This month the Audubon Museum & Nature Center @JJAStatePark will be participating in #Museum30 2020, starting November 1. We'll be sharing photos every day inspired by the prompts below. @magnifyzoology #Museums #Objects #History pic.twitter.com/VT5EiTcSbB
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 1, 2020
In November 2020, the Audubon Museum & Nature Center at John James Audubon State Park participated in the popular annual #Museum30 challenge on Twitter. Museums and those who love them celebrated museums, objects, and history by sharing photos inspired by daily prompts. Gracie Price, a conservation practice student in the United Kingdom and author of the Magnifying Zoology blog, started the #Museum30 challenge in 2017 as a way to connect museum professionals and provide opportunities for them to share their work. You can read more about the history of the #Museum30 challenge here.
Below is a compilation of our #Museum30 posts from November 1 to November 30, 2020 on the John James Audubon State Park Twitter account @JJAStatePark. Two days were skipped (November 22 and 26). We published 35 posts, which earned 5,889 impressions (the number of times users saw a tweet on Twitter). It was the first time the Audubon Museum had participated in the #Museum30 challenge and marked another effort by the museum this year to promote its collection to a wider audience.
Have a question about an item or information we’ve shared through the #Museum30 challenge? Email museum curator Heidi Taylor-Caudill at 502-782-9716 or [email protected].
#Museum30 Day 1: #Museum.
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 1, 2020
Nestled in @JJAStatePark, the Audubon Museum & Nature Center is home to one of the world's largest collections of materials from wildlife artist and naturalist, John James Audubon. pic.twitter.com/oCZxMGi6hT
#Museum30 Day 2: #WhoAmI
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 2, 2020
The Audubon Museum explores the life and work of John James Audubon (1785-1851). He was an American artist and naturalist who created beautiful, detailed illustrations of birds and other animals. His most famous work is The Birds of America (1827-1839). pic.twitter.com/zQYrAj82Na
#Museum30 Day 3: #Scribble
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 3, 2020
Scrap of paper with scribbles attributed to John James Audubon, circa 1815. It contains his signature plus ink blots & doodles, including a poem about George Washington & drawings of a man’s head.
Elizabeth Rankin Walmsley Collection, JJA.1941.108.5 pic.twitter.com/zBTcCLYHEb
Read more about the hairwork jewelry in the Audubon Museum's collection on the Curator's Blog at the Friends of Audubon website: https://t.co/VgckuB2gc4.
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 4, 2020
#Museum30 Day 5: #Display
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 5, 2020
This display in the Audubon Museum features items related to the Audubon family's residence in Henderson, KY, an early Audubon bird drawing, and charcoal portraits made by Audubon for money after he went bankrupt in the financial crisis of 1819. pic.twitter.com/nqrwvSKhuM
This collection of original artwork and artifacts had been on loan from the descendants of John James Audubon to @JJAStatePark since the Museum opened in 1938. This was no easy task, as the price tag was $2 million.
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 6, 2020
For more information about the Friends of Audubon and what its members have contributed to @JJAStatePark over the years, visit https://t.co/Alb0q3BHSs.
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 6, 2020
The photos above were taken this spring and summer. Here's a few from the fall and winter seasons. pic.twitter.com/ZeCqz3GYJG
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 7, 2020
#Museum30 Day 8: #Safety
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 8, 2020
In this Oct 10, 1832 letter, Lucy Audubon bids her son Victor Gifford farewell before his trip to London to oversee the production of his father's prints and take art lessons. She promises to pray for his safety.
L.S. Tyler Collection, JJA.1938.404 pic.twitter.com/XKcbKagOnC
#Museum30 Day 9: #Utensil
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 9, 2020
On Jan 18, 1836, John James Audubon purchased a silver set in London as a gift for his wife, Lucy, to replace her family silver lost in their 1819 bankruptcy.
Receipt: L.S. Tyler Collection, JJA.1938.411
Fork: L.S. Tyler Collection, JJA.1938.1211.4 pic.twitter.com/JCUYxC49xf
#Museum30 Day 10: #Narrative
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 10, 2020
In this handwritten manuscript titled, "Breaking Up of the Ice," John James Audubon tells the story of his trip with Ferdinand Rozier to St. Genevieve, MO in the winter of 1811-1812.
John James Audubon Museum Collection, JJA.L.2006.21.2 pic.twitter.com/ukxswyYV03
#Museum30 Day 11: #First
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 11, 2020
The Wild Turkey (1827) is the first print in John James Audubon's masterwork, The Birds of America. This original print is currently on display as you enter Gallery C in the Audubon Museum.
Henderson Historical Society Collection, JJA.1938.1495 pic.twitter.com/8zpUmcqYu9
#Museum30 Day 12: #WorkSpace
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 12, 2020
This picture shows John James Audubon's workspace as he drew the Golden-winged Woodpecker (Plate 37, BOA). Lucy Audubon stands nearby with a baby.
IMAGE: Donald & Louise Peattie,"The Romance of Lucy Audubon," Reader's Digest, July 1962, page 208. pic.twitter.com/2I9RuyHFjY
#Museum30 Day 13: #Origin
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 13, 2020
The origin of the Audubon Museum can be traced back to Susan Starling Towles and other local citizens in the early 20th century. They envisioned a JJ Audubon museum in Henderson, KY, where he lived from 1810-1819.
