STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 



65 



Iowa by Mr. Homer R. Dill, where the 

 visitor gazes about him at the imposing 

 assemblage of albatrosses and other sea 

 fowl, while beyond the blue Pacific 

 stretches to the horizon. Aside from 

 these the bison and moose groups in this 

 Museum, by Richardson and Rowley, 

 are the largest that have been made, 

 and although they have been on exhibi- 

 tion for twenty-four and twenty years 

 respectively, they compare favorably 

 with those of to-day. 



The African mammals by Mr. Carl 

 E. x\keley in the Field Museum, are 

 among the finest of their kind for pose 

 and character, but the "Four Seasons," 

 in the same museum and also by Mr. 

 Akeley, depicting the Virginia deer in 

 spring, summer, autumn and winter, rep- 

 resent high-water mark in this direction, 

 combining as they do pictorial beauty 

 with scientific accuracy of detail. It was 

 while engaged on these groups that Mr. 

 Akeley perfected the method of making 

 the manikin, or artificial body on which 

 the skin is placed, so as 

 to combine strength, light- 

 ness and durability, and 

 also devised methods for 

 the rapid reproduction of 

 leaves and a compound 

 stronger and more durable 

 than wax. The need for 

 making leaves in large 

 quantities is shown by the 

 fact that in the "Four 

 Seasons," the svmimer 

 group alone called for sev- 

 enteen thousand leaves. 



Such, briefly, is the 

 story of museum groups; 

 they have grown from the 

 little box containing a 

 pair of birds and a square 

 foot or two of their im- 



mediate surroundings, to entire colonies 

 of flamingos and albatrosses and the 

 broad sweep of land or sea shown in the 

 Orizaba and Laysan groups. No one 

 man can justly claim credit for the 

 beauty and accuracy of such groups as 

 may to-day be seen in our larger mu- 

 seums; many have contributed to this 

 perfection and some stand preeminent 

 among the rest. To each and all his 

 just meed of praise. Some, whose work 

 might now provoke a smile, labored 

 hard and earnestly in the face of many 

 discouragements to lay the foundations 

 on which we build to-day. Some of 

 whom the present generation has never 

 heard, held out a helping hand to the 

 youthful would-be taxidermist and by 

 aid and encouragement started many of 

 our best men on their career, and some, 

 keen observers of nature, endowed with 

 artistic spirit and possessed of technical 

 skill, have perfected what others began. 



Head of 

 mountain 

 sheep, in 

 tlia Brooli- 

 lyn Museum. 

 Mounted by 

 Remi Santens, 

 for many years at 

 Ward's Establish- 

 ment, now at Carnegie 

 Museum, ^Pittsburgh 



