THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 



13 



in plaster, and the making of a light 

 and durable form upon which the skin is 

 deftly placed, copying the folds and 

 wrinkles of life. 



If he who delves among books in 

 various dead and living languages to 

 decide which of the numerous many- 

 syllabled names some small creature is 

 rightly entitled to bear does not object 

 to being called a taxonomist, he who 

 works upon the skins of creatures great 

 and small should not object to the right- 

 ful name of taxidermist. So taxidermist 

 let it be for the present, or vmtil a better 

 name is coined. 



The group of Arab and Lions was fol- 

 lowed about a decade later, 1880, by the 

 group of orangs collected by Hornaday, 

 mounted by him shortly after his return 

 from a two years' collecting trip around 

 the world and presented to the Museum 

 by Robert Colgate. 



This again leads us to note that the 

 energy of Dr. Hornaday had much to 

 do with the formal introduction of animal 

 groups into the American Museum of 

 Natural History and recognition of their 

 place in museum work, because Jenness 

 Richardson was a pupil of Hornaday, 

 and Rowley in turn a pupil of Richard- 

 son and by them, and under their super- 

 vision was begun the series of groups 

 now justly famous. 



These early groups did not find their 

 way into museums without protest as 

 may be imagined from the remarks of 

 Dr. Coues quoted on a previous page 

 but in 1887 the first group of mammals 

 was installed in the United States Na- 

 tional Museum, and this was followed a 

 year later by a large group of bison. 



The other day, when listening to the 

 protest of a curator against the with- 

 drawal of a certain group from exhibition, 

 we wondered if he remembered another 

 protest, against the introduction of a 



bone that a coyote might have some 

 excuse for action. Verily tcmpora inu- 

 tantur. 



An important factor in the evolution 

 of groups and their introduction into 

 museums was the development of the 

 art, for art it is, of making accessories, 

 for without the ability to reproduce 

 flowers and foliage in materials that 

 would at once have the semblance of 

 reality, and endurance under the vicissi- 

 tudes of temperature in the intemperate 

 zone in which most museums are located. 



Manikin of wire cloth and papier-mache by 

 Remi and Joseph Santens. Photograph to 

 illustrate strength of modern manikin 



half the charm and value of groups 

 would be lacking. For progress in this 

 direction we are indebted primarily to 

 the Messrs. Mintorn of London and their 

 sister, Mrs. Mogridge, who devised 

 methods and reproduced the foliage in 

 the groups of birds in the British Mu- 

 seum, and who later came to New York 

 to carry on the same work for the small 

 bird groups.^ 



1 A description of these methods, improved 

 upon by apt pupils is to be found in Plant 

 Forms in Wax, Guide Leaflet No. 34, published 

 by the American Museum. 



