The history of
Edward Gerrard & Son
The history of Edward Gerrard & Son. Natural History Dealer. Victorian Taxidermy at The Natural History Studios, Camden Town, London. Estd. 1850.
This article includes:
- the characteristics of the Gerrard family business in the Victorian era
- the environment of Camden Town, London
- the workshop at 61 College Place
- Edward Gerrard’s meeting place at Queen Street
- the family residences
- Edward Gerrard’s connections with the British Museum and the London Zoo, and his role as a natural history dealer
- the effect of the Great Exhibition of 1851
- a summary timeline from 1850 – 1965
This article links to The Legacy of Edward Gerrard & Sons
Edward Gerrard & Son
Estd. 1850
Camden Town, London
Victorian Taxidermy | Naturalists | Osteologists | Model Makers | Furriers| Natural History Dealers|
Victorian Taxidermy | Naturalists | Osteologists | Model Makers | Furriers| Natural History Dealers|
Edward Gerrard Senior
19th Century Edward Gerrard
Edward Gerrard, Taxidermist and Naturalist, was born in Oxford on 20 Oct 1810, then moved to London with his parents very soon after his birth to NW London.
His younger sister, Sarah Gerrard, was born in 1812 and died in London in 1849 at the age of just 48 yrs.
Birth, marriage and death records are not generally available earlier than about 1832, and therefore little is known about Edward’s parents, except that his mother was Ruth Eggleton (1789-1871) born in Hertfordshire and by 1851 when Edward was age 40 yrs, she was a widower.
1836 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY LONDON - AN IMPORTANT POSITION FOR EDWARD GERRARD
As a child, Edward Gerrard Senior said he remembered climbing over the nearby gates at Regent’s Park to chase birds and rabbits and it was this early experience that lit the flame of his interest in the natural world.
In 1836, at the age of just 26 years, Edward Gerrard Senior became the curator of the museum and resident taxidermist at the Zoological Society of London in its early days at Bruton Street. There is no information that I can find about where he learned his craft, but it is assumed he was self-taught, since he had had a lifelong interest in nature.
1837-1846
Marriage and Children
Just one year after joining the ZSL, and at the tender age of 27, Edward Gerrard Senior married Mary Ann Maltby on 28 Sept 1837 in Marylebone.
In 1840 at the age of 30 yrs his first daughter, Sarah E. Gerrard was born and in the following year in 1841 he moved with his wife to 1, Robert Street, (and he would live there for 15 years until 1856 after which the family moved to College Place).
His son, Edward (to become known as Edward Gerrard Junior) was born in St Pancras in 1843. (Although several published sources quote 1832 as the birth year of Edward Junior, this isn’t accurate).
His second daughter, Mary Ann Emma, was born in 1846. Sadly, it is recorded that his wife, Mary Ann, died in the same year, and left him a widower. Gerrard senior would remain a widower for the next 62 years.
1841
1841 Edward Gerrard Senior Joined The British Museum
Edward Gerrard Senior joined the Zoological Department of the British Museum in April 1841, and superintended the transfer of the Zoological collection from Great Russell street to South Kensington and assisted in arranging the specimens in the new museum. He walked across Hyde Park to and from the Museum in Bloomsbury daily, to serve under Dr. Gray, Sir Richard Owen, Dr. Gunther and Sir William Flower.
As well as being the resident taxidermist at the Museum he also curated the Osteology collection and was a member of the Linnean Society and a friend of Charles Darwin.
1851
The Great Exhibition 1851 Where Victorian Taxidermy Becomes Art
Edward Gerrard Senior, who was to go on to create one of the top three British Victorian taxidermy firms, was notably absent from the list of naturalist taxidermy exhibitors at The Great Exhibition. Taxidermy had previously been for science, and this had been the preoccupation of Gerrard. But now it was on the cusp of becoming an art.
Edward Gerrard was absent because his commercial business was in its infancy. The establishment date of Edward Gerrard is 1850 which is seen rarely on some labels. (See the blog post about the taxidermy exhibitors at the Exhibition here)
Edward Gerrard Senior, although not officially commercially included as an exhibitor at The Great Exhibition 1851, would have seen the sheer success of it where some of his contemporaries like Bartlett of Camden Town, and Hancock of Newcastle were exhibiting and being hailed as new artists of Victorian Taxidermy.
This event coincided generally with the official establishment in 1853 of Gerrard’s own Victorian Taxidermy & Naturalist business which ran in parallel with his employment at the British Museum in London under Dr. Gray. Gerrard was already playing the role as a Victorian Taxidermy and Natural History dealer which gave him deep and dominant connections in the world of natural history.
His son, Edward Gerrard Junior, took up the nascent commercial aspect of the Gerrard family business, after 1853 but before 1860.
Gerrard & Son did not have a shop front like Rowland Ward or the other leading taxidermists, instead they had a workshop at the back of 61 College Place from the 1860’s (and earlier at nearby workshops in King Street) and although they did work for individuals and high-profile clients, they focussed more on supplying Victorian Taxidermy and natural history specimens to museums, academics, schools and the scientific community.
The Gerrard Family are Middle Class Victorians
Edward Gerrard Junior was born in 1843. In 1851 the census information records that Edward Gerrard Junior was age 8 yrs and a scholar. Ten years later, in 1861 the census information records that Edward Gerrard Junior, at age 18 yrs, was already specifying his trade as a Naturalist.
In those days it was normal for poor children of standard families to have to work, and education came second. In 1880 the Education Reform Act stipulated that children had to be educated up to the age of 10 years whereas before this time period there were no rules and education for children was arbitrary. It is worth reminding ourselves that both of the sisters of Edward Gerrard Junior – Sarah and Mary Ann Emma – were teachers, and continuing education at home would have been easy and very desirable.
The Gerrards can be categorised as the middle class of their time, since this class consisted of small manufacturers, shopkeepers, innkeepers, master tailors, clerks, teachers, lower ranks of professional people, railway and government officials and the like. The area of Camden Town in which they lived – College Place, and Cantelowe’s Road were amongst the most identifiable middle class streets of Camden.
Edward Gerrard – at the epicentre of the golden age
Edward Gerrard Senior, taxidermist, naturalist, osteologist, and curator was at the epicentre of the golden age of the collecting and dealing in natural history that had started in the 1850’s but had exploded from the 1880’s in Britain.
Taxidermy was the artistic and fashionable face of this. Taxidermy animals and insects and birds in glass domes were fashionable social statements, copied from the drawing rooms of country houses. It was expensive and only the well-to-do could afford to commission and display it in their private spaces.
Edward Gerrard’s speciality was the Museum
Museums were also commissioning examples of never-before-seen animals collected from expeditions. Supplying to museums and scientific institutions became Gerrard’s speciality.
Edward Gerrard Senior had an extensive network and knew the majority of the natural history dealers, and in parallel with his tenure at the British Museum and with his connections at The Zoological Society he acted as a bridge for sales and made recommendations to the British Museum about which specimens to buy for their expanding displays.
The Gerrards are Natural History Dealers, not just taxidermists
For thirty-five years between 1870 – 1905 Edward Gerrard Junior, the son of Edward Gerrard Senior, was a natural history agent and taxidermist in his own right to the British Museum while running his own natural history business under the family name.
Edward Gerrard Junior presented and sold many specimens to the British Museum including birds and mammals from exotic places – Chile, Panama, Ecuador, Patagonia, Costa Rica, The Ural Mountains, Moscow, Queensland, Sardinia, Ceylon, New Guinea and Borneo. Many of the species were new or undiscovered and Edward Gerrard Junior was able to procure them and sell them to the Museum because he, like his father, had an extensive network and was also at the centre of the world of dealers and collectors, and basically, he knew everyone there was to know.
