Collection Highlight E48851: Shuttlecock

This item from our collections perhaps seems unfamiliar at first, but if you take a closer look you might recognize a familiar object.  It’s a shuttlecock! Shuttlecocks, also referred to as “birdies”, are what get batted back and forth during a game of badminton. This shuttlecock has a head made of wound fibers, which serves as a weight, and a tail of feathers. The feathers, traditionally taken from only one wing of a bird, help keep the shuttlecock aerodynamic. These days we tend to use commercially manufactured plastic and rubber shuttlecocks. This object was donated by Edward Nelson, accessioned on Feb 9^th, 1882, and collected near the Lower Yukon River.  

Explore more objects and images on our online database!