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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And do you

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Speaker 1: know is Sarah? Do you recall your first exposure to

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Speaker 1: our topic today? Taxidermy? Well, I was going to save

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Speaker 1: this story a little bit, but I'm gonna bring it

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Speaker 1: out now. I was telling it to you already this morning.

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure at the Atlanta's Capital, Georgia State Capitol

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Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, lovely building, gold Dome. Anybody who's been

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Speaker 1: to Atlanta's probably not. If it driven up eighty five,

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Speaker 1: you've seen it. If you grow up in Atlanta, you

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Speaker 1: go there on many a field trip. And the most

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Speaker 1: memorable memorable part, at least for me and for I

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Speaker 1: think most of my classmates, was not the trips to

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Speaker 1: of the you know, see the legislators or any of that,

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Speaker 1: what we're excited about government in action. It was the museum,

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Speaker 1: the Little Capital Museum, which featured lots of strange Georgia history,

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Speaker 1: but also, most memorably, a two headed calf sweetened a

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Speaker 1: two headed snake. Welcome to Georgia, visitors, And I said

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Speaker 1: the CEO this morning. But I went there sort of

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Speaker 1: on a whim just a few years ago, so as

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Speaker 1: an adult, and I noticed that those two items were

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Speaker 1: not as prominently displayed as they used to be. They

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Speaker 1: almost seem to be displayed just as like a nod.

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Speaker 1: We know people really liked these, we have to keep

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Speaker 1: them out, but they're kind of weird and maybe don't

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Speaker 1: exactly belong in the state capital. Yeah, so that's my answer,

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Speaker 1: that's my Those are the first clear memories of taxidermia.

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Speaker 1: I would have been familiar because I both of my

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Speaker 1: parents are from farm families that hunted, so I know

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Speaker 1: there were some deer head and I vaguely remember being

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Speaker 1: at my grandparents house and being barely transfixed by one

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Speaker 1: particular buck that I had that simultaneously, oh this is

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Speaker 1: really neat and interesting and oh he was just looking

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Speaker 1: for a meal and you shot him fandi stad. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but I do remember being fascinated and like questioning my

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Speaker 1: father relentlessly about how did they why? Who thought this

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Speaker 1: was a good idea? What do you think? Just how?

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Speaker 1: Like I was completely simultaneously horrified and just fascinated, like

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Speaker 1: why does this exist? Yeah? Why do we do it?

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Speaker 1: And then later in my life I was exposed to

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Speaker 1: the work of the text ermist were talking about today

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Speaker 1: who anyone who is into taxidermy, I am confident will

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Speaker 1: know this person the second we say his name, and

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Speaker 1: it is Walter Potter. And I got exposed to his

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Speaker 1: work when I was working in the library and a

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Speaker 1: book that featured one of his pieces came across my

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Speaker 1: desk and I remember looking at it and then looking

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Speaker 1: at it again, and looking at it about seventeen more

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Speaker 1: times in the next twelve minutes. And somebody really put

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Speaker 1: this together because he did these amazing, wondrously bizarre tableau

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Speaker 1: with animals. And this is where people do need to

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Speaker 1: stop for a minute. And if you're on your run, okay,

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Speaker 1: we'll come back to it last describe a few things,

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Speaker 1: but you're gonna want the visual for yourself that this

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Speaker 1: stuff for sure. I know that it makes you wish

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Speaker 1: that it was a video podcast at a time like this,

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Speaker 1: But check out these because well to describe them, but

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Speaker 1: you really need the pictures. And there's some great pictures

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Speaker 1: fortunately to like modern color pictures. And we'll talk about

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Speaker 1: kind of where his work is now, um like where

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Speaker 1: the physical works exist now, um, but we'll start at

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Speaker 1: the beginning. So he was born in Sussex, um in

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Speaker 1: five and he worked at his family's in which was

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Speaker 1: called the White Line in now it's called the Castle

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Speaker 1: and it's in Bramber. And I have never I've read

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Speaker 1: several biographical accounts about him. No one ever really talks

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Speaker 1: about his early childhood. I presume it was probably pretty

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Speaker 1: standard and kids, you know, kids stuff, working in the

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Speaker 1: family um in. But then at approximately aged fifteen, he

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Speaker 1: I'm presuming, because no one ever spelled this out either,

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Speaker 1: I'm presuming that his pet canary passed before he had

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Speaker 1: the idea to preserve it. Um, let's hope. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was a memento almost. Yeah, And this was at

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Speaker 1: a time when preserving your pets was starting to become

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Speaker 1: more popular anyway, So it was not necessarily a thing

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Speaker 1: an idea he would have just magically had on his own.

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Speaker 1: He may have seen something about it or read something

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Speaker 1: about it. Not the sign of a disturbed teenage boy,

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Speaker 1: A normal thing to do. No, he didn't do it

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Speaker 1: that well though. No, Apparently that first effort was not

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Speaker 1: so hot, which anytime someone's learning a new craft or trade,

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Speaker 1: usually the first Go is not going to be a masterpiece.

