Art, but make it Eagles: A bird-filled art guide for Philadelphians who aren’t really into football

You probably know this from all the green around you, but the Eagles are off to the Super Bowl and will be facing the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday.

Even if you’re not a sports fan, that doesn’t mean you can’t be out and about soaking up the blessings of the season and appreciating the city’s favorite bird.

Here is a list of some art pieces in Philadelphia museums that all depict eagles (but not the footballing species.) If you’re really not doing much else on Sunday, check them out in person.

Thomas W. Dyott was a druggist — Britannica calls him an “American patent-medicine king” — who came to Philadelphia in the 1790s. Eventually he added an “M.D.” to his name, opened a drugstore, and started selling “family medicines” like Infallible Worm Destroying Lozenges and Vegetable Nervous Cordial.

To keep up with the need for the many bottles his medicines would need, Dyott bought the Kensington Glass Works in 1833. But before that happened, sometime between 1818 and 1830, the Glass Works made an exquisite blue glass flask with a likeness of George Washington on the front. On the back, there is an eagle and the words “E pluribus unum.”

On view at the Nyheim Gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Eagles were associated with Zeus in Ancient Greece and represented power and strength. Currently on display at the Penn Museum’s Greece Gallery is a silver coin that depicts an eagle in flight, gripping a rabbit with its mighty talons and devouring it. The coin dates to 332-326 BCE.

On view at the Greece Gallery at Penn Museum, 3260 South St.

In the mid-1800s, the Bowsers of Philadelphia — Elizabeth Harriet, a seamstress, and David Bustill Bowser, a painter — was what we’d call a power couple. They were prominent members of the city’s African American community and philanthropists. David Bustill Bowser ran a profitable business painting banners for various clients, including 11 African American regiments during the Civil War.

Though the one he created for the 3rd U.S. Colored Troops is at the Library of Congress, you can see an image of the banner Bowser painted for the first African American regiment to be trained at Camp William Penn, in Cheltenham Township, at the African American Museum in Philadelphia’s “Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia 1776-1876″ exhibit.

Yes, it shows the national seal eagle with a red, white, and blue shield spreading its wings against a blue sky.

On view as a part of the permanent exhibit at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch St.

The United States adopted the eagle for its national seal in the 1870s, inspiring various artists and craftspeople to incorporate the bird into their designs. One such was Pennsylvania cabinetmaker George Dyer whose furniture was known for its contemporary designs keeping up with the latest trends.

In 1808, Dyer made a chest of drawers intended to store clothes and other personal belongings. Accentuated by inlaid geometric designs, the chest boasts of two eagles on the top drawer that, per the Museum’s description, “are formed in light-colored and variously dyed woods and red wax.”

Dyer was influenced by ancient Greek and Roman designs when he created furniture that found pride of place in posh Lancaster homes.

On view at the PMA Johnson Gallery.

As you enter the Penn Museum through its East Entrance, the tall wooden pole that greets you depicts an eagle whose powerful hooked beak stands out for its bright red color.

The carved plank or house post — often placed outside homes in several Indigenous cultures — was created in 1991 by Coastal Salish First Nation artist Francis Horne Sr., who lives near Vancouver, British Columbia. The artist has carved several outdoor poles for the city of Duncan in that Canadian province.

On view at the Penn Museum’s East Entrance.

Painter William Birch moved to Philadelphia from England in 1794 and made a name for himself for his exquisite enamel copies of art prints. In 1826, for Triumph of America, he reproduced Julia Plantou’s painting The Treaty of Ghent and The Triumph of America, celebrating the United States’ victory over Great Britain in the War of 1812.

The enamel brooch, which is now on display at the PMA, may have started out being a lid for a small box created by Birch, who is most famous for his The City of Philadelphia series of enamel engravings of the city’s vistas.

In this painting, the U.S. is depicted as a Native American princess standing on a chariot holding an American flag with an angel blessing her from atop. She is guided in her tour of triumph, naturally, by an eagle.

If the British engraver could engrave this painting celebrating England’s loss, maybe you can change sides and give this sports thing a try too?

On view at the PMA Flammer Gallery.

Too early too call for celebratory desserts, but this 1817 plate is from a 30-person dessert service ordered by President James Monroe. It is part of the first set of porcelain tableware specifically commissioned for use in the White House.

The design, by the Parisian porcelain makers Dagoty and Honoré, includes an amaranth rim referring “to a color and a flower believed never to fade, and therefore, to be immortal.”

The gold symbols on the border represent strength, agriculture, commerce, art, and science. In the center is a representation of the glorious national seal where an eagle holds arrows in one claw and an olive branch in another. A coexistence of the symbols of war and peace so beautifully presented that you might be moved to uttering a quiet “Go Birds.”

On view at the PMA McNeil Presidential China Gallery.