Discovered!: The First Engraving of an Audubon Bird.

The article discusses examples of birds in art created for bank notes by American artist and naturalist John James Audubon (1785-1851), first referred to in Audubon's diary on July 12, 1824. The authors refer to the historiography of Audubon scholars such as Alice Ford, William H. Dillistin, and Richard Rhodes who began searching for Audubon's first engraved illustration of a bird designed for American paper money in the 1950s. The diary entry refers to a grouse created for Gideon Fairman (1774-1827), a principal of Fairman, Draper, Underwood & Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1823-1830), an engraving firm specializing in the printing of bank notes for financial institutions. The authors uncovered a specimen sheet for the company featuring a running grouse designed by Audubon.