[Nhcoll-l] taxidermy reformatting

[Thomas Labedz]

Greetings from the very warm portions of central North America.
I am inquiring if anyone has "reformatted" old taxidermy mounts (primarily bird but mammals too) into more compact specimens? I am faced with decreasing usable space for research-quality, study skin specimens. The largest available space within our collections is occupied by old taxidermy (estimated 500-600 pieces). These date from the mid-1800s to about 1940, are strongly suspected to contain arsenic (not all tested but those tested are positive) and have data content ranging from near zero to published documentation. Being broken, dirty, poorly done, etc. nearly all are not worthy of exhibit but are accessioned and owned by the museum. It is proposed that with care and precautions we document with photographs, carefully remove at least one wing and feet (areas most likely to have tissues for sampling) to be bagged with the tags and labels into the research collections. The remainder of each specimen to be deaccessioned and disposed through our campus hazardous materials program. Does anyone have experience with this? Problems encountered? Other tissues to save (head)? With smaller pieces I have had some success with relaxation in a humidity chamber (wet sand in a plastic tub) and careful repositioning from a life pose to a study skin pose, but the volume and size of the remainder preclude that being a viable alternative. Any advice welcome. Thank you.
And, this happens to be the week of our museum's 150th anniversary. Here is a link to a press release if you have a few minutes. https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/nebraska-celebrates-impacts-of-nu-state-museum/
Thomas

Thomas Labedz, Collections Manager

Division of Zoology and Division of Botany

University of Nebraska State Museum

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20210617/e4668d65/attachment.html>