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Taxidermy Dioramas
“It’s important to display sexual dimorphism in a display to show how males and females of a single species can look so different - I know this. But these taxidermy birds were donated by a Victorian man, and the subtext behind HOW they are displayed regresses back to old-fashioned values that do not apply to modern society; nuclear family values were heavily considered during the construction of this display. The smaller female is depicted lower down in the cabinet in order to make room for the ‘more impressive’, colourful, large, male bird.
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I should not have to prove my gender is worth displaying with as much reverence as my male counterparts. That tells me that this queer-friendly space will still prioritise its men and their comforts first regardless of their labels. I am allowed to be plain and still be important.”
Vic - Proud Trust, Proud Futures Placement
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Natural history displays and dioramas created in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often reflect the normalised family groupings, typically with the male in an elevated position, and the female caring for the young. Many of these dioramas are still part of museum collections today. This trail invites you to think about about what the display of natural history tells us about the history of museum collections, and how we might use these collection differently today.
Women in the Victorian age had no rights to vote, sue, or own property. When they got married, they became a possession of their husband, and all their rights were legally given over to their spouse, including the rights to what their bodies produced; children, sex and domestic labour.
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During the nineteenth century, the trade in exotic animals emerged as an important part of empire building. Animal capture represented the conquest of distant exotic lands, and their display in scientific zoological collection throughout Europe acted as a demonstration of imperial prowess. The same was true of museums. Although large scale collecting was not a new thing, the increase in the establishment of public museums coincided with the imperial drive in Europe and other social and political factors, including the Industrial Revolution and the widespread pursuit of scientific knowledge. Museums became places for the physical representation of these ideas. However, the representations of animals were often ideologically charged, and connected with ideas of class, race, gender and morality.
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Objects were much more than representations of cultures and scientific specimens, museums also formed part of the cultural production of gender. Male specimens were seen as the scientific ideal within natural history and ‘great men’ were represented as the only makers of history.
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In recent years there has been a conscious drive to seek out and recognise diversity, celebrate queerness, and challenge the traditionally projected assumptions about gender, sex and heterosexual desire, as well as the privileges afforded in interpretations and display of the nuclear family as the default model for society.
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