MODERN MUSEUMS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 10

MODERN MUSEUMS

Exhibits Displayed In Scenes From Life

CALIFORNIAN INSTRUCTOR

“The day of dead museums is past —at least we do our best to make them as seemingly alive as possible,” said Mr. Frank Tose, chief of tlie department of exhibits of the Californian Academy of Science, at present dispensing his peculiar knowledge to a class of museum preparators at the Dominion Museum. Mr. Tose was referring more particularly to exhibits of animal life—the fauna of a country. The Californian Academy of Science has in its African Hall one of the finest displays of the fauna of Africa that is to be seen anywhere in the world thanks to an endowment by Mr. Leslie Simson, of California. Experts were sent to Africa to secure the animals, and Mr. Tose accompanied the expedition to take notes and make sketches, as well as to procure specimens of tree, plant, and grass life in order that he could show animals exactly to nature’s plan. The exhibits are shown behind glass; each display is 12 feet in depth and forms a complete stage picture, with the real or semi-real foreground blending almost imperceptibly with the background. Scenes from Life. Each exhibit is a scene from life. One represents an African water hole; it occupies the whole of one end of the great hall, and shows, disposed in a natural setting, giraffes, zebras, and deer of different families gathered round the water hole. So natural do they look that it has been said that if someone shouted the animals would all dash off. This display is 54 feet in length, 33 feet in height, and 24 feet in depth. Mr. Tose says that the academy, of which the African hall is only a part, is privately endowed. That, is to say it receives no financial support from either the State or Federal Government; the municipality of San Francisco (the academy is situated in Golden Gate Park) merely pays for the maintenance of the acquarium attached. Mr. Tose was selected by the Carnegie Institute of New York to come to New Zealand to teach something of what he knows about museums and museum displays. He was born in England, but lived for 17 years in Canada and 16 years in the United States. In Canada he was a commercial taxidermist, but that term has a limited meaning only, having to do with the stuffing of animals and preparation of heads. The term now used, “museum preparator,” covers a much wider field, and has to do with the manner of displaying the exhibits naturally and happily in their natural habitat, or what looks like it. An Art in Itself. Mr. Tose indicated that the day of exhibiting a stuffed animal, each in its own glass case on a stand, was over. The present-day fashion was to display part of the scene in which they lived. The displays of African animals, with the exception of the great “water hole” masterpiece, were each 25 feet in length, 22 feet in height, and 12 feet in depth, and the business of the preparator was to make the wax leaves of the trees, simulate the grass, plants and flowers and paint the backgrounds in their natural tones and tints. To do this artistically is an art in itself. At the present time there are preparators from Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Wellington and Invercargill receiving daily practical instruction from Mr. Tose, absorbing the knowledge which they hope to put into practice later on in the transformation of our museum exhibits. Mr. Tose thinks there are fine chances here for the preparators to make exhibits of New Zealand birds and Australian animals in the modern style. He is to be in New Zealand until the end of January, when lie will return to California. (Picture on Page 17.)