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Abstract: Animals for education. Taxidermy display in school cabinets in Chile (twentieth century)

Dra. Carolina Valenzuela Matus, PhD Universidad Autónoma de Chile 

carolina.valenzuela01@uautonoma.cl 

 Animals for education. Taxidermy display in school cabinets in Chile (twentieth century) 

The school cabinets of Natural History were considered key to teaching Natural Sciences according to diverse educative proposal implemented during the 19th and 20th centuries in Latin America. These ideas had a great impact in educational programs in Chile. In this context, the State and the private invested a great amount of money to acquire taxidermy collections for those school cabinets, among other collections such as minerals and plants. In this paradigm, taxidermy display was essential to connects the young students with a particular vision of a subdued nature and it was a means to know an exotic natural world to which few had access, so polar bear, alligators, gorillas and lions were some of the pieces frequently bought to show this diversity. Nowadays, the ancient school cabinets of Natural History have been transformed in historical-patrimonial spaces that allow us to inquire on the relation between science and education and the approaches to a reinterpreted Nature from a scientific-pedagogic perspective. In this 20-minute paper, we emphasize the collections of taxidermy existing in those school cabinets and the evolution of its significance. At the same time, we identify what have been the preservation efforts done, reflecting on its projections as an important heritage. 

Keywords: school cabinets, pedagogy, natural histories, taxidermy, Chile.

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