The CZC is looking into the history of our favorite  brown bear. The bear was the well known mascot of Peterborough fur store Lech & Sons Furrier. If anyone has any images or stories about the bear, please contact me morganmavis@thetaxidermyconservatory.com.

To read about the history of the fur store and their well known  bear ambassador, take a gander at an article from the Peterborough Examiner: Bear with us; Wm. Lech and Sons Furriers is closing after 147 years in business, and its famous mascot bruin has left the building. We know where it is.

An exploration of hunting, butchery, taxidermy and the celebration of the feast

Morgan Mavis and Patti Robinson

Morgan Mavis and Patti Robinson set out to find a rabbit from a local farm in Havelock Ontario, skin the animal, create a taxidermy mount and butcher the meat for a five-course feast held in the Conservatory. Our intent is to utilize every part of the animal from skin to bones. Field to feast explores the traditional roles and rituals of men: a hunter, a butcher, a taxidermist and a chef. This installation will recontextualize the histories of these gendered practices. It also draws attention to the importance of local agriculture, sustainability and traditional skills. We are looking at where our food comes from and how many North Americans have a detachment from their food. The entire process will be photographically documented.

The CZC is lucky to have Theresa Heese as a field agent who scouted the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien for possible internship locales. With the world as your oyster, where to choose? The Vienna collection is spectacular and captures the feel of Deyrolle on a grandiose scale. The cases are out of dreams.

I am currently writing to museums and world class taxidermists to inquire if anyone knows of a taxidermist presently working in a museum on restoration or new mounts. The National Taxidermist Association put me in touch with their Vice President and taxidermy historian John Janelli. Mr. Janelli sent me a wonderful letter about taxidermy and its beginnings in North America: The great showman Charles Wilson Peale, the first curator of an American natural history museum. Mr. Janelli believes taxidermy is more popular commercially than it has ever been in history and due to hunting laws and collecting regulations the taxidermy and natural history hoards are more controlled then in Victorian times, but just as popular if not more so. He has offered to send me a reading list. “If there’s any thing as satisfying as collecting taxidermy, it’s collecting books on the beloved subject!”

Today I was fortunate enough to have a private tour of The Royal Ontario Museum’s Mammalogy Department. Susan Woodward Assistant Curator of Mammalogy Showed me behind the seances from freezers to the bug room. We talked Integrated Pest Management Systems and about our love of nature even as children. What a fantastic way to spend the afternoon.

See more photos after the break

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Paul Rhymer and team working Smithsonian Mammals

I recently had the pleasure to be called up on the phone by Paul Rhymer, the last full time taxidermist the Smithsonian ever had. Rhymer and I talked about the future of taxidermy and his major concerns for museum taxidermy. Rhymer feels that taxidermy is at it’s pinnacle, with so many advancements. The finest specimens are being created with new technologies. I wanted to know what I should be focusing my concerns on when researching my Masters. Rhymer warns of the concerning trend for exhibition designers to take taxidermy out of cases and cabinets, against the advice of taxidermists and collections managers. Exhibition day arrives and the work will photograph well, but in 5 years light, pests and the public will take its toll on the uncovered mount. The phone call was exciting and made me think about taxidermy, hunting and the new technological advancements in artistic preservation. What a lovely call on thanksgiving.

Ferrante Imperato's Cabinet of Curiosities

“…sought to dignify his thirty years of diligent collecting. Bearing in mind that the most important European princes had devoted themselves to creating museums, it seems evident that his real aim was to ennoble his own activity. Not only did the creation and enrichment of a museum constitute an occupation worthy of a nobleman; they were also a means of acquiring renown and prestige and of turning the owner’s home into an almost obligatory sight for everyone… The popularity of the cabinet of curiosities had for a time the effect of overturning rigid social hierarchies, giving the collector the unique opportunity of attracting important personages of royal blood to his own home and of guiding them through his museum.” Giuseppe Olmi, “Science – Honour – Metaphor: Italian Cabinets of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Impey and MacGregor, eds., The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century Europe (1985)

Olaus Worm's Museum

I am thrilled to welcome a 1868 cabinet containing 18 stunning song birds. Preserved with arsenic, their plumage retains exceptional colours, even though the case is 150 years old. At least twice a year we, visit Hofmann’s Flea Market on Gore street in Perth, Ontario. Eli Hoffman, with the face of Mr. Dressup and the calm demeanour of Mr. Rogers, always has darling trinkets and treasures to offer. This case is of exceptional museum quality and will probably be the last piece I buy before I start grad school in the fall. 18 new creatures would quiet even Noah’s obsessive tendencies.

Peacock donated by Heather Goodchild

Recently I was approached by Heather Goodchild Toronto Textile artist and my neighbour about a donation of a standing Peacock. She had purchased the Peacock from a prop house to display in her studio, however her cats were opposed to this decorating decision. Goodcild found me in Duffrien Grove Park walking the Colonel. Less than twelve minuets later, I was carrying the prized beast up our stairs and to his new home in the CZC. I have always wanted a peacock and came very close to acquiring one two years prior but the elusive feathers slipped out of grasp. I was told by Goodchild that when she purchased the mount  it was headless and the seller had to rummage around for several minuets before he found the head somewhere in another room and stuck the head back on top of the neck.

An old fashioned summer road trip up north has left me tan and with a new creature to add to the menagerie. Christopher was charming enough to bestow a coiled preserved snake to The CZC. Species identification unknown. Expert knowledge welcomed.