Northwestern School Of Taxidermy??

ive seen them on ebay looking under vintage taxidermy books before good luck hunting!

 

I took those lessons in 1970-71. My "diploma" hangs on my shop wall to this day!

 

Class of 1973!
I have all booklets and correspondence from the school. I saved many JW Elwood catalogs and brochures. Everything is in sheet protectors in a binder. Like Joey, my diploma is on the wall in the shop along with my membership card. My clients get a kick out of it. Over 50 yrs and still do it!

 

mine is from 1968, i still have some of the tools jw had in their catalog ,i still use my bone scraper for my birds i havent found anything more useful.also i still use the chrome tan instructions for small furs,

 

LOL. I still have my diploma and my black lesson book with all the pages in it.

 

But do you all still have the "tool kit" that came in the folded plastic pouch? still have mine with the scalpel that wouldn't cut butter. I am currently 55 years old...I can still remember talking my mother into sending a check for me at age 9 to get the booklets. If i remember right, they came once a month?

 

I think I sent them $1 per lesson. When that lesson was completed, I sent them a report, maybe a photo, and another dollar for the next lesson. I still have all of my lessons.

 

You were privelidged! Born with a silver spoon! I had to mow lawns to get my dollar - with a PUSH MOWER! (lol)

 

If you Google up Ebay and in the search box type in"The Northwestern School of Taxidermy" you will come up with all kinds of their lessons for sale along with a lot of other memorabilia from the long history of the school.

 

Yup, I was slave labor on my family farm. A dollar was hard to come by. Maybe Biden will send me some of that reparation money!!!

 

Ha!!!!

 

I regret that I didn’t keep any of the lessons or my diploma, but I finished the course back in 1970 or 1971. Left it all behind during high school and didn’t get back into taxidermy until around 2006 and this forum has been one of the most valuable tools helping me renew what I learned catch back up with all the advances in the industry. This forum and joining my state association have been crucial to my success.

 

I took the NWST lessons in 1970. In 1971, I met a man who had taken those lessons in 1955. He was a very talented individual, and taught himself things those little booklets failed to teach. He mentored me, and encouraged me to take Taxidermy Success Training, written by Sam and Lura Touchstone. That course really helped my understanding of taxidermy, and my crude attempts turned into halfway decent mounts. I did a good bit of work in high school and jr college. There was no time for taxidermy while attending a university. I was milking cows at the university dairy to support myself and my new bride, and taking a full college curriculum. I did a few ducks for classmates while in college, but that was it. Some time after graduation, I called my mentor, and he filled me in on things that had changed in taxidermy in the past few years. I created a workplace, and was at it again. I continued as a part-time taxidermist for the next 28 years. When I retired in 2005, I had loads of work. In the last phone call to my mentor, he told me his health was extremely bad, and he couldn't do anything. We talked for a while, and I told him I hoped his health improved. A short time later, his wife called me and told me he had committed suicide. I would give my last dollar to have made one more call to him and maybe, maybe, things would have been different. I am eternally grateful to him for sharing his knowledge and talents with me in a time when sharing information regarding taxidermy did not exist.

 

I remember their ads in fur fish game magazine from the 60`s, maybe the 50`s! I was just a kid then. now I am just an old kid.

 

Me too, most all of the above, 1954. Still have the tool kit too.

 

Finished the course in 1967, still have all my paper work and diploma in my shop .After that I lost 2 years in the Jungle of Vietnam, Returned home and been a taxidermist for over 50 years and still at it , going in to 3 generations of customers , gram pal, then the son and there sons and daughters . Been a great run all these years