Scientist Emil O. Deere
(Deere & Lydia's Bethany -- Lydia's Photography, 1906 - 1925)
(Deere & Lydia's Bethany -- Lydia's Photography, 1906 - 1925)
Deere's Bethany College Classes in Old Main
On the fourth floor of Old Main was Room 38 where the work of taxidermy was carried out by Deere with his ongoing classes through the years for decades. It was to his classes that Lydia would occasionally bring refreshments to the students. On this particular day she may have "setup her husband's class" for these photographs, showing some of the assignments on which they were working.
- Deere's Old Main Classroom Taxidermy Class -
An art form in itself, skilled and timely, taxidermy required one to be extremely familiar with anatomy, skinning, dissection, sculpture and painting as well as tanning. It was in this Old Main classroom that the three bison, the horse known as Dobbin, the two pelicans, countless other birds and animals were transformed through this art form and were first mounted for display at the Bethany College Museum.
Many of these items, part of the Bethany College Museum Natural History Collection, were moved to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum, the destination for the college museum in the summer of 1966, due to the forthcoming razing of Old Main in 1968.
Many of these items, part of the Bethany College Museum Natural History Collection, were moved to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum, the destination for the college museum in the summer of 1966, due to the forthcoming razing of Old Main in 1968.
- A Floor Plan of Old Main -
Fourth Floor
Note Room 38 "used as Taxidermy Workshop"
Source: Found on page 350 of Dr. Leon Lundstrom's 1990 "History of Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas."
- a younger Deere and his students in his Old Main Classroom engaged in skinning and dissection -
Courtesy from the Bethany College Archives.
- Deere's class with students working on a science assignment with taxidermy exhibits in the background -
Photograph by Lydia Sohlberg Deere
- "Dr. Emil O. Deere...amid the test tubes, vials, and pickled specimens--a scholar who cared about people."
From the Centennial of Bethany College 1881-1981 publication, c1981, page 9.
- Deere's class and student's conducting experiments -
Photograph by Lydia Sohlberg Deere
Go HERE to the next Bethany College Building: "Messiah" Auditorium / Ling Auditorium / Ling Gymnasium.
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Sources for information on the Swedish Bethany College photographs comes Dr. Emory Lindquist’s 1975 book, Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college, and Dr. Leon Lungstrom's 1990 book, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas.
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"Let Us Celebrate Them"
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Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
"Let Us Celebrate Them"
* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
