Albert August Zahn was born in 1864 in Natelfitz (now Natolewice), Germany, and immigrated with his parents, brother, and sister to Wisconsin when he was fifteen years old. He married in 1891, and he and his wife, Louise, raised nine children on the family homestead in Forestville, Wisconsin. Although little is known of his early upbringing, Zahn recalled that he began to whittle while working as a shepherd in his native country.

Zahn was a successful dairy farmer, and the woods surrounding his home supplied walnut, black ash, pine, and white cedar for his furniture making. Zahn’s utilitarian works foreshadowed the prolific carver he would become. Many of his wardrobes, dressers, tables, and gliders feature the eagles, owls, dogs, butterflies, and other birds that characterize his sculptural style. This imagery would eventually be his primary focus.

In 1924 Zahn gave his farm to his eldest son, Albert Jr., and moved with his wife and two of his children to a house he built from hand-cast concrete blocks in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan. He spent his days carving woodland animals, birds, angels, and characters from regional lore; Louise painted the sculptures with house paint. By the early 1930s, hundreds of carved flying creatures dotted the house and yard, and it was a well-known Door County attraction until the artist died in 1953.

Mathilde Louise Albertine Strege was born on May 23, 1876, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to German immigrants. Her family, including her four siblings, moved to a farm in Liberty Grove, Wisconsin, when she was about ten years old. She married a neighboring farmer, Albert Zahn, in 1891. The two had nine children and tended to the family’s successful dairy farm until they retired and moved into the town of Bailey’s Harbor. There, she collaborated with her husband, painting the wooden carvings of birds, angels, sailors, and animals he made. The carvings adorned their house, which affectionately became known as Birds Park. Louise died in 1950.