Nature's Mirror

Deeply researched and beautifully written, Nature's Mirror is a fascinating account of the development of an American school of taxidermy and the transformation that movement wrought on natural history museums at the turn of the twentieth century. Andrei charts how the men of Ward's Natural Science Establishment revolutionized animal displays and in the process redefined the public work of natural history museums, awakened Americans to humanity's impact on the natural world, and pioneered wildlife conservation practices that saved dozens of species from extinction. --Heather Ewing, author of The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian Andrei has written an important book that fills the gape in our understanding of the modern conservation movement. Nature's Mirror celebrates the unsung heroes who used the tools of taxidermy and museum design to ensure that humans retained their connection to wildlife as they transitioned from people of the land to urban dwellers. At the turn of the last century, before efficient field photography, they created artistic renderings of animals that few would have an opportunity to see and imbedded, in our minds, accurate images of the creatures with whom we share this world. In the process, they saved many species and showed us that extinction is not inevitable. --Dan O'Brien, author of Great Plains Bison Nature's Mirror has rearranged the furniture in my head. Its author has rescued a group of turn-of-the-twentieth-century taxidermists/naturalists who in fact were crucial players in stopping the wholesale extinction of some of America's most cherished animals. Read this book and you're never going to stand before a natural history exhibit in one of America's great museums and think of it in the same way again. --Dan Flores, New York Times bestselling author of American Serengeti and Coyote America