Florence McBride’s books documenting the former Birds of Connecticut Exhibit at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History
The “Birds of Connecticut” exhibit at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History (1972-2020) featured the brilliant taxidermic work of David H. Parsons, who spent years preparing the mounts, revealing the birds in natural positions and illustrating behavior as well as essential field marks. Well over 300 specimens were displayed, with creative attention to the arrangement of the birds, background colors, lighting, and labelling. The collection was a comprehensive guide to the birds of our state, which deserves to be remembered as a work of art as well.
Flo’s work to document the exhibit began in August 2019, when she learned that there were no plans to reinstall it in the renovated museum (which eventually opened in 2024, with a number of Parsons’ mounts placed in new exhibits). She photographed all the species and using the Shutterfly website, created two books that include at least one example of each species. Hard copies of these books have been donated to the Peabody’s archives and Yale’s ornithology library.
Anyone who would like to see the books can contact Flo at fmcb_warbler@yahoo.com. She can show you bound copies, and/or can set up a link that will allow you to view digital versions on the Shutterfly website. You can do that without ordering copies of them, but if you should want to order, she strongly recommends waiting for Shutterfly to offer one of their “free extra pages” sales, which make a great difference in the prices.
You can also view and download a pdf of 29 pages from the first book here.
The NHBC membership was first notified about the books in the club’s June 2020 Birding Community E-Bulletin.