Macaws in Tropical Aviary, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Macaws in Tropical Aviary, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

An interpretation of depth — not a measured reconstruction

Depth is precomputed and interpretive — the scene falls back to the flat image where a browser can't render it.

Macaws in Tropical Aviary, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-82C6F0

The Archivist

Ask about this image

Archivist

Step into the scene

Off by default. Turning it on lets the image respond to your cursor with a shallow sense of depth, rebuilt from a depth map computed when the image was catalogued. It is an interpretation for looking, not a measured 3D model — and it falls back to the flat image where the browser can't render it.

On the image

A zoo or private collection paid good money in the 1950s to import these blue-and-gold macaws and house them in a glass-fronted enclosure planted with just enough tropical greenery to suggest they were somewhere other than a climate-controlled building in a temperate city. The birds are vivid enough that the photographer's color film has rendered them almost too saturated to believe, the blue electric and the gold garish, as if the real thing needed correction to look real. The white branch and the tangled green foliage behind the glass create a theatrical diorama effect typical of mid-century zoo design, where the goal was to make wild birds available to the public in a neat, comprehensible package.

The enclosure reveals a particular faith in American progress: that nature could be captured, simplified, and displayed indoors, and that people would travel to see it rather than, say, traveling anywhere the birds actually lived. The composition is tightly framed and brightly lit, the work of someone using Kodachrome or an equivalent color stock that made even captive birds look like a vacation advertisement. By the 1950s, this kind of arrangement seemed both impressive and entirely normal, a weekend outing that required neither guilt nor irony.

From the community

Identifications, corrections, and discussion from readers — reviewed by a librarian before appearing here.

No notes yet — be the first to add what you know about this image.

Visually related — by likeness

Quarry or Excavation Site with Workers, mid-20th Century

1940–1965

Wild Monkey Encounter in Tropical Forest, 1950s

1950–1959

Forest Canopy Study, circa 1950s

1945–1965

Macaw at a Florida Bird Attraction, 1950

1950

Primate Display, Zoo or Wildlife Park, circa 1960s

1955–1975

Man in Cap Crouching at a Shaded Park, 1950s

1950–1959

Two Men Below Bok Tower, Lake Wales, Florida, 1950s

1950–1959

Flowering Tree Canopy, 1950s

1950–1959

Man Reaching for Citrus in Florida Orange Grove, 1950s

1950–1959

Cenote or Spring-Fed Pool, Yucatan, 1960s

1960–1969

Man in Novelty Print Shirt, Tropical Garden, 1950s

1950–1959

Man Sketching Iris Garden Path, Japan, 1950s

1950–1959