A further example of this landscape can be seen in the book published in 1905 by Henry Scherren entitled The Zoological Society of London : a sketch of its foundation and development, and the story of its farm, museum, gardens, menagerie and library” It includes references to Edward Gerrard himself, who stated in a letter to the ZSL in 1909 that the famous Tring Quagga was purchased by him from a Mr. Franks of Amsterdam. Gerrard remounted the skin of the Quagga, which had been “badly stuffed”, and sold the specimen to the Hon. Walter Rothschild for his museum at Tring.
The Gerrard Advantage
The firm of Edward Gerrard & Sons therefore had access to the best, the rarest, and the most interesting specimens in the world, both from collectors and from the Zoological Society. This advantage gave great energy to the establishment of the taxidermy and natural history business of the Gerrards. Not only this, but the British Museum entrusted its most valuable commissions and its most important work to them.
1844 Edward Gerrard buys skins and bones on behalf of the British Museum from B.H. Hodgson Esq.
Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800-1894) was a British civil servant, naturalist, and ethnologist who served as the British Resident in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 1820 to 1843. He made pioneering, extensive contributions to the study of Himalayan fauna, birds, and mammals, while also documenting the religion, architecture, and languages of the region.
After 1890 – Edward Gerrard buys the ethnographical collection of Admiral Davis of HMS Royalist
Admiral Edward Henry Meggs Davis 1846-1929
Naval captain, then admiral, who served in the Pacific Islands, where he obtained many artefacts in the course of enforcing British colonial authority, some of which came to the British Museum by purchase in 1904.
Dates upon the HMS Royalist:
Vanuatu and New Caledonia: 10th December 1889 to 18th June 1891
(Papua) New Guinea and Solomon Islands: 18th June 1891 to 9th April 1892
Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Tuvalu: 14th April 1892 to 30th August 1892
A note in the British Museum states that the entire ethnographical collection of Admiral Edward Davis from H.M.S. Royalist cruises had been bought from Admiral Davis by Edward Gerrard: “BM had first pick, part was purchased by Umlauff, Hamburg”.
18 items from the same collection were purchased by Harry Beasley from Gerrard in 1930 (numbered Beasley 2820 to 2558) and these came to the British Museum as part of Beasley’s collection in 1944 (Oc1944,02).
A contemporaneous affair: the British Museum
A list of donations of mammals and birds, recorded in the British Museum’s own book “The History of the Collections of Natural History, Volume II” printed in 1906, shows that Edward Gerrard Senior made contributions to the collections alongside some of his contemporaries who were the foremost naturalists and collectors of the day, including John Gould, and the 2nd Baron Walter Rothschild.
In 1872 Dr Gray, the head of the Zoology Department at the British Museum sadly died, and after this time a concerted effort was made to increase the numbers of specimens in the zoology collection.
Edward Gerrard moves amongst the elite
Edward Gerrard Senior was well connected to the movers and shakers of the day. He was a friend of Darwin and was a member of the elite Linnean Society, as was Darwin. The Linnean Society of London was founded in 1878 and is the oldest extant natural history society in the world, existing solely for the furtherance of natural history learning. The Gerrards were buyers and purveyors of species that were being brought back from the many colonial and world expeditions by members of the wealthy class.
The collections come from all over the world
The range of locations from which the contributions from collectors and explorers came is staggering – it includes never before heard of lands and some very exotic locations including the River Amazon, Egypt, West Africa and Kathiawar, the Lower Congo, Angola and Benguela. Several of these contributions contained new species. As the years roll on, we can see how wide a footprint these collectors and agents had, and that they were exploring the world as never before.
In 1879 68 birds from Southeastern New Guinea, collected by Mr. Kendal Broadbent were purchased by the British Museum from Mr. Gerrard. In the same year 700 birds from the British Indian Empire, including several types from the Indian Museum were presented by the Secretary of State for India.
In the years 1880 and 1881 combined there were a total of 17,216 zoological items donated or sold to the British Museum from both the near and the far-flung places of the world, and Gerrard was at the epicentre of the network.
1862
1862 The Catalogue of the Bones of Mammalia in The British Museum is published
In 1862 Edward Gerrard wrote, produced and edited the “Catalogue of the Bones of Mammalia in the British Museum”, but because of some internal politics at the Museum the book was credited to Dr Gray who wrote a foreword in the book to correct the travesty.
The book included records on 706 skeletons and 3549 skulls belonging to 1197 species.
The Museum would later entrust Edward Gerrard Senior with the supervision of its vertebrate taxidermic collections.
College Place and Queen Street where Edward Gerrard & Son becomes the Establishment
Edward Gerrard Junior develops the commercial business
Edward Gerrard Junior became an established and well-respected taxidermist and naturalist in his own right, as well as being an important independent supplier and craftsman to the British Museum between 1870 – 1905. Incidentally, he married Matilda Moore, the daughter of the Curator of the Liverpool Museum. (see Gerrard Family Tree)
Edward Gerrard Senior continued his tenure as chief attendant of the zoology department at The British Museum in parallel with acting as a natural history dealer and did not retire from the Museum until 1896.
Edward Gerrard Junior appears to have traded independently first from workshops at King Street (later to become Plender Street) for a short period, and then at the workshops behind 61 College Place, Camden Town, London from about 1860 where the business became the ‘clearing house’ for worldwide collections obtained by naturalists and safaris.
The British Museum obtained (chiefly by purchase) a considerable number of specimens from the firm of Gerrards, as did the Zoology Museums attached to universities, including the Zoology Museum at the University of Cambridge.
In the 20th century Edward Gerrard & Sons business diversified.
In 1933 the Gerrard business was divided: the biological supply side moved to Pentonville Road and in 1963 to East Preston, Sussex.
The Gerrards at College Place became re-established in Royal College Street as Gerrard (Hire) Ltd.
Edward Gerrard’s workshop
at 61 College Place in the 1960’s
Edward Gerrard & Sons photo in the 1960’s
Charles Gerrard (Mr. Charles) in the Workshop
Residences, Workshops, and Meeting Place.
College Place is the Workshop
Hub of the Edward Gerrard & Son business from the 1860’s.
Queen Street
is the meeting place of the elite
Gerrard Residences
are also at College Place
A photo of Gerrard’s workshops at The Natural History Studios. Taken in 1938
Workshops
Behind no 61 College Place was the pre-eminent and de-facto location for the workshops of the Gerrards Victorian taxidermy business.
From about 1860 these premises were leased by the Gerrards from the borough of Camden on a 99 year lease (whilst they were living very nearby at number 31 College Place) and these workshops later became known as “The Natural History Studios”. There were nine of them in a cluster, and at times some were separately rented out to artists and other craftspeople.
College Place connected Royal College Street to Plender Street (previously King Street). The two streets were part of the same Kirkman & Hendy estate development (early 19th century). It was ideally located. The proximity of London zoo, just a 10 minute walk away, and the veterinary college – a two minute walk away – ensured a regular local supply of dead animals that were picked up by the apprentice or most junior member of staff via small handcarts or a wagon.
Importantly, College Place and the Natural History Studios was in the immediate vicinity of the Camden Goods Depot with its connections to the canals and railways, where crates, specimens and materials were shipped from, and was just a few hundred metres walk away.
The walk from College Place to the British Museum was just 2 miles away – where the Gerrards were anchored not only as employee and taxidermist, but as purveyors of specimens. The walk took them up the Camden High Street and along Tottenham Court Road.
Read more about Camden Town’s development on the Camden Town History website
A rare advert for Edward Gerrard placed in the Lahore Gazette 1910. Arthur Gerrard (1873-1929) is the son of Edward Gerrard Junior, and a cabinet-maker, working in the family business
The Camden Goods Depot
This photo shows the Camden Goods Depot in 1933 – significantly later than the heyday of Gerrard’s in Victorian times, but it does give a sense of the sheer volume, noise, and activity at this Depot. Imagine Gerrard’s exports and commission work arriving at this depot in crates packed with straw to be transported to the end client either in Britain or anywhere else in the world.
