Remembering Rex Brasher

He was the greatest painter of birds. Traveling throughout the North American continent by boat, train, bus, on foot, raising money from doing odd jobs and betting on horses, Rex Brasher accomplished the most phenomenal task, to paint every bird species in North America from life! Today all 874 of his watercolors rest in drawers at the Dodd Center at the University of Connecticut. The promise of building a museum to house his extraordinary collection has been extinguished. When his last surviving relatives passed a few years ago, his beloved home, Chickadee Valley, just over the border from Kent, CT, fell into the hands of The Rex Brasher Association. Their goal, to preserve Rex Brasher’s home and studio where he hand-colored 87,400 plates (NOT A TYPO!) making up 100 editions of the twelve-volume series, The Birds and Trees of North America, to build a small museum as well as to blaze nature trails on his 100 acre property. Today you will learn more about this incredible man, the efforts of the Rex Brasher Association to keep his memory alive, and how you can get involved. This is one of the greatest stories in ornithology and Americana. White Memorial’s Gerri Griswold and Matthew Schnepf or the Rex Brasher Association host an afternoon Remembering Rex. 2:00 p.m., Carriage House, FREE but you must pre-register: www.whitememorialcc.org Donations will be accepted to help defray the Conservation Center’s programming expenses.