Natural history museums, with their vast halls of taxidermed bodies and bones, encourage education and conservation. Here, we encounter animals we may never see in the wild; or, in the case of a Stegosaurus or Wooly Mammoth, our geologic age.
Still, there's voyeuristic glint to the glass cases. The bodies are like puppets or manikins, uncanny in their resemblance to life. Some of the older specimens are not put together properly. They are cross-eyed or have visible stitches. Like an old hotel from the 1800s, the exhibit feels theatrical and out-dated. Faded backdrops provide a setting for sometimes violent scenes: A bear ripping over a fish, a lion attacking a camel.
In these animals, we see the work of human hands.
