̽����ѡ

No one wants to get up close and personal with a real Wild Turkey. But starting today, the ��offers an appealing alternative: a chance for visitors to pore over John James ̽����ѡ’s life-sized watercolor��of the bird. The stately fowl dedicated to the Birds of America, a��collection of 435 jumbo��paintings hand-crafted by ̽����ѡ in the 1800s. (The book��has since been reprinted countless times.) Every month, the historical society will feature a new display centered around the next page in the series, for a total run time of��36 years and 3��months.

As each new bird takes center stage, the curator��will complement it with related��sketches, documents, and artifacts.��Luckily, the New-York Historical Society has enough accessories to keep things fresh through 400-plus redesigns: Its collection of ̽����ѡ paraphernalia, known as��“̽����ѡiana,”��is the largest in the world.��Not only does it own every original watercolor from��Birds of America, it��also has the��engravings—or��plates—of each illustration, which were used to reproduce ̽����ѡ’s work for wealthy art��collectors.��

Despite the daunting workload, Roberta Olson, the curator of drawings at the New-York Historical Society, is excited to design such a long-lived exhibit. "It’s been my dream for a very long time,"��she says. The idea first came to her as a visiting curator��in 1989, and she's been aiming to make it a reality��since she became a curator the following year.��

The resulting experience is as intimate as Olson intended. The exhibit room is a former storage room that the museum gutted and renovated specifically for the display. At��the center,��in a specially designed case, lies volume one��of��Birds of America, open to the featured bird's folio. The subject��is also animated by its��songs and��calls, which play in the background, courtesy of the . Combine that with the dim lighting—the paintings are too sensitive to sustain anything harsher—and you've got yourself a solid��date spot, perfect for peeking into after a walk through Central Park.

The��immersive nature of the exhibit is also meant to make visitors think deeply about conservation, just as ̽����ѡ did. The display on the��Wild Turkey, for instance, includes notes about the North American population's��ups and downs��over the years. Later, informative displays will drive home the loss of��extinct species like the Carolina Parakeet.��“Those will have all kinds of bells and whistles going off,” Olson says.��

Back in the 1800s, people learned to appreciate the beauty and needs of��American birds by��fawning��over ̽����ѡ's vivid images. “He really hooked people,” Olson says. She hopes that if the naturalist could do it then, he can still do it today, tomorrow, and for the next 36-plus years.

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