The Dodo Blog

The Dodo Lives from Toronto Life, November 1975. (via Torontoist)

The vintage cover of this When the Do-Do Bird is Singing in the Coca-Cola Tree vintage sheet music for piano was kindly uploaded by Jerub Baal. (Thanks Pita!)

Dodo Matchbox, New Light Match Manufacturing Ltd., from Virtual Matchbox Labels Museum

This is the second post about illustrations of dodos for Alice in Wonderland. The first post is here. This time all the images are from the same site, Lauren’s Alice in Wonderland Page.

By Donald E. Cooke Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961

By Millicent Sowerby, Chatto & Windus, 1907

By Gertrude Kay J.B, 1923

By Michael Hague, Henry Holt and Company, 1985

By Peter Weevers Hutchison, Random House UK, 1989

By Angel Dominguez, Artisan, 1996

By Figueiredo Sobral, Portugália Editora, Lisbon, n.d.

By Janice Holland, Rand McNally, 1951

By Alex A. Blum, Gilberton Company, inc. 1948

By Frank Bolle, Fisher Price, 1984

Croaks the Dodo to your auto, “You may be next!”. Gulfpride Oil ad illustrated by Albert Staehle, 1943.

Lantern slide of Alice in Wonderland, chapter 1, from EVE (Everyone’s Virtual Exhibition).

Dronte (Raphus cucullatus), Walgvogel (Didus ineptus), by Lorenz Oken, from Arbeiten über Lorenz Oken. BTW, Peter Bertau – Arbeiten über Lorenz Oken looks a great site for those that have any interest in ornithology.

Birds – Illustration to the Baburnama: Loriquet (Coryllis vernalis), Horned Pheasant (Tragopan melanocephalus), Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), Ducks, and Partridges, circa 1620-1625, Institute of Oriental Studies. St. Petersburg. From Mughal Miniature Painting – An Alternative Source of History.

Dodo illustration found at Maps of Australia: Manuscript map in ink, watercolour and gouache, with 18 marginal insets and panel depicting people and fauna in the Pacific by Otto Staab, 1812. Available at the State Library of New South Wales. (Thanks Paul!)

Minaggio 76 – Although the bird is tentatively labelled Dodo? on the picture, this more likely represents a bustard being hunted by a mounted oriental gentleman with a scimitar. From Il Bestiario Barocco – Feather Book: Made in 1618 by Dionisio Minaggio, Chief Gardener of the State of Milan, the Feather Book consists of 157 collages of birds, hunters, tradesmen, musicians and Commedia del’Arte figures.

The 112 birds consist of the feathers, beaks and claws laid down in true-to-life fashion. The majority of the birds depicted were native to Lombardy although some are no longer common there. One of the birds is identified as being a representation of a Dodo – and indeed a web site on the dodo seems to accept this attribution without question. However, the bird is not particularly well drawn, uses Lombardy bird feathers rather than ones from an actual Dodo and is obviously copied from either a drawing or a description. I suspect it is done from an illustration because the costume and weapon of the Arabian hunter is so accurately depicted. Various other ornithologists who have seen the original have declared the bird to be either a Reunion Solitaire, which is at least a close relative of the Dodo, or a Great Bustard.

More about it at The Feather Book of Dionisio Minaggio. (Thanks Jaime!)