The Winterthur Library

The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE 19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Creator: Brasher, Rex, 1869-1960.

Title: Scrapbook and prints

Dates: 1929-1939

Call No.: Col. 843

Acc. No.: 69x221

Quantity: 1 box and 1 volume

Location: 40 L 3

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

Rex Brasher of Connecticut was a noted bird artist who painted over 800 canvases documenting all species of American birds. He was born in 1869 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Phillip Marston Brasher, an amateur ornithologist who took his son bird watching and encouraged him to paint birds. Rex worked at Tiffany’s for several years, learning engraving techniques, and worked other odd jobs. Whenever he had enough money, he traveled around the United States making sketches of birds and their habitats, carefully noting color differences between sexes and across seasons. Dissatisfied with his first two sets of paintings, he destroyed all the canvases. The third set captured the true essence of his subjects. He had these bird paintings engraved, then hand colored the engravings, and published a twelve volume set entitled Birds and Trees of North America. The original canvases were purchased by the state of Connecticut. Brasher died in 1960.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

Scrapbook about Rex Brasher, including an autographed photo of Brasher; articles about Brasher; a prospectus for Birds and Trees of North America, which includes some colored plates; reviews of this book; and letters from Brasher to Jack Evans. As well, the collection includes 10 of the bird prints and one sheet with four images, showing steps in the creation of the colored prints.

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

The materials are in English.

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

Collection is open to the public. Copyright restrictions may apply.

PROVENANCE

Gift of John J. Evans, Jr.

RELATED MATERIAL

A copy of one volume of Birds and Trees of North America is in the Rare Books collection of Winterthur Library. This volume contains images of ducks, geese, swans, flamingoes, spoonbills, ibises, and herons.

An autographed copy of Brasher’s Secrets of the Friendly Woods (published 1926) is in the Rare Books collection of Winterthur Library.

ACCESS POINTS

Topics:

Birds in art.

Birds – Pictorial works.

Christmas cards.

Scrapbooks.

Artists.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: 40 L 3

Note: all accession numbers begin with 69x221

Volume on shelf:

.1 Scrapbook about Rex Brasher, probably assembled by John J. Evans, Jr.; includes a photo of Brasher inscribed to Evans; articles about Brasher; a prospectus about Birds and Trees of North America, including some colored plates; reviews of his book; and letters from Brasher to Evans, including a Christmas card.

Box 1:

Prints which were laid into the scrapbook:

.1b2 a sheet with four images, showing steps in creating bird prints

.1c1-2 colored print, no. 221, “Coot,” with information sheet

.1d1-2 colored print, no. 417, “Whippoorwill,” with information sheet

.1e1-2 colored print, no. 477, “Blue Jay,” with information sheet

.1f1-2 colored print, no. 376, “Snow Owl,” with information sheet

.1g1-2 colored print, no. 71, “Arctic Tern,” with information sheet

Prints which were not in the scrapbook:

.3 colored print, no.766 , “Bluebird” (information sheet now missing; number is not on print)

.4a-b black and white print, no. 180, “Whistling Swan,” with information sheet

.5 colored print, no. 593, “Cardinal”

.6a-b colored print, no. 177, “Canvasback,” with information sheet

.7a-b colored print, no. 289, “Bobwhite,” with information sheet

.8a-b colored print, no. 300, “Ruffed Grouse,” with information sheet

.9a-b colored print, no. 169, “Snow Goose,” with information sheet

The following items are missing:

.2 colored print, no. 228, “Woodcock,” with information sheet (in frame)