Morris Museum pairs rare Audubon prints with mechanical songbirds

The Morris Museum opened a new exhibition on June 26 featuring original hand-colored Audubon prints alongside mechanical songbirds, with works on view through November 2026 in Morristown, New Jersey. The show spotlights a rare private collection and uses bird automata to frame Audubon’s place in American art and natural history.

Why it matters: - The Morris Museum is using a rare mix of original Audubon prints and mechanical bird automata to show how 19th-century artists and inventors tried to document, imitate and control nature. - The exhibition gives visitors access to works from a private New Jersey collection that are rarely shown publicly. - The display adds another major art-history draw to the museum’s exhibition program in Morristown.

What happened: - The Morris Museum opened “Audubon Songbirds from the Dr. Michael and Elyn Stubblefield Collection” on June 26. - The exhibition runs through November 2026 in the museum’s Bickford Gallery. - The show pairs original, hand-colored prints from John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” with automata from the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection. - The Audubon works come from the private collection of New Jersey philanthropists and art collectors Dr. Michael and Elyn Stubblefield.

The details: - Audubon’s bird portraits were printed from engraved copper plates and hand-colored under his direct supervision. - The prints are among the most recognizable images in American art. - The automata simulate birdsong and are placed alongside the Audubon prints to deepen the comparison between art and mechanical imitation. - The exhibition is designed to show a 19th-century effort to capture, intellectually control and categorize the natural world. - The show also aims to bring the marvel of nature into salons and schools. - Dr. Michael Stubblefield said Audubon was “undeniably ambitious and perseverant” in the effort to publish “Birds of America.” - Stubblefield said he is interested in the challenge of collecting and identifying the hundreds of species Audubon illustrated. - Audubon was born in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, and raised partly in France. - Audubon spent much of his adult life traveling through the American wilderness with a rifle, a sketchpad and a strong drive to document birds. - He shot the birds he painted and posed them on wires to create lifelike positions. - His original watercolors were made for double-elephant folio pages measuring about 26 by 39 inches. - “Birds of America” was produced in installments from 1827 to 1838 with London engraver Robert Havell Jr. - The finished work included 435 hand-colored plates showing 497 species. - Fewer than 120 complete sets are known to survive. - Audubon was an enslaver, an occasional fabulist and a relentless self-promoter. - Audubon was also one of the most gifted observer-artists in the United States.

Between the lines: - The exhibition frames Audubon as both a foundational American artist and a deeply complicated historical figure. - The pairing with automata suggests the museum wants visitors to think about the difference between living nature, scientific illustration and mechanical reproduction. - The show also reflects the value of private collections in making rare works available to the public.

What's next: - Visitors can see the exhibition in the Bickford Gallery through November 2026. - The Morris Museum will continue presenting the show as part of its broader art and culture programming in Morris Township. - The museum’s public outreach continues through its social channels and visitor programs.

The bottom line: - The Morris Museum is turning a rare Audubon collection into a broader conversation about art, science, collecting and the impulse to preserve nature in fixed form.