"John James Audubon in the West: The Last Expedition - Mammals of North America"
2000-06-23 until 2000-09-24
Buffalo Bill Historical Center
Cody, WY, USA

Most know that John James Audubon was determined to document all the species of American birds in their natural habitat. However, in 1843, Audubon made an historic trip up the Missouri River to see first-hand and document North American, four-legged animals. This remarkable trek resulted in Audubon's dramatic catalog of mammals called The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America and is the story told in this Buffalo Bill Historical Center exhibition.

Curator of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art Sarah Boehme explains, John James Audubon is associated with artistic images of birds, with conservation issues, and with geographic locations of the Deep South. He doesn't immediately spring to mind when we think of the major artists of the American West, such as George Catlin, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. Yet Audubon made this important trip to the West, traveling up the Missouri River as far as the trading post Fort Union. He saw many of the same sites as Catlin and the Swiss artist Karl Bodner who also portrayed the region in the early nineteenth century.

The special exhibition John James Audubon in the West: The Last Expedition: Mammals of North America is being made possible by a grant from the Shell Oil Company Foundation. The exhibition closes September 24, 2000 and will travel to Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Houston.

Red Texas Wolf
J.W. Audubon
Chase Bank of Texas

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Wyoming

Other Important Exhibitions in United States