"The Singular Beauty of Birds" - New Exhibit in Lied Library

Head of Exhibits Peter Michel has curated a new exhibit in Lied Library based on unique materials held in Special Collections.

“The Singular Beauty of Birds”: The Natural History of the West and the Art of Bird Illustration

Highlighting the work of Andrew Jackson Grayson whose bird paintings were reproduced in a limited edition of vibrantly colored, large folio plates by the Arion Press in a portfolio entitled The Birds of the Pacific Slope, this exhibit places the art of bird illustration in the context of western exploration and the natural sciences which formed an important part of the government-sponsored western expeditions of the nineteenth century.

The exhibit also reflects on the technology of printing and illustration which popularized an art immortalized by John James Audubon, Grayson, John Gould, Edward Lear, Louis Agassiz Fuertes and Rex Brasher.

First floor of Lied Library, south corridor.

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