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The conservation of taxidermy is the ongoing maintenance and preservation of zoological specimens that have been mounted or stuffed for display and study. Taxidermy specimens contain a variety of organic materials, such as fur, bone, feathers, skin, and wood, as well as inorganic materials, such as burlap, glass, and foam.
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]
The word taxidermy describes the process of preserving the animal, but the word is also used to describe the end product, which are called taxidermy mounts or referred to simply as "taxidermy". [ 1 ] The word taxidermy is derived from the Ancient Greek words τάξις taxis (order, arrangement) and δέρμα derma (skin). [ 2 ]
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Edwin H. Ward worked for a while on Oxford Street for Thomas Mutlow Williams who exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He then set up his own taxidermy shop in 1857 and received a royal warrant from Queen Victoria in 1870. Other distantly related Ward family members had taxidermy-related businesses as far away as New York and Australia.
The bodies are prevented from decaying by means of plastination, a rubberization process patented in the 1970s by anatomist Gunther von Hagens.The essence of the process is the replacement of water and fatty material in the cells of the body first by acetone and then by plastics, such as silicone rubber, polyester or epoxy resin.
Animal remains can also be embalmed by similar methods, though embalming is distinct from taxidermy. [5] Embalming preserves the body while keeping it intact, whereas taxidermy is the recreation of an animal's form often using only the creature's skin, fur or feathers mounted on an anatomical form.
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]