Dead Museum Animals: Natural order or cultural chaos?

Abstract

When people think about 'traditional' museums, they often think first of natural history museums, founded in the nineteenth century at the height of a fashion for collecting. Thus the 'traditional museum display' is often regarded as a cabinet of specimens - dead animals or pressed plants - laid out to illustrate scientific principles. In some cases, it is enough for specimens to be 'curious', and therefore entertaining. Cabinets of curiosities have been important both in museums and in private houses, particularly in the Victorian era when many of Australia's colonial museums were founded. At the heart of these museums was their collection of stuffed and preserved animals - scientific specimens filled cabinets and drawers and drove museums' scientific research programs.