Take a look at these artifacts from the Myrtle Jane Hinkhouse collection. The first two photos feature recognizable animals–a pair of boar and a goose. As for the final artifact, we’re not sure what it is… any internet/archives sleuths have an idea about the identity of this creature?
Hinkhouse served as a medical missionary in China from 1916 until March of 1943, when she was taken to an internment camp run by the Japanese military. She was released and returned to the United States in December of that year. The items pictured above are only a small sampling of what she collected during her travels. This collection is currently being processed and the finding aid will be available soon.
–Laurel
Myrtle Jane Hinkhouse papers, Iowa Women’s Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.
That cute little guy at the bottom is…..a tiger! How do I know? There is an artistic convention that tigers have the character 王 (king) on their foreheads because…well, because tigers often have stripes that look like “王” on their foreheads. Thus, they are the “king of beasts.”
Tiger shoes, tiger hats, and tiger bibs are also traditional presents for babies in China.
Oh dear, we seem to have missed International Tiger Day (July 29th).
With something like only 3,000 tigers in the wild today, Global Tiger Day is a way to focus attention on and start thinking of ways to protect natural habitats and raise public support for tiger conservation issues. Learn more about the Smithsonian’s Tiger Conservation Partnership.
Image from Natural History of the Animal Kingdom for the Use of Young People (1889) by William F. Kirby.
(One more thing— if you’re on instagram, check out our posts on @SmithsonianNMNH’s feed—we’ve taken over for the week and would love you to check it out & follow them if you don’t already!)
July 29th is International Tiger Day! Rapidly losing natural habitats, tigers face a precarious future. International Tiger Day was initiated to raise awareness about tiger conservation and the need for global responses to protecting natural habitats of these big kittehs.
The image is from The Wonders of the Animal Kingdom (1830) by Robert Huish, who, incidentally, was not very highly regarded in his time. In a stinging review of his book, The Late Voyage of Captain Sir John Ross, R.N. to the Arctic Regions…, the Quarterly Review (July 1835), called him “one of those industrious but unscrupulous scribblers know as booksellers’ hacks.” Unscrupulous as he may be, we still think the illustrations in the Wonders of the Animal Kingdom are worth perusing, even if the first few lines of the introduction desperately need an editor.
“The maternal affection and infantile playfulness stand in pleasing contrast to the fierceness and cruelty possessed by this species in such superlative degree.”
Description reminiscent of another species which is not at all endangered.
Illustration from Brehm’s Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. by Alfred Edmund Brehm ; copiously illustrated with wood cuts and color-plates by Fr. Specht … [et al] ; translated from the third German edition as edited by Prof. Dr. Pechuel-Loesche and William H Volume 1, Mammalia /
(Source: Flickr / biodivlibrary)