AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States. Illustrated with Plates Engraved and Coloured from Original Drawings Taken From Nature. With a Sketch of the Author's Life, By George Ord; F.L.S. &c.

New York & Philadelphia: Collins & Co., 1828-1829. 3 quarto text volumes plus a large folio atlas First of the Edition, the second overall with text and plates greatly improved from the first edition published between 1808 and 1814. A copy with pleasing provenance, passed down through the Reath family of Philadelphia, PA, first owned by Thomas Reath who emigrated from Ireland to the United States (1792-1877), then by his son Benjamin B. Reath (1822-1891), then by his son Thomas (1859-1930), then by his son Thomas Jr. (1890-1975) and finally by his son and grandchild. A copy that has remained in private hands since its publication. Beautifully illustrated with seventy-six handcoloured engraved plates, some heightened with gum arabic, by A. Lawson (52), J.G. Warnicke (21), G. Murray (2), and B. Tanner (1), all after Wilson, the most preferred state of the plates. Quarto and Folio, handsomely bound to style in three-quarter polished brown crushed morocco over marbled paper covered boards, the spines with raised bands gilt ruled, the compartments with central ornamental devices gilt, two compartments lettered and numbered in gilt, joins at the covers ruled in gilt, all edges as from the printer, untrimmed. Text: cxcix,[1],230,[1]; vi, [without leaf number vii-viii, as usual], [9] - 456 vi, 396, [4pp. subscribers list at end of third volume]. Atlas: Seventy-six handcolored engraved plates. A handsome set, the bindings in excellent condition, strong and tight and sound and virtually as pristine, the text-blocks all untrimmed at the edges and thus as from the printer's presses, very scarce thus, the paper still very crisp and strong and unpressed, evidence of old damp to the lower blank margins of the leaves rarely touching the text. The atlas folio binding as with the text volumes, in essentially pristine condition, strong and tight, 8 or 9 leaves with some evidence of old damp at the margins, generally primarily noticed on the versos of the leaves rather than on the rectos and generally, not obtrusive. A beautiful and honest set. THE CELEBRATED PRINTING OF THE GREATEST WORK BY THE FATHER OF AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. Wilson is regarded as the greatest American ornithologist prior to Audubon. “The story of Alexander Wilson's spasmodic rise from Scottish peddler and failed poet to the father of American ornithology is a cloyingly American story. Numerous "types", those we recognize from the writings of Benjamin Franklin through the literature of James Fenimore Cooper to the Jacksonian businessman emerge in his journey. It is a journey that takes him from the small town of Paisley in West Scotland to the shores of Delaware where he lands, a penniless immigrant, over vast tracks of the eastern United States, and finally to Philadelphia; here, like Franklin, he finds renowned associates from Charles Wilson Peale to Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Paine and the international recognition that he had craved since his first poetic jottings as a youth in Scotland. The tragic irony of this American story is its truncation; indeed, it is Alexander Wilson's exhaustingly extreme dedication to his ornithological studies, and the illnesses contracted during his Leatherstocking-esque roamings through the forests that kill him at the age of forty-seven, just as he attains the station in life he so desires. An immigrant who embraced so fully the "American Dream" of constant industry leading to financial and personal reward, Wilson achieved his dream, but scarcely lived to enjoy it. Perhaps though, Wilson did achieve what he truly desired; in 1805, frustrated by attempts to gain help in publishing his ornithology, he swore to continue on his own, even if it killed him: "I shall at least leave a small beacon to point out where I perished." (Ord, p. 61). This declaration transcends Americanness; Wilson seemed to fear that in the vast cauldron of humanity, he would be subsumed. His Ornithology, then, which has earned him title of the father of American ornithology, seems the work of a talented and driven man whose desires in life were met too well by the American attitudes and mores of the early nineteenth century.”
Wilson had traveled widely, collecting and painting. He also secured subscribers to fund his work, the nine-volume American Ornithology (1808–1814). Of the 268 species of birds illustrated in its pages, 26 had not previously been described. His illustrations of birds in poses were an inspiration for James Audubon and other illustrators and naturalists.
George Ord was an important American zoologist who specialized in North American ornithology and mammology. Based in part on specimens collected by Lewis and Clark in the North American interior, Ord's article "Zoology of North America" (1815), which was published in the second American edition of William Guthrie's Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar (Johnson and Warner), has been recognized as the "first systematic zoology of America by an American".
Ord met Alexander Wilson in the summer of 1811, and accompanied him on two collecting expeditions (each four weeks duration) to Cape May, New Jersey, during the spring migration seasons of May 1812 and May 1813. During the 1812 trip, Ord collected a bird that neither he nor Wilson could identify. Wilson illustrated Ord's specimen and named it "Cape May Warbler / Sylvia maritima" in volume 6 of American Ornithology (1812), writing:
"This new and beautiful little species was discovered in a maple swamp, in Cape May county, not far from the coast, by Mr. George Ord of this city, who accompanied me on a shooting excursion to that quarter in the month of May last. Through the zeal and activity of this gentleman I succeeded in procuring many rare and elegant birds among the sea islands and extensive salt marshes that border that part of the Atlantic ; and much interesting information relative to their nests, eggs, and particular habits. I have also at various times been favored with specimens of other birds from the same friend, for all which I return my grateful acknowledgments."
The letter-press for volume 8 of American Ornithology (1814) was complete by August 1813, but Wilson's "great anxiety to conclude the work, condemned him to an excess of toil, which, inflexible as was his mind, his bodily frame was unable to bear." Wilson died of complications from dysentery on August 23, 1813; one week earlier, he named Ord an executor of his "last Will and testament". After Wilson's death, Ord completed the publishing and distribution, and compiled Wilson's unpublished writings for a final (9th) volume which contained an extended "Biographical sketch of Alexander Wilson".
Ord published a second edition of American Ornithology in 1824–25. This edition is generally considered better than the first edition due to its heightened and more brilliant colouring, and for the long autobiographical work which precedes the text, and the rearrangement of species so to provide a more facile use of the book. "The hand- colored drawings in the atlas are from the original copper plates, colored anew by pigments which seem to have been better quality than those use by Wilson. In the copy under notice, the colors are very fresh: those of the original are faded and in some cases quite disintegrated." Wood The quality of the paper used is also better than in the first edition and is thicker and consequently remains much cleaner over time than does the paper of the first edition.

Fine Bird Books p.114; Sabin 104598; Nissen IVB 992; Wood p.630 WOOD, p.630; BM Natural History p. 2333