Wild Animal Skins in Victorian Britain by Ann C. Colley - 9781032927091

Wild Animal Skins in Victorian BritainZoos, Collections, Portraits, and Maps\nAuthor(s): Ann C. Colley\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781032927091, 978-1032927091\nSynopsis\nWhat did the 13th Earl of Derby, his twenty-two-year-old niece, Manchesters Belle Vue Zoo, and even some ordinary laborers all have in common? All were avid collectors and exhibitors of exotic, and frequently unruly, specimens. In her study of Britains craze for natural history collecting, Ann C. Colley makes extensive use of archival materials to examine the challenges, preoccupations, and disordered circumstances that attended the amassing of specimens from faraway places only vaguely known to the British public. As scientific institutions sent collectors to bring back exotic animals and birds for study and classification by anatomists and zoologist, it soon became apparent that collecting skins rather than live animals or birds was a relat.