Chicken and Poultry

Welcome to the exhibit on fowl, the edible birds that we lured down to the ground to hunt and peck, produce eggs, and wind up in the stewing pot. People of India were enjoying domesticated chicken as early as 2000 BC, and wild geese were a staple for wealthy Egyptians. Anyone for ostrich? Cornish hen? Emu omelet?

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Chicken
Duck
Eggs
Goose
Lark
Ostrich
Pigeon
Turkey

"Still Life with Poultry," by the Dutch artist Frans Snyders, painted in 1614. All kinds of birds, large and small, common and exotic, have been fair game for the dinner tables of Europe and beyond for a long time. (HFHA Coll.)

Italian poultry dealers in the northern province of Tyrol bring their caged birds to market. (HFHA Coll.)