The Specialists In Taxidermy

The old style of taxidermy exhibited single animals mounted four-square on a wooden base, doing nothing, or totally unrelated to their surroundings. Modern taxidermy takes several animals, often a family—male, female, and young—and exhibits them in their natural surroundings, in life-like positions, engaged in some customary action, which generally exemplifies the chief characteristic in the life history of the species. The scene is a unit; it is arresting; it arouses a desire for further knowledge of the life that it portrays; it is the visual summary of months of research work, and above all else, it is accurate. It can serve as an open reference book, not only for the zoologist but also for the botanist, the geologist, the artist, the sportsman, the college man, the school child, and the general public. And if at rare intervals a slight error may creep into some minor detail of a group, invariably some specialist will detect it and point it out for correction.

Undoubtedly the present type of habitat exhibit, which consists of mounted specimens on an artificially natural foreground merging into a painted background, has already reached its highest perfection in some notable museum groups. But this method has its limitations. Future development must bring changes in the underlying principles of group construction to attain a more vivid illusion of atmosphere and space. No museum preparator has yet achieved his ideal group. To be successful a habitat group should have the artistic composition, the balance and harmony of a painting; but it must be restrained so that it does not pass beyond the realm of actuality. Its artistic effect must be based upon fundamental scientific truth. What then are the desirable qualifications of a museum taxidermist or preparator—the man who makes such groups.

In large museums there are specialists in taxidermy as there are specialists in other fields—one man may mount only large mammals, another may prepare birds, a third may make accessories, and almost always a special artist must be secured to paint the background. But in small museums the preparator must combine many or all of these specialties. He must be an artist as well as an artisan; a scientist as well as a field collector. Not only must he be master of the technical processes of his profession, but he must have the ability to develop the latent beauty in his material without sacrificing the authenticity of his subject.

He must be a keen observer and able to interpret his observations in the terms of his profession. And if he is to succeed as a "large mammal" taxidermist, he must have the sculptor's vision. That is, in modeling large mammals, he must be able to visualize the position of his subject from every angle, as if he could revolve it before his eyes.

By: davidbunch

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