Take a smell at this walrus . This is what pass off when a taxidermist is taxed with mounting an brute he ’s never view before . With no idea that real walrus have copious wrinkle and plication , this Victorian just keep stuffing it and studding it until it looked smooth . Whoops .
Image : Horniman Museum and Gardens
presently the centre of the Horniman Museum and Gardens natural account gallery , this seahorse was first inaugurate to the British public in 1886 at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in South Kensington . At the exhibition , there was a zona devoted to Canada which contained a exhibit on Canadian “ animal and their products . ” At the time , James Henry Hubbard , who had provided a bit of mammalian for the show , said :
There is no feature of the Canadian Section , or perhaps of the whole Exhibition , that has attracted more widespread attention than the Canadian Game Trophy .
If he was being a little self - congratulatory , so was Canadian gamey commissioner to the UK , Sir Charles Tupper , who wrotein his report :
Mr. Hubbard ’s game trophy was was the main attraction of the whole expo to the class of wealth and leisure … The numerous specimens , exhausting the catalog of bird and creature of the Salmon P. Chase , were prepared with the utmost tasting and accomplishment … The ingathering was always visited by persons of royal or patrician rank and file and it would have been impossible to contrive any more effectual means of guide the sinewy sporting element of England in the commission of Canada
To be bonnie , he makes no claim about the accuracy of the taxidermied creatures .
The walrus was then bought by Frederick Horniman , who eventually erected a museum to hold his solicitation curiosities in the 1890s . And there the walrus has had a home for over a century , except for a brief trip-up to theTurner Contemporary last year .
Now , consort to the Horniman Museum and Gardens , the overstuffed walrus still one of theirmost popular exhibitions , ask awalrus wardenand atwitter accountof his very own .
gratefully , these day the Horniman Musuem ’s website explain why the walrus is wrongly - looking , but how many Victorians came away from the Colonial and Amerindic Exhibition thinking that Canada was home to a brute that look like that ?
taxidermy
Daily Newsletter
Get the practiced tech , skill , and culture news program in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
