31 
ADDRESS 
OK 
PRESIDENT WEBSTER. 
FIRST GENERAL MEETING, DECEMBER isth, 1880. 
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Society of American Taxidermists : 
I truly wish that the subject upon which I am called to speak was in abler hands. 
At this time, when the eyes of men of science and devotees of art are directed 
toward us ; when skeptics are waiting to hear the verdict, “ Success ” or “ Failure,” 
I feel that I am unequal to the exigencies of the hour. In view of the fact that 
this organization is the first of its kind, and that until now no systematic effort has 
been made to advance the art of taxidermy, it is fitting that we should enter into a 
brief retrospect and see what our art has been in the past. 
A thorough history of taxidermy has never been written. A few scattering 
accounts have been recorded from time to time, but never a concise record ; there- 
fore I can procure no authentic account of the time when this art was first practiced 
as such. Indeed, it is doubtful if before the seventeenth century it could have been 
considered an art. The word taxidermy is derived from the Greek words, “ ra^ig-f 
arrangement, and “ Sspiraf skin, and is the name applied to the art of preserving 
and mounting, in a life-like manner, the skins of vertebrate animals. 
In Johnson’s Encyclopoedia we find the following interesting account written 
by one of the distinguished gentlemen who has honored this Society by acting as 
one of the judges of our first exhibition. Dr. J. B. Holder writes as follows of 
Taxidermy : 
“ In the year 1828 an Englishman named Schudder established a museum in 
the ‘ Old Almshouse,’ on Chambers Street, New York, where he prepared in the 
rude manner of the time, birds and quadrupeds. Charles Waterton did much 
to elevate taxidermy to a high position, and through the genius of Titian R. Peale 
the art in this country improved. The late Jules Verreaux, of Paris, brought it 
to a degree of perfection that fairly rivals some of the examples of the higher 
plastic arts.” 
