This polka from 1887 has a gorgeous lithograph on the cover. As messengers of love, carrier pigeons found their way into popular culture through sheet music. This has helped them save thousands of lives, but they’ve also been used to simply send love messages. According to Pigeonpedia, pigeons have an innate sense of home and can find their way back over thousands of miles, making them ideal for carrying messages over long distances. I was surprised to learn that pigeons have been used to carry messages throughout history and ancient text, from Noah’s ark to Genghis Kahn.

I’ve since made peace with the birds, so I was pleased to find a few songs in the Levy Collection celebrating pigeons– specifically, homing pigeons. A highlight for me was always New York City, where I developed my childhood love of skyscrapers and fear of pigeons– whether they were coming after the soft pretzel I was eating or shoving each other in front of trains (don’t worry, the victim survived unscathed). Growing up in Arizona, my family would often travel out East to visit relatives.

Homing pigeon