NMNH Receives Fénykövi Elephant Hide

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Summary

J.J. Fénykövi, an European big-game hunter, donates a 2-ton elephant hide to the National Museum of Natural History. William Brown (Smithsonian chief taxidermist) and Norman Deaton mounted the exhibit after a tanner scraped and soaked the hide to make it thin and pliable. Brown observed the habits of elephants at the National Zoological Park to create a scientifically accurate model of an elephant moving at a fast walk, trunk lifted and ears fanned out. The elephant was moved to the rotunda of NMNH and unveiled March 1959.

Subject

  • Brown, William L
  • Deaton, Norman
  • Fénykövi Elephant
  • National Museum of Natural History (U.S.)
  • Natural History Building
  • National Zoological Park (U.S.)

Notes

  • "Torch" gives date of unveiling as March 2, 1959.
  • The "Torch," 4/1981, p. 3

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, [email protected]

Category

Chronology of Smithsonian History

Date

1955

Topic

  • Taxidermy
  • Animals
  • Elephants

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