Camden Goods Depot
The Camden Goods Depot opened in 1837 was a critical interconnection point for freight coming from and to the London Docks which were connected via the Regents Canal alongside the Hampstead Road. This depot was very big, even in today’s terms. Below the yard was a labyrinth of brick vaults, which allowed direct goods interchange with road and canal. From the start of 1839 freight was hauled between London and Birmingham for Pickford & Co. and two other carriers that became forwarding agents for the London and Birmingham Railway.
The rapid development of the railways in Britain made the Camden Goods Depot an essential hub for Victorian transport in London. The story of it moves from rapid economic growth in the mid-1850s to eventual decline in the 1980s, and then to the recent regeneration of the 2000s. The historic features around the former goods depot are now the foundation of Camden’s transformation with its markets, media, music, food and entertainment, which have turned Camden Market into a global brand.
How Edward Gerrard used the Camden Goods Depot
Edward Gerrard’s taxidermy workshops (first at King Street, then at College Place) – were just a half mile walk – with all the crates, specimens and packing materials being moved between the taxidermy workshop to their onward transport across Britain and the world.
Horses are a big part of the story of the Camden Goods Depot – they pulled the carts and wagons on which goods were brought to and from the depot in London. There were horse stables there as well as a horse hospital – imagine how hard those poor horses worked.
photo: The horses pulling wagons at the Camden Goods Depot in 1934. Although this period is significantly later than the heyday of Gerrard’s Victorian Taxidermy era, it gives a good view of the atmosphere and an impression of the intensity of the comings and goings.
Residences & The Meeting Place
Residences
Numbers 31 College Place (from 1856) and 61 College Place (from about 1882) were the residences of Edward Gerrard Senior (and his schoolmistress daughter, Sarah).
Edward Gerrard Junior lived nearby in St. Pancras at Cantlowes Road (just a 700 metre walk from College Place) with his own family until after his father’s death in 1910 and then he is seen living at 61 College Place (with its workshops at the back).
Correspondence sent to and received from universities and museums from 31 and 61 College Place refer both to the trading and dealership activities of Edward Gerrard Senior, and also to Edward Gerrard & Sons, the taxidermy business. It appears that Edward Gerrard was the correspondence name used by Gerrard Senior, and Edward Gerrard & Sons was the correspondence name used by Gerrard Junior.
The Meeting Place
In parallel, Trade directories show Gerrard Senior using 54A Queen Street from the 1850’s up to 1884.
It appears that the Queen Street premises was always kept in addition from the very nearby residences and the workshops in College Place, and used as a contemporary meeting place for Edward Gerrard Senior and the illuminati of the natural history world.
From historical trade directories this address at 54A Queen Street appeared to have about half a dozen artisan occupants, Edward Gerrard Senior being one of them, and one must deduce from this that this property had multiple occupational workspaces, perhaps on different floors or divided into customised spaces.
54A Queen Street was the place where hunters, travellers, and naturalists came to meet and exchange or sell specimens to Gerrard.
Prominent mid-19th century naturalists, such as Thomas Bell, William Yarrell and Philip Henry Gosse (inventor of the Victorian Aquarium) are known to have had connections to Edward Gerrard Senior and his circle, frequenting Gerrard’s meeting place at 54 Queen Street.
The descendants of Edward Gerrard Senior, still working from the workshops behind 61 College Place in the 1950s and interviewed for an article in “The New Statesman” claimed that there was also once an unexpected, frock-coated visitor to 61 College Place who was impatiently bidden to ”wait outside” by a busy Gerrard, who didn’t realise that he was speaking to the Prince of Wales! Later in the century Baron Rothschild also used to drive flamboyantly behind his team of zebras up College Place to arrive at Gerrard’s workshops at no. 61 College Place.
Historic Timeline
Historic Timeline Edward Gerrard
1836 – 1862
1836 – The ZSL
Edward Gerrard Senior joins the Zoological Society London as Museum Curator in Bruton Street.
1841 – Gerrard joins the British Museum (Natural History)
He works under Dr. Gray as a preparator, responsible for the registration of mammals, skulls and skeletons, and building a reputation.
