44 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



prizes for tlio most iiieritorious advances, aud to i)ublisli au annual 

 Aolume of Pio<;eedings, devoted to tlie discussion of the principles 

 and methods of the art. 



The ideals of tlie organization before very long developed to such a 

 degree that they could not be Avorked out to the best advantage in a 

 commercial establishment, and several members of the new school, hav- 

 ing found that their objects Avere thoroughly appreciated and their 

 efforts meeting with hearty support from the authorities of the U. S. 

 National Museum, began to look to Washington as a wider and more 

 promising field for their activities. In the National ]\hiseum, in the 

 meantime, constant progress had been made, especially in the work of 

 preparing casts and models in plaster. Some of the work iirepared 

 for the International Fisheries Exhibitions in Berlin in 1880 and Lon- 

 don in 1883, would be regarded as admirable if done at the present time. 



Soon after the reorganization of the National .Museum in 1881 "Sir. 

 W. T. Ilornaday was appointed chief taxidermist, and he was soon fol- 

 lowed to AVashiugton by Mr. F. A. Lucas, who, though an accom- 

 plished taxidermist, had given especial attention to the mounting of 

 skeletons and anatomical preparations. Somewhat later came Mr. F. 

 S. Webster, and others of the Rocbester group would also have been 

 added to the ^Museum staff but for our feeling of unwillingness to inter- 

 fere with the important establishment at IJochester by taking away so 

 many of its most competent men. 



In the meantime the Society of American Taxidermists had been 

 steadily at work. It held three annual exhibitions (in Ivocliester, in 

 Boston, and in New York), and in 1881 another exhibition was held in 

 connection with the Cotton Centennial Exposition at New Orleans and 

 under the auspices of the National Museum. Three numbers of the 

 reports were published. Since 1884, however, the society has been 

 dormant. Perhaps its work had been accomplished. At all events, 

 its influence was strongly felt, not only among taxidermists but through 

 the larger and smaller museums of the country, and during the five 

 years of its existence a decided change in public opinion had been 

 effected. 



The necessity for the development of a great mounted collection of 

 mammals in the National Museum, and above all the execution of 

 the plan for i)reparing monumental grou])s of the animals which are 

 api)roaching extinction, mounted in natural attitudes and surrounded 

 by proper accessories, has given a very wide field for work in higher 

 taxidermy, and a number of young men from various i^arts of the 

 country sought admission to the Museum workshops, where they 

 received or completed their training. Among the nujst promiunit of 

 these maybe mentioned the late Jenness Richardson, who was for three 

 years in the Museum, and went in 188(1 to become the chief taxidermist 

 of the Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he accom- 



