Top places to see Audubon paintings: The Chicago Institute of Art, The New York Historical Society, The New York Museum of Natural History. There are several places you can see Audubon’s original artwork. Audubon’s works were published in a series of books titled “Birds of America” They were all hand colored, one by one, in every volume. Some of those books have been dismantled and the art has been framed and put on display. This is what an original Audubon actually is. There are other works of his that are not or were not put into books, but these items are scattered around the country in private collections.