Canada Jay. Corus Canadensis [current name: Gray Jay. Perisoreus canadensis], printing plate for "The Birds of America," 1827–38, plate CVII
John James Audubon American, born Haiti
Engraver Robert Havell Jr. American, born England
Not on view
Two birds are depicted here on a branch of White Oak which also supports a hornet's nest. Audubon identified them as Canada Jays, but today they are called Eastern Gray Jays. The artist may have painted the related watercolor in New Jersey in the summer of 1829.
This etched, aquatinted and engraved copper plate was one of 435 used to print "The Birds of America." The Edinburgh printing shop of William Home Lizars began work on the first group of ten in the fall of 1826 until labor issues forced Audubon to change course. In 1827, he employed the London engraver and printer Robert Havell, Sr. to take over, soon joined by his son Robert Havell, Jr. The latter was an expert etcher and aquatint engraver who then managed the project after his father's retirement in 1828 through 1838, when the final group of prints were published. The following year Audubon shipped the plates across the Atlantic and stored them in a New York City warehouse. By 1852 they had been moved to a vault on the artist's Upper Manhattan property.. After his death they were owned by a mining and metal business, Phelps, Dodge & Co., and this example was later owned by Louise Britton Graves, of Boston, who gave it to the Museum in 1939.
