Reflecting the Sublime: The Rebirth of an American Icon
by Douglas Coffman
Karen Wonders, Environmental History, Volume 20, Issue 3, July 1, 2015:566-67.
https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emv077
"Immense herds of bison roaming the midwestern plains once belonged to the grand spectacles of North America’s wilderness. When toward the end of the nineteenth century the American bison, or buffalo, had come under threat of extinction, an effort was made to preserve, if not the living species, then at least as realistic a representation of it as possible. None other than William Temple Hornaday (1854–1937), America’s leading taxidermist, set out from Washington, D.C., to create on a fragment of Montana soil, a family group of six bison, for which he personally killed a young cow, a yearling calf, and an old bull. In 1888 the so-called Bison Group was given a place in the nation’s most grand storehouse of natural treasures, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, where for some time it enjoyed exceptional popularity. However, in 1958, as part of a process of exhibition modernization, the display was unceremoniously dismantled and the stuffed specimens were returned to their native Montana, becoming dispersed, and then lost and all but forgotten.
"Fortunately, not everyone forgot. Among those who remembered has been the naturalist and writer Douglas Coffman, who since the middle of the 1980s tirelessly searched for the whereabouts of Hornaday’s bison while championing the original cause of displaying the specimens in the form of a coherent habitat group with the educational purpose of raising preservationist awareness. At long last, the efforts by Coffman and his comrades in arms were crowned with success; and today, the restored Bison Group is open to the public in the Museum of the Northern Great Plains in Fort Benton, Montana.
"This remarkable preservationist story of riches-to-rags and back-to-riches has now been turned by Coffman into a fascinating detective story. In an article-sized account, published as a slender but richly illustrated booklet, the author captivates his readers by following a narrative line that takes its inspiration from the discovery of a small metal time capsule that Hornaday implanted into the plaster base of his Smithsonian Bison Group. It was “unearthed” by workers who in 1958 demolished the original base. In his own handwriting, Hornaday pleaded with posterity to honor the taxidermic integrity of his display as a lasting memorial to the icon of America’s prairie wilderness.
"The significance of Coffman’s story goes beyond instilling respect for the bison and restoring the species to its native habitat. It additionally makes a strong case for keeping alive the ideals of the early generations of environmentalists by preserving the historic habitat groups and dioramas they created in the cause of species diversity and conservation."
© Karen Wonders 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society.
https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emv077
"Immense herds of bison roaming the midwestern plains once belonged to the grand spectacles of North America’s wilderness. When toward the end of the nineteenth century the American bison, or buffalo, had come under threat of extinction, an effort was made to preserve, if not the living species, then at least as realistic a representation of it as possible. None other than William Temple Hornaday (1854–1937), America’s leading taxidermist, set out from Washington, D.C., to create on a fragment of Montana soil, a family group of six bison, for which he personally killed a young cow, a yearling calf, and an old bull. In 1888 the so-called Bison Group was given a place in the nation’s most grand storehouse of natural treasures, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, where for some time it enjoyed exceptional popularity. However, in 1958, as part of a process of exhibition modernization, the display was unceremoniously dismantled and the stuffed specimens were returned to their native Montana, becoming dispersed, and then lost and all but forgotten.
"Fortunately, not everyone forgot. Among those who remembered has been the naturalist and writer Douglas Coffman, who since the middle of the 1980s tirelessly searched for the whereabouts of Hornaday’s bison while championing the original cause of displaying the specimens in the form of a coherent habitat group with the educational purpose of raising preservationist awareness. At long last, the efforts by Coffman and his comrades in arms were crowned with success; and today, the restored Bison Group is open to the public in the Museum of the Northern Great Plains in Fort Benton, Montana.
"This remarkable preservationist story of riches-to-rags and back-to-riches has now been turned by Coffman into a fascinating detective story. In an article-sized account, published as a slender but richly illustrated booklet, the author captivates his readers by following a narrative line that takes its inspiration from the discovery of a small metal time capsule that Hornaday implanted into the plaster base of his Smithsonian Bison Group. It was “unearthed” by workers who in 1958 demolished the original base. In his own handwriting, Hornaday pleaded with posterity to honor the taxidermic integrity of his display as a lasting memorial to the icon of America’s prairie wilderness.
"The significance of Coffman’s story goes beyond instilling respect for the bison and restoring the species to its native habitat. It additionally makes a strong case for keeping alive the ideals of the early generations of environmentalists by preserving the historic habitat groups and dioramas they created in the cause of species diversity and conservation."
© Karen Wonders 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society.