Audubon's Birds of America: a rare sighting at New Brunswick's Legislative Library

Once a month, Kenda Clark-Gorey dons white gloves to carefully turn a single page of a book.

It's not just any book. It's the very rare Birds of America by John James Audubon. There were only 120 copies printed, and what's even more remarkable is that New Brunswick's Legislative Library has a copy. 

"The only one in Atlantic Canada and one of five in Canada," said Clark-Gorey, the legislative librarian. "It draws visitors. People who love birds, people who are artists."  

Birds of America is a four-volume collection of Audubon's efforts to find and illustrate every bird in North America. He spent twelve years, from 1827-1838, traveling across the continent to paint 490 birds on 435 plates. 

Audubon paintings feature life-sized specimens, which is why Birds of America, when open, measures 100 cm by 140 cm, or 3 X 4.5 feet.

The plates were printed in England on double elephant folio, the largest sheets available at the time. Each of the four volumes weighs 27 kilograms, about 60 pounds. To better preserve them, the Library had them bound into 16 smaller volumes. They also have new spring-back bindings to take pressure off the book spines. 

One of these volumes sits in an even larger glass case that is housed on the second floor in the legislature's committee room. Built in Quebec, the specially designed case is temperature-controlled to ensure humidity levels remain low. As a result, Clark-Gorey can only open it to turn a page in cooler weather. 

"Between fall and spring I try to change it at least once a month." she said. "The glass has protective UV filtering. When I need to change a page, the tray slides out. There are legs I can put to support it because the weight of the book is quite a bit."

The room where the book is on display will be undergoing renovations for the next couple of weeks, Clark-Gorey said, so there will be no public access to the book during that time.

Exactly how a copy of Birds of America ended up in New Brunswick remains a mystery.

Library records show the legislature had the four volumes in its possession in 1853, after they had been purchased at an auction in New York for 200 British pounds. The legislature also bought tables to hold the books along with Audubon's autobiography.

It was first believed the book was owned by the Duke of Orléans, the son of King Louis Philippe of France, said Clark-Gorey. Today, there is another theory. 

"We believe it was King Louis of France's sister's copy, Princess Adelaide or Mademoiselle D'Orléans," she said. "Just because of the bindings. They were exquisite bindings, and apparently his were done in the same bindings. The timeframe and the bindings — everything leads us to believe they were from that family." 

The Legislative Library's copy of the Birds of America is not Audubon's only connection to New Brunswick.