Whirligigs

By any other name – whirlygig, whirlijig, whirlyjig, whirlybird, windmill, wind mill, weathervane, or whirly – a whirligig is still a whirligig! So what the heck is it? Well, a good definition could go like this: "An old fashioned wooden hand made, wind driven mechanical action figure." [Thanks to www.serenitygardens.com for the above, and some of the following]

They all turn in one way or another – that is the whirly part – and most also turn according to wind direction – hence weathervane. The most interesting action whirligigs fall into three groups:

1. Figures with arms that rotate, such as policemen, or flying birds in which the wings rotate (very common lawn ornaments).

2. Those with small propellers which provide the only motion, such as airplanes, or simulate the motion of other parts, such as the wheels of cyclists or hooves of horses.

3. Those with a propeller which drives a crankshaft causing other parts to move. In this group the possibilities are limited only by the artist’s imagination and ingenuity. Perennial favorites include folks sawing logs or splitting firewood, milking cows, hoeing the garden, swinging a baseball bat, and so on…and so on…

Certainly ancient, the origin of whirligigs is obscure, possibly someplace in the Orient. In North America their history is easier to trace. In order to predict weather it’s useful to know what the wind is doing and weathervanes could be made easily in idle winter evenings. Add a figure whose action is dependent on wind velocity and you have a whirligig. This is exactly what happened in the mid to late 1800s in the Appalachians, and a new American folk art was born. Few of the earliest whirligigs have survived the ravages of weather. However, whirligigs regained their popularity early in the 20^th century, especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s and these are now the coveted objects of serious folk art collectors.

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