Artists could draw and paint images that looked like images of birds, not like the birds themselves. Today photographers and lenses can make it look like the real thing, but not back then.

Charles Wilson Peale opened an wonders emporium in Philadelphia. He was quite an artist too. At 82 years old he painted this self portrait in 1820 at the entrance of his establishment. Unlike PT Barnum there were no fakes, just pure science.

 

At his feet on the left is his own taxidermist kit and a turkey ready to process. On the far wall was a golden row of famous portraits of America's founding fathers. On the right was the real wonder, proof that the mastodon was not a legend but actually existed, just as Thomas Jefferson had said it was. On the left his own renown handiwork: exotic stuffed birds. These would give a very real idea to the public of how they really looked.

The Smithstonian Institute a few years ago around 2011 ran a Hall of Wonders exhibition of paintings from the early 1800's on six subjects: Bird life, the American bison herds, Niagara Falls, the American box clock, American firearm inverters (Samuel Colt), early American railroads. Paraphernalia of all of these were in the Peale emporium too.

The most famous painting in America for a year or so, The Great Horseshoe Fall by Alvin Fisher at Niagra Falls. It was mainly praised for the rainbow. The lads in lower left are helping a mate out from the slippery steps which led to the cascade below. A woman in a white dress is plugging her ears because of the noise of the falls.

Decades later in the late 1890's Nicholas Tesla's engineers had invaded the falls with huge electrical generators. That's progress.

A black artist Robert S. Duncanson amazed the artistic world by matching the rainbow in 1859. People would step out of the window light in the museum thinking the glass had created the rainbow, it looked to real.

10 x 12 inch coffee table book:

https://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Hall-Wonders/dp/1904832970/

 

 

All very interesting and good but I don't get the relevance to flight simming?

Belongs in Hangar Chat !!

Man, I was really looking forward to the end of that post when OP would somehow tie all that into flight simming. That would have been great. Ah well. 😉

 

The sim needs more birds.

.. and fish

but definitely more birds.

Thanks for wasting another 20 seconds of my time.

14 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Thanks for wasting another 20 seconds of my time.

And you wasted even more by typing a reply. 😂

* If you have time to browse a forum for a computer game then your time cannot be too precious. 😉

Edited April 29, 20215 yr by lupedelupe

I'm shocked the crack commando moderator team haven't removed this yet. I guess one of them had their rope jam on the rappel down the rocky cliff that is this forum.

1 hour ago, lupedelupe said:

And you wasted even more by typing a reply. 😂

* If you have time to browse a forum for a computer game then your time cannot be too precious. 😉

What crazy times we live in!

2 hours ago, eslader said:

Man, I was really looking forward to the end of that post when OP would somehow tie all that into flight simming. That would have been great. Ah well. 😉

 

Me too! Talk about a joke without a punchline 😁

Yeah, I thought I was posting in hangar chat. Sorry.

No problem! I can make this thread relate to aviation:

 

 

😉

 

Well now that I know how you guys feel about bird pictures I'll stop posting posting my weekly collection.

Noel