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This closeup shows the detail of
Whitman's pidgeon drawings.
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New MBL Art Exhibit Features Whitman's Pigeons
The latest Meigs Room exhibit featuring treasures from the MBLWHOI Library archives focuses on the work of the MBL’s first director, Charles Otis Whitman. In addition to being among the most respected biologists and ethologists in America, Whitman was a talented artist. Over the course of his career, Whitman worked with more than 700 species of pigeons, studying the relationship between phenotypic variation and heredity. As part of his research, he created a series of watercolor wall charts and also photographed his avian subjects, which were later hand-colored by his colleagues, artists K. Hayashi and Kenji Toda. The illustrations are handsomely reproduced in a three-volume set of books. The books and original wall charts, a gift of Whitman, are housed in the MBL's rare books collection. The MBL is pleased to present to the public for the first time a digitized selection of Whitman's works. Curated by Ann Weissmann, the exhibit is on display in the Meigs Room, Swope Center, through May 2007.
Here is a selection of Whitman's drawings:
