American Museum 
“I started at the Museum in October 
of 1960. I’d been painting on my own 
for seven years after college, and I 
thought it was about time I got a steady 
job. So I came over here and by God 
they hired me. 
“My first assignment was helping 
our taxidermist clean the birds in the 
Hall of North American Birds. We re- 
paired the old mounts, cleaned and ar- 
ranged the feathers, and I painted the 
bills and feet. Do you know how to 
clean a mounted bird? You wash it with 
unleaded gasoline, sprinkle it with plas- 
ter dust to absorb the dirt, and then 
blow off the plaster with an air hose. I 
also made 4,000 mangrove leaves. You 
know that mangrove swamp in the 
hall — I made all those damn leaves. I 
would never do that again. 
“People ask me how I can have the 
patience to paint snakes, frogs, and so 
on. People aren’t aware of the beauty of 
the colors of animals.” 
Scattered about Leser’s desk, lying 
on tables, hanging on walls, and piled 
on the floor are many odd things, either 
artifacts of past projects or bits and 
pieces of projects under way. Stuck into 
a block of styrofoam are seven fake 
dandelion leaves that look perfectly 
real as close as six inches away. Perched 
on top of a cabinet is a scruffy hawk 
missing numerous tail feathers. (“The 
Ornithology Department wanted to 
throw it away. We never throw any- 
thing away around here.”) Hanging on 
a large pegboard are some fifty plaster 
animal muzzles, one crocodile face, two 
gorilla feet, one tapir nose, and a fish. 
(“Somebody wanted to throw these out 
too. Can you imagine?”) Twenty feet 
from the desk is an osprey nest: a mass 
of sticks, eelgrass, seaweed, and crab 
shells hung on a branch. (“Dave ren- 
ovated the nest and I went to Montauk 
and collected a baleful of fresh nest ma- 
terial. There were two ospreys, but one 
disappeared years ago.”) 
She opened a small cabinet and re- 
moved some unpainted casts. “This is a 
flying lizard from Madagascar or some- 
place like that. Like a moth, it’s attract- 
ed to light and it flies into people’s 
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