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Speaker 1: There has been some discussion, but there's never been any

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Speaker 1: corroboration that he might have been influenced by an exhibit

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Speaker 1: that was at the Great Exhibition in London in eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifty one by Ermann Pluquet, and anyone feel free to

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Speaker 1: correct me if I mispronounced that. But he had an

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Speaker 1: exhibit that was Small Animal Taxidermy UM, and it was

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Speaker 1: UM basically the story of Rennicky the Fox, which is

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Speaker 1: based on the Wilhelm von Kalbach etchings of Geta's medieval

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Speaker 1: trickster Tail. So it's kind of like a uh, it's

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Speaker 1: these if you've never seen that one, it's these hilarious

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Speaker 1: little rodents that are acting out these adventures and they're

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Speaker 1: kind of like two. It's like a pair that are

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Speaker 1: doing one activity after another, like almost like a comic

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Speaker 1: strip animal tableau. Yeah, so it's not one big tableau

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Speaker 1: that tells the story. It's it's laid out like sequential art.

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Speaker 1: I like the idea that he would have been inspired

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Speaker 1: by the Great Exhibition. To so many of the subjects

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Speaker 1: we've discussed in the past, including to Blina's last episode.

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Speaker 1: There was some toilet inspiration that came from the Great Exhibition.

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Speaker 1: It's an exciting time in London that it is this

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Speaker 1: sort of cultural point where where all people are exposed

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Speaker 1: to new things for the first time. And it certainly

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Speaker 1: seems plausible that this young boy from a country village

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Speaker 1: would come across something that he found really magical at

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Speaker 1: the Great Exhibition. Well, and even like I said, there

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Speaker 1: have not been any corroborative writings to say definitively yes,

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Speaker 1: he was there, but the Great Exhibition was so big

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Speaker 1: that people were talking about the things that they had seen,

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Speaker 1: and it traveled even so U So, yeah, he did

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Speaker 1: his canary, and there's a great um quote that he

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Speaker 1: gave apparently in he did a correspondence interview with the

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Speaker 1: Idler magazine and he says, well, after I'd done my canary,

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Speaker 1: people encouraged me to persevere. If they saw any bird

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Speaker 1: or animal they thought I would like, they'd bring it

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Speaker 1: or send it to me. So he was practicing throughout

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Speaker 1: these years after he was fifteen, because he did take

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Speaker 1: a shine to this craft, and then he got the

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Speaker 1: idea that he could put them together in big works

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Speaker 1: of art. And that's kind of the turning point here,

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Speaker 1: not just melting an animal and displaying it uniquely creating

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Speaker 1: some scene with it. Yeah. It really became almost like

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Speaker 1: a painter with a paintbrush. He would create entire vistas

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Speaker 1: and stories using mounted animals. Um And the first big

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Speaker 1: one is the History of cock Robin, which uh he

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Speaker 1: used ninety eight birds. I believe that he had been

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Speaker 1: working on through the years. And this is when he

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Speaker 1: was nineteen. He had gotten all of those together and

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Speaker 1: he worked on the history of the original death and burial.

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Speaker 1: I'm so it wasn't The history um is the original

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Speaker 1: death and burial of cock Robin. And he worked on

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Speaker 1: this for years and years. But it basically was a

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Speaker 1: big funeral procession for cock Robin, including the I believe

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Speaker 1: it was a sparrow that had shot him with an

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Speaker 1: arrow with my bow and arrow. Yeah, and there was

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Speaker 1: an owl grave digger, and you know, the grave is there,

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Speaker 1: and there are other animals there to pay their respects.

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Speaker 1: It's like a big story, yeah, inspired by the nursery

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Speaker 1: rhyme to where all of the birds are picking their

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Speaker 1: roles the role they will perform during cock Robin's funeral. Um.

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Speaker 1: And and that's the other major difference here, So putting

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Speaker 1: the animals together in a tableau, but not in an

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Speaker 1: animal like way. It's not a natural history museum setting.

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Speaker 1: It's a human like setting. Yeah, these aren't. Later on

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Speaker 1: he starts to add even more human accessories to it.

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Speaker 1: These aren't like clothed yet. There are a couple with

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Speaker 1: ribbons around their necks. Um. And the owl clearly is

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Speaker 1: holding a little a little shovel where that he's digging

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Speaker 1: the grave with. But yeah, this is really you know,

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Speaker 1: as Sarah said, the very time, that it was mounted

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Speaker 1: animals doing human things, almost like you would see in

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Speaker 1: like a children's book or a cartoon. Yeah, that that

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Speaker 1: nursery vime inspiration is very apparent, and it carries through

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Speaker 1: his work pretty much his entire life. Uh So at

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Speaker 1: that point, as his work started to expand, they had

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Speaker 1: to expand his work area. So he first moved into

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Speaker 1: a barn loft at his family's house. Uh. And then

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Speaker 1: once he started creating these big works, they went on

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Speaker 1: display at the end. Uh And there have been different

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Speaker 1: accounts of where they went on display and what the

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Speaker 1: purpose was. And I think it's kind of a case

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Speaker 1: of revisionist history. Uh. It sounds like his parents were

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Speaker 1: very encouraging of his work because I'm sure they saw

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Speaker 1: it as a potential career. Um and he says in

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Speaker 1: that same interview with the Idler that his father um

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Speaker 1: eventually built do they call it a t shehad, I

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Speaker 1: think behind the end where he could put his his

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Speaker 1: big work on display. And of course then his work

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Speaker 1: continued to grow and growing. Glenny described the little girls

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Speaker 1: about his age, you know, teenage girls coming to to

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Speaker 1: see the see his work for the first time and

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Speaker 1: leaving some coins behind and starting to get that idea,

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Speaker 1: Oh wait, maybe I can make money. Yeah, that's where

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Speaker 1: he got his idea for a museum. Well, and as

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Speaker 1: you were mentioning too, with other accounts you see of this,

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Speaker 1: I mean, some are saying it was a direct marketing

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Speaker 1: strategy that his parents were like, come and see the

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Speaker 1: end where we have have a high animal check out

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Speaker 1: of the death of cock Robin. Yeah, exactly. But others

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Speaker 1: are more like, oh, it kind of happened accidentally. I can't.

