Arthur Elmore Bostwick

“ After returning to Bayou Sara, where he had left his wife, he sailed from New Orleans, in 1826, for England, intending to seek aid there, though he had not a friend in the country. On his arrival he began to exhibit his drawings in public, and, though at first he met with discouragements, the value and merit of his work was soon recognized by European naturalists. The friends that he made during this visit included Herschel, Sir Walter Scott, and “Christopher North” in Great Britain, and Cuvier, Humboldt, and St. Hilaire in France. ”

“ He seems to have done all this with no incentive but the love of nature; the idea of publication had not yet entered his mind. About this time his father died, leaving him an estate in France and the sum of $17,000. The latter was held in trust by a friend in Richmond, Va., who failed shortly afterward, and Audubon received not a penny. His devotion to his favorite pursuit continued to bring him into financial trouble, and he was obliged to earn money by giving drawing lessons and taking crayon portraits in Louisville and Cincinnati. ”

“ His son, John Woodhouse, died 21 Feb., 1862, while preparing a third edition of the “Birds of America.” Mrs. Audubon survived her husband many years, and prepared from his diary a biography, which was published in New York in 1868. Mrs. Audubon died at the home of her sister-in-law, in Shelbyville, Ky., 19 June, 1874. Audubon was a man of fine personal appearance. He seems to have been attached to his family, and to have been happy in his home, yet he chafed under the confinement of domestic life, and longed to be continually in the woods. ”