book review: america’s other audubon

May 16, 2012 | by ellie

After seeing John James Audubon’s lithographs at the 1876 World’s Fair in Philadelphia, twenty-nine year old Genevieve Jones and a friend were inspired to illustrate the nests and eggs that were not included in Audubon’s The Birds of America. Although her family was reluctant to support such a large endeavor, Genevieve was distraught over a broken engagement, and her family saw the project as a necessary distraction. But shortly after beginning Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Genevieve died suddenly of typhoid fever. In her memory, Genevieve’s mother, brother and father spent seven years finishing the book—her mother painstakingly drew the lithographs on stone and hand-colored fifty copies of each illustration, her brother collected the eggs and nests, and her father spent his life savings on the project. Only ninety copies of the book were made. Joy Kiser has made the Jones’ work available today with America’s Other Audubon, a beautiful, over-sized book with all sixty-eight of the original lithographs, photos, field notes, and a key to the eggs and birds.