1840s–1850s — Increasing private work
Edward Gerrard Senior begins taking private commissions and acting as a natural history dealer alongside his post at the British Museum, using 54A Queen Street as a meeting place.
1853–1860: Establishment of the Commercial Business of Edward Gerrard
A workshop run by Edward Gerrard Junior is said to have first been established at King Street before a move to workshops behind 61 College Place by the 1860’s. This address remains the firm’s base for over a century
Important note:
Although Gerrard’s son, Edward begins helping in the business in about the mid to late 1950’s no labels up to the 1890s read “& Sons.”
1860–1880: Business Expansion & ongoing ZSL Relationship
London Zoo regularly supplies Gerrard with exotic birds and mammals.
Decorative casework flourishes. Ebonised, gold‑trimmed cases appear during this period
1862 – Edward Gerrard Senior creates “The Catalogue of Bones of Mammalia”
This book was inaccurately accredited as the work of Dr. Gray, who inserted a foreword to correct the travesty.
1886 – Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London attended by “Edward Gerrard, Taxidermist & Naturalist”. Soon after this time the business changed to Edward Gerrard & Sons with Edward Gerrard Junior, and his 5 sons Edward (3rd) (b.1870), Thomas (b.1871), Arthur (b.1873), Francis (b. 1879) Henry (b.1880) working in the business.
1890 – 1940
1890s — First securely dated “E. Gerrard & Sons” labels appear
These appear primarily on: anatomical preparations, skeletons and comparative anatomy specimens and 1890 coincides approximately with the date that most of Edward Junior’s own sons joined the business.
1896 – Edward Gerrard Senior retires from the British Museum
1897 – International Expo in Brussels. The company wins a gold medal.
1900 – International Exhibition Paris – Under Edward Gerrard Junior’s control, the company wins Gold Medal
1900s – “E. Gerrard & Sons” becomes standard on labels
Used consistently on anatomical and decorative work.
1904 – St Louis World Fair – Gold Medal
1910 — Death of Edward Gerrard Senior
He is buried in June 1910 at Highgate Cemetery
The business continues under his son and grandsons.
1910–1940: The Sons’ Era
Firm continues as “E. Gerrard & Sons” and produces anatomical preparations, museum mounts, skeletons, some decorative work.
1938 – Thomas Gerrard, the son of Edward Gerrard Junior, establishes a new company of osteology and model-making, a breakaway from the original business, but still operating from additional sheds at the original College Place workshops.
1940-1965
After WWII period – steady business
The firm remains respected but faces competition from Rowland Ward.
1940–1960: Decline
1945 – Henry Gerrard, the youngest son, sells the main business back to his older brothers Edward Gerrard Junior, Mr Ted and Mr Charles, and emigrates.
WWII — Business contracts
Fewer exotic specimens and museum budgets shrink.
1950s — Mostly anatomical and osteological work
Decorative casework largely ceases.
1955 – Edward Gerrard & Son features in a film “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and there are wonderful scenes of the workshops at the back of 61 College Place.
1965 – E. Gerrard & Sons closes Taxidermy has had its day. The company, after being split into different parts, including hire, finally closes after more than a century at 61 College Place.
Hitchcock’s 1955 film, The Man Who Knew Too Much. Scenes included taxidermy workshops of Edward Gerrard Camden Town, London
I WONDER
I wonder what Edward Gerrard Senior would think now if he knew that even 130 years after he died, his company was still being talked about and researched? If he knew that his specimens were still collected and revered? If he knew that the fashion for taxidermy had waxed and waned but was now hunted by interior designers, museums and collectors alike?
But most of all, I wonder what he would think about our planet’s crisis and the urgency of the need for conservation of our natural world?
About The Curator
Dorne Lovegrove is a curator, researcher, and digital publisher specialising in the heritage of Victorian taxidermy.
Her work sits at the intersection of natural history, Victorian culture, and the richly textured interiors of the 19th century.
Through narrative scholarship, Dorne brings forgotten and unknown stories to light and invites readers into a world where history, artistry, and quiet drama converge.
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