Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Edinburgh to Host Audubon Exhibit

The National Library of Scotland will host an exhibit from July 4-October 15 titled "Birds of a Feather: Audubon's Adventures in Edinburgh", according to the Edinburgh Evening News. The display will include a volume of Audubon's Birds of America on loan from the Renfrewshire Council, as well as several loose plates from the collections of the National Museums of Scotland.

"The NLS exhibition invites visitors to step back in time to a Georgian drawing room, to learn how the production of the world-famous book started in Edinburgh, and to meet seven influential figures who Audubon encountered, including Sir Walter Scott, Lizars, William MacGillivray and Robert Knox.

The exhibition also offers an insight into the painstaking engraving work that enabled Audubon's glorious illustrations to be reproduced to the highest standards possible in the 1820s."

Ten of the 425 plates in the Birds of America were engraved by one of Edinburgh's own, William Home Lizars.