welcome to the lounge -- pull up a chair!

The lounge is the social part of minniesland.com -- a place where we can discuss and enjoy our mutual interests. While we expect the bulk of the material to deal with Audubon and his family and collaborators, some may be only peripherally related, having to do with other artists or other series of natural history prints. We encourage and appreciate your submissions and comments, and may post them in this area for the benefit of our visitors.  Names, affiliations, and/or email addresses will NOT be posted unless the writer gives his or her express permission.

what's happening in the lounge?

We have a page of links we like.  Why not take a look?

We have received many contributions and made many friends through the wonders of email since the launch of minniesland.com in May 2001.  Some contributions deal specifically with prints; others illuminate the lives of the Audubon family, or explore the impact of the Audubon family's development of the Minniesland estate on New York's Washington Heights.

OF INTEREST TO PRINT COLLECTORS

Ron Flynn of Michigan has donated two articles to the study discussing some of the collecting issues for Bien Edition prints and whether or not there was ever a Bien Edition reissue.

Leslie Kostrich, owner and architect of minniesland.com, has written an article about a rare and unusual print, an uncolored Havell Edition Plate 6 Wild Turkey (Female and Young).  The article includes many photos of the uncolored print, and focuses on the evolution of this great Havell/Lizars image as evidenced by the known variants.  You can find the Wild Turkey article in the Havell area of the study.   Also by Leslie, Spring Break at Oakley Plantation-- an overview of Leslie's visit to Oakley Plantation near St. Francisville, Louisiana.  Audubon and Joseph Mason spent four productive months living at Oakley in the home of the Pirrie family in 1821.  

Author Bill Steiner and his publisher, the University of South Carolina Press, have kindly given us permission to offer you an excerpt from Bill's book Audubon Art Prints: A Collectors Guide to Every Edition (Columbia, 2003).  The excerpt discusses how Audubon and Havell worked together to create the original Double Elephant Folio prints.  Bill has also contributed a brief article on authenticating full-size facsimile prints of images from the the Havell Edition.

Tom Blanton of Florida has provided us with a great addition to the study -- an article on the fascicles for the octavo edition of  The Birds of America.  As many of you know, the first editions of each of Audubon's major works were issued by subscription to help finance the costs of the project.  Tom is the rare collector who has managed to amass a sizeable collection of original parts to the octavo edition of The Birds of America.  He provides us with a detailed description and excellent photos, so you'll know to pull out your wallet the next time you see fascicles being sold at the flea market for a dollar apiece.

RELATED TO MINNIESLAND AND THE AUDUBON FAMILY

minniesland.com, LLC has acquired several items that relate to various members of the Audubon family.  We are beginning to add information on these to the site.  Our first set of items is a series of  letters by Victor Audubon to a subscriber to the octavo edition of The Birds of America. 

New Yorker Matthew Spady (whose website, www.audubonparkny.com, is well worth a visit) sent us some interesting email on the development of the Audubon Park neighborhood of Manhattan.  Audubon Park was the name that supplanted "Minnie's Land" or "Minniesland" for the part of Manhattan where the Audubon family estate was located. Matthew and other residents of the neighborhood have been working to preserve its distinct character by seeking to have the area designated a Historic District by the City of New York.

Lou Claudio, a New Yorker who has transplanted to a milder climate, has sent photos and remembrances of the historic Audubon Park area where the Audubons once lived. You'll find these and other pictures of this part of Manhattan on the page describing the origins of our name.

We have been in touch with Susan C. Davis of Oregon who is descended through Lucy Audubon, the first of two daughters born to John Woodhouse Audubon and his first wife, Maria Bachman Audubon.  Ms. Davis is the great-great-great-great granddaughters of John James and Lucy Bakewell Audubon and the Reverend John and Harriet Bachman.  She has kindly given us permission to share her emails with visitors to our site. Susan has also provided a report and photos on the symposium on John Bachman held April 2006 that she attended at Newberry College. For those who wish to know more of the complicated relations between the Bachman and Audubon families, we recommend the wonderful book by Jay Shuler Had I the Wings: the Friendship of Bachman and Audubon (University of Georgia Press, 1995, available in paperback).

Last updated 02.28.09