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Speaker 1: I can see it either way. I mean we were

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Speaker 1: saying earlier, I think I would go slightly out of

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Speaker 1: my way to visit a inn or a pub that

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Speaker 1: had these strange scenes, especially since they were pretty trendy

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Speaker 1: at the time. Yeah, or just you know you happen

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Speaker 1: upon them. It has nothing to do with marketing the pub. Yes.

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Speaker 1: So eventually, um in eighteen sixty six he moved his

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Speaker 1: workshop to a new spot because the stable loft was

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Speaker 1: not containing his situation anymore. And then again in eighteen

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Speaker 1: eighty he moved into a specially built building which eventually

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Speaker 1: became his museum. And that museum wasn't only for his work.

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Speaker 1: He also collected curiosities from other places, um, including like

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Speaker 1: a lot of it was natural history type items like

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Speaker 1: horns and teeth. There were skulls, and he had some

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Speaker 1: human artifacts like his shoes and jewelry. Uh, just sort

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Speaker 1: of a random collection hodgepodge of things. This part of

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Speaker 1: the story reminded me so much of P. T. Barnum's

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Speaker 1: story and the the era before him of of natural

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Speaker 1: history museums, I guess, the birth of natural history museums

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Speaker 1: and going from these collections curios just a strange hodgepodge

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Speaker 1: of things, some valuable, some just old teeth or horns

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Speaker 1: or whatnot, all brought together and and the fad for

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Speaker 1: for seeing those at the time. Yeah, I mean people

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Speaker 1: were very fascinated by this idea of just looking at

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Speaker 1: things from other people's lives or other animals that they

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Speaker 1: maybe hadn't been exposed to in their natural, day to

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Speaker 1: day life. UM. That it was, as you said, like,

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Speaker 1: this was really when the idea of the Natural History

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Speaker 1: Museum was starting to kind of boom and grow, and

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Speaker 1: the Natural History Museum and the Freak Show Museum, and

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Speaker 1: it was all kind of two different people were looking

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Speaker 1: for entertainment a variety of ways at the same time. UM.

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Speaker 1: And he did start taking on work as um a taxidermist,

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Speaker 1: like on demand for people, like he would preserve their

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Speaker 1: pets for them. UM. It was very starting to get

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Speaker 1: very popular for people to keep mounted animals in their parlors. UM.

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Speaker 1: Some would be like their personal family pets, but some

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Speaker 1: also collected like exotic birds. Apparently, UM, Queen Victoria had

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Speaker 1: some exotic birds, which is the thing I had not

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Speaker 1: known until we were digging in on research for this. UM.

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Speaker 1: So he would do all of that, but really he

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Speaker 1: always wanted to continue creating these tableau And a question

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Speaker 1: that always comes up whenever you're talking about Walter Potter

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Speaker 1: with people is where was he getting these animals? Did

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Speaker 1: he start seeing tableau with twenty kittens and them will

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Speaker 1: cross your mind? Yeah? So apparently he mentioned in that

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Speaker 1: that interview that I sided earlier, that people would bring

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Speaker 1: him what they thought were interesting specimens. But he also

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Speaker 1: kind of had a deal going on with local farmers.

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Speaker 1: And this is where our modern pet loving brain has

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Speaker 1: to kind of close down and be put aside for

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Speaker 1: a little while, because I have a hard time with

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Speaker 1: this being like a crazy animal person. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: on farms, they don't always spay neuter their pets and

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Speaker 1: cats are there to work, they're there to keep vermin

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Speaker 1: at bay. But because they are animals that have not

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Speaker 1: been fixed, they are having lots of babies and often

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Speaker 1: way more than really can be sustained by what the

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Speaker 1: road and population on the farm is. So farmers would

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Speaker 1: bring him unwanted kittens. I have not really found a

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Speaker 1: clear indicator as to whether they were already deceased when

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Speaker 1: they got to Mr Potter or if he took care

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Speaker 1: of that. Um. But I do know, like I said,

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Speaker 1: I grew up with some farm family background. For you know,

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Speaker 1: people that grow up in that it's often and especially

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Speaker 1: at this period of time. It wasn't like you went

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Speaker 1: to the vet and had animals euthanized. You kind of

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Speaker 1: learned to do the dirty work and make the hard

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Speaker 1: decision of taking care of situations like that. Well, and

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Speaker 1: the history of the animals seemed to become kind of

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Speaker 1: an issue too in the nineteen seventies, with the museum

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Speaker 1: and visitors concerned that it was cruelty to animals, so

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Speaker 1: much so that museum had to put up a little

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Speaker 1: placard saying, for one thing, these are over a hundred

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Speaker 1: years old, and also don't worry. No animals were specifically

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Speaker 1: killed for the project, which they would have been done

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Speaker 1: away with one way or the other. This way, they

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Speaker 1: just went on to become part of art's troubling it is.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I, as I said, I have to kind

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Speaker 1: of put away my my animal loving brain for a

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Speaker 1: moment and just think about, you know, the time period

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Speaker 1: and how animals you know, we're seeing more as livestock

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Speaker 1: at that point. It wasn't like their cuddly pet. It

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Speaker 1: was they were working creatures. But also people would bring

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Speaker 1: him um unfortunate specimens that had maybe not lived very

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Speaker 1: long because they were not healthy. Maybe once more in

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Speaker 1: line with my two headed snake. Um we mentioned earlier.

