The Booth Collection
Founded by Edward Thomas Booth, naturalist and keen on all aspects of Natural History. He was born in 1840, to a moneyed family. Early years were spent in education in Brighton and then on to Trinity College Cambridge where is studied only intermittently, as finally asked to leave having spent more time on the fens shooing and observing birds rather than studying.
Edward returned to Brighton in 1865 and he created the Booth Collection in 1874. The taxidermy museum was dubbed “home of the dioramas". Being one of the first exponents of observing birds in their natural habitat and then re-creating this as close as practical possible.
His detailed notes and sketches bear witness to this detail. Booth is one of the finest Victorian Natural History bird taxidermy collections in the UK.
Booth like many of his contemporaries was a dedicated naturalist and a genuine “character”. He even had is own carriage at Brighton Station to hook up to the next outward bound train whenever a new or rare bird was spotted
Edward Thomas Booth. 1840-1890. Pictured here holding a walking stick which is in fact a "410" shotgun.
Introduction to the First Edition dated 1876 by Mr. E T Booth in his own words
As a catalogue does not need a Preface, I will simply state by way of introduction that all scientific arrangements has been given up as hopeless in a collection where the chief objection has been to endeavour to represent the birds in situations somewhat similar to those in which they were obtained. Many of the cases, indeed being copied from sketches taken on the actual spots where the birds themselves were shot. The few notes that I have recorded are solely my personal observations and with two or three exceptions (all noted) not a book of reference has been opened. Those who expect to find a long list of rarities I am afraid will be sadly disappointed as in order to avoid exhibiting or describing a specimen with which I was only acquainted by hearsay, I have restricted the collection entirely to birds that have fallen to my own gun during my various excursions in the British Isles.
Light-Ship Newarp
Interesting fact that Booth undertaking scientific studies used to receive wings from the above ship of birds that during migration either died on the boat struck the rigging or collided with the actual light. This boat was stationed in the North Sea many miles from land. The actual distance and location is not given, but around the Norfolk coast line. A summary of wings received during the Autumn of 1872 is as follows and makes interesting reading: Lark 520 Starling 348 Stormy Petrel 45 Brown Linnet 15 Greenfinch 21 Brambling 6 Fieldfare 2 Forktailed Petrel 1 Knot 2 Blackbird 20 Redwing 13 Chaffinch 15 Tree Sparrow 3 Rook 2 Snipe 1 Kittiwake 1 These are just the birds that remained on the boat and collected and takes no account of those that fell into the water and were not collected. One account was of a deckhand upon the Newarp that mistook a brown bird injured on the boat to be a fowl and received a most severe bit as a consequence. The bird turned out to be a Great Skua Booth in 1865 purchased a, then isolated house, on Dyke Road overlooking the sea, which he named "Bleak House". In 1874 when the taxidermy collection outgrew his home, he erected a much large structure in his garden which is now the museum we see today.
As well as creating the taxidermy museum he prepared some of the taxidermy items himself, having been trained by bird stuffer and barber “Kent” of St Leonard’s in Sussex. Before preparing the cases, Booth made detailed drawings of how each one should look.
These drawings were based solely on notes made in the field. Silhouettes of each bird was the created, cut to scale and arranged in the cases to create the most lifelike positions possible. Other creatures and plants were also incorporated into the taxidermy cases for additional detail.
However the principle bird taxidermy artists and stuffers who carried out most of the work at the collection were:
• TE Gunn who he knew following his collecting expeditions to the North Norfolk shores
• George Saville, who it was reported was paid £25.00 per week in 1874, who subsequently died in abject poverty in a Birmingham workhouse.
• Pratt of Brighton
• Brazenor of Brighton and
• Swaysland of Brighton
The principle method of obtaining the birds for the collection was to shoot them. This was a legal pastime during the 19th Century. Other methods included trapping, netting and taking both the young and eggs during the brreding season. Meticulous notes were also made where and when the specimens were taken, the date and the location.
Unfortunately most of the taxidermy cases are not signed so it is therefore difficult to distinguish who did what and when. However the cases are of the “best quality taxidermy” and then attention to detail is immense.There are some that bear an internal oak plaque with gilt writing bearing the name "Taxidermists" Pratt and Sons of Brighton. These are wonderfully executed. Edward Booth died early at the age of 50, where upon he commuted the contents of his taxidermy collection to the people of Brighton.
Booth should never be regarded as a commercial entity. His taxidermy collection until his death was a private resource. Commercial taxidermists such as Gunn, Pratt, Spicer and Ward produced cases for the mass Victorian market. These were typically small in size and easily displayed in Victorian rooms. The commercial Victorian Taxidermists also created very large dioramas for museums, but Booth wanted a particular type of dispaly, based around his field sketches. Booths collection was housed in a purpose built structure and some taxidermy cases are incorporated into the fabric of the building. Small dislays they are not. However the dioramas are spectacular and show birds in the true habitats.Booth's home has long been redeveloped, no longer is the house on Dyke Road isolated. So much for progress.
I would like to thank Mr Jeremy Adams, Curator at the Museum for his assistance in the preparation of this document and also for permission to use the pictures detailed below: The Booth Museum can be reached on 01273 292 782, for details of opening times. Admission is free; the visit however is priceless if you are interested in this subject. With reference to the descriptive text is from "A Catalogue of Cases of Birds in the Dyke Rd Museum, Brighton, dated 1911". Many thanks to the Booth Museum for this book
Find over half a million insects and animals, 50,000 fossils, minerals and rocks, 30,000 plants and 11,000 books and maps dating back over three centuries at the Booth Museum. The creation of ornithologist Edward Booth, it houses his collection of British birds displayed in recreated natural settings, together with butterflies and beetles, fossil fish and dinosaur bones.
Pictures of the Booth Collection can be found both on this page and and also on this lin
http://www.taxidermy4cash.com/Booth.html
