It may be surprising to us now, but the taxidermists who filled the museums, zoos, and aquaria of the twentieth century were also among the first to become aware of the devastating effects of careless human interaction with the natural world. Witnessing firsthand the decimation caused by hide hunters, commercial feather collectors, whalers, big game hunters, and poachers, these museum taxidermists recognized the existential threat to critically endangered species and the urgent need to protect them. The compelling exhibits they created—as well as the scientific field work, popular writing, and lobbying they undertook—established a vital leadership role in the early conservation movement for American museums that persists to this day. Through their individual research expeditions and collective efforts to arouse demand for environmental protections, this remarkable cohort—including William T. Hornaday, Carl E. Akeley, and several lesser-known colleagues—created our popular understanding of the animal world and its fragile habitats. For generations of museum visitors, they turned the glass of an exhibition case into a window on nature—and a mirror in which to reflect on our responsibility for its conservation.
...MoreReview Helen Cowie (2022) Review of "Nature’s Mirror: How Taxidermists Shaped America’s Natural History Museums and Saved Endangered Species". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 199-200).
Review E. Larsson (2021) Review of "Nature’s Mirror: How Taxidermists Shaped America’s Natural History Museums and Saved Endangered Species". Archives of Natural History (pp. 407-407).
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Uwe Albrecht;
(2018)
Bilder aus dem Tierleben: Phillip Leopold Martin (1815-1885) und die Popularisierung der Naturkunde im 19. Jahrhundert
(/isis/citation/CBB093442231/)
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Darrin Lunde;
(2017)
The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History
(/isis/citation/CBB801125593/)
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Andrea Olive;
(2014)
Land, Stewardship, and Legitimacy: Endangered Species Policy in Canada and the United States
(/isis/citation/CBB109909669/)
Book
Miles A. Powell;
(2016)
Vanishing America: Species Extinction, Racial Peril, and the Origins of Conservation
(/isis/citation/CBB025501757/)
Book
Otis Graham;
(2015)
Presidents and the American Environment
(/isis/citation/CBB836718426/)
Thesis
Karen Lloyd D'Onofrio;
(2017)
Constructing the Natural World in the Museum: The Expeditions and Wildlife Displays of the Denver Museum of Natural History, 1901 - 1981
(/isis/citation/CBB250180331/)
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Mercy Osemudiame Okpoko;
(2022)
‘Interconnectedness with Nature’: The Imperative for an African-centered Eco-philosophy in Forest Resource Conservation in Nigeria
(/isis/citation/CBB128647908/)
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Alberti, Samuel J. M. M.;
(2009)
Nature and Culture: Objects, Disciplines and the Manchester Museum
(/isis/citation/CBB001031468/)
Article
Russell McGregor;
(2021)
Alec Chisholm and the extinction of the Paradise Parrot
(/isis/citation/CBB347822367/)
Article
Alexandra Hui;
(2021)
Listening to Extinction: Early Conservation Radio Sounds and the Silences of Species
(/isis/citation/CBB559063769/)
Book
Alberti, Samuel J. M. M.;
(2011)
The Afterlives of Animals: A Museum Menagerie
(/isis/citation/CBB001221220/)
Book
Samuel J. Redman;
(2016)
Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums
(/isis/citation/CBB181840212/)
Article
Parezo, Nancy;
Jones, Angelina;
(2012)
Ten Commandments for Effective Anthropological Exhibits
(/isis/citation/CBB001421581/)
Chapter
Rothfels, Nigel;
(2013)
Preserving History: Collecting and Displaying in Carl Akeley's in Brightest Africa
(/isis/citation/CBB001500476/)
Book
Russell McGregor;
(2019)
Idling in Green Places: A Life of Alec Chisholm
(/isis/citation/CBB142872598/)
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Wilko Graf von Hardenberg;
Matthew Kelly;
Claudia Leal;
Emily Wakild;
(2017)
The Nature State: Rethinking the History of Conservation
(/isis/citation/CBB098245567/)
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Rémi Luglia;
Jean-Noël Jeanneney;
Eric Baratay;
(2015)
Des savants pour protéger la nature: La société d'acclimatation
(/isis/citation/CBB125460129/)
Book
Mark Dowie;
(2011)
Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples
(/isis/citation/CBB236676536/)
Thesis
Rieppel, Lukas Benjamin;
(2012)
Dinosaurs: Assembling an Icon of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001567402/)
Book
Anthony J. Amato;
(2017)
Conservation on the Northern Plains: New Perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB337309517/)
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