Illustrated lecture with Laura Allen, American Museum of Natural History
Date: Thursday, November 6th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8 ( Tickets Here )
Location: The Morbid Anatomy Museum; 424A Third Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215

A dress appliquéd with 3,000 Brazilian hummingbirds. A bonnet “alive” with the heads of 21 quails. Floor-grazing hemlines trimmed with finches and worse—beloved robin redbreasts. In the late 19th century, legions of fashionable women sported hats and clothing extravagantly decorated with the feathers, wings, and bodies of wild birds. During this era of conspicuous consumption, avian adornment was not only in good taste, but also served as exclamation marks that announced worth, status, and exceptional grace.

Tonight’s illustrated lecture will chronicle the rise and meaning of bird-wearing in the wake of the Darwinian revolution to its zenith in the 1880’s to its fall from favor as the Jazz Age dawned. We’ll make stops at Marie Antoinette’s court apartments, the Florida Everglades, the Titanic’s cargo hold, a West Hoboken “feather foundry,” the diorama halls of the America Museum of Natural History, the parlors of Boston progressives, and the heated chambers of legislature. Outrage over the massive millinery trade in “fancy feathers” gave rise to the conservation laws that protect wild bird species to this day.

Companion hands-on class: Wearable Bird Taxidermy with Divya Anantharaman, Saturday November 9

The art of avian finery is not dead! Try your hand at creating a piece of jewelry, a fascinator, or accessory that incorporates feathers or other bird elements. While the species that are legal to use are limited today, their natural beauty still offers plenty of inspiration as you carry on this 19th-century specialty, guided by Morbid Anatomy Museum Taxidermist in Residence and accessory designer Divya Anantharaman.

http://morbidanatomy.bigcartel.com/product/wearable-bird-taxidermy-class-with-divya-anantharaman

Laura Allen writes and produces exhibition media at the American Museum of Natural History. With degrees in biology and fashion design, her special interest is the furred and feathered margin where natural history and the history of dress intersect. Among her favorite Museum projects was writing new interpretive panels for the recently restored habitat dioramas in the museum’s Hall of North American Mammals.