Taxidermy and Skins

Statement of Purpose

These links and documents contain information about the care and preservation of skin and taxidermy collections. There is a wealth of information on this topic already written, much of which is available online.

Contributors

Rachael Perkins Arenstein, Eugenie Milroy, George Dante, Julian Birnbach

Links

Highlighted Resources

• ICON - Care and Conservation of Zoological Specimens

• Natural History Museum London, Conservation and Collections Care Unit: Standards in the care of skins and taxidermy collections

• Natural History Museum London, Conservation and Collections Care Unit: Bibliography for Skins and Taxidermy

• American Museum of Natural History: Natural Science Collections Conservation

• Connecting to Collections Care webinar Troublesome Trophies and Fragile Feathered Friends, September 24, 2015

• Connecting to Collections Care webinar Feathers On and Off the Bird: Documenting and Caring for Featherwork, October 11, 2018

History of Taxidermy

• University College London Museums & Collections Blog

Taxidermy Storage

• The Storage at a Glance chapter in Preventive Conservation: Collection Storage (2019) Elkin and Norris, eds. has an entry on Keratin with information relevant to taxidermy.
• Storage Techniques for Art, Science & History Collections - (type taxidermy into the site’s search bar)
• Storage Methods for Taxidermy Specimens, 1992. WAAC Newsletter, Vol. 14:2

Stabilization & Restoration of Taxidermy

• American Museum of Natural History: In Their True Colors: Developing New Methods for Recoloring Faded Taxidermy project blog

• Nieuwenhuizen, Linda, 1998. Synthetic Fill Materials for Skin, Leather, and Furs. Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC), Vol. 37, 1:10

• Ritchie, F., J. Thornton, and A. Shugar, October 2012. When Modern Materials Fail: Rehabilitation of a Taxidermy Orangutan from the Buffalo Museum of Science. ICOM-CC Natural History Collections Working Group Newsletter, Issue No. 17.

Taxidermy & Pest Control

Common pests to look out for in taxidermy are Dermestidae beetles and cloth months.

Useful Links for IPM (Integrated pest management):

MuseumPests.net

• Connecting to Collections Care Webinars

Stressed About Pests? Prevention, Monitoring, & Identification

Stressed About Pests? Treating Infestations

• Goldberg, Lisa. 1996. A History of Pest Control Measures in the Anthropology Collections, National Museum Of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC),Vol. 35, 1:3.
• Canadian Museum of Nature Blog, No Food, No Drink, No Pests
• UK Museum Curator’s blog

Taxidermy & Disaster Recovery

• Wet Recovery of Taxidermy, National Center for Preservation Technology and Training webinar, July 16, 2018
• Museum SOS: Case study of the Lundy Collection of taxidermy animal trophies
• American Institute for Conservation Wiki

Stabilizing Wet Natural History Collections

Stabilizing Wet Skin and Leather

• Spafford-Ricci, Sarah & Fiona Graham. The Fire at The Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Part 2: Removal Of Soot From Artifacts And Recovery Of The Building. Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC), Volume 39, 1:3.

Health & Safety

Most modern taxidermy methods tend to avoid pesticides and harsh chemicals. However many older taxidermy specimens will have pesticides present with arsenic being common on pre 1940’s specimens.

• AIC Wiki, Pesticide Residues and Staff Protection
• Arsenic test strips
• Test method adapted from Odegaard, N., Carroll, S. and Zimtt, W.S., Material Characterization Tests for Objects of Art 2nd Edition, Archetype Books, 2007.