The Wild Turkey

John James Audubon opened The Birds of America (1827–1838) with the wild turkey, America's largest native game bird and, not coincidentally, the species Benjamin Franklin had once half-seriously proposed as a national symbol. Audubon painted from birds he shot and wired into lifelike poses — a technique he pioneered specifically to capture the animated postures earlier ornithological illustration lacked — and engraver Robert Havell Jr. translated the watercolor into an aquatint plate on paper large enough to show every bird at true life size, the signature ambition of Audubon's double-elephant folio. What to notice: the turkey is caught mid-stride through cane and bamboo, neck stretched forward, weight still on its trailing foot — a pose no static specimen mount could have supplied, and the exact quality that made Audubon's book an international sensation on its release.

Maker

John James Audubon (engraved by Robert Havell Jr.)

Date

1827

Medium of the original

Engraving

Original held by

Wikimedia Commons

Credit

Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00277