Ninety years after Rex produced Birds and Trees of North America, board member and architect Matthew Schnepf and two student interns, Gwen Masina and Owen Ahmed Schnepf, set out to document every single page in all twelve volumes. At nearly 3,000 delicate pages, this is no easy feat. They devised a two-phase approach in Summer 2022.

Phase 1 would “quickly” capture every page in Birds and Trees of North America with reasonably high-quality photographs. Not only would this be the first digital archive of Birds and Trees of North America — a monumental feat on its own — it would be the first step to fulfill Rex’s dream to share his work with the public, at scale.

Phase 2 will eventually capture every page with an ultra-high resolution scanner. This will provide an unprecedented view of Rex’s work, allowing a full capture of detail that is not visible to the unaided eye.

In Summer 2022, nearly 3,000 photographs were taken over the course of several weeks. This required careful planning, so that each page could be photographed and edited with consistent quality. Rex himself would have wrestled with a similar question: how do you use basic tools and methods to control light, shadow, and color over the course of weeks or years, so that each image represents a cohesive body of work? The nature of this question was not lost on anyone.

The process required photographing with natural light, making sure the camera and print were precisely placed, and every image was carefully controlled for color and white balance. This process is critical to achieving consistent results while editing.

The archival nature of this material demanded that the workspace remain pristine and organized. Each page was carefully removed and dusted before being photographed. Gwen and Owen captured meticulous notes, keeping an eye out for any peculiarities.

It was equally important to keep track of each page after it was photographed. Strict naming conventions that match Rex’s original organizational methods allowed for rigorous filing.

Every page was photographed as a RAW image file to retain maximum quality during the editing process. Color swatches and gray cards were used to create custom calibration profiles. The profiles were applied consistently to each image, then tweaked to compensate for the unique nature of each bird.

Beyond the obvious benefit of having digital versions of each print, two notable things emerged from this process. First, Rex’s always lively bird descriptions were transcribed by running them through a live text editor. Second, the completion dates Rex printed in the bottom corner of each painting could be plotted on a graph. These dates provide an incredible picture of when he worked (and when he didn’t). For example, on May 20, 1912, he finished four paintings. It became apparent that there were stretches during which Rex was working on other commissions to earn money.

The end of this project is in sight. Later this fall, these prints will all live in the first complete online database of Birds and Trees of North America. In the future, we hope to round out this database with high-resolution scans of each of Rex’s original paintings.

We’re doing all of this in hopes of reintroducing Rex’s work to the world. The Rex Brasher Association is a dedicated group of Rex Brasher enthusiasts on an every-dollar-counts kind of budget. If you’d like to support further efforts like this, please consider making a donation. Every amount helps make this possible. Our hope is to bring all of Rex's work online by 2026.

We have worked with students and faculty from Kent Center School, Marvelwood School, Housatonic Valley Regional High School. We also provided source materials to the Wassaic Project arts education program. If your students or faculty are interested in participating, please reach out at hello@rexbrasher.org.