The Making of The Birds of America

Visitors can’t help pausing in front of the large glass display case at the Northwestern University Library in Evanston, Illinois. The case holds an open copy of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America. The enormous volume consists of double elephant folio pages measuring 39.5 inches by 26.5 inches. That’s about the size of a flat-screen television. The pages are filled with life-size prints of birds.

Northwestern owns one of only 120 complete sets of in existence. It is worth an estimated $9.6 million. But what it offers to viewers is priceless: a close-up examination of Audubon’s detailed artistry of 497 different species of birds. Viewers can almost hear the hoot