Plate 125 Brown-headed Nuthatch 

Curator: I see birds having a difficult Monday morning. Editor: This is “Plate 125 Brown-headed Nuthatch” by John James Audubon. It is a watercolor and drawing on paper. It belongs to his famous collection "Birds of America." Curator: I feel I should have coffee with those two...The lower bird staring wistfully into the distance with an arched neck and head angled up and backwards looks so incredibly relatable! And the one above is clinging to the bark for dear life. I wonder what's up? Editor: Well, Audubon wasn't just trying to give birds a personality, he aimed for scientific accuracy. Audubon saw his project as documenting American bird species in a grand style, for both scientific and public appreciation. His images were the fruit of the new American intellectual and economic class and their desire to survey what the North American continent could offer. Curator: Appreciate he did. And what appreciation! Look at the texture he’s managed to give that bark! I can feel it just by looking. He even catches that delicate shimmer on the feathers that shifts depending on the angle of light. It seems every bird is a muse. Editor: Indeed. He revolutionized ornithological illustration through what was considered both scientific and artistic achievement, which were seen as unified in the 19th century. Now this bird would've had a hard time surviving even as the 19th century went along, and today it would be even more so... We must also acknowledge his relationship to colonial projects of naming and mastery that allowed that survey to exist in the first place. Curator: A delicate balancing act: celebrating his achievements while acknowledging their historical context. Maybe that top bird is feeling the weight of history, trying to hold on? It reminds me that even beauty can be complicated, and our perspectives must always be critically evaluated and challenged. Editor: Precisely, the act of seeing transforms the things we are looking at, even a pair of birds on a brunch.