by Carolyn Dalton Bach
STE. GENEVIEVE – The Museum Learning Center has a new exhibit titled, “John James Audubon and Ferdinand Rozier, Partners in Business, Friends for Life”.
Ferdinand Rozier is a familiar name in Missouri’s oldest town – Ste. Genevieve.
He was the town’s first mayor, a key player in its incorporation, and founded a trading network that extended from the nearby lead mines, downriver to New Orleans, and upriver to Cincinnati and Louisville – and beyond. But for many years he was primarily known only as a business partner of John James Audubon.
When Ferdinand Rozier died in 1864, he left no will because he had already parceled out his estate and family heirlooms to his seven sons. According to family tradition, those heirlooms passed down to descendants via the oldest sons.
The Museum displays copies of the original Audubon-Rozier partnership agreement through the Charles Rozier line, numerous household items from the Francis Rozier line, an 1827 store ledger from the Jules Rozier line, copies of oil portraits through the Felix Rozier line, an antique flute through the Joseph Rozier line, and Audubon’s taxidermied birds from the Firmin Rozier line. All are part of a new exhibit that opened April 12th titled, “John James Audubon and Ferdinand Rozier, Partners in Business, Friends for Life”.
((INSERT PHOTO…BIRD CASE…HERE))
The Museum Learning Center is grateful to the Rozier family for loaning these original 200-year-old pieces of local history.
Of the items on exhibit, the one that has received the most attention is Audubon’s taxidermied birds. The 10 species in the case are all native to the area, particularly during the timeframe that Audubon was in Ste. Genevieve; the Spring of 1811.
He readily shot birds in hopes of adding new specimens yet unknown to science, as reference material for his art, and incidentally as food for the table.
According to William Souder in Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America, “bird skinning was a technique well-known to naturalists in Audubon’s time, and one still in general use by ornithologists today. A bird ‘skin’ is not a flattened pelt of feathers, but rather something that looks quite like the whole bird. A well-skinned bird is a vivid, three dimensional version of the real thing. An experienced skinner could do a small songbird in about twenty minutes. Several collections of Audubon’s bird skins still exist, and many of his specimens look as if they might have been on the wing only yesterday.”
In order to properly record the biology is his specimens, Audubon always began with a cut down the middle below the breastbone to examine the contents of the stomach, and, if necessary, ascertain the sex of the bird. Sutures down the breastbone were discovered on all the taxidermied birds in the case.
Because reliable firsthand historic accounts exist of Ste. Genevieve residents interacting with bird “skins” attributed to Audubon, it is thought that the wooden case with a glass front that houses this collection was constructed years later by a Rozier descendant to protect the birds.
All are invited to visit the new exhibit and learn more about the local Audubon legacy at the Sainte Genevieve Museum Learning Center, open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 360 Market Street. Off-street parking is available off South Gabouri Street.
More information can be found at www.stegenmuseum.org or 573-883-3466.