Alexander Wilson

(b Paisley, Strathclyde, 6 July 1766; d Philadelphia, PA, 23 Aug 1813). American draughtsman of Scottish birth. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish himself in the Paisley weaving trade and a failed start as a poet, he moved in 1794 to the USA. For about ten years he was a school teacher in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, finally, in 1802, taking a post at a school at Gray's Ferry, PA, where he came to know William Bartram. Bartram encouraged Wilson's nascent interest in ornithology, which soon developed into an ambition to create a comprehensive illustrated book on North American birds, resulting in the American Ornithology (1808-14). Bartram also helped Wilson to learn to draw birds, offering him the use of his library so he could study illustrations of American birds by such 18th-century naturalists as Mark Catesby and George Edwards (1694-1773). Wilson also came to know Charles Willson Peale, in whose museum, an important research centre for Philadelphia naturalists, he drew many of the birds included in the American Ornithology from mounted specimens. He travelled extensively in search of new birds, encountering other naturalist-artists, including John Abbot (1751-c. 1840) and JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, along the way.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

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The 13-volume American "Ornithology" of Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), Scottish-American ornithologist and poet, was the first great comprehensive descriptive and illustrated work on the birds of the eastern United States.

Alexander Wilson was born on July 6, 1766, in Paisley, Scotland, into a large, poor family. Apprenticed at the age of 13 in the weaving trade, he spent ten years as a weaver. He then began tramping about Scotland as a peddler and writing dialect poems, which he published in Poems (1790). Discouraged by poverty and by political persecution because of some satires he wrote, he emigrated to America in 1794.

Though entirely self-educated, Wilson supported himself as a teacher around Philadelphia. The turning point in his life came in 1802, when he took charge of a school at Gray's Ferry, near the home and gardens of William Bartram, the Philadelphia naturalist. Bartram helped channel Wilson's natural love of birds and the outdoors into systematic scientific endeavors. Wilson became convinced that no single work on American birds was free from defect, and he decided to produce a comprehensive illustrated work on the birds of the eastern United States.

Wilson spent 10 years gathering specimens and materials for his classic work, American Ornithology; the first seven volumes were published in 1808-1813, the others posthumously. In 1807 he secured a position as assistant editor with a Philadelphia publisher, which relieved him of the drudgery of teaching and undoubtedly made possible the completion of his massive work. In 1808, to assure publication of his masterpiece, Wilson traveled all over the eastern United States in search of 250 subscribers.

American Ornithology is noted for the elegance of the essays on individual birds and for the excellent illustrations, which Wilson did himself. Although skilled as an artist, he needed the help of Alexander Lawson to translate his drawings into the plates from which the illustrations were printed. American Ornithology was acclaimed by both American and European scientists as the best work on American birds, and it went through two subsequent editions.

Wilson's health broke down while he was preparing the eighth volume of American Ornithology for publication, and he died in Philadelphia on Aug. 23, 1813. His friend George Ord completed the eighth and ninth volumes from Wilson's manuscript notes and saw them through publication in 1814. Charles Lucien Bonaparte published the four final volumes in 1825-1833.

Further Reading

The best biography of Wilson is Robert Cantwell, Alexander Wilson, Naturalist and Pioneer (1961), which replaces the older work by James S. Wilson, Alexander Wilson, Poet-Naturalist (1906). Some general background can be found in William Dunlap, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States (1834; rev. ed. 1965).

For more information on Alexander Wilson, visit Britannica.com.

Wilson, Alexander, 1766–1813, American ornithologist, b. Scotland. He came to the United States c.1794 and taught in rural New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Encouraged by William Bartram, he studied the birds of his adopted country, learned to portray them, and began his American Ornithology (9 vol., 1808–14), a work that is noted for its accuracy and sensitive draftsmanship. The last two volumes of this series of books were completed by his friend and biographer (1829), George Ord, after Wilson's death. Wilson is also known for his poems and essays on nature.

(1766-1813)

1805	The Boston Athenaeum. The Anthology Club founds this library, museum, and laboratory. In 1845 it would move to its own large building. Mentioned in Hawthorne's American Notebooks, it serves as the setting for Hawthorne's story "The Ghost of Doctor Harris."
1805	The Foresters. A poetical description of nature and adventure as experienced on a walking trip from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls and back. Wilson, who would become most known for his American Ornithology (1808), is notable for his contribution to the beginnings of American nature literature.
1808	American Ornithology. An accurate and thorough description of birds of the eastern United States, north of Florida. Wilson, a schoolmaster, had devoted ten years to gathering materials. Over the next hundred years, only twenty-three more land bird species would be identified by ornithologists. Although Wilson did not live to receive financial or critical success, the book is considered a classic in the field.
1816	Poems; Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. A collection of poems with a biographical account of Wilson's life, published posthumously. Although critics consider the verses undistinguished, the poems show a notable devotion to nature.

Quotes:

"Think for thyself one good idea, but known to be thine own, is better than a thousand gleaned from fields by others sown."

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