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Category: Exhibitions

Once There Were Billions: 100 Year Anniversary of the death Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon

Liz O'Brien
August 28, 2014
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Martha, the last passenger pigeon.
Martha, the last passenger pigeon.

This post is written by Helen James, Curator-in-Charge, Division of Birds, National Museum of Natural History. Ask Helen a question during our Twitterchat on Tuesday, September 2nd!

Martha, the last passenger pigeon, is back on public display for the first time since 1999, this time in an exhibition titled Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America that opened in the Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition Gallery of the National Museum of Natural History on June 24. Martha died on September 1, 1914, in the Cincinnati Zoo; she was immediately frozen into a 300-pound block of ice and shipped by fast train to the Smithsonian in Washington. There her body was carefully preserved as a taxidermy mount and an anatomical specimen. She had been recognized in the last years of her life as the only surviving individual of a species that was the most abundant bird in North America only decades earlier. In death, she has become one of the Smithsonian’s most treasured specimens. Martha’s story was a wake-up call for our nation regarding its unregulated harvesting of natural resources and contributed to the development of our modern conservation ethic and laws protecting wildlife.

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Twitterchat on September 2nd!

Erin Rushing
August 25, 2014
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Please join the Smithsonian Libraries, the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) for a twitterchat on September 2nd. The chat will take place between 2-3 pm (EST) and feature Helen James, Curator of Birds and our recent Once There Were Billions exhibit in NMNH, and Martin Kalfatovic, Program Director of the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

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The Making of “Once There Were Billions”

Erin Rushing
August 15, 2014
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Once There Were Billions, the new Smithsonian Libraries/BHL exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. The Passenger Pigeon on the left, with her back to the viewer, is Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon that died 100 years ago in 1914.
Once There Were Billions, the new Smithsonian Libraries/BHL exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. The Passenger Pigeon on the left, with her back to the viewer, is Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon that died 100 years ago in 1914.

This post was written by Grace Costantino, Outreach and Communication Manager for the Biodiversity Heritage Library. It first appeared on the BHL blog here.

You are living in the midst of earth’s sixth great extinction event. You’ve been living in it since you were born. So have your parents, your grandparents, your great-great-great-great-grandparents, and all of your ancestors for about 10,000 years. It dates back to the extinction of the mammoths and has been increasingly accelerating as human actions and climate change reshape the balance of our planet. Within the next century, 75% of the conservatively estimated 8.75 million species on earth may be extinct.

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Jeremy Deller’s Artists’ Book “After the Gold Rush”

Alexandra Reigle
July 23, 2014
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Cover of Jeremy Deller's "After the Gold Rush"
Cover of Jeremy Deller’s “After the Gold Rush” juxtaposes old with new.

Jeremy Deller (British, 1966-) has been known for his art work that pulls his audience into actively discussing and confronting political, social, and historical issues. His video work English Magic (2012), on view now until August 2014 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, is an example of this dynamic. The film was selected for the British Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale as the film served as a representation of British history through its interlacing imagery of the nation’s past and present.

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The Fall of a Mighty Empire: The Passenger Pigeon

Liz O'Brien
July 21, 2014
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The story of the last Passenger Pigeon and the disappearance of the Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet, and Heath Hen reveal the fragile connections between species and their environment. To help tell their story, the Smithsonian Libraries, Biodiversity Heritage Library, and the National Museum of Natural History have curated a joint exhibit entitled Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America which opened June 24 in the National Museum of Natural History. 

Two hundred years ago, the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was the most abundant bird species in North America. A population numbering in the billions, as much as 40% of all land birds on the continent shared the same genome as Martha. Migrating flocks were so large that they literally blocked out the sky, stretching up to a mile wide and 300 miles long and taking 14 hours to pass a single point. Flocks were so densely packed that a single shot could bring down dozens of birds. The beat of up to 3.5 billion pairs of wings literally created its own cold front below, and those unaccustomed to the marvel feared the end of the world was upon them.

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Modern Extinction: Heath Hen

Liz O'Brien
July 14, 2014
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The story of the last Passenger Pigeon and the disappearance of the Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet, and Heath Hen reveal the fragile connections between species and their environment. To help tell their story, the Smithsonian Libraries, Biodiversity Heritage Library, and the National Museum of Natural History have curated a joint exhibit entitled Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America which opened June 24 in the National Museum of Natural History. 

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Creating Meaning Together: A Selection of Collaborative Artists’ Books

Anne Evenhaugen
July 11, 2014
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Creating Meaning (5)
“Creating Meaning Together” Collaborative Artists’ Books Exhibition

—This post was contributed by Rita Sausmikat and Maya Riser-Kositsky, interns at the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery (AA/PG) Library summer 2014.

An “artist’s book” can generally be defined as a work of art in book form, though this guideline is interpreted and finessed to fit the artist’s vision. Commonly, artists’ books are portable and interactive, and utilize a plethora of methods, technologies, and materials. Just as with artwork, artists’ books often tell a story, stir emotion, or convey a purpose.

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