Haslemere Educational Museum
Natural History
Mammals
The mammal collection has over 250 specimens mostly from England and Africa, dating from the 1880s to the 1950s. This collection holds the three main types of mammal including carnivores, insectivores and herbivores (mostly bovine). The range spans from red squirrels, shrews, stoats and badgers to pangolins, platypus, monkeys and antelope.The main collector in the mammal collection is Mr. C.I. Blackburne. During 1913 he visited British East Africa and brought back ten antelope’s heads, two zebra’s heads, one rhino’s head and one jackal’s head. The taxidermist company, Rowland Ward Ltd of London, mounted each head onto a wooden shield with an ivory nameplate, as a trophy for Mr. Blackburne. He gave the game heads to our museum in 1929 and most of these are on display in our Natural History Gallery.
Highlights from the Collection
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| African Pangolin (Manis maerura) |
The taxidermist was Edward Gerrard and Sons. Edward Gerrard senior was a taxidermist at the British Museum (Natural History) from 1841-c.1890. He was an associate of Charles Darwin and even mounted some specimens for him. The commercial firm of Edward Gerrard´s was founded in 1853 and it remained a family business until it closed in the 1960s.
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| African Lion and Lioness (Panthera leo) |
These animals came to the museum in a Rowland Ward taxidermy case. Rowland Ward (1848-1912) was a world-renowned taxidermist. He was trained in the trade by his father Henry, a former employee of the famous American naturalist John Audubon. Rowland went on to establish his own business and operated business and operated out of premises in Piccadilly, London.
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Meet Arthur the museum's mascot, a six foot stuffed Siberian Bear. Apart from being well loved by many residents of Haslemere over the years, Arthur is a prime example of the Victorian attitude to wildlife - his original role in life was as a dumb waiter. Nowadays the museum operates a programme of preservation and natural history research.