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Speaker 1: You can find all manner of images of these things

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Speaker 1: if you look, and some of them, like some of

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Speaker 1: the more malformedones there. It's like the kitten with eight

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Speaker 1: legs and two tails, which is what it's called. It's

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Speaker 1: very basic. Um kitten with eight legs and yeah, kitten

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Speaker 1: with eight legs and two tails. There's one that has

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Speaker 1: There are a couple that have like two faces. There

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Speaker 1: are um you know. So he did those kind of

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Speaker 1: about a fascination, and I think he was probably studying

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Speaker 1: anatomy at the same time, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: It was giving him some clues into how the differences

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Speaker 1: between right and wrong create the structure properly. But then

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Speaker 1: he was also doing really artistic works like the Village School,

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Speaker 1: which is a bunch of tiny bunnies with little chalkboards

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Speaker 1: and they have little desks, and he would craft all

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Speaker 1: of their accessories as well, so they're tiny little lesson books.

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Speaker 1: All of that was handmade. Um. The guinea pigs cricket

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Speaker 1: match that one has always cracked me up. There is

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Speaker 1: a full guinea pig band with brass multi Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: are they are full and ready to play orchestral pieces.

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Speaker 1: There's a pavilion, and then there are the guinea pigs

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Speaker 1: who are getting ready for their cricket match. And another

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Speaker 1: thing to point out about these tableau two is they

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Speaker 1: all have these beautifully soft painted background which seemed striking

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Speaker 1: against the by this point kind of dusty Victorian animals. Um.

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Speaker 1: But they add to that nursery rhyme fairytale quality was

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Speaker 1: trying to go for. For sure. There's one really odd

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Speaker 1: one that is a When we first started talking about

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Speaker 1: doing this episode, I was like, Sarah, you have to

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Speaker 1: see this picture. And it's a monkey riding a goat,

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Speaker 1: and I don't know why. Every time I look at

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Speaker 1: it it makes me kind of chuckle because the expression

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Speaker 1: on the monkey's face is funny. The whole setup is funny.

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Speaker 1: The proportion of it is just perfectly hilarious. That one

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Speaker 1: seemed so reminiscent of Barnum to me because you know,

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Speaker 1: and you can give this to Potter too, who was

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Speaker 1: not trying to um pull one over on his audience.

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Speaker 1: It was, you know, this is a this is a

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Speaker 1: kitten who was born with two heads or whatnot. He

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Speaker 1: wasn't trying to create creatures that didn't exist. Monkey riding

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Speaker 1: in the Goat was, yeah, just a strange decision to

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Speaker 1: combine two animals into into one scene like this, And

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Speaker 1: then the big one that um, I think for people

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Speaker 1: that are fans of his work, and it is very striking.

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Speaker 1: There's one called the Kitten's Wedding, and it is a

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Speaker 1: full wedding party comprised of kittens in full gown, elaborate

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Speaker 1: dresses and jewelry and little suits. It's it's fascinating and bizarre,

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Speaker 1: and there's a growth task element to it, but it's

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Speaker 1: also one of those things where I can't help but think,

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Speaker 1: like about the hours of meticulous, exacting labor that goes

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Speaker 1: into something like this. I mean, he made teeny tiny

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Speaker 1: costumes to put on each of them, and they're all

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Speaker 1: quaffed like their hair is done there. It's it's really

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Speaker 1: quite fascinating to think about how much just he must

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Speaker 1: have been in love with his art, because he really

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Speaker 1: did seem to just dedicate his heart and soul to it.

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Speaker 1: It's easy to focus solely on the mounts though, and

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Speaker 1: and not look at not look at the kittens dresses,

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Speaker 1: but look at their face. Looks quite right, you know,

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Speaker 1: I think, um, probably the goal of many taxidermists today.

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Speaker 1: And we've heard from we have listeners to who have

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Speaker 1: written in to tell us about their work. UM, tell

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Speaker 1: us that it's not stuffing, it's mounting. UM. I think

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Speaker 1: maybe of the modern goal of tax army is to

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Speaker 1: look as though the animal whre wants alive. It's the

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Speaker 1: idea of capturing a natural moment, a living quality about them.

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Speaker 1: And you certainly cannot say that about Potter's work, And

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Speaker 1: I don't think that was the goal, but his taxidermy

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Speaker 1: skills wouldn't have allowed that anyway. I mean, the kittens

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Speaker 1: don't have they don't look like they were ever alive. No,

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Speaker 1: they look like dolls. They really do have a doll

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Speaker 1: like quality by the time he has done humanizing them,

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Speaker 1: you know, antropomorphizing them with outfits and accessories and just

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Speaker 1: concepts that they would not be put into. Like you know,

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Speaker 1: very few kittens get invited weddings in my experience, but

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Speaker 1: some once in a while it happens. UM. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's not it's not trying to capture that moment of

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Speaker 1: the animal in the wild. Some of his um malformed

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Speaker 1: creatures are more intended to look like their life like state. Um,

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Speaker 1: the these ones. Once he gets into Tambleaux, it's really

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Speaker 1: about creating something entirely new. Some of the life like quality,

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Speaker 1: or lack thereof two comes from his skill mounting to

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Speaker 1: I mean, things didn't always go quite as planned, especially

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Speaker 1: for more exotic animals. Yeah, because he didn't have practice.

