For the past couple of years, I’ve been on the hunt for documentary traces of inanimate representations of a long-extinct animal. The particular objects of my search are woolly mammoth “restorations” sold and displayed by Henry A. Ward (1834-1906), proprietor of the Rochester-based museum supply company Ward’s Natural Science Establishment. Ward’s restorations were hyper-realistic ersatz models of mammoths made of metal, wood, and papier mâché, enveloped in a layer of jute or pampas grass “fur.”

In the spring of 2023, the Mammoth History Lab and Prof. Rebecca Woods partnered with Toronto-based performance company Good Old Neon (GON) to create a short theatre piece for children. The project was, among other things, an experiment in translating the insights of scholarly history into a register accessible to, and enjoyable for, children.

The California Academy of Sciences is a veritable mega-museum. More than just a research academy as it was originally intended to be when founded in 1853, it is now comprised of a natural history museum, aquarium, planetarium, and even an indoor, human-made rainforest. Out of many possible reasons to visit the Academy, I went there this past summer to see two particular specimens: 70750 (mammoth hair and skin) and 70790 (mammoth hair).

Tilesius's De skeleto mammonteo Sibirico was the first complete and fulsome scientific study of the Adams mammoth. An important text for the intellectual history of the early-nineteenth century, and for the history of mammoth “ice mummies,” as their permafrost-preserved remains are sometimes called, Tilesius's work remains untranslated from the original Latin. Written in a difficult idiom of Latin commonly used in scientific texts produced in early modern Europe, it presents challenges to a modern translator.