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Images of the exotic but now extinct Carolina Parakeet will be on display through Sept. 30 in a free, public exhibit at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library.

“The Carolina Parakeet in Art: Images from the Powell Collection,” features gifts of William S. “Bill” Powell, the North Carolina Collection’s former curator, and his wife, Virginia Powell, of Chapel Hill. The Powells made a lifelong project of collecting materials related to the parakeet.

In addition, John Gerwin and Brian O’Shea, ornithologists with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, will give a free public lecture at 5:45 p.m. Aug. 29 in Wilson Library on “The Carolina Parakeet and Relatives: A Look at Some Natural, Un-natural, and Cultural Histories.” The exhibit will be open for viewing before the lecture.

The parakeet, also known as the Carolina Parrot, was plentiful in the Carolinas, Virginia and other parts of the Southeast during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Early English settlers often described great flocks nesting together or in swamps.

The parakeet exhibit includes:

1. some 40 prints, photographs of specimens, and paintings of the bird;
2. an original print—Carolina Parrot, no. 6—from the Havell edition (1827-1838) of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America series”;
3. books containing descriptions of the parakeet by explorers Lewis and Clark,and by 17th-century Jesuit missionaries;  and
4. an illustration by British naturalist Mark Catesby in his book “The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands,” (1771 edition).

Reproductions of the Catesby illustration are available for purchase through a new partnership of the library and the site 1000 Museums: https://www.1000museums.com/mus/uncl/. Royalties from sales benefit the library.

Website: http://www.lib.unc.edu/blogs/news/index.php/2012/06/the-carolina-parakeet-returns-in-wilson-library-exhibit/

Images and credits:
http://www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/media/2012/parrot_catesby.jpg
“The Parrot of Carolina and the Cypress of America.” Mark Catesby, “The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands” (1771).  North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

http://www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/media/2012/parrot_audobon.jpg
“Carolina Parrot or Parrakeet.” John James Audubon, “Birds of America,” 1842 octavo edition. North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Library contact: Linda Jacobson, (919) 962-0104, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it