Happy Thanksgiving from the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries. The reading room will close one hou

Happy Thanksgiving from the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries. The reading room will close one hour early, at 4:00, on Wednesday, November 22, and will remain closed Thursday, November 23 and Friday, November 24 for the holiday. Please come in during our public hours on Monday, November 27, when you can request the book containing these images, John James Audubon’s Birds of America from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories.

Information on the turkey appears in volume five, which was published by V. G. Audubon and C. S. Francis and Company in New York in 1855.John James Audubon wrote the text in this edition, incorporating research as well as his own observations of the birds from his travels. He was impressed by the turkey, noting:

The great size and beauty of the Wild Turkey, its value as a delicate and      highly prized article of food, and the circumstance of its being the origin of the domestic race now generally dispersed over both continents, render it one of the most interesting of the birds indigenous to the United States of America.

Here you see two of Audubon’s images of the turkey: Wild Turkey, Male and Wild Turkey, Female & Young, in lithographs printed and colored by J. T. Bowen of Philadelphia.

Have a delicious Thanksgiving!