Essay Series

Indian Taxidermy

For roughly a century, southern India was home to some of the largest commercial taxidermy operations in the world. This series follows that history: the museum taxidermists working in Mysore before the famous firms arrived, the rival houses of Theobald Brothers and Van Ingen & Van Ingen, the factory system and its numbered order books, the printed manuals the trade produced, and the wildlife legislation that finally brought the industry to a close.