42 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



The ideals in the Xatioiiiil Museum weie as high then as at the pres- 

 ent time, and Professor Baird, himself a very skillful taxidermist, was 

 not only the best of critics, but enthusiastic in the extreme upon the 

 whole subject. The time of ]n'eparation for the Philadelphia exhibition 

 was so short and the appropriations so limited, however, that it was 

 not possible at that time to accomplish the results desired. 



In this same connection should be mentioned the very important 

 intluence of Prof. Henry A. Ward, who, in the conduct of his natural 

 history establishment at Eochester, was always evidently actuated 

 quite as much by a love for natural history and the ambition to supply 

 good material to museums, as by the hope of profit, which was always 

 by him subordinated to higher ideals in a manner not very usual in 

 commercial establishments. 



While the work from 1875 on was constantly advancing in Washing- 

 ton, and the anti(iuated and badly prepared specimens in the old col- 

 lection were being replaced as fast as possible by others as good as 

 could at that time be prepared, similar agencies were in activity in 

 Rochester, and under the influence of Prof. Ward a number of enthusi- 

 astic young men were brought together and employed in the various 

 branches of the work connected with the establishment. It was here 

 that, through the stimulus of association and in connection with the 

 Immense work in preparing natural history specimens which was then 

 in progress, mental forces of another kind came into being; and here, 

 in 1879, and the years following, some very remarkable pieces of work 

 were accomplished, which for originality and strength far surpassed 

 anything hitherto attempted in America. Among these may be men- 

 tioned Hornaday's groups of orangs, one of which is now in the 

 museum in New York, and another here in Washington. These, though 

 lacking in the artistic repose -which characterizes some of the later pro- 

 ductions of himself and his impils, were extremely spirited and had all 

 the qualities of good workmanship and permanence which could be 

 desired. 



A series of animals of the Rocky Mountains, mounted by Mr. F. S. 

 Webster to serve as models for the artist Bierstadt, and since destroyed 

 by fire, should also be mentioned in this connection. Work of this 

 kind demonstrated the triviality and false ideals of such ambitious 

 figure groups as those of Verreaux, of which certain examples had 

 reached this country and were up to that time greatly admired, and of 

 the work of the European school of mammal taxidermists in general, 

 well typified in the celebrated ^^'urtemburg collection and in many of 

 the groups in the Liverpool Museum. It is not intended, however, to 

 disparage the very excellent work of Verreaux upon single specimens* 



*• A lion which, since 1870, has been displayed in the American Museum in New 

 York Citj% is perhaps the best in this country. The National Museum has a hyena 

 mounted by him which, though not one of his greatest worlcs, is full of spirit. 



