Additional information on Akeley's first expedition to the Congo to collect gorillas is primarily from his article "Gorillas—Real and Mythical" (Natural History, September-October 1923). I also used documents from the AMNH archives, including Mary Jobe Akeley's personal correspondence and an essay by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn.
The New Yorker published a delightful review of African Hall called "Africa Brought to Town" on May 2, 1936. David Schwendeman's vivid memories brought the ribbon cutting alive.
Frederic A. Lucas's quote about what to call the modern taxidermist is from Natural History, March-April 1927.
4. HOW THE ORANGUTAN GOT ITS SKIN
In addition to many thoughtful conversations with John Matthews, Paul Rhymer, and Ken Walker, I interviewed National Museum of Natural History collections manager Linda K. Gordon, curator in charge James G. Mead, and conservator Catharine Hawks, as well as conservation scientist Amandine Péquignot, Centre de recherches sur la conservation collections at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris, and Frank Greenwell, Smithsonian taxidermist from 1957 to 1999. The Smithsonian's mammal hall press conference, where museum scientists and administrators spoke and then led reporters on guided tours of the new hall, took place in November 2003. I was on Associate Director for Public Programs Robert Sullivan's tour. The Smithsonian's Office of Public Affairs provided statistics and facts about the old West Wing and the new Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals, as did the November 2003 issue of Smithsonian.
British Natural History Museum fish curator Oliver Crimmen ("We're just a bunch of state-funded Tony Perkinses") took me on two fascinating behind-the-scenes tours of the museum. At Wandsworth, the museum's gigantic off-site storage facility, we came upon a donkey that looked as if it had laughed so hard it burst its seams, and we began to talk about why people humanize mammals. Crimmen said, "It will be a sad day when I stop anthropomorphizing." Only now do I realize how deeply his words influenced how I approached this book.
The New York Times reported Lawrence M. Small's resignation in "Report Faults Oversight by Smithsonian Regents" on June 19, 2007. "History for Sale" (Washington Post, January 20, 2002) chronicles Small's efforts to privatize the Smithsonian through big-time donors; I relied on this for figures and context, including the protest memo signed by curators at the National Museum of American History and also for information about Kenneth H. Behring. The Archaeological Institute of America ran an online feature on Small and Behring called "Crisis at the Smithsonian," www.archaeology.org/online/features/smithsonian/behring.html, September 19, 2002.
For accounts of how Behring tried to import the trophy remains of the argali sheep, see "Controversy Surrounds Rare Sheep in Canada" (CBC Radio Transcripts, http://archives.foodsafetynetwork.ca/ animalnet/2001/8-2001/an-08-19-01-01.txt, August 17, 2001). The Humane Society's online feature is called "Trophy Hunting," www.hsus.org/wildlife/hunting_old/trophy_hunting/, n.d. "How to Bag Your Own Endangered Species" by Linda Gottwald ran in USA Today on February 3, 2000. Also see the Safari Club International's Online Record Book, www.scirecordbook.org/login/index.cfm.
A New York Times feature titled "Friends Matter for Reclusive Creature of African Forest" (October 12, 2004) describes how scientists based in the Congo continue to study the okapi.
William Hornaday's quote is from the 1916 edition of Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting.
Though separated by ninety-three years, Ken Walker's nine-month appointment at the Smithsonian echoed that of his hero, Robert Rockwell, who worked there for nine months in 1910. I drew information about Rockwell's time at the Smithsonian from his autobiography My Way of Becoming a Hunter.
Of all the brief accounts of James Smithson's bequest, my favorite is in Lynn Barber's The Heyday of Natural History. For a history of the Smithsonian Institution, see http://siarchives.si.edu/history/main_generalhistory.html.
After the mammal hall opening, several newspapers and news services reviewed it, including the Washington Post, Winston-Salem Journal, Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Scripps Howard News Service, and Associated Press. Of them, the Architectural Record's piece (November 1, 2004) was especially helpful in describing the high-tech wizardry designers used to create the hall's special effects and sound-and-light shows. Paul Rhymer's personal account appears in Taxidermy Today (August 2004). The Smithsonian's Office of Public Affairs' press materials provided further details about the massive renovation of the West Wing and its prior usage.
Sally Love's take on dioramas ran in the Baltimore Sun on November 28, 2003.
I read about the Fenykovi elephant's anus (and the giraffe's clay privates, mentioned earlier in the chapter) in the Baltimore Sun (November 28, 2003).
I learned about how the Natural History Museum evacuated specimens during World War II in William T. Stearn's book The Natural History Museum at South Kensington (Heinemann, 1981).
5. THE CHAIRBITCH
This chapter was drawn primarily from interviews with Emily Mayer and her family, friends, and colleagues. The Times of London's "Stuff Art: This Is a Life and Death Thing" (August 16, 2000) and Steve Baker's The Postmodern Animal (Reaktion Books, 2000) provided further insight into Mayer's career. For Mayer's take on her own artwork, I relied on her artist's statements in the catalogs for two of her solo shows, "Out of Context" (Campden Gallery, Gloucestershire, England, 2007) and "Material Evidence" (Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland, 1995). Mayer's master's thesis, "Representing Animality: The Nature of the Representation of Animals in Contemporary Taxidermy and Contemporary Sculpture" (Norwich School of Art and Design, 1990), demonstrates the deeply complex relationship Mayer has with animals, in art and in life.
I read about Damien Hirst in his books I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now (Booth-Clibborn, 1997; I used the 2005 edition) and On the Way to Work, a series of interviews with