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Speaker 1: He didn't get to practice with them. He got pretty

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Speaker 1: good at kittens and apparently was very good with birds.

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Speaker 1: But there is allegedly a baby giraffe that he attempted

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Speaker 1: that I could never find a photo for that just

358
00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:35,800
Speaker 1: didn't come out quite right. Um, and the lion that

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Speaker 1: looks like it's wearing saggy panty hose because his the

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Speaker 1: skin on the legs. You know, it's with any anyone

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Speaker 1: who's been around a cat, you know that the skin

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Speaker 1: has some flexibility. But he didn't quite get where it is.

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Speaker 1: It's like. And just the stance of the lion too.

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Speaker 1: It's one of those where Okay, maybe he didn't ever

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Speaker 1: see a living lion. Maybe he didn't have that opportunity

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Speaker 1: because the lion doesn't stand quite like that. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: looks just off. I mean, you can recognize it as

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Speaker 1: a lion, there is a certain you know, it's a lion,

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Speaker 1: so there's a certain natural majesty to it. But you

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Speaker 1: just something's not quite right. Because that reminds me of

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Speaker 1: of old engravings of descript you know, explorers who have

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Speaker 1: described animals and then they're illustrated by engravers back in Europe,

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Speaker 1: and these are African animals or North American animals, and

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Speaker 1: the illustrator has never seen them and they're trying to

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Speaker 1: imagine what the animal looks like. Yeah, it's just not

376
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:45,320
Speaker 1: quite right. A plus effort um and he continued to

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Speaker 1: mount his entire life, and then in nineteen fourteen he

378
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Speaker 1: suffered a stroke and he never really fully recovered. And

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Speaker 1: he was I believe seventy nine at the time, so

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like he was struck down as a very

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Speaker 1: young man. Um But then in nineteen eight he passed

382
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Speaker 1: away and he had spent his whole life there in Sussex.

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Speaker 1: Basically he was buried in the village churchyard um and

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Speaker 1: his museum was left to his daughter Minni Collins and

385
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Speaker 1: his grandson Alter also named Walter, but his last name

386
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Speaker 1: was Collins Uh and they were the curators of the

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Speaker 1: museum until the nineteen seventies, and they basically got to

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Speaker 1: a point where, you know, they just couldn't handle it anymore.

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Speaker 1: It was too much work. I mean, that's a lot

390
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Speaker 1: to keep going, and so um it got moved first

391
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Speaker 1: to Arundel, and then in the nineteen eighties it went

392
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Speaker 1: to the Jamaica Inn in Cornwall. There was a moment

393
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Speaker 1: in the middle where it was almost going to be

394
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Speaker 1: shipped off to America because I think that first stopping

395
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Speaker 1: point also didn't quite know what to do with it

396
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Speaker 1: and didn't have the resources to keep it in good condition.

397
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Speaker 1: And then the Jamaica in stepped in and said, no, no,

398
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Speaker 1: we will take it. So those people hung on to

399
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Speaker 1: it until two thousand three and they decided to liquidate

400
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Speaker 1: the collection because their curator had died or had retired

401
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,280
Speaker 1: rather I'm sorry, and their taxidermists had passed away. He

402
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,520
Speaker 1: had leukemia, and they who had maintained all of these

403
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:16,960
Speaker 1: specimens too, and it's like ten thousand specimens by that point,

404
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Speaker 1: and it would be a lot of work too. It's

405
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 1: not something that you can just put in a case

406
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 1: and then forgot about. No, it needs constant care and maintenance,

407
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Speaker 1: especially you know, as it gets older, it is more

408
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Speaker 1: and more work. You sent me a video from the

409
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties where there's a man who is tending to

410
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Speaker 1: some of the specimens, I think, to a cow in

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Speaker 1: one of the pictures, which he didn't preserve a life

412
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Speaker 1: size cow. It's a it with cap skin, but the

413
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Speaker 1: curator is carefully dusting and cleaning and then returns the

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Speaker 1: cow to the chapleau. It would be a tremendous amount

415
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Speaker 1: of work. And also I and see why the museums

416
00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:05,280
Speaker 1: would be facing problems in this time too, because this

417
00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:10,439
Speaker 1: is kind of kitchy that it was very popular in

418
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Speaker 1: the Victorian era to go look at mounted animals and

419
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:18,400
Speaker 1: they found it quite charming. There was a growing um

420
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Speaker 1: sense of unrest at it, like there wasn't the same oh,

421
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,159
Speaker 1: that's magical and charming. It was they saw more of

422
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:26,199
Speaker 1: the grotesque than the charm at that kind of the

423
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Speaker 1: cob And like we mentioned earlier, the questions about wait

424
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Speaker 1: a minute, is this humane or not? They were all

425
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 1: killed a hundred years ago. Yeah, certain changing tastes played

426
00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:42,920
Speaker 1: a role in this. Yeah. So, and it was a Mr.

427
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Speaker 1: And Mrs Watts that owned the collection at this point.

