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FACT: John Edmonstone is one of very few Black taxidermists remembered by history—and he had a huge impact
By Divya Anantharaman
Born in 1790 in Guyana, a British colony at the time, he began life as an enslaved person at a timber plantation owned by Charles Edmonstone. Not much is documented about his early life, but we know when he met with the naturalist Charles Waterton-a friend and later an in-law of Charles Edmonstone. In 1812, Waterton was in town to gather and study birds from the Guyanese jungle-a major task since there are over 700 confirmed species! So as an accomplished and eccentric taxidermist (https://wakefieldmuseumsandlibraries.blogspot.com/2014/03/charles-watertons-creations-museumweek_25.html) he taught John Edmonstone the scientific art of taxidermy.
In 1817, Charles Edmonstone returned to Scotland and John came with him. We don’t know if he was already emancipated before he arrived, but he would have been automatically upon entering Scotland due to the changing laws of the time. By 1824, John Edmonstone settled in Edinburgh, and started working for the University of Edinburgh’s zoological museum. Taxidermy was a lucrative business at the time, both scientifically and culturally, so John’s skills were much in demand. He also taught taxidermy classes to students at the nearby Edinburgh university. One of these students was a 16 year old Charles Darwin. He started the taxidermy…
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