Welcome!
The Birds of Shakespeare strives to be an accessible, one-stop guide for viewers who wish to explore the intersection between Shakespeare and ornithology. This growing collection of paintings will catalog every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's plays and poems— at least 64 species. Each month, a new bird is released as a painting with an accompanying essay examining the bird's role within Shakespeare's world and its early modern cultural context.
The Birds of Shakespeare is an independent art project by Missy Dunaway.
Researching Shakespeare’s Birds
Finding birds in Shakespeare's writing is one puzzle and understanding the significance of each bird is another. I am investigating 16th and 17th-century folklore and naturalist beliefs that may have shaped how each species was perceived by the playwright, his characters, and his audiences. I am also collecting early modern scientific illustrations and reading the work of scholars who analyzed Shakespeare's relationship to the natural world.
I want my paintings to offer natural science facts in addition to literary interpretation. All illustrations of feathers, eggs, and nests are carefully measured and rendered at life-size, and eggs are numbered in average clutch size. I want my bird, feather, and eggs to be as accurate as possible, so I utilize recent publications from reputable ornithological institutes for my avian research. My bibliography provides a detailed list of my primary references.
Sources and Advisors
My project was awarded a Folger Institute Artist-in-Residence Research Fellowship in 2021, and I am maintaining a conversation with the Folger Shakespeare Library's knowledgeable network of librarians and scholars. My research heavily relies on the Folger Shakespeare Library's immense rare book collection, especially the LUNA Digital Image Collection and British Book Illustrations Collection— two digital archives generously made public through their website.
The master lists of Shakespeare's birds and plants were gathered before me by James Edmund Harting and Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, respectively. I cross-reference each species with opensourceshakespeare.org, pointing me to every word's exact location in Shakespeare's plays and poems. Finally, I read the play to confirm and examine the species' presence.
My paintings are reviewed by three advisors: Haylie Swenson, a Shakespearean scholar specializing in naturalism; Cody Deane, an avian ecologist who corrects the anatomy of my bird renderings; and Harriet Rix, a botanist who revises my plant illustrations.
The Birds of Shakespeare reflects scholars' research through the centuries, paired with precise ornithological data. My contribution is curating these materials and visually communicating the information through art. My bibliography provides a detailed list of my primary research materials.
Shakespeare’s Plants
As a bonus, the complete collection of paintings will include every plant mentioned by Shakespeare. My earliest compositions coincidentally included many of Shakespeare's plants as allusions to avian habitats, food sources, and nesting materials. When I realized this overlap, I committed to having Shakespeare's 182 botanical species represented in the artwork. I refer to early modern botanical illustrations to capture how each plant looked in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Shakespeare's plants have a visual presence in the artwork; however, the written summaries are exclusively dedicated to Shakespeare's birds, so the project maintains its avian focus.
Artwork Medium and Dimensions
All paintings measure 30 x 22 inches. I paint with acrylic ink on hot-press watercolor paper.
Conserving Our Environment
Most birds that Shakespeare admired can be viewed and appreciated in our backyards. Through nature, we can step back in time and experience Shakespeare's world— if we preserve it. By highlighting the beauty of these creatures and the treasured literature they inspired, The Birds of Shakespeare reminds us that the destruction of wildlife is a cultural loss as well as an environmental one. Ten percent of limited edition print sales are donated to wildlife conservation charities.
Support
The Birds of Shakespeare is a proud recipient of a 2021 Folger Institute Artistic Research Fellowship, a 2023 Maine Fulbright Award, and 2024 Folger Institute Micro Fellowship.
I deeply appreciate readers who have offered to help sustain this project. In response, I’m introducing a few ways you can contribute. Explore the options here.
About the Artist
I discovered a passion for Shakespeare as an undergraduate art student at Carnegie Mellon University, and I have been reading and watching his plays ever since. The Birds of Shakespeare is a product of my curiosity about birds, literature, and language.
I am an artist and author based in southern Maine. My book, The Traveling Artist: A Visual Journal, is an international travelogue comprised of eighty paintings. You can learn more about me and view my complete portfolio at missydunaway.com.