Genevieve Estelle Jones was born in 1847 in Circleville, Ohio. Her interest in ornithology started as a young child, when she was drawn to identifying the nests and eggs associated with different birds, and it was seeing the nest of the Baltimore oriole that first caught her attention. As a adult, Jones saw a display of Audubon prints when she visited Philadelphia's Centennial Exhibition in 1876, and noted that the prints did not usually include a depiction of nests or eggs. [Interestingly, the Baltimore Oriole is an exception to this, as the unusual hanging pouch-like nest is featured prominently in this print.] After identifying this omission, Jones was inspired to produce drawings of nests and eggs, which was ultimately published as Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, and can be seen as a companion piece to Audubon's Birds of America. Sadly, Jones only completed five of the drawings before she succumbed to Typhoid fever and died in 1879. Her parents and her brother continued the project after her death, and the two-volume set was completed in 1886. Like Birds of America, it was published by subscription
Genevieve Estelle Jones is not as well-known an artist or ornithologist as John James Audubon, but we're glad for the opportunity to use the print of Baltimore Oriole to tell a little bit of her story. We don't have a copy of Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio in our collection, but you can view it in its entirety through the Internet Archive.
Be sure to visit us from March 11 through April 8 to see the Baltimore Oriole on display. And revisit our Audubon from last March's Women's History Month display, when we shared the blue bird and explained its significance to the Massachusetts Women Suffrage Association.
Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian
