According to the National Turkey Federation, 88 percent of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving.
Download image
By downloading this image you agree that you will not use it commercially, as defined in our full terms and conditions.
You can use the image for:
- Non-commercial research and private study
- Teaching and instruction
- Non-commercial publishing (up to A5-size, and in print runs of up to 4000 copies)
- Non-commercial online use, up to 768 pixels, and for up to 5 years
I agree to the full terms and conditions
Download image JPG
Other uses, including exhibition catalogue and display, broadcast, advertising, book jackets and commercial packaging, are covered by our commercial terms.
If you would like a larger file, or to use the image in other ways, contact our Licensing team.
Download image
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level D , Case MB3, Shelf 9
Character And Costume In Turkey and Italy
Print
ca. 1840 (made), ca. 1840 (made)
Fisher, Son & Co. (publishers)
Allom, Thomas (artist)
Hullmandel (engraver)
Britain (made)
Lithograph depicting ‘The favourite Storyteller of Constantinople’, tinted with one tint-stone, with additional colouring by hand, half-bound in red morocco. A group of men sit around the storyteller, smoking pipes and drinking from small glasses. Lettered with title.
Object details
Prints
Clothing
Smoking Accessories
Print
Hand-coloured lithograph
Paper
Lithography
Colouring
Lithograph entitled ‘The favourite Storyteller of Constantinople’ from a volume of prints drawn by Thomas Allom and engraved by Charles Hullmandel entitled ‘Character And Costume In Turkey and Italy’. Great Britain, ca. 1840.
Lithograph depicting ‘The favourite Storyteller of Constantinople’, tinted with one tint-stone, with additional colouring by hand, half-bound in red morocco. A group of men sit around the storyteller, smoking pipes and drinking from small glasses. Lettered with title.
- Size of covers height: 42.8cm
- Width: 32cm
Designed from Nature & on Stone by T. Allom. Printed by C.Hullmandel. Fisher, Son & Co’ Paris & London. (Lettered)
Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A
Turkeys can fly.
Well, domestic turkeys that are bred to be your Thanksgiving centerpiece can’t. They’re too heavy. But wild turkeys can, reportedly at speeds up to 55 mph. Though they don’t go very far—usually less than 100 yards—wild turkeys are among the five largest flying birds in the world. They’re in good company: Others on the list include the swan and the albatross.
Turkeys don’t swim often, it seems, but they can, by tucking their wings in, spreading their tails, and kicking. In 1831, John James Audubon wrote, “I have been told by a friend that a person residing in Philadelphia had a hearty laugh on hearing that I had described the Wild Turkey as swimming for some distance, when it had accidentally fallen into the water. But be assured, kind reader, almost every species of land-bird is capable of swimming on such occasions, and you may easily satisfy yourself as to the accuracy of my statement by throwing a Turkey, a Common Fowl, or any other bird into the water.”
Turkey poop can tell you a lot.
The next time you happen across turkey poop—which happens all the time, we know—take a closer look at it. If the droppings are shaped like a “J,” they were left there by a male turkey. Spiral-shaped poo? The culprit is female.
The citizens of Pilot Rock, Oregon, probably don’t much care about the shape of the stuff, but more about the quantity of it. In 2017, Pilot Rock turned to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) for help combating a flock of 50 to 70 wild turkeys that would periodically invade the town, destroy gardens, perch in trees, and poop on pickup trucks. The ODFW offered several solutions, but as far as we know the turkeys still rule the roost at Pilot Rock.
Turkey probably wasn’t on the pilgrims’ menu.
Thanks to historical records, we know for sure that the Wampanoag brought deer, and the English brought fowl—likely ducks and geese.
You may have heard that at least one of our Founding Fathers lobbied hard to make the turkey our national symbol instead of the noble bald eagle. That’s not quite true, but in a letter to his daughter, he did expound on the character of each, which may be where the rumor got started:
“For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him. “With all this injustice, he is never in good case but like those among men who live by sharping & robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our country… “I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America… He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”
