United States and Mexican Boundary Survey

The United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1848-1855) set the boundary between the United States and Mexico according to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...

 that ended the Mexican-American War. The results of the survey were published in a three-volume work, Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey, made under the direction of the secretary of the Interior by William H. Emory

William H. Emory

William Hemsley Emory was an United States Army officer and surveyor of Texas.-Early life and career:...

, (1857-1859). Besides documenting the new political boundary, the survey report was notable for its natural history content, including paleontology, botany, icthhylogy, ornithology, and mammalogy. Twenty-five hand-colored lithographic plates of birds were included in the volume Birds of the Boundary edited by Spencer Fullerton Baird

Spencer Fullerton Baird

Spencer Fullerton Baird was an American ornithologist, ichthyologist and herpetologist. Starting in 1850 he was assistant-secretary and later secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C...

. These illustrations were prepared by the lithographic firm of J.T. Bowen and Company, of Philadelphia, the same firm that produced the octavo edition of Audubon's

John James Audubon

John James Audubon was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats...

Birds of America. Numerous illustrations of plants and of reptiles and amphibians were included as well, colored in some editions. The hand-colored lithographs of scenery and ethnography are notable as historical records of that period.