Birds and Trees of North America

The twelve massive volumes that comprise each set of Birds and Trees of North America are among the most seminal works of any American artist. In 1929, after an exhaustive and unfruitful search to find a publisher that could reproduce his paintings with sufficient quality, clarity, and subtlety, Rex decided to become his own publisher. He commissioned the Meriden Gravure Company in Meriden, Connecticut, to produce high-quality, grayscale prints of each painting. With a small team of assistants, Rex hand-painted each print and bound them into large monographs at his property near Kent, Connecticut. The one hundred sets of books he produced, consisting of 1,200 individual volumes, required Rex to individually hand paint 87,400 prints and bind them with another 87,400 pages of scientific annotations and poetic descriptions of every bird and tree.

At the outset, Rex estimated that he would be able to produce two volumes per year and complete his project in six years. In the end, he completed Birds and Trees two years ahead of schedule, delivering all twelve volumes to subscribers in just four years.

The scope of effort and attention to detail is astounding, but few people have been able to see the product of Rex's life. Rex's goal was to share his love of birds and nature with as many people as possible. Our mission is to pick up where Rex left off. Today we are able to share every image Rex produced in exquisite high quality, free and accessible to everyone.

In reflecting on his 1902 western trip, Rex Brasher wrote, “Neither did the faintest hope lurk within that the paintings would ever be reproduced and published.”At that point he was still sending sketches back to Brooklyn, and it took him 47 years to finish his goal of painting every bird species in North America from life, including accurate backgrounds.

But then what? The 874 watercolors were stored, and relatively few people knew about them. Artists want public approval for their work, and Rex knew that he had accomplished a remarkable feat. Ever since printing was invented, artists have reached a wider audience by reproducing paintings and selling reproductions.

He wanted to publish prints of his work, but the project was beset with technical problems and an almost continuous shortage of money. As he commented years later in his autobiography, “The idea of reproducing them [the paintings] was only a dim wraith — I understood too well difficulties and expense of such an undertaking.”

An article in the American Magazine brought many visitors to Chickadee Valley, many of whom bought the door knockers and bird houses that Rex built. They were, however, almost universally discouraging about the possibility of publishing prints of the paintings. Paradoxically, the opposition served to crystallize Rex’s conviction that it could be done. “Nearly everyone has told me I couldn’t finish the paintings but they were wrong… We can do it and are going to.”

Rex, Marie, and Phil Brasher formed the Rex Brasher Associates, and set about raising money. They decided to publish a Herald about the project and were gratified to receive nearly one hundred subscriptions. The first volume published was actually the last in the series of twelve volumes, because they thought that Wrens, Chickadees, Kinglets, Thrushes, and Bluebirds were more familiar birds, and thus more appealing.

The Rudge Company of Mt. Vernon, New York, made the half-tone prints for this volume and half of the second one. The Associates had originally anticipated publishing five hundred copies of each volume, but discovered that was an overreach. Rex stated that they cut the number to one hundred because assistants competent to color the backgrounds were not available, but it is also possible that he recognized his own limitations. Due to losses from the Great Depression, some of the original subscribers backed out, and the exact number of finished twelve-volume sets is unknown. The production number of the fourth volume, which included Game Birds, was increased to one hundred twenty-five because of sportsmen’s interest. In any event, Rex most likely hand-colored an astonishing ninety thousand prints.

The Associates also discovered that they had to raise the price per volume to $200, as their cost for each one was $164. Throughout the whole endeavor, individuals showed up at the right time to keep the project afloat by paying in advance for a volume, purchasing a painting, or simply making a donation. No association, however, was as fortuitous as the one with the Meriden Gravure Company of Meriden, Connecticut. Meriden had a well-earned reputation as a publisher of high-end art books, and they offered to copy all the original paintings at once and be paid back as the volumes were sold. The deal was settled with a hand-shake.

The whole production was a joint effort. Rex’s nephew Phil solicited subscriptions and handled the sale of the volumes. Each print is accompanied by scientific information about the birds as well as Rex’s descriptions of his encounters with them, all researched and typed by Marie, Rex’s niece.

The barn (now the cottage on the property) was renovated to house the prints and stencils. Rex estimated that the pinned frame structure was capable of carrying the weight of 500,000 key plates and text, or 25 tons. He commented, “Lady Luck continued friendly; plates and text were all transported by auto safely and not a single bundle of the 1700 was dropped in placing them on the steel shelves!”

Rex used an airbrush technique to apply successive color washes to the prints, utilizing the stencils cut by Meriden.  In the summer months, he worked from four a.m. until late afternoon most days, and visitors were banned until then.  “I left the most difficult volume until the last and in June, 1932, this was finished—the Finches.” On the fly leaf, he included the caption “Completed with a hymn of Thanksgiving that evolution has produced no more sparrows!”

1. All quotes are from an unpublished autobiography completed by Rex Brasher near the end of his life.

2. For a thorough review of each of the twelve volumes, see The Soffer Ornithology Collection at Amherst College.‍3. For a more complete description of the printing processes used in reproducing the paintings, see David Reagon’s discussion, “Technically Speaking,” at the October 2023 RBA Symposium.