![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But within this colorful children’s book beats a satiric heart marketing lingo, consumer culture, and the commodification of nature all come under scrutiny. The publicity materials for Aviary Wonders Inc., written and illustrated by painter and printmaker Kate Samworth, reveal it’s intended for readers age 9 through 12. Each is accompanied by an essay in which Sweet discusses the origin of the work, revealing much about the history of ornithological art and literature along the way. This history lays a firm foundation for the remainder of the work, made up of dozens of illustrated plates, which depict works created by European and American artists from 1555 to 1930. A history of ornithology by Peter Capainolo, himself an ornithologist at the museum, opens the book, diving into the basics (What is ornithology? What is a bird?) before covering topics such as bird anatomy, the evolution of ornithological science, and the history of printing scientific books about birds. (It’s the second in the museum’s Natural Histories series, after the eponymous Natural Histories the third, Opulent Oceans, will appear in late 2014.) Beyond the book’s obvious aesthetic attributes, the art featured throughout is inextricable from the science underlying it. With its trove of ornithological plates selected from the American Museum of Natural History’s rare book collection, Extraordinary Birds, by museum ornithology collections manager Paul Sweet, is an unforgettably beautiful work. ![]()
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