John James Audubon, Mocking Bird, 1825Hand-colored engraving with etching and aquatint, 33 ¼ x 23 ¾ in,

from The Birds of America, pl. 21

Seeing and Shooting: Audubon and the Beginnings of Gun VisionAlan C. Braddock

John James Audubon, Mocking Bird (Northern Mockingbird), 1825, detailHand-colored engraving with etching and aquatint, 33 ¼ x 23 ¾ in, from The Birds of America, pl. 21

Audubon, 1826 Journal, Edinburgh, October 27, 1826, Friday:“Now that I found the Steam was High, that perhaps some exploxion might be produced, I exibited the Rattlesnake attackd by the Mocking Birds—this had the desired Effect—the Lady was pleased …”

John James Audubon, Mocking Bird, 1825Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a

Staircase, No. 2, 1912Oil on canvas, 57 x 38 in., Philadelphia Museum of Art

Audubon, 1826 Journal, Edinburgh, October 27, 1826:“Now that I found the Steam was High, that perhaps some exploxion might be produced, I exibited the Rattlesnake attackd by the Mocking Birds—this had the desired Effect”

New York Times, 1913:“An explosion in a shingle factory …”

Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Wendell Minor, Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream (Atheneum,

2003)

Jennifer Armstrong, with illustrations by Joseph A. Smith, Audubon: Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier (Abrams,

2003)

Barbara Brenner, On the Frontier with Mr. Audubon (Boyds Mills Press, 1977)

John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet Painting, 1885Oil on canvas, 21 ¼ x 25 ¼ in., Tate Gallery, London

Barbara Brenner, On the Frontier with Mr. Audubon (Boyds Mills Press, 1977)

John Syme, John James Audubon, 1826Oil on canvas, 35 x 27 in., White House Collection, Washington, D.C.

John James Audubon, Self-Portrait, 1826Graphite on paper, Private collection

G. P. A. Healy, John James Audubon, 1838Oil on canvas, 35 x 27 in., Museum of Science, Boston

John W. Audubon, John James Audubon, 1843Oil on canvas, 45 x 35 in., American Museum of Natural History, N. Y.

Audubon memorabilia (hat, parflêche, shotgun, pistol, war club, pipe/tomahawk, axe)American Museum of Natural History, New York

Shotgun owned by Audubon, early 1800sAmerican Museum of Natural History, New York

British double-barreled muzzle-loading percussion shotgun, early 1800sSteve Carpenteri, ed., Antique Guns: The Collector’s Guide, rev. ed. (Stoeger Publishing, 2005)

Victor G. and John W. Audubon, John James Audubon, 1841Oil on canvas, 44 x 60 in., American Museum of Natural History, New York

Thomas Cole, Daniel Boone at His Cabin at Great Osage Lake, 1826Oil on canvas, 38 ¼ x 42 5/8 in., Mead Art Museum, Amherst College

Cole, Daniel Boone at His Cabin …, 1826, detailOil on canvas, 38 ¼ x 42 5/8 in., Mead Art Museum, Amherst College

Victor G. and John W. Audubon, John James Audubon, 1841

Oil on canvas, 44 x 60 in., American Museum of Natural History, New York

John James Audubon, Daniel Boone, c. 1810Oil on canvas, 36 x 31 cm., Audubon Center, Henderson, KY

John James Audubon, “Colonel Boon,” in Ornithological Biography, 1832, vol. 1, p. 503

George Caleb Bingham, Shooting for the Beef, 1850Oil on canvas, 33 3/8 x 49 in., Brooklyn Museum, New York

Audubon, Mississippi River Journal

Fri., Nov. 10, 1820: “saw a fine Black Hawk … & Black Gull,—Shott Two Ducks”

Wed., Dec. 6, 1820: “saw 2 Large White Cranes with Black Tips—too shy to get in shooting distance”

Wed., Dec. 20, 1820: “Cummings Shot at an Ivory Billed Wood Pecker Picus Principallis broke his Wing and When he Went to take it up it Jump up and Claimed a tree, as fast as Squirel to the Very Top, he gave it up having but a few Loads of Shot—Joseph Came and Saw it—Shot at it and brought him down”

Thurs., Dec. 21, 1820: “Saw in the Afternoon a Black Hawk, a flock of Pelicans at which I shot at about 200 yards as near as I could approach, without effect”

Fri., Dec. 22, 1820: “saw Three Black Hawks, Shot at this Twice…”

Sun., Aug. 12, 1821: “I Eyed it particularly and saw it Moved, I Shot at it … Arrived at the Swamp and then saw a great Number of Small Birds; Shot a beautifull new species of Fly Catcher … I had the pleasure of seing Two that appeared Much alike, they were quarelling when I Shot at them”

Audubon, Missouri River Journals

Thurs., May 4, 1843: “Bell shot a Gray Squirrel which I believe to be the same as our Sciurus Carolinensis. Friend Harris shot two or three birds, which we have not yet fully established, andBell shot one Lincoln’s Finch … We saw Cerulean Warblers, Hooded Flycatchers, KentuckyWarblers, [proceeds to list many more species] … Here we killed and saw all that is enumerated above.”

