The Museum and Nature Center at John James Audubon State Park is temporarily closed to visitors. During this time of self-isolation, our staff is working to bring you entertaining and engaging content that you can explore from home. On Fridays we will be sharing a summary of that week’s content in a “Weekly Roundup” post on the Friends of Audubon blog.
Here are this week’s latest videos, activities, and social media posts from our museum curator, art educator, and park naturalist.
MUSEUM MONDAYS
Every Monday our museum curator, Heidi Taylor-Caudill, will share stories about the museum collection and history of John James Audubon State Park in a “Museum Monday” video. This week Heidi discussed our collection of John James Audubon’s calling cards and calling card case. From 1826 to 1838, Audubon worked tirelessly to sell himself as a respectable gentleman naturalist in order to convince people to subscribe to The Birds of America. As part of this effort, he used tools like the calling cards in our collection to convince potential subscribers to take a chance on his monumental project. Learn more about calling cards and their social importance in this video.
On Mondays, check out @johnjamesaudubonstatepark (Facebook) and @JJAStatePark (Twitter) to see our newest Museum Monday video. You can also find the videos on the Friends of Audubon blog using the tag, “Museum Mondays.”
WILD WEDNESDAYS
On Wednesdays, join our park naturalist, Lisa Hoffman, for virtual explorations of John James Audubon State Park, a beautiful nature preserve of hilly forests, lakes, and wetlands in northwestern Kentucky. In this week’s video, you’ll learn a little about nature’s recycling process. You won’t want to miss the sow bug race!
Every Wednesday, check out @johnjamesaudubonstatepark (Facebook) and @JJAStatePark (Twitter) to see our newest Wild Wednesday video. You can also find the videos on the Friends of Audubon blog using the tag, “Wild Wednesdays.”
FANTASTIC FRIDAYS
On Fridays, our art educator, Kim McGrew-Ligget, is sharing fun projects to help kids practice and develop their artistic skills. You can find how-to’s and videos on Facebook @johnjamesaudubonstatepark and Twitter @JJAStatePark.
This week’s project with Mrs. Kim teaches kids how to create a “wild and wacky bird.” Feel free to share your birds in the comments section on Facebook or Twitter!
#ARCHIVE30 ON TWITTER
Every year @ARAScot hosts #Archive30, a social media campaign that highlights archives around the world and the work of archivists. In April we posted about the daily topics above, sharing interesting items from our museum archives.
A collection of our tweets from Week One of #Archive30 (April 1-7, 2020). The topics this week included: Your Archive; Favorite Item; Archive Path; A Collection; Conservation Win; Something New; and Famous Archives.
Week Two of #Archive30 (April 8-14, 2020) included tweets on these topics: Archive Celebrations; Archive Secrets; Food & Drink; Object; Archive People; Outreach; and Environment.
For Week Three of #Archive30 (April 15-21, 2020), we shared items on these topics: Sport; Archive Advice; Archive Building; Typical Day; Archive Mystery; Unusual Item; and Misconceptions.
We ended Week Four of #Archive30 (April 22-26, 2020) on Sunday, April 26. Topics for this week included: Hidden Histories; Something Small; Your Workspace; Fashion; and Something Scary.
ONLINE PUZZLES
Need a distraction for a few minutes? Try some of our new online puzzles! The puzzles feature photography of John James Audubon State Park, art and artifacts from our museum collection, drawings from Fantastic Friday projects, as well as bird and flower images from 19th century greeting cards used by John James Audubon’s descendants. There are different levels of difficulty and you can change the number of pieces based on your preference. New puzzles will be added each week.
BEHIND-THE-SCENES AT THE MUSEUM
This week our museum curator, Heidi Taylor-Caudill, spent several hours cleaning, waxing, and polishing the bald eagle statue at the entrance to the museum and nature center at John James Audubon State Park. She shared a behind-the-scenes look at the work involved in preserving this beautiful sculpture for future generations on the Friends of Audubon blog.
NEW BLOG SERIES ABOUT AUDUBON
Over the next few months on the Friends of Audubon blog, our museum curator, Heidi Taylor-Caudill, will delve deeper into John James Audubon’s history to learn more about the people, places, and events that shaped his life’s course. This series offers us the opportunity to share more of the wonderful collection of Audubon-related artifacts, archival material, and artwork in the John James Audubon State Park Museum. Look for a new post here every Thursday afternoon.
The first blog post, “John James Audubon’s Story,” is now available.
NEED MORE MUSEUM AND NATURE CONTENT?
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to see what we share over the next week.
- Facebook: @johnjamesaudubonstatepark
- Twitter: @JJAStatePark
- Instagram: @audubon_state_park
Audubon’s Sparrow Now Available for Pre-Order
We’re excited about the upcoming publication on May 19th of Audubon’s Sparrow, a biography-in-poems by Juditha Dowd focused on John James Audubon’s wife, Lucy Bakewell Audubon.
Here’s more information on Audubon’s Sparrow from the press release by Rose Metal Press:
What does it mean to sacrifice for someone else’s art? Audubon’s Sparrow answers this question by way of a verse biography of Lucy Bakewell, the intrepid and largely unsung wife of the artist and naturalist John James Audubon. Set in the early decades of the 19th century, an era of dramatic growth and expansion in America, the book follows Lucy and John James as they fall in love, marry, and set off to make a life on the western frontier. Juditha Dowd weaves together lyric poems, imagined letters, and diary entries in Lucy’s voice with excerpts from Audubon’s journals and published works (which many believe Lucy helped to write and edit) to offer an intimate exploration of the thoughts of a young wife and mother. Moving from port to port along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, Lucy struggles to square the family’s poverty with her husband’s desire to abandon business and pursue his passion for nature. In a time when women are rarely permitted to work outside the home, Lucy draws on her education and musical talents to become a teacher, freeing Audubon to travel abroad seeking a publisher for The Birds of America. As she wards off financial ruin, Lucy’s natural confidence and independence emerge, along with a very different life from the one she expected. Nimbly written and sympathetically rendered, Audubon’s Sparrow is an enchanting blend of research and imagination—an indelible portrait of an American woman in need of rediscovery.
Rose Metal Press: “Audubon’s Sparrow” by Juditha Dowd.
Read reviews and interviews about this book at:
- Audubon Magazine: “The Woman Behind ‘Birds of America.'” (March 24, 2020)
- Schuylkill Valley Journal: “SVJ’s Poetry Editor Bernadette McBride Reviews “Audubon’s Sparrow” by Juditha Dowd.” (March 12, 2020)
- Mom Egg Review: “Audubon’s Sparrow by Juditha Dowd.” (April 4, 2020)
‘Bird from Home’ Photo Project
Join the National Audubon Society’s new ‘Bird from Home’ photo project and share your favorite shots of birdlife around you. More info: https://www.audubon.org/news/take-part-audubons-bird-home-photo-project
Follow Kentucky State Parks’ Recreation Station on Facebook
Each week on Facebook, Kentucky State Parks shares new Recreation Station episodes from the 45 state parks in Kentucky. This week’s videos included a virtual hike at Lake Cumberland State Resort Park, advice on trail safety from Carter Caves State Resort Park, and a look at Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park.
This blog post was written by Heidi Taylor-Caudill, Curator of the John James Audubon State Park Museum.