Island Hopping and Globe Trotting
After seeing the birds in cages at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center near Key Largo, Fla., visitors can watch the birds roaming free on the beach. The bird sanctuary accepts donations but has free admission.
AIDS ephemera to be exhibited
NEW YORK » The New-York Historical Society will present an exhibition this summer that will explore the early history of the AIDS epidemic in New York City.
"AIDS in New York: The First Five Years" will be on view from June 7 through Sept. 15.
The exhibition will draw on the museum’s own material, plus the archives of the New York Public Library, New York University and the National Archive of LGBT History.
The museum says artifacts will include clinicians’ notes, journal entries, diaries, posters, pamphlets and newspaper articles. They will highlight the impact of the epidemic on individuals and the city’s culture.
The exhibition will begin with the first rumors of a "gay plague" in 1981 and end with the highly publicized illness and death of actor Rock Hudson in 1985.
Sign will honor St. Patrick’s Day
LAS VEGAS » The iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is going green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
Officials with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority have partnered with their tourism-promoting counterparts in Ireland to commemorate the holiday.
The lights on the edge of the sign, which are usually yellow, will be switched out for green bulbs.
Tourism Ireland has worked to turn other famous landmarks around the globe green, including the pyramids in Egypt, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
Audubon watercolors on display
NEW YORK » The New-York Historical Society is exhibiting its entire collection of 474 bird watercolors by John James Audubon for the first time. They’re being shown chronologically in three exhibitions over three years. The first group went on view March 8 and ends Tuesday.
The collection includes 435 watercolors engraved for Audubon’s monumental "The Birds of America." The intricately detailed, life-size renderings are the naturalist’s greatest work.
An original edition of Audubon’s book, known as the double elephant folio, is also being shown. Its plates will be turned weekly.
The 31⁄2-foot-tall volume features all the avian species known to Audubon in early 19th-century North America. The museum purchased all the watercolors, except one, from the artist’s widow in 1863.