Sat. May 6, 1843: “We took our guns and went off, but the wind was so high we saw but little; I shot a Wild Pigeon and a Whippoorwill, female, that gave me great trouble, as I never saw one so remarkably wild before. Bell shot two Gray Squirrels and several Vireos, and Sprague,a Kentucky Warbler. Traces of Turkeys and of Deer were seen. We also saw three White Pelicans. … We also procured a White-eyed and a Warbling Vireo, and shot a male Wild Pigeon. Saw a Gopher throwing out the dirt with his fore feet and not from his pouches. I was within four or five feet of it. Shot a Humming-bird, saw a Mourning Warbler, and Cedar birds.”

Tues., May 23, 1843: “Harris shot a common Rabbit and one Lark Finch. Bell and Sprague saw several Meadow-larks, which I trust will prove new, as these birds have quite different notes and songs from those of our eastern birds.”

John James Audubon, Roseate Tern, 1834Hand-colored engraving with etching and aquatint, 19 ½ x 12 ¼

in., from The Birds of America, pl. 240

Audubon, “Roseate Tern,” Ornithological Biography, 3:297-98:

“While in search of prey, they carry the bill in the manner of the Common Tern, that is perpendicularly downward, plunge like a shot, with wings nearly closed, so as to immerse part of the body, and immediately reascend.”

Audubon, “Common Loon,” Ornithological Biography, 4:43:

“Calculate, if you can, the speed of its flight, as it shoots across the sky …”

Robert Havell after John James Audubon, Common Loon, 1830

Hand-colored engraving on paper, 41 ½ x 28 ½ in., from The Birds of America

Audubon, “Golden Eagle,” Ornithological Biography:

“Although possessed of a powerful flight, it has not the speed of many Hawks, nor even of the White-headed Eagle. It cannot, like the latter, pursue and seize on the wing the prey it longs for, but is obliged to glide down through the air for a certain height to insure the success of its enterprise. The keenness of its eye, however, makes up for this defect, and enables it to spy, at a great distance, the objects on which it preys; and it seldom misses its aim, as it falls with the swiftness of a meteor towards the spot on which they are concealed.”

John James Audubon, Golden Eagle, 1833Watercolor, pastel, graphite, and selective glazing on paper, 38 x 25 ½ in.,

The New-York Historical Society

Audubon, Missouri River Journals, April 25, 1843:

“ … antelopes are beautiful small animals and run like the wind, but not so fast as a rifle-ball.”

J. T. Bowen after John Woodhouse Audubon, Prong-horned Antelope, 1845

Hand-colored lithograph, 22 x 28in., from The Vivaparous Quadrupeds of North America, pl. 77

J. T. Bowen after John Woodhouse Audubon, Black-tailed Deer, 1845Hand-colored lithograph, 22 x 28in., from The Vivaparous Quadrupeds of North America, pl. 78

Eadweard Muybridge, The Horse in Motion, 1878

Étienne-Jules Marey, Pelican in Flight, 1882

Étienne-Jules Marey, Observations sur le Vol des Oiseaux (Paris, 1890)

Étienne-Jules Marey, Observations sur le Vol des Oiseaux (Paris, 1890)

Étienne-Jules Marey, Observations sur le Vol des Oiseaux (Paris, 1890), p. 3:

“Audubon spent a great part of his life traveling through the forests and plains of America in order to find material for his beautiful pictures of the birds. Through him, we know the habits and the type of flight of a great number of species observed in freedom, in the most various circumstances. When Audubon describes certain distant spectacles, the migration of Pigeons, for example, the flight of the Frigate Bird, the White-headed Eagle pursuing its prey, his accounts of full of interest; he added important remarks on the characteristics of flight.”

Étienne-Jules Marey, Fusil photographique (photographic gun), invented 1882

“There are no Game Laws for those who Hunt with a Kodak,” 1905Illustrated advertisement published in The Cosmopolitan, 1905

“Hunting with a Camera—A Snap-shot at a Moose,” 1897Engraved illustration, Harper’s Weekly, October 2, 1897

Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1989)

snap-shot, n.

1.a. A quick or hurried shot taken without deliberate aim, esp. one at a rising bird or quickly moving animal.

1808 P. HAWKER Diary (1893) I. 11 Almost every pheasant I fired at was a snap shot among the high cover.

1846 GREENER Sci. Gunnery 164 Were a bird to spring in a situation where we could get only a snap shot.

2. a. An instantaneous photograph, esp. one taken with a hand-camera. Also transf. and fig.

[1860 HERSCHEL in Photogr. News 11 May 13 The possibility of taking a photograph, as it were by a snap-shot of securing a picture in a tenth of a second of time.]

1890 Rev. Reviews II. 489/2 The annexed snap-shots were taken with a hand camera.

1903 ‘O. HENRY’ in Everybody's Mag. Aug. 194/1 You see a man doing nothing but loafing around making snapshots.

Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1989)

shot, n.

7e. (cf. SHOOT v. 22f); a picture (or sequence of pictures) continuously shot by a single film or television camera; the action or process of taking such a picture.

1889 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. XXXVI. 605/2, I developed some instantaneous shots.

1895 Outing XXVI. 33/2, I must have a camera shot at this.

1923 ‘B. M. BOWER’ Parowan Bonanza xxvi. 303 Bill and Tommy were both below examining the effect of their ‘shots’ of the evening before.

The Audubon Magazine, vol. 1, February 1887, “Published in the Interests of The Audubon Society for the

Protection of Birds,” founded 1886 by George Bird Grinnell (nationally incorporated 1905)

George Bird Grinnell, 1849-1938