In " Beastly Possessions," Sarah Amato writes that "these objects reflected the Victorian and Edwardian belief that animals should be useful to humans, even in death." But even if the animal wasn't tied to an appliance, they were twisted into morbid manifestations, some of which are said to contain "the perfect tension between the cute and the perverse," according to Joanna Ebenstein, co-founder and creative director of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, per BBC. Some women even wore hummingbird earrings. The creatures were propped into poses or " integrated into human society" as a chair or a lamp. In this way, taxidermy became a way to not only collect nature, but to legitimize it through conquest towards a " systematization of nature." In " Imperial Eyes," Mary Louise Pratt writes that "The eighteenth-century classificatory systems created the task of locating every species on the planet, extracting it from its particular, arbitrary surroundings (the chaos), and placing it in its appropriate spot in the system (the order - book, collection, or garden) with its new written, secular European name." Many taxidermied creatures were especially valued if the skin came from an animal recently killed in its country of origin, "as if an element of its environment travelled with the creature," according to History Today. Taxidermy soon became a key component for Carl Linnaeus' classification system as he sent his students around the world to collect and mount samples in the 1700s. Other early examples include a crocodile from Egypt and a dodo bird from Mauritius. One of the first documented attempts of taxidermy comes from the 1500s, when a wealthy Dutch businessman tried to " retain in deceased form" some birds that suffocated in transport from the East Indies. The body is typically stuffed with cotton or acid-free tissue to maintain the original shape. In addition, this type of taxidermy requires upkeep. Study skins are primarily concerned with "scientific study" rather than "showcasing the animal." And since preservation is the main goal, the skin will be preserved using natural materials like cedar dust instead of chemicals. This can take up to several months to do properly in order to avoid affecting the creature's appearance. Afterwards, a machine dehydrates the body using vacuum pressure and cold. With freeze-dried mounts, the creature is entirely frozen, and after its internal organs are removed, it's positioned into its final pose. The mounts may be made of wood, bound wool, or wire frames, but the original bones may also be used. Animal Family writes that traditional skin-mounts typically use fresh skin, which is "immediately preserved or tanned" to prevent decay. Nowadays, there are multiple main methods for taxidermy: traditional skin-mounts, freeze-dried mounts, and study skins.
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