I recently visited the Field Museum and enjoyed this mount done by Carl Akeley. As old as it is, it is in remarkable condition and the work seems to have been very well done. No seems anywhere! I believe one of the bulls was shot by Akeley's wife but I don't know which one.







I believe the Akeley's shot these bulls in Kenya (1920'3-1930's) One is a single tusker.

Cool pics!

quote:

Aspen Hill Adventures: I recently visited the Field Museum

Did you also see Patterson's Maneaters of Tsavo?

Ann,

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.

Just FYI, an interesting book by Akeley:

In Brightest Africa
by Carl E. Akeley, 1923

Copies are available at www.abebooks.com
(Hint: select sort by lowest price to find a good reading copy.)

-Bob F.

Yep, saw the Tsavo lions! They have them in a nicer display than the last time I saw them. I wanted to photograph them and tried seven different times but there were ALWAYS crowds in front of the diorama so I did not get a pic.

They did look well preserved and the nice thing was the museum has the skulls from both of the lions in with the mounts. They appeared to be older males with worn teeth.

I did get a photo of a different lion, another huge maneless male from Zambia. I'll post him on a seperate thread.

Say Ann If you are interested in reading his work I have one I will gladly loan you. It is
"Adventures in the African Jungle", 1930
In that book there is a photo of another of his
"Life situations" called, "The alarm" showing an entire family mounting. There is also a photo of Carl recovering from his stomping at the hands of an angry elephant.
Frank

Ann, fantastic photos. Do they still have that 13 foot Angolan monster elephant on exhibit?

Good pics, went there as a child and would love
to go back.
Thanks

Where is this museum located, and what kind of museum is it? Is it all hunting related stuff or is that just a section of it?

Thanks,
Andy

mrlexma, I think you are thinking about the one in D.C... killed by JJ Fenekovi (?) in Angola.. or perhaps I am mistaken..__BB

quote:

Originally posted by Andy2590:
Where is this museum located, and what kind of museum is it? Is it all hunting related stuff or is that just a section of it?

Thanks,
Andy

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/

The Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Dr
Chicago, IL 60605-2496
312.922.9410

Yes, Baxter, you're right. The one I was thinking of is in the Smithsonian.

The nice thing about the Field is many of the mounts give the taxidermists name and when the animal was mounted. Most of them are REALLY old and not done well but some are very expertly done.

There are also lots of skeletons so you can study the bone structure for hunting purposes.

They also explain for the green peeacers that since there was no television 'way back then' this was the only way people got to see the animals of the world. So animals had to be killed and stuffed!

I had a nice chat with an older gentleman who was one of the museum staff, we talked a lot about hunting in Africa.

They also have a lot of animals I have never seen before. Those siaga antelope are strange looking beasts but quite small. Nilgai are smaller than I thought.

There were some nice big curly kudu but very old and faded. The bongo mounts were totally awesome and they were larger than I thought but I could not get a photo due to flash interferance. Reflection off the glass.

Lex, I did not see the other elephant you mentioned, it could be there and I missed it. I did not have all day to "do" the whole museum.