Many exotic birds were also slaughtered during the Victorian era for feathers as a part of a newly emerging fashion trend in hat making. The book first examines how bird collecting for natural history museums began with Alfred Russell Wallace and then then Lord Rothschild. This collection was located at the UK's Natural History Museum storage facility located at Tring, England.īefore the story of this crime is detailed, the author examines how the obsession for birds and bird feathers over the years have had catastrophic effects in the Ornithological world. This book focuses on the use of feathers from exotic birds in fly tying and how that obsession lead to a crime against one of the world's most foremost museum bird collections in the world. For the uninitiated, fly tying is the process of creating an artificial lure for fishing with the use of furs, feather, threads and hooks. In this book, Kirk Wallace Johnson opens up to the reader the world of "Fly Tying". Unfortunately for curators, some of these obsessions may lead to bad intentions against their collections. Artifacts that may attract interest from people with odd obsessions. Curators may often forget during their busy day to day activities that they are charged with the caretaking of priceless artifacts. This book should be required reading for all museum curators.
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