Alexander Wilson, the Great American Ornithologist, Died at Philadelphia, August 23, 1813

Alexander Wilson, the great American ornithologist, was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. He was the son of a distiller, but at the age of thirteen was apprenticed to a weaver, and after seven years abandoned the loom and adopted the life of a peddler.

Three years were thus spent and in 1789, having prepared a volume of poems for publication, he offered his muslins and solicited subscriptions for this work. It was published in 1790, but had little success; and he again returned to the loom.

In 1792 he published “Watty and Meg,” which having appeared anonymously, was ascribed to Robert Burns though the style is very 580different. It is said to have had a sale of 100,000 copies in a few weeks. He wrote a severe satire upon a person in Paisley and was thrown into prison, and was afterwards compelled to burn the libel with his own hand at Paisley Cross. Upon his release, he resolved to emigrate, and arrived at New Castle, Delaware, July 14, 1794, with only a few borrowed shillings, without an acquaintance, and with no decided purpose.

After working at various trades, sometimes as a copperplate printer under Alexander Lawson, in which he showed both ambition and talent, he went through New Jersey as a peddler and during this journey seems to have first paid minute attention to the habits and appearance of birds.

He afterward taught school at various places in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, finally settling in 1802 at Kingsessing on the Schuylkill.

One of the schools he taught was situated on the Darby Road, a short distance west of the intersection with Gray’s Ferry Road. His home was near the celebrated botanical garden of William Bartram, and he became acquainted with the famous naturalist, who, by his own love of birds, deeply interested young Wilson in that branch of nature. It was at this time that Alexander Wilson resolved to form a collection of all the birds of America.

His first excursion, October, 1804, was to Niagara Falls. He walked from Philadelphia through the unopened wilderness of western New York, and wrote a metrical description of his journey in the “Port Folio” under the title of “The Foresters, a Poem.”

Elsewhere Wilson wrote:

“Sweet flows the Schuylkill’s winding tide,

By Bartram’s green emblossomed bowers,

Where nature sports in all her pride,

Of choicest plants and fruits and flowers.”

Wilson learned drawing, coloring, and etching from Alexander Lawson, the celebrated engraver, whose tastes and instructions stimulated his own talents.

He persuaded Bradford, a Philadelphia publisher, who had employed him in 1806, in editing the American edition of Rees’s Cyclopedia, to furnish funds for an American ornithology on an adequate scale. The first volume of this work appeared in September, 1808, but it was too expensive to be very successful. The seventh volume appeared in 1813.

The interval had been passed in exploring different parts of the country for the purpose of extending his observations, collecting specimens and watching the habits of birds in their native haunts.

In January, 1810, the second volume appeared, but before the next was prepared Wilson sailed down the Ohio River in a small boat as far as Louisville, he set out on horseback from Nashville for New Orleans 581in May, 1811, and arrived June 6. Sailing from there he arrived back in Philadelphia in August, and began the third volume.

In September, 1812, he started on another tour of the eastern States. He completed the publication of seven volumes.

In 1813 the literary materials for the eighth volume of the “Ornithology” were ready, but its progress was greatly retarded for want of proper assistants to color the plates. Wilson was therefore obliged to undertake the whole of this department himself in addition to his other duties. He employed himself so unceasingly in the preparation of his work that he impaired his already weakened condition and hastened death. It is said that in his eagerness to obtain a rare bird, he swam across a river and caught cold from which he never recovered.

All the plates for the remainder of his work having been completed under Wilson’s own eye the letter press work on the ninth volume was supplied by his friend, George Ord, his companion in several of his expeditions, who also wrote a memoir of Wilson to accompany the last volume, and edited the eighth. Four supplementary volumes were afterwards added by Charles Lincoln Bonaparte.

An edition of Alexander Wilson’s poems was published at Paisley in 1816, and another at Belfast in 1857. A statue of him was erected at Paisley in October, 1874.

Wilson was followed by another Pennsylvanian, John James Audubon, who lived for many years on the Perkiomen near its mouth. He published an immense work upon the “Birds of America,” which brought him lasting fame. Thus the two greatest ornithologists of America are claimed as residents of our state.

In the quiet retreat of the churchyard of the old Swedes Church, or “Gloria Dei,” at Weccacoe, where he delighted to worship, repose the remains of Alexander Wilson. The distinguished ornithologist requested to be laid to rest there, as it was “a silent, shady place where the birds would be apt to come and sing over his grave.”

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