Tabasco, Birds, Botany & Books

Louisiana State University Libraries- McIlhenny Natural History Collection

Edward “Ned” Avery McIlhenny (1872-1949) whose family established the McIlhenny Tabasco Company¹ was a conservationist who established a bird sanctuary and botanical garden—the Jungle Gardens— at Avery Island (a massive salt dome²) located in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, about three miles inland from Vermilion Bay, which opens onto the Gulf of Mexico.³

Along with pepper plants needed for TABASCO® sauce, McIlhenny planted and cultivated more than 100 varieties of camellias, 64 varieties of bamboo, and countless exotic botanicals from all over the world.⁴ He wrote four books, oversaw the publication of several translations, and wrote a number of articles on natural history topics.⁵ In addition, he collected books, especially those about birds and plants.

Jungle Gardens on Avery Island, Louisiana

E. A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection at LSU

In 1971, McIlhenny’s nephew, donated the natural history portion of his library to the Louisiana State University Libraries LSU in Baton Rouge, where the collection was combined with existing holdings. Since then, the E. A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection has been further developed and is now one of the most prestigious of its kind, with particular strengths in New World botanical and ornithological illustration.⁶

Works in the collection include the double elephant folio edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America, Mark Catesby's The Natural History of Carolina, John Gould's Hummingbirds, Edward Lear's Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, and Sir Joseph Banks' Florilegium.⁷

Aves: A Survey of the Literature of Neotropical Ornithology

The online exhibition Aves: A Survey of the Literature of Neotropical Ornithology was produced by LSU Libraries in 2011.⁸ You can view it today.

1

Our History | TABASCO® Brand Legendary Pepper Sauce

2. What is a Salt Dome? How do they form? (geology.com)

3. Jungle Gardens was created by Edward “Ned” McIlhenny. Growing up on his family’s 2,200-acre estate, Edward fell in love with the natural setting of Avery Island. Around 1895 at the age of 23, he founded a private bird sanctuary on the property and hand-raised several nearly extinct snowy egrets. By 1911, Ned estimated that 100,000 birds were nesting there. His conservation efforts earned the attention President Teddy Roosevelt, who visited Avery Island in 1915. 

President Teddy Roosevelt posing with his Spanish-American War Rough Rider friend Lieutenant John McIlhenny from Avery Island, Louisiana, 1907, aboard the Steamboat Mississippi

Jungle Gardens on Avery Island, LA | Gardens & Birdwatching

4. Rothfeder, Jeffrey. McIlhenny’s Gold : How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire. 1st ed. New York: Collins, 2007.

5. McIlhenny, Edward Avery. List of publications including A List with Short Description of the More Than 600 Varieties of Camellias in the Home Grounds (Jungle Gardens); Mcilhenny's the Alligator's Life History. Athens Ohio: Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles; The Wild Turkey and Its Hunting. Garden City N.Y: Doubleday Page; How I Made a Bird City; the Story of a Colony of 100 000 Herons and Many Other Birds in Southern Louisiana Which Was Started Seventeen Years Ago with Eight Snowy Herons--How to Attract Bird to Any Pond are listed at Biodiversity Heritage Library (biodiversitylibrary.org).

6. Perrault, Anna H. Nature Classics: a Catalogue of the E.A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection at Louisiana State University. Baton Rouge, La: Friends of the LSU Library, 1987.

7. LSU Libraries. E. A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection.

8. AVES | Hill Online Exhibitions AVES | (lsu.edu) The online exhibition Aves: A Survey of the Literature of Neotropical Ornithology was adapted from the exhibition catalogue of the same title, written by Tom Taylor, with contributions by Michael L. Taylor, and published by LSU Libraries in 2011. All text on the online exhibition reflects text printed in the catalogue. Aves debuted online in August 2012.