Winterthur exhibit looks at Americans' love affair with pets
Wednesday November 14, 2007
By RANDALL CHASE Associated Press Writer
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- Visitors to Winterthur sometimes experience a "Wow!" moment when touring the museum's permanent and traveling collections, but the newest exhibit offers a bit of a twist.
"Bow-wow!" might be the more appropriate response to "Pets in America," which traces Americans' love affair with their animals from the 18th century to the present.
In what may be a first for Winterthur, visitors can bring their own pet photos or portraits, which will be displayed and archived as part of the museum's record of the exhibit.
The family friendly exhibit, on view through Jan. 20, is the brainchild of Katherine Grier, a professor in Winterthur's American material culture program. The show grew from her research into human-animal relationships in the United States while she was at the University of South Carolina, where the exhibit debuted two years ago.
Winterthur is the fifth stop for the show, which is next scheduled to travel to Florida. At Winterthur, it is being supplemented with about 40 items from the museum's collection.
The exhibit, based on Grier's acclaimed 2006 book of the same name, begins by linking pet keeping in America to its earlier roots, amusingly illustrated with ornate cages used in the Far East to house pet crickets - prized both for their chirping songs and competitive fighting.
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