![]() Although he is 85 now, and his son, Bruce, runs the business, David literally keeps in hand in the work "degreasing a Cooper's hawk. It is the home of David Schwendeman, the last chief taxidermist of the American Museum of Natural History. The neighborhood taxidermy shop, a "dark, dreary" affair "that dispenses business cards from the jaws of a leathery old alligator," where skeptical relatives had passed numerous times without entering, is a wee more than ordinary. Her trip began with a visit down the road from her family's home in New Jersey. ![]() More than five years and many trips later, she gives us in "Still Life" an up-close look at this little-known world, its history and the characters who inhabit it. Melissa Milgrom is a reporter, who, after stumbling into an African safari's "carcass room," decided to find out what modern taxidermy is all about. Today this "magical mix of science, art and theater," although still a major component of museums, survives mainly on hunters who want a trophy. ![]() Taxidermy had its heyday during the Victorian period when travelers returned laden with preserved specimens for the edification and viewing pleasure of the homefolks, either privately or in natural history museums. ![]()
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