428
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Speaker 1: So in two thousands three they decided that they would

429
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: sell the collection, and they were hoping that someone would

430
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,000
Speaker 1: buy the whole thing in one shot and maintain the museum,

431
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:57,919
Speaker 1: because even though it had shifted, it was not in

432
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 1: the original museum, they still considered it the museum um

433
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:05,520
Speaker 1: And unfortunately that did not happen. I mean, there were

434
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 1: many attempts made. There was even a landowner nearby that

435
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 1: was offering a parcel for free and saying, you can

436
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:12,679
Speaker 1: build a new museum here if you can keep the

437
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:16,160
Speaker 1: collection together. But they still needed capital to do all

438
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:19,200
Speaker 1: of that, and it never came through. And it it's

439
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 1: pretty interesting, did numbers when you look at the prices

440
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: some of these pieces fetched? And then we'll come back

441
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 1: to sort of some other things that developed or came

442
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:31,399
Speaker 1: to light after the fact. There was a little bit

443
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: of scandal, and there were, as I said, there were

444
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 1: lots of people trying to get together the money to

445
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,280
Speaker 1: put this thing, to keep it together and to buy

446
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,119
Speaker 1: the whole collection outright, but they just never there was

447
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 1: never enough and so eventually, for example the death and

448
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 1: burial of Cock Robin, the original estimate for what I

449
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:56,480
Speaker 1: was going to go for was ten thousand dollars, and

450
00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 1: I think it actually went for twenty three thousand, five

451
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,400
Speaker 1: hundred British pounds, which is about thirty three thousand dollars

452
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:07,479
Speaker 1: US at the time of the sale, and that was

453
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 1: the high high mark for for the works, but a

454
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:12,919
Speaker 1: lot of them Kitten's Wedding actually it's a little bit

455
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:16,959
Speaker 1: more more. Yeah, that was thirty five thousand dollars UM.

456
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 1: But a lot of them were pulling in in the

457
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:24,879
Speaker 1: in the twenties. UM. Eleven thousand, ten thousand Monkey Monkey

458
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: Riding a Goat brought in eleven thousand, six hundred dollars,

459
00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 1: which I think is a bargain. But I mean there

460
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,120
Speaker 1: really were even though this is years and years later.

461
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 1: I mean this is in the two thousand's, there were

462
00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 1: enough people that knew about his work that were very

463
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,560
Speaker 1: excited to go. And you can read some accounts online

464
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:46,159
Speaker 1: of people that were like, Okay, I have you know,

465
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 1: I'm throwing out a random number, like ten thousand dollars.

466
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:50,680
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get whatever I can because I really want

467
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:54,399
Speaker 1: a piece of Walter Potter's legacy. Okay. So the crazy

468
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:58,440
Speaker 1: thing is, though, even though these works went for way

469
00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: more than expected and ultimately pulled in around five thousand,

470
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,439
Speaker 1: nine hundred pounds, which, as he said, was twice what

471
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:12,040
Speaker 1: they had predicted. The scandal came because there had apparently

472
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 1: been an offer to keep the collection together, and that

473
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:20,439
Speaker 1: offer had been for way more than that collective price

474
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 1: a million pounds, right, and that was from an artist,

475
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:29,479
Speaker 1: a British artist named Damien Hurst. Uh, and he really

476
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 1: wanted it. I mean, he's a fan of Walter Potter.

477
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,200
Speaker 1: He knew about his works. That's known to by the

478
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: way for the shark suspended tank. When it came to

479
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 1: light that he had actually made an offer to Bottoms,

480
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: which was the auction house that handled the sale, the

481
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: Watts were actually really upset because they had never been

482
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 1: informed of this offer. As of two thousand seven, they

483
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 1: were threatening to sue Bottoms for not accepting that offer

484
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 1: and for not informing them, because they were supposed to

485
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: have no deified them if they received any serious offer

486
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: to keep the collection intact, and let alone one that

487
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: was so high above what they actually Yeah, so they

488
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 1: were planning to sue both for monetary damages for um

489
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 1: half a million pounds. But also they really did. I mean,

490
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,479
Speaker 1: these are people that actually tended this collection for years.

491
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:22,280
Speaker 1: It's not like they just were trying to turn it

492
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 1: and make a buck. You know. They clearly cared about

493
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 1: it and wanted it to go in one big set,

494
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: not piecemeal. It ended up in different lots and which

495
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: is I'm sure heartbreaking to people that had tended to

496
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 1: it very lovingly for you know, decades at that point.

497
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 1: So as it stands, Mr Watts has taken it to

498
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 1: Cora and he said, we have tried to discuss this amicably,

499
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:48,480
Speaker 1: but with no joy. They leave us with no option

500
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 1: to let to pursue our complaint in the court. So

501
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 1: that seems to be ongoing. It was no recent update

502
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 1: on it, Yeah I didn't see one, but there is

503
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 1: a different recent update there is, and the collection is

504
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: coming together again, although it did briefly um Um Damien

505
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 1: Hurst again and he did buy some of the lots.

506
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: Was basically kind of using his connections in the art

507
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 1: world to try to put this together. In the Museum

508
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 1: of Everything, which is a pop up museum in Primrose

509
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 1: Hill in London, which I apparently used to be a

510
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 1: Victoria It was a dairy in Victorian era and then

511
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:31,520
Speaker 1: it became a recording studio get acoustics, and then it

512
00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 1: was at least for this time, a pop up museum space,

513
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 1: and so he actually did get together a lot of

514
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: the pieces, even some that had been sold to collectors overseas.

