Audubon Images on Stamps

ICELAND or JER FALCON
(Plate No. 366)
Gyrfalcon
Selected by Canada Post to be the 65-cent postage stamp for mail to the US. Audubon observed these birds in Labrador in August 1833.

Audubon Images on Stamps is an exhibit from the library's Special Collections featuring prints from the rare first edition of Audubon's The Birds of America and Audubon stamps from around the world. The exhibit includes the design process used by Canada Post to transform a print into a stamp and commemorates Canada's first Audubon stamp series.

Audubon Images on Stamps will be at the TD Gallery until April 27. For information on the exhibit, please call Answerline at 416-393-7131.

Canada Post Launches new Stamps

Canada Post unveiled five commemorative stamps featuring the work of John James Audubon on February 21 at Toronto Reference Library. The stamps were unveiled by local Member of Parliament Dr. Carolyn Bennett, representing the Honourable David Collenette, Minister of Transport and Minister Responsible for Canada Post, and the Honourable André Ouellet, President and Chief Executive Officer, and are the first five stamps of a three-year, fifteen stamp series honouring Audubon's work.

Exhibition Items:

FORK-TAIL PETREL
(Plate No. 260)
Leach's Storm-Petrel

Selected by Canada Post for mail within Canada. Audubon painted the watercolour off the coast of Newfoundland in 1833.

COMMON CORMORANT
(Plate No. 266)
Great Cormorant.

Selected by Canada Post for mail within Canada. Based on a composition painted in Labrador. Audubon crawled along a rock ledge 100 feet above the St. Lawrence River to observe these birds.

BRANT GOOSE
(Plate No. 391)
Brant

Selected by Canada Post for mail within Canada. Based on a composition in Philadelphia around 1824.

EIDER DUCK
(Plate No. 246)
Common Eider

The image appears on a stamp from Antigua & Barbuda.