Curator’s Choice: Wood Ducks

It’s the time of year when Wood Ducks pair up! Audubon painted this lively image in New Orleans in 1821. He dramatized the courtship and nesting habits of this species while showing the remarkable patterns and colors of their feathers. The Wood Ducks are from the Museum’s collection of prints from the American edition of Audubon’s remarkable work on North American birds. The images were drawn onto lithographic stones and printed in color in the New York studio of Julius Bien. The revolutionary technique of chromolithography employed a series of limestone printing blocks to layer the colors and produce the final image.

Mission Creek is healthy and running rapidly right now on the Museum campus thanks to all these rains. This means we’ll likely have plenty of ducks to look forward to in the Spring. Come check them out for yourself.