand-colored, life-sized engravings that would make his name synonymous with the winged world.
The watercolors were purchased by the Society in 1863 from Audubon's wife Lucy, and are usually kept in storage, hidden from light that could disturb their delicate pigments. They've never been gathered in one place for public display.
Also on display are some of Audubon's earliest paintings, which were only recently discovered and have never been seen in the United States. As a multimedia bonus, some paintings are accompanied by birdsong recorded -- or, in the case of the extinct Carolina parakeet and ivory-billed woodpecker, reconstructed -- by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
On the following pages, exhibition curator Roberta Olson takes Wired readers on a tour.
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