This week I was at the John Audubon Museum in Henderson KY - a stunning museum created in the 30's detailing Audubon's life story and travels.

There was an interesting Liverpool link - he had trouble selling his subscriptions for his Birds of America book - which was issued 5 pages each month, with a title page and cover sheet every 100 pages - letting the owners bind their own book locally. At 1000 dollars a subscription, it was pricey for the time.

He didn't get much acceptance in Philadelphia, and travelled to England to sell the book. He had an exhibition in Liverpool, and his diaries talk about selling 2 subscriptions (out of about 400 total) to the Roscoe and Rathbone families.

His diaries talk about his painting exhibition in the "Royal Institute" around 1820.

My question is ... what is/was the Royal Institute?

Aslo - are the Roscoe and Rathbone original books still in Liverpool, and are they on display anywhere?