Having recently curated a taxidermy display in which native species were exhibited as though in conversation with ceramic animals, I felt this book would not surprise me. How wrong I was.
The Victorian lust for the exotic and the viewing of nature close-up was on a par with our present obsession with nature documentaries on TV. Under the guise of anthropological and zoological study, some of the travelling menageries and pop-up zoos of the period brought strange and wonderful creatures from far and wide to Britain.
Simons asks: “How far would you have to travel to see a hippopotamus in Victorian Britain?” He suggests that a profusion of opportunities for doing so were available. He says that this fascination with creatures great and small was a colonial stock-take as well as an empire-building exercise.
There are some funny as well as alarming stories. So, was the boy swallowed by a tiger? You will have to read the book to find out.
Stuart Evans is the designer and technician at Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth
The Victorian lust for the exotic and the viewing of nature close-up was on a par with our present obsession with nature documentaries on TV. Under the guise of anthropological and zoological study, some of the travelling menageries and pop-up zoos of the period brought strange and wonderful creatures from far and wide to Britain.
Simons asks: “How far would you have to travel to see a hippopotamus in Victorian Britain?” He suggests that a profusion of opportunities for doing so were available. He says that this fascination with creatures great and small was a colonial stock-take as well as an empire-building exercise.
There are some funny as well as alarming stories. So, was the boy swallowed by a tiger? You will have to read the book to find out.
Stuart Evans is the designer and technician at Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth
