120DIORAMAS
western man had been expelled.^37 Man’s “having been there” must be con-
cealed and cannot be mirrored in the startled animal’s awareness of him.
Carl Akeley, the most notorious taxidermist in the history of the medium,
used photography in order to assemble his magnificent scenes (fig. 3.5). He
FIGURE 3.5 Carl Akeley’s great apes in the Mikeno-Karisimbi forest in the diorama
of the African Hall of Mammals, under construction, c. 1936. Image in public domain
courtesy of the New York Times.