Here’s How the Smithsonian’s 70-Year-Old Bull Bison Got a Blow-Out

Conservators at the National Museum of Natural History recently spruced up a bison specimen for the new exhibition “Bison: Standing Strong”

Today, “Bison: Standing Strong” opens at the National Museum of Natural History. The exhibit, which tells the story of the rise, near extinction and recovery of the United States’ national mammal, features several scientific specimens and cultural objects that each have fascinating stories to tell.

But first we need to address the bison in the room. The exhibition’s centerpiece is a mounted specimen of a male (bull) plains bison, the stockier of North America’s two bison subspecies. In the wild, a bull plains bison can tip the scale at up to 2,600 pounds, about the weight of a small car.

The bull bison featured in “Bison: Standing Strong” was collected in Montana in 1954 and has inhabited multiple iterations of the museum’s mammal hall over the decades. However, preparing him for his starring role in the new exhibition was no easy task.

“There were challenges associated with him being a large ‘fluffy cow’ that has been on exhibit for so long,” said Rebecca Kaczkowski, a conservator at the museum who helped prepare the bison for his new digs. “First off, he’s just so big.”

Here’s how Kaczkowski and her team gave the seventy-year-old bison a fresh glow-up.

Bison Background Check

When Kaczkowski heard that the bull bison would be featured in “Bison: Standing Strong,” she started doing her homework. She combed through catalogue records tied to the specimen to learn how old the specimen was, when it arrived at the museum and which taxidermist mounted the specimen.

This information provides clues to what materials were initially used to prepare the specimen. Which is particularly useful information for older specimens that date back to when taxidermists still used toxic materials as preservation agents or pesticides like arsenic and mercury.

To check the bull bison for traces of these chemicals, Kaczkowski and her conservator colleagues Evan Cooney and Amber Kreiensieck used a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to scan several areas on the specimen. The scans revealed the elemental make-up of the mount and helped inform the design of the “playpen” to keep visitors at a safe distance in the new exhibit.

A Mammoth Move

Once they confirmed the bison had a clean bill of health, the team got to work on removing the bison from the display case it had inhabited for two decades. The bison’s legs contain steel rods that extend out the bottom of each hoof that fastened into the exhibit base. Because that exhibit base could not be moved, the team needed to build a new base for the bison to stand on. The museum partnered with exhibit specialists at Blair Inc. to design and construct the new base on wheels to transport the bison through the museum.

Once the mount was carefully removed from its old display case and secured onto the new base, the team pushed the bison to one of the museum’s freight elevators. The specimen was too large for their usual conservation lab, so the team maneuvered the massive specimen to an exhibition preparation space on the museum’s ground floor.

The bison’s move took place in the morning before the museum opened, which allowed the team to avoid the crowds that congregate in the museum’s public spaces. “It's not an accident that conservation and exhibits production staff are early risers,” Kaczkowski said.

A Bison Blow-Out

Once the bull bison was in the preparation space, Kaczowski and her colleagues got to work getting it ready for the new exhibit. Conserving taxidermy mounts can take days to months depending on the size of the specimen and any issues with its structure.

"You definitely don’t want him to look over-groomed like he’s sitting for his seventh grade school picture."

— Rebecca Kaczkowski, NMNH Conservator

Because the bull bison was structurally sound, the process only took a matter of weeks. Kaczowski sometimes re-colors a specimen but after discussions with Melissa Hawkins, the museum’s curator of mammals, and collection manager Darrin Lunde, the team decided to leave the bison with its current color despite some very subtle changes in shade. “He's not a natural blonde, so you will see some areas where the fur is a little lighter than it probably was in life,” she said.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of the prep was grooming the bison to ensure his bushy fur looked life-like instead of matted. Treating the hair of a taxidermied bison, like human hair, requires moisture, heat and pressure. But not just any hair care tool would do the trick. “On a specimen that's this old and has been treated chemically, I'm not going to use a hair dryer,” Kaczkowski said. “That's way too aggressive.”

Instead, Kaczkowski employed a preservation pencil, a fine-tipped tool that allowed her to direct small jets of steam to specific areas. She then used brushes and her fingers to carefully tousle the bison’s fur into a lifelike hairdo.

Knowing when to stop grooming is the hard part. “You definitely don’t want him to look over-groomed like he’s sitting for his seventh grade school picture.”

A Long Legacy of Smithsonian Bison

Once the bull bison was looking his best, Kaczkowski’s team helped wheel him over to “Bison: Standing Strong” and installed him into the exhibit space. Careful considerations were made to ensure the conditions inside the gallery, like light and temperature, were optimized to keep the specimen in good shape.

The bull bison joins a long line of bison that have taken star turns in Smithsonian exhibits. The institution’s first bison display dates back to the late 1880s, when Smithsonian taxidermist William Temple Hornaday mounted six specimens he had collected in Montana. The groundbreaking exhibit, which opened in 1887, depicted the bison in a lifelike environment. The display, along with a couple of live bison Hornaday brought back to live in a pen behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, or Castle, helped raise public awareness around the plight of bison, which were teetering on the edge of extinction at the time.

Hornaday’s bison mounts were on display at the Smithsonian until the 1950s, when the group was taken off display and dispersed. (Hornaday’s bison mounts were eventually reunited at a museum in Fort Benton, Montana, in 1996.) In 1954, the museum acquired three new bison specimens from the National Bison Range in Moiese, Montana, including the bull bison that now graces “Bison: Standing Strong.”

To Kaczkowski, the bull bison’s placement in the new exhibition renews Hornaday’s mission from more than a century ago. “He's still on exhibit because taxidermy is meant to educate.”

Jack Tamisiea | | Read More

Jack Tamisiea is a Science Communications Specialist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. In addition to covering all things natural history for the museum's blog, Smithsonian Voices, he tracks media coverage and coordinates filming activities for the museum's Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Jack recently completed his masters in science writing at Johns Hopkins University and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American, National Geographic and other science-focused publications. In his free time, he loves exploring the outdoors with a sketchbook and camera. You can read more of Jack's work at https://jacktamisiea.com.