Aviary/Bird cage/Birdhouse
History
An aviary was a structure, enclosure, or cage for keeping birds. While henhouses and other more utilitarian structures for keeping fowl were relatively common in America, aviaries were generally reserved for ornamental and exotic birds, as well as songbirds. A wide variety of aviary types were discussed in treatises, particularly in publications from the second half of the nineteenth century, but the relative scarcity of American examples suggests that they were fragile structures, seldom recorded in the seventeenth century and rare through the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century. More common in America, however, was the practice of keeping doves and pigeons (see Dovecote).
Birdhouses, such as the one at Spring-land, William Russell Birch’s estate, near Bristol, Pa. [Fig. 1], the one depicted in a notarial record [Fig. 2], and the “accidental wren box” at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia [Fig. 3], allowed birds to come and go freely. Aviaries and bird cages, by contrast, kept birds confined. Aviaries could be located indoors or outdoors. They were often situated in conservatories or greenhouses, where the warmth suited plant and bird alike; an example of this is found at Monticello. An aviary built free-standing in the garden is found in Birch’s design for the Elysian Bower at Springland [Fig. 4].
Treatises recommended that the style of an aviary or birdhouse be determined by its setting, particularly the architectural style of the principal dwelling. For example, A. J. Downing recommended Gothic detailing in outbuildings and garden structures, such as aviaries, to complement the architecture of the main house. This advice followed the general principles used for the design of other animal, bird, and insect-keeping structures found in American designed landscapes. Barns, poultry houses, and chicken coops were important parts of farm and plantation economies, and occasionally were ornamented to reflect the particular program of the landscape design. J. C. Loudon’s (1826) detailed description of aviary types indicates the possible range of forms: a floating aviary for waterfowl, a glassed canary aviary, and portable aviaries made of net and wire [Fig. 5]. One illustration from the New England Farmer in 1841 depicts a bird cage suspended from four slender columns [Fig. 6]. Although Loudon described the British practice of furnishing aviaries with dead or living trees for the birds’ perch, no evidence exists for such American examples.
Aviaries were valued in garden design, as George William Johnson noted in 1847, because of the birds’ singing and plumage. They also provided objects of interest in the garden and could be used as a focal point at the termination or crossing of a walk, as Batty Langley advised in 1728. Like specialized structures for exotic plants, aviaries provided a place to display one’s interest in and knowledge of the natural world. Both the access to exotic species and the means to keep them was once the province of only the wealthiest of Europe, and this association continued to lend status to the keeping of rare and ornamental birds. A singing bird not only graced a garden with its song, but also signified the owner’s erudition and connection with the world of foreign trade and exotic lands, as did swans on a lake or peacocks strolling on a lawn.
-- Elizabeth Kryder-Reid
