John James Audubon

John James Audubon is a Tennessee historical marker in Shelby County.

Shelby Co, Memphis, at east end of Memphis-Arkansas Bridge

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On Dec. 1, 1820, this naturalist and artist landed nearby, on his way by flatboat from Cincinnati to New Orleans. He kept a diary and sketched animals and birds seen en route. Near here, he saw gulls, cormorants, "white-headed eagles," grackles, purple finches, teal, parakeets, sandhill cranes and numerous types of geese. These sketches helped form the basis for parts of his monumental book of engravings, Birds in America, published 1826-38.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1823 · Mississippi. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1826 · Map of the State of Missouri And Territory of Arkansas. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1827 · Mississippi (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1829 · Tennessee (A. Finley, 1829) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1835 · Chickasaw Cession, Mississippi (1835) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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