Common Buzzard. Buteo Vulgaris / Marsh Hare. Sylvilagus Palustris Bachman
Etcher Robert Havell Jr. American, born England
After John James Audubon American, born Haiti
Not on view
This etched copper printing plate comes from a group of 435, begun in Edinburgh by William Home Lizars in the fall of 1826 and completed in London by Robert Havell, Jr. by June 20, 1838. Audubon had them shipped to America in 1839, stored in a New York City warehouse, then moved to a vault on his property in Upper Manhattan by 1852. After the artist's death, the plates eventually became the property of a mining and metal business, Phelps, Dodge & Co., whose president William E. Dodge gave six to the Metropolitan Museum in 1876. Nickel-plated to preserve the surface, with brass paint added to make the lines readable, the group was displayed in a gallery off the entrance hall at the museum's early home at 128 West 14th Street.
