Nesting in the archives: An avian encyclopedia that predates Audubon!

Where can you find a passenger pigeon, the great auk, and a dodo too?  In The Natural History of Birds.” A well-traveled copy of this two-volume compendium rests in its own box in the Homestead archives.  Published in Bungay, England in 1815, this work predates Audubon by 12 years.  On the inside cover of Volume One is written “H. Thacker’s Book 1818” and on the facing page “J. Floy Jr. from his mother.”

Who was H. Thacker?  Humphrey Thacker was the great-grandfather of Jane Thacker Floy Mather, the wife of Stephen Mather.   Born about 1771, Humphrey was already widowed when he married Jane Stevens in Sheffield England in 1800.  Their daughter, Jane, born in Sheffield in 1803 would marry James Floy in New York in 1829.  It appears that the Thacker family was in England until 1818 and migrated to New York in time to be included in the 1820 United States Federal census.

The full title is “The Natural History of Birds, from the works of the best authors, antient & modern, embellished with numerous plates accurately coloured from nature.”  Printed and published by Brightly & Childs, Volume I is 586 pages with 69 hand-colored plates and Volume II is 700 pages with 83 hand-colored plates.   Inasmuch as Humphrey inscribed the book in 1818, it is almost certain that these volumes made the trip to America with the Thacker family.

Today many of the colored plates are offered for sale individually.  Just a few of the ones from the Homestead’s copy are shown below.