Diorama making at the Field Museum

[PA]

I stumbled upon this link to an old movie about the making of the Diorama of the Marsh Birds of the Upper Nile in 1952

http://www.archive.org/details/MakingTheMarshBirdsOfTheUpperNileDiorama

The main taxidermist/preparator shown is Carl W. Cotton (John Moyer had a leave of absence at the time but I believe the shoe-bill stork was shown in his book on Taxidermy dated 1953). The wrapping methods on the birds are interesting.
 

  

[Justin P.]

Very cool!  I'm going next week for the first time.

[John Bellucci]

Thank you, Stephen,

I LOVE stuff like this!  I actually applauded at the end! 

John.

[DougP]

WOW!!

Thanks for that......AWESOME!!

The Field Museum was and is, an inspiration to me. Although I haven't been there in quite awhile I have a reverence for the work that was done there. They've done a lot of renovation which has changed the original galleries quite a bit, unfortunately.

I greatly admire the fish work of Leon Pray.

Thanks again for the post!!

DougP

[Joe Winsor]

I haven't been there, but I was traveling a few months ago though the Chicago airport and the museum had a souvenir stand in the airport.  I bought a book with most of the dioramas and I loved it.

Two weeks ago I visited the Denver Nature and Science museum.  Many excellent dioramas there also, although I think they have taken a back seat to the more modern science stuff (like space science) there.

[PA]

It is sad that the public doesn't appreciate all the Diorama work and the effort they took to build. I'm not sure how the Field is surviving these days but most museums are on struggling footings, both the collections behind the exhibits, and especially the staff that build the exhibits - more and more museums are farming out the work. Unfortunately, the young generation doesn't appreciate any history of how museums came about or the audience they allowed the see the world in their local cities and towns. Television and motion pictures probably doomed the natural history groups as early as the 1960's as Albert Parr professed in some publications on museums many years back. The few people who truly love the history of museums will have great difficulty protecting many of the treasures of years gone by.

When I look at a Diorama I see a piece of art as planned and executed as a sculpture by Michaelangelo or a painting by Rembrant, but even those fall to the wayside in Art Museums. Young people want to be shocked or "blown away" by some new way of slapping various pieces of color or objects together to exemplify how they feel as some odd moment. No one can interpret a piece of "Art" done this way the exact way the artist created it. Maybe the 'open for interpretation' method of the X-generation works for them. Our sister museum caters to current art, and some is interesting, but much of it is simply bizarre in my mind.

I think Steve Quinn started the most recent volley in recognizing the importance of Dioramas. The Field Museum put out a small book on Dioramas which at least puts forth that they do recognize their importance. I am told the Cal Academy only saved a few of Dioramas in their move to the new 500,000,illion dollar building. I'm not sure how LA County is going, but Milwaukee seems to have not begun devaluing the Dioramas that they have. The Carnegie does have recognition of how important they are, but even here there are sacrifices being made because without some destruction of the old, new attractions cannot be built to draw support. Denver had the foresight to not tear down all the old Dioramas, but simply add new ones.

I am hoping that the chapter in Melissa Milgrom's book dealing with the Smithsonian destruction of the Dioramas will educate the masses, or at least educate some of the people who make the decisions. I see what goes on in Congress and the White House, as so expect people in Washington don't always have their heads screwed on right.

[Justin P.]

Visited the Smithsonian last winter and it's very sterile.

[RTtaxidermy]

Very cool thanks for sharing

[TAB]

We  are still active here at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County with our diorama program. As far as I know we are one of the few diorama programs that has stayed active since the 1920's with new dioramas built every decade since that time. Through those years a number of good diorama artists were on staff. A couple of names you may recognize.  Some of you familiar with the American Museum of Natural history will recognize George Adams who spent 20 years in New York and then 23 years on staff here. Louie Paul Jonas of course did some contract work on some of our large mammals, like 4 of the 5 elephants in our Waterhole group. George did the Bull.
I came here 26 years ago for the opportunity to work on dioramas and feel very fortunate to be here. The dioramas here still continue to be popular. Our Diorama Halls also function as special event spaces which helps the museum programing.

Tim   

[Ross Vogler]

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this.

[Missouri Creek Studio]

When I was 8 years old my parents went to Chicago to visit a Uncle . We took took in the Field Museum and that was my inspiration to get the $10.00 J.W Elwood Taxidermy course when I was around 14-15 years old. I still enjoy going there everytime I visit Chicago, (along with the Shedd Aquarium of course).

[PA]

Tim,
I didn't know anyone from LA County frequented these forums. It is good they haven't switched the emphasis. Here the Dioramas (Carnegie Museum) are still quite popular but they are still slowly being whittled away over the years (I've been here for 29 years on May1). I have been involved in a few removals, but usually for pieces dating from 1899 to 1939 or so, and some should have been removed decades ago. There is a series of about 6 that were built up to about 1930 that I am hoping will be refurbished with new lighting. They are resurrecting about 6 others removed from exhibit circa 1978 or so and putting them in our field station exhibit room.

I wasn't sure how the exhibits department at LA County was surviving. I know a few years ago the museum let go about 17 people in the science sections and wiped out the two herpetologists that were there, as well as lots of others. I do know you are getting a new Dinosaur hall as the folks that did ours also bid and won the contract for your museum.

Has your museum published any exhibits history publications outside of this title:

Lee, D. Rodney, George N. Adams, and C.A. McLaughlin. ca. 1968. Elephants. The Journey of Five Elephants from the Kenya Bush to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Museum Alliance of Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, California. Unpaginated, 22 pp.

[John Bellucci]

I recall a television commercial currently airing, for one of those over-the-counter medicines to aid breathing, had one of the actors standing in front of the African Elephants in the Water Hole diorama at LA Natural History Museum.


Hell, they showed some stupid ass family talking on their "can't live without" cell phones in the AMNH ... right in front of Akeley and Rockwell's Elephant herd.

If they keep them in the forefront of the American psyche, maybe they can stay around ... well ... forever!

John.

[PA]

Thanks for the picture John. Perhaps if dioramas are discussed and mentioned as art pieces on here and other sites the general public may be more in tune with the gems that they are.

I was hoping TAB would respond as there needs to be more advocates in already established museums. Unfortunately with the elimination of taxidermists at most large museums, the next line of defence are those who have a passion for them but are assigned to the scientific sections. As far as I know the largest exhibit natural history museums (as outline in this post I made many years ago)  http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/IndustryArticles/03/k/038F40F0B.html
have VERY few actual taxidermists on site, and a few are eliminating the exhibits department all together because of budget problems.

Perhaps one of the underling problems is that museum taxidermists of old (those creating exhibits from circa 1910 through 1970 or so) were just TOO good. The mounted specimens from this era done by a first rate taxidermist often look as good as one created today. Granted, if you shine a flashlight up the nose you won't see blood vessels, but the overall mount, habitat and background painting are truly works of art. Critically, one can pick on small items not under control of the taxidermist - like the availability of compounds we have today, or the improved tanning methods, or even the lack of good reference pictures, but from my perspective they did a great job.

Walking through a diorama hall and looking at the pieces with another passionate taxidermist interested in the history of taxidermy is about as good as it gets. Unfortunately, most of the few there are, can't afford that luxury.

John - do you have a copy of Karen Wonders 1993 book?

[Joe Winsor]

That AMNH has to be the PINNACLE for taxidermy and diorama museums.  John Janelli took me there and it's mind blowing.  One who cares, could easily spend a week in that museum!

Philadephia has a decent museum also.