Learn more at https://t.co/uekhWHcn3A pic.twitter.com/erxpQpw8uZ
#Museum30 Day 14: #Pen
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 14, 2020
Sometime between 1838-1860, Oliver B. Goldsmith (a penmanship instructor in NYC) translated John James Audubon's Marsh Hawk (Plate 356, BOA) into calligraphic art.
Read more about this unique work of art at https://t.co/YfP2Jd4GMI pic.twitter.com/dyrNvYjg2E
#Museum30 Day 15: #Virtual
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 15, 2020
While the Audubon Museum was closed earlier this year, our curator, naturalist, and art educator created videos as part of our "virtual" outreach.
Check out our YouTube videos featuring live animals, hikes, history and art at https://t.co/3TrQPhdZ4C pic.twitter.com/y9B2hZc6O9
#Museum30 Day 16: #Movement
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 16, 2020
John James Audubon used the illusion of movement to make his portrayals of birds more realistic. He observed them closely, noting their ways of moving, and tried to replicate that in his art by showing them in action (rather than stiffly posed). pic.twitter.com/rXTxrnL4My
#Museum30 Day 17: #Bookshelf
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 17, 2020
Curious about John James Audubon, his contemporaries, or ornithology and natural history? Our museum shop offers dozens of books on these topics for visitors interested in learning more. #Learning #Reading #Biography #NonFictionNovember pic.twitter.com/XT1sVFBXiZ
#Museum30 Day 18: #Dilemma
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 18, 2020
After being jailed in Louisville, KY for debt and then filing for bankruptcy, John James Audubon found himself on the streets doing charcoal portraits to make a living.
Below is one of these original charcoal drawings by Audubon, done in Oct 1819. pic.twitter.com/irdu9fKy0Z
#Museum30 Day 19: #Light
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 19, 2020
John James Audubon's son, Victor Gifford, was not only his business manager, but an artist in his own right. Victor's painting, Boats in a Gale (ca. 1834), depicts ships near a wharf under moonlight and dark clouds.
L.S. Tyler Collection, JJA.1938.1316 pic.twitter.com/LjI2mkERMH
#Museum30 Day 20: #Home
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 20, 2020
On August 13, 1913, Audubon biographer Francis H. Herrick took this photograph of John James Audubon's childhood home in Coueron, France. It was known as "La Gerbetiere."
L.S. Tyler Collection, JJA.1938.363 pic.twitter.com/E617Ovf9Hq
#Museum30 Day 21: #Restoration
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 21, 2020
In 2017, this oil portrait, "Miss Audubon," underwent restoration to remove past treatments that served to conceal & embellish the original image (hiding finer details seen in Audubon's few other portraits). pic.twitter.com/GIvZlzwHEV
#Museum30 Day 23: #Companion
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 23, 2020
In the 1830s, John James Audubon published the "Ornithological Biography" as a companion text to "The Birds of America," which only held engravings w/ captions. Later a more affordable version was published that combined his illustrations and text. pic.twitter.com/04NpSYfAYE
#Museum30 Day 24: #Letter
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 24, 2020
Audubon's granddaughters, Florence and Maria, used this jigsaw puzzle at their home in Salem, NY around 1910. The puzzle has 426 wooden pieces. Most are irregularly shaped, and a few others were cut in the shape of animals and letters. pic.twitter.com/LKjVZvIgqc
In 2012, Kentucky Educational Television (KET) produced this short video on the Audubon sculptures in Henderson: https://t.co/tvrWV3LMV4
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 25, 2020
#Museum30 Day 27: #Music
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 27, 2020
The Audubons were a musical family and Lucy Audubon made sure to teach her grandchildren to play the piano. This book of sheet music for the piano was used by several Audubon granddaughters. It includes the inscription, "Eliza from Grandmother." pic.twitter.com/e9n1lKTWwZ
#Museum30 Day 28: #Dream
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 28, 2020
Mary Eliza Audubon (1845-1917) was the granddaughter of John James Audubon through his son Victor Gifford. This is a manuscript of her 1908 poem, Shall I Awake, which reflects on those she has lost and asks,"shall I waken and find it all a dream?" pic.twitter.com/t74bIUZuJu
#Museum30 Day 29: #Strength
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 29, 2020
Lucy Audubon used her intelligence, strength of will, and adaptability to support the family while her husband pursued his dream to publish "The Birds of America."
This is an unfinished portrait of Lucy by her son, John Woodhouse Audubon. pic.twitter.com/VHbGMrGKXw
#Museum30 Day 30: #WhyMuseums
— Audubon State Park (@JJAStatePark) November 30, 2020
There are many reasons why museums matter, but one that we've witnessed in 2020 is how they can contribute to our collective well-being & our connections – to each other and our past, present, and future.
Thank you @magnifyzoology for #Museum30! pic.twitter.com/GmJ9LY0dFC
This blog post was written by Heidi Taylor-Caudill, Curator of the John James Audubon State Park Museum.