Assessing taxidermy on display: contexts, tools and challenges for natural sciences conservation

Abstract

Wild: Amazing Animals in a Changing World, a long-term exhibit at Melbourne Museum, showcases biodiversity and environmental change through the display of more than 700 taxidermied animals from Museum Victoria's natural sciences collection. Installed in 2009, the award winning gallery presents numerous preservation challenges due to the large number of specimens on open display and the tiered design, which limits access for regular cleaning and assessment. In recent years increased incidents of physical and pest related damage necessitated a comprehensive in-situ condition survey to obtain current and accurate data. This paper addresses the preservation issues and complications of accessing and assessing taxidermy mounts on open display and investigates the use of GoPro HD Hero® 4 action cameras as a condition reporting tool. The context of the Wild exhibition as part of an increased trend for displaying taxidermy will be discussed and future directions for research in the conservation field to assist in the preservation and display of taxidermy are highlighted.

Keywords:

• Taxidermy
• Survey
• GoPro®
• Preservation
• Exhibitions

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dianne Bray, Senior Collections Manager, Vertebrate Zoology (MV) for her suggestion to trial the GoPro® cameras. The work which followed could not have been undertaken without assistance from the following departments; Preparation, Exhibition Collection Management, Natural Sciences Collection Management, Production Services, Media Production, Strategic Collection Management, Exhibitions and Curatorial. We thank them for their support and collaboration.

ORCiD

Sarah Babister http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9018-2677

Danielle Measday http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9610-4204

Notes

1 These specimens are accessible only via an elevated work platform.

2 The development and implementation of safe handling procedures used in this project are outside the scope of this paper; please contact the authors for more information.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Babister

Author Biographies

Sarah Babister is an objects conservator in the Collection, Access and Exhibitions team at Museum Victoria. She holds an Honours Degree in Classics (2001), Graduate Diploma in Art History (2003) and a Master of Arts (Cultural Materials Conservation) from the University of Melbourne (2009). She came to Museum Victoria in 2010 after previously working as a genealogist and Conservation Assistant in the Projects Laboratory at ArtLab. Sarah has a long-term interest in exhibitions, and is closely involved with the Museum's exhibition programme. Through her position she has become increasingly aware of the important role conservators play in exhibition development, and is interested in implementing innovative preservation strategies for collections on display.

Danielle Measday

Danielle Measday is conservator of Natural Sciences for Museum Victoria. She trained as an objects conservator at the University of Melbourne's Masters of Cultural Material Conservation programme, and then stepped sideways into the sciences and never looked back. She works closely with collection managers, curators and researchers across the zoology, palaeontology and geology fields to find solutions to facilitate access to the collections, and preserve them for the future.