Nuttall's Lesser-Marsh Wren, Troglodites Brevirostris. Male 1, Female 2, plate 175 from The Birds of America, Volume 2

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Representing artistic depictions of birds spanning more than 100 years, these three works reflect the multiple and sometimes fraught relationships between human and non-human beings. Within Acoma and other Pueblo communities, birds—and in this case the parrot or macaw—have long served as connections between people and the gods who live in the upper or sky world. Birds, which can carry messages or prayers for rain, are often depicted on ollas, or water jars, like the one here, marking a connection between the object’s form and its function.

Walton Ford is known for his meticulously executed images of animals in a style resembling John James Audubon’s naturalistic scenes, such as the wrens at the right of this grouping, with a critical twist. Ford’s print on the left depicts crimson-capped acorn woodpeckers guarding their cache of acorns as the Hollywood Hills are threatened by wildfire. Unlike Robert Havell’s print made from an original drawing by Audubon, Ford’s rendering is more than observational or aesthetic; it gives agency to the avian actors within his complex visual narrative.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Exhibition History

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 12 - July 22, 2022.

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