DVOC Presents Center of the Bird World: Audubon and his Rivals in Philadelphia

The Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC) hosts author and birder, Kenn Kaufman for a talk and moderated Q&A about his new book, The Birds that Audubon Missed. His talk will focus on the role Philadelphia played in early American ornithology and natural science. Two centuries ago, in spring 1824, three remarkable birdmen met in Philadelphia. George Ord, vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences, was launching a new edition of Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology. Charles Bonaparte, Napoleon’s 20-year-old nephew, was just beginning major studies to compare the bird species of North America and Europe. John James Audubon, returning after years on the frontier in Kentucky and Louisiana, was seeking a publisher for his monumental Birds of America. In an age of discovery and new ideas, encounters among these three men would change the course of bird study all over the world, as Kenn Kaufman describes in this program based on chapters from his latest book.