Without doubt the best-known ornithological and zoological artist of all time, John James Laforest Audubon’s ambitious and eventually popular “Great Idea” of making and publishing his own drawings of all the birds of North America resulted in the most monumental and perhaps most “American” natural history works ever published. His desire to make his work more affordable and widely available resulted in his production of a miniature publication, the first edition of which was completed in five years (1839–1844) and comprised 1,200 sets. One-eighth the size of the original engravings, the octavo lithographs exhibit a remarkable degree of attention to quality and detail. Using the camera lucida, the images were reduced in size from the originals and then drawn onto lithographic stones. Some compositional changes were made to accommodate the smaller size. Unlike the double elephant originals, the lithographs were issued in correct phylogenic order. The prints bear the plate number in the upper right corner and the subscription number in the upper left.