Nature: Urban Neightbors

Urban Neighbors, a New York Public Library exhibition, exploits the libe's vast collection for illustrations, dating from the mid-17th century to the 20th, of the creatures that live side-by-side with humans in New York City. The show "celebrates...the abundance of wildlife within its five boroughs. It refutes the canard that pigeons, cockroaches, and rats are the city's only local wild fauna." On line approximately 40 images are displayed in eight sections, including Tiny Neighbors (butterfly, moth), Unwelcome Neighbors (cockroach, housefly, mosquito), Occasional and Unexpected Neighbors (a Humpbacked Whale stranded on Rockaway Beach in 1991). Some of the pictures are by well-known naturalists, such as a bullfrog painted by Mark Catesby and passenger pigeons by John James Audubon, reproduced from plates in rare books from NYPL special collections. The exhibition also includes a sighting log that invites visitors to record unusual animals they have spotted. <http://urbanneighbors.nypl.org/>