After the publication of the first volume of The Birds of America and its heralded reception in Philadelphia, John Audubon and his two assistants departed in late September 1831 to the new Florida territory to pursue, collect and draw Florida waterbirds and regional exotics for Audubon's Great Work. Enroute, they established a "base camp" In Charleston with John Bachman a resident. Audubon learned of his election to the Academy of Natural Sciences...