515
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:43,680
Speaker 1: I know there were some pieces that were here in

516
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 1: the US that were being shipped over for the collection.

517
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,200
Speaker 1: And it ran until the end of at least I

518
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:54,800
Speaker 1: don't know if any portion of it continued um as

519
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 1: an exhibit, but I have a feeling this is probably

520
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: not the last time we will see people will trying

521
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 1: to put this together, because it's odd how lovingly people

522
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: look at this collection. There's just something about it that

523
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 1: it it makes you want to like pull for it

524
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,000
Speaker 1: to all come back together. It does, I mean, I

525
00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 1: was it's interesting to look at these and it is

526
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: such a i don't know, a strange slice of Victorian life.

527
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 1: But the fascination that people have with it, even though

528
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:32,320
Speaker 1: this is clearly not in style today, is interesting. And

529
00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 1: that there are these people who are investing great deals

530
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 1: of money in it too to try to reunite these

531
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 1: pieces and bring them all back together. Yeah, it's I mean,

532
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 1: when you read accounts of people that were trying to

533
00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: save it during the two thousand three auction. I mean

534
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: there's really like a sense a tone of just dismay

535
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,479
Speaker 1: and heart heart that it's you know, a pity they

536
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 1: think it's a national treasure. Why isn't you know, some

537
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:05,680
Speaker 1: big institution stepping in and making sure that this you know,

538
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 1: full collection museum doesn't get preserved as it is. And

539
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: I wonder to how much of that comes into nostalgia too,

540
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:17,400
Speaker 1: if if this museum was a favorite place for generations

541
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: of kids to visit, you know, through through the seventies certainly,

542
00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 1: but beyond too, and the Watts were maintaining it. Um,

543
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: just like I would be sad if the Capital finally

544
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,920
Speaker 1: put away their two headed snake. Don't let me know

545
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: if you work there and it's gone now. Um. I

546
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:36,240
Speaker 1: wonder if if people feel that way too, that this

547
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: is something um strangely British and worth maintaining and celebrating.

548
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:44,960
Speaker 1: It's also there's such a sweetness to the story that

549
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: it was just basically a simple kid in the country

550
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,000
Speaker 1: who had a love for a thing and that was

551
00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:52,480
Speaker 1: the only thing he really did his whole life. I mean,

552
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 1: he married, he had several children, but it was his

553
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 1: life's work, was his museum and his taxidermy and you know,

554
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 1: mounting animals in new and creative and artistic ways that

555
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: no one had ever thought to do before. There's just

556
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: you want to cheer for those people, so you know,

557
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 1: you want to maintain what's left of their work when

558
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 1: they're gone, and that he did have success in his

559
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: life too. Even if the collection is now going through

560
00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: there are times being split up. But um, I thought

561
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: one of the most interesting points was that at one

562
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 1: point the museum was so popular that they had to

563
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:31,720
Speaker 1: extend the railway platform in town to accommodate the people

564
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,120
Speaker 1: that were just visitors coming up, coming out to visit,

565
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 1: coming to see a kitten wedding. They got an invite

566
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: to the kitten wedding, they brought their gifts, they're ready

567
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 1: to be fabulous guests and have a good time. So

568
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll see more stories about the Potter collection, and

569
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 1: I would love to see it myself at some point.

570
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: That's like one of my bucket list items is to

571
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:55,280
Speaker 1: see at least some decent chunks of the Potter call.

572
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,960
Speaker 1: It sounds like kitten wedding is possibly in the States too.

573
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 1: If if is Damien Hurst had had trouble to the collection.

574
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:05,719
Speaker 1: They mentioned it was somewhere, but I don't know if

575
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 1: it's in in a private collection in somebody's house. This

576
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:14,000
Speaker 1: story made me sort of more interested to in just

577
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:19,359
Speaker 1: the history of taxidermy too, and um, you know how

578
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:24,359
Speaker 1: it got to this extremely decorative point in the late

579
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 1: Victorian era, but it's earlier roots too. And and also

580
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 1: I couldn't help but thinking of the health issues to

581
00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 1: working with the chemicals. I mean, he lives to a

582
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 1: rifled age. It obviously doesn't seem to have affected his health,

583
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:43,360
Speaker 1: but arsenic there's a lot of a lot of sludge

584
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:50,200
Speaker 1: and gross chemicals that are not kind to the the body. Um. Yeah,

585
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,120
Speaker 1: and it's funny too because we love these things so much.

586
00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:58,279
Speaker 1: But I the idea of preserving a beloved pet has

587
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:00,640
Speaker 1: certainly fallen out of favor. I mean, I know there

588
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 1: are people that still do it from time to time,

589
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: but they're definitely outliers of like the pet parent community.

