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Before The Glass
The Cultural Pathway To Victorian Taxidermy

The story starts here with the world as it was before animals were put behind glass.

The journey from Cabinets of Curiosities, Victorian Naturalists, The Gentlemen Collectors, The Explorers, The Menagerie, Zoo, & Circus & Victorian Culture to Victorian Taxidermy

The Gentlemen Collectors
The Gentlemen Collectors
The Gentlemen Collectors
and The Victorian Naturalists
and The Victorian Naturalists
and The Victorian Naturalists

The Gentlemen Collectors

and The Victorian Naturalists

The influence of the Victorian Naturalists and The Gentlemen Collectors
The era of discovery, collecting and fascination with Natural History

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Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower expedition with Walter Burton Victorian Naturalist 1886

Thomas Henry Bowyer-Bower

CALKE ABBEY A VICTORIAN WALL COLLAGE

The history of Calke Abbey

Sir Vauncey Harpur Crewe

Sir John Henry Greville Smyth

Peaky Blinders at Calke Abbey

Peaky Blinders on location at Calke Abbey

John James Audubon portrait

John James Audubon, Naturalist, Scientist, Artist

John Gould

front of the Booth Museum in Brighton

Edward Booth – Victorian Gentleman Collector

Orchid and Hummingbird Charles Darwin

Darwin, Wallace and Buffon: their importance to natural history

Lord-Walter-Rothschilds-carriage-drawn-by-zebras-and-a-disguised-horse-in-front-of-the Royal Albert Hall

Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild of Tring

Menagerie, Zoo & Circus
Menagerie, Zoo & Circus
Menagerie, Zoo & Circus

Menagerie, Zoo & Circus

The spectacles and impresarios that fed Victorian fascination

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Edward Gerrard giant of the British Taxidermy landscape

History of the Zoological Society London

the Tower of London Menagerie illustrations

The Menagerie

Menagerie at Tower of London

The Tower of London Menagerie

Victorian Taxidermy and animals reflected in Edwin Landseer painting

The Zoo Animals Story

drawing of herd of Giraffes at the Regents Park ZSL

ZSL Library at Regents Park

Cabinets of Curiosities
Cabinets of Curiosities
Cabinets of Curiosities

Cabinets of Curiosities

How early collectors fed the Victorian fashion for display

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Engraving-by-William-Hogarth

Cabinets of Curiosities or Wunderkammers

Cabinets of Curiosities and Wunderkammers were born in the 15th Century. In the 18th and 19th centuries, gentlemen gained a…
Victorian Culture
Victorian Culture
Victorian Culture

Victorian Culture

Victorian culture and attitudes that shaped society.

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Theodore Gericault painting Head of a Lioness

Victorian taxidermy – eternalising beautiful creatures

Victorian feather fashion craze

The Victorian Era

The Victorian Attitude to Death

The Upper Class Decoration of Country Houses with Taxidermy

Exhibitions & World Expos
Exhibitions & World Expos
Exhibitions & World Expos

Exhibitions and World Expos

The Victorians place is centre stage at the World Expos

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Taxidermy at the Great Exhibition 1851

The Great Exhibition 1851

India at the Great Exhibition 1851 drawing

Taxidermy At The Great Exhibition 1851

Ploucquets tableaux pic from the Antiques Trade Gazette of 1981

Hermann Ploucquet’s sensational tableaux at The Great Exhibition 1851