>>>PLEASE READ BEFORE ENROLLING: 
1. The live portion of this class is an hour-long, fast-paced, lecture-based multimedia presentation, with limited Q&A breaks as time permits -- you know your learner(s) best, so please consider if the session length and format is a good fit for them.
2. Please note this class will be centered on the natural history and art history of the work itself, and not on Audubon's personal biography. If individual students are interested in exploring Audubon's life, especially as it relates to the historical and social landscape of the time, please reach out and I'll be happy to recommend additional resources.<<<

This session with introduce students to famed 19th Century naturalist John James Audubon's epic _Birds of America_. This massive volume of 435 plates depicted all 497 species of North American birds known at the time in life-sized (!) watercolor illustrations, including several species discovered by Audubon himself and six species which have since become extinct. The Birds of America remains one of the world's greatest contributions to both natural history art and science, so let's open one up (virtually) and take a look inside!

After a brief overview of the history of the book's creation, we will spend the rest of class time viewing some of the individual plates and identifying the birds depicted in each. While we won't have time to view all 435 illustrations in our short time together, students will be shown how to access and browse the full (and free!) digitized collection online to continue exploring after class!  

The session will consist primarily of slides accompanied by lecture, but there will be opportunities to ask questions, and of course the classroom board will be available before and after class for discussion as well.