590
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,480
Speaker 1: I know fewer people I don't know anymore personally, I

591
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: don't think that's done that, um, but I know people

592
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,359
Speaker 1: do it. So it is kind of a it's an

593
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 1: interesting lens that we can kind of flare out where

594
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:21,520
Speaker 1: we really love this, but we would be a little

595
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:25,799
Speaker 1: creeped out by our own you know, animals being part

596
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:29,279
Speaker 1: of something like that. Well, in that game preservation is

597
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:34,720
Speaker 1: still a totally mainstream Yeah, I'm suddenly having a flash

598
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,359
Speaker 1: to the Field Museum in Chicago. Have you ever been

599
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 1: a huge taxidermy collection. I have not. I thought of

600
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:49,759
Speaker 1: the Biltmorehouse in there, the Gentleman's Room essentially, Uh, there

601
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:56,280
Speaker 1: is a huge collection of of game. Yeah. If anyone

602
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 1: is in Chicago or is visiting Chicago, go to the

603
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,040
Speaker 1: Field and I'm you know, it's it blows you away

604
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:05,040
Speaker 1: just how many specimens they have on display. They even

605
00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: have the Ghost in the Darkness, the lions that were

606
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:11,160
Speaker 1: murderous um that there was a movie about them there

607
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:14,840
Speaker 1: on display there. I mean, it's just walking through museum

608
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:19,000
Speaker 1: Hall af from Museum Hall of mounted animals. It's kind

609
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: of fascinating. I'm sure we're going to hear from our

610
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:24,240
Speaker 1: I hope. I bet they can give us all manner

611
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:27,399
Speaker 1: of insights that you don't always get when you're doing

612
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 1: regular research. There are things that you learn from the

613
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 1: inside of any trade that you would not normally learn

614
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:34,560
Speaker 1: when you're reading about it. Or studying about it, so

615
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: I look forward to those, So, Holly, before we go

616
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:41,200
Speaker 1: on to listener mail, we're gonna return to one of

617
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:46,359
Speaker 1: the stuff you missed in history class classic features, Love

618
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,399
Speaker 1: of Good Movie Club, any excuse to watch a film?

619
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 1: Time for listener. Now, first of all, I wanted to

620
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 1: do a thank you for listener Kara from Utah, who

621
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,400
Speaker 1: as uh she makes her own jewelry and sells it

622
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 1: on Etsy at Caribou Classics, and she was so kind

623
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 1: to mark this post transition by sending ear rings for

624
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 1: the four of us. They're beautiful for Dablina, for you,

625
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,440
Speaker 1: for Tracy, for me, and they are lovely. So thank

626
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:22,720
Speaker 1: you so much Kara. And the sporting our or jangly

627
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: ear rings. Although not under our under our big headphones,

628
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 1: we were discomfort and this man um, so thank you

629
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:34,640
Speaker 1: to her. Also, Holly, I picked out this email just

630
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: for you and for Ulter Potter too. It just seemed

631
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:43,520
Speaker 1: perfectly in line. So this email came from listener Nick,

632
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: who is a curator at a collection in London, and

633
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:55,880
Speaker 1: he wrote to suggest we cover Jeremy Bentham. Now I

634
00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,720
Speaker 1: knew the name Jeremy Bentham because of loss. He's actually

635
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:04,120
Speaker 1: come up last host change Um. Candice came back for

636
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 1: a few episodes to join me and Candice and I

637
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: have both big Lost fans. We talked about famous names

638
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,759
Speaker 1: on Lost. Jeremy Bentham was one of them, but Nick

639
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 1: suggested that we talked about him in a little more details, specifically,

640
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:24,760
Speaker 1: dedicate an episode to what happened to Jeremy Bentham after

641
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:29,200
Speaker 1: his death. Nick went on to write, he was dissected

642
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 1: by his friends and displayed in his friend Dr Southwood

643
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:37,319
Speaker 1: Smith's surgery until eighteen fifty. After this, he came to

644
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:40,799
Speaker 1: University College London and has been moved around a bit

645
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 1: until coming to rest in our South cloisters. Um, and

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00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: so he was suggesting it at his collection. There's quite

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00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 1: a bit on Bentham, but I thought nothing could be

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00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: more appropriate than that for the topic we just discussed.

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00:38:56,200 --> 00:39:01,320
Speaker 1: I mean, he's fascinating not display it in a tableau

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00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:08,280
Speaker 1: attending a kitten wedding, but that's really interesting. Maybe maybe

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00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:10,360
Speaker 1: we'll follow up to with a little more how to

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00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:13,879
Speaker 1: Jeremy then thought point um, and then one more thing,

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00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:17,759
Speaker 1: an awesome postcard. It looks exactly like a shingle, like

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00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 1: the kind of store would would hang outside of its door.

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00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:23,600
Speaker 1: I think I might put it outside of my cube.

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00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 1: It's very cute. Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective to Baker Street.

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00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,840
Speaker 1: So thank you to Tim and Joey from Alexandra Virginia

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00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 1: who sent us this postcard. Although do you think if

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00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:40,280
Speaker 1: I hang this outside my cube our coworkers will start

660
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:44,840
Speaker 1: trying to get me to salve mystery the case of

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00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:47,319
Speaker 1: the missing lunch? There you go, Or you could just

662
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:49,440
Speaker 1: start stealing things and see if people come to you

663
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:52,840
Speaker 1: looking for help. I can cross out Sherlock and write Sarah.

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00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:56,760
Speaker 1: There you go. All sorts of ideas. If you would

665
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:59,399
Speaker 1: like to learn more about the topic we've discussed today,

666
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:01,439
Speaker 1: you can go to our website and enter the term

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Speaker 1: taxidermy in our search part and you will get how

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Speaker 1: research almost anything your mind can conjure by visiting our website,

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Speaker 1: which is how stuff works dot com. For more on

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Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com