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Displays of birds were particularly common in middle-class Victorian homes – even Queen Victoria amassed an impressive bird collection. Taxidermy was also increasingly used by the bereaved owners of dead pets to 'resurrect' them.
For example, bird specimens that have been badly damaged by pests may be repaired with a mixture of synthetic fabrics and wheat starch. This mixture is used to infill areas of loss and feathers are replaced where possible with a wheat starch paste adhesive. In addition to infilling, taxidermy specimens may require structural repairs.
As documented in Frederick H. Hitchcock's 19th-century manual entitled Practical Taxidermy, the earliest known taxidermists were the ancient Egyptians and despite the fact that they never removed skins from animals as a whole, it was the Egyptians who developed one of the world's earliest forms of animal preservation through the use of injections, spices, oils, and other embalming tools. [3]
Charles Edward Howard Aiken (7 September 1850 – 15 January 1936) was an American naturalist and ornithologist who was among the early ornithologists who studied the birds of Colorado. Lacking a university education, but trained as a skilled specimen preparator, he established a taxidermy business and later a museum.
Bird and mammal specimens are conserved as dry study skins, a form of taxidermy. [1] The skin is removed from the animal's carcass, treated with absorbents, and filled with cotton or polyester batting (In the past plant fibres or sawdust were used). Bird specimens have a long, thin, wooden dowel wrapped in batting at their center.
The company specialised in and was renowned for its taxidermy work on birds and big-game trophies, but it did other types of work as well. In creating many practical items from antlers, feathers, feet, skins, and tusks, the Rowland Ward company made fashionable items (sometimes known as Wardian furniture ) from animal parts, such as zebra-hoof ...
Bird collections are used for a wide variety of purposes. All biological species including those of birds are represented by a holotype, the vast majority of which are full specimens (mostly skins) and in modern times explicitly designated in the original description of the taxon. All other putative members of the species may be compared to the ...
John Hancock (24 February 1808 – 11 October 1890) was an English naturalist, ornithologist, taxidermist and landscape architect.Working during the golden age of taxidermy when mounted animals became a popular part of Victorian era interior design, [2] Hancock is considered the father of modern taxidermy [3] [4]