A celebration of Canadian history, art and fauna

McGill's Redpath Museum hosts today the unveiling of a new issue of stamps: John James Audubon's Canadian bird masterpieces. In a celebration of Canada's history, art and fauna, the series of 49-cent stamps includes the ruby-crowned kinglet, the white-winged crossbill, the Bohemian waxwing and the boreal chickadee. The 60-cent stamp portrays Lincoln's sparrow.

This is the second of three annual issues of stamps in the Audubon series commemorating the 15 paintings Audubon did in this country in 1833. McGill has an important connection to these stamps. The University's Rare Books Library is one of only three in the country to have an original four-volume Birds of Canada, published in 1833.

Most importantly, it is thanks to David Lank, a lecturer in the Faculty of Management and renowned scholar of Audubon's art, that the series exists; Lank convinced Canada Post of the importance of the great naturalist's art to Canada. At the unveiling, he will give a brief talk on Audubon's time in Canada.