ASU history student earns honor for uncovering Victorian illustrations’ colonial themes
Master’s student Raena Tindle’s essay on 19th-century bird illustrations reveals how depictions of gender roles reflected — and reinforced — British colonial hierarchies
Raena Tindle, like many people, developed an affinity for bird watching during the COVID-19 pandemic. But little did she know that this passion would aid in her pursuit of a master’s degree in history, as well as in getting an honorable mention at the 2025 North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS) M.A. essay competition.
She initially wrote her essay for her first seminar course at Arizona State University, HST 591: Global Environmental History: Animals and Empires. Tindle immediately knew she wanted to focus on birds for the course's final project and, through the ASU Library online database, quickly noticed a discrepancy in publications by John Gould, a British ornithologist, and his wife Elizabeth, who illustrated all of his works.
Tindle found that the birds were illustrated differently depending on their country of origin. While documenting fauna in India, the illustrator depicted female birds completing domestic tasks like gathering food and building nests, both of which are traditionally masculine roles.
"I thought that maybe she was subversively feminist," Tindle said. "She’s doing all the heavy lifting for her husband, doing all the illustrations and getting none of the credit. Maybe she’s illustrating female birds in a similar position, doing the heavy lifting."
Tindle quickly realized, though, that illustrations of European birds reflected traditional gender norms — portraying the male gathering food and providing for their mate. This revealed a new conclusion: the illustrations reflected a social hierarchy. In Britain at the time, people in India were perceived as lower status compared with people in Europe. Tindle argues that, through the depictions of Indian birds reversing European gender roles, the illustrations reinforced British colonization and gender norms.
Tindle’s instructor for the course, Tobias Harper, an associate professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, nominated her essay for the NACBS award. The essay was selected out of submissions from across the U.S. and Canada.
“I particularly liked the way Raena integrated her analysis of tests and images of birds in 19th-century Britain," Harper said, “taking images seriously as historical sources.”
“(Receiving this award) is really an honor because I’m just a stay-at-home mom.” Tindle said. “I just do this while my kids are supposed to be sleeping at night. I’m not a working professional, so that was pretty cool.”
Tindle, who received her undergraduate degree from Columbia College, was drawn to pursue her master's degree to fulfill something within herself. A military spouse and mother of three young children, she said her life seemed to revolve solely around moving across the country and ensuring her family’s needs were met.
“It just felt like ‘it’s time to do something for me,’” she said. “I felt like all my brain cells were dying.”
And she was invigorated by her studies at ASU, adding how different it felt to write a paper she was so passionate about. She said she didn’t even know it was possible to study areas like this before enrolling at ASU.
Though it was “a lot of work,” Tindle graduated from ASU Online in spring 2025 with her MA in history. She expanded upon and developed her paper on Gould's imagery, using it for her capstone project.
“I was really happy with my experience,” she said. “I kind of feel sad that it’s over. Maybe I’ll get another degree.”