From the September 7, 1935, issue
By Science News
NOT “STUFFED”
The old-time museum exhibit was based on the false proverb that beauty is only skin-deep. Beauty is far deeper than that. True beauty, whether in a woman or a lioness, goes clear to the bones. Beauty is form even more than color or external texture; the skin is only beauty’s container.
It is the realization of this correct philosophy of beauty that has wrought such a revolutionary improvement in museums during the past few years. Preparators now take meticulous pains to reproduce, on the mounts that are to display their skins, the exact form of the animal’s lithe grace, its smooth waves of muscle, every vibrant detail that existed under its skin while it was still breathing and moving. The museum preparator is no longer an animal stuffer, he is an animal sculptor.