Book ID: CBB101960340

Nature’s Mirror: How Taxidermists Shaped America’s Natural History Museums and Saved Endangered Species (2020)

unapi

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.

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Reviewed By

Review 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). unapi

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). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB101960340/

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Authors & Contributors
McGregor, Russell
Alberti, Samuel J. M. M.
Lunde, Darrin
Olive, Andrea
Rémi Luglia
Redman, Samuel J.
Concepts
Wildlife conservation
Conservation movement
Museums
Natural history
Collectors and collecting
Taxidermy
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
21st century
Places
United States
Canada
Australia
Colorado (U.S.)
Nigeria
Manchester (England)
Institutions
Cornell University, Laboratory of Ornithology
La Société nationale de protection de la nature
Smithsonian Institution
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