Let's Talk About Dioramas

What makes a science museum come to life? Art museums have it easy, as art tends to be naturally eye-catching. How can museums make science intriguing right off the bat? I believe one answer is in dioramas depicting the natural world.

Diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from the Whitney Bird Hall at AMNH

Dioramas combine art with nature and make science museums come to life. They tell a story and allow the visitors to experience the drama of nature in places they may never visit and see animals they may never have a chance to view in their natural habitat. Dioramas are great works of art, but their artists remain virtually unknown as the focus is on the natural world, not the artistry of the painted backdrop. I, however, find the artists to be just as interesting as the subjects of the dioramas themselves. Today I’d like to focus on a particular diorama artist, Francis Lee Jaques, who was known for his excellent skills as an artist … and for his difficult personality.

Diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from the Whitney Bird Hall at AMNH

Francis Lee Jaques drew nature, specifically birds, ever since he was a child, but he didn’t originally peruse a career as an artist. In 1917, after he had already worked as a lumberjack, electrician, and railroad fireman, Jaques enlisted in the army in San Francisco. While in California, he visited the California Academy of Sciences and became interested in becoming a museum artist. Jaques was an ambitious man and he wasn’t about to apply to just any humble museum. To start off his career, he applied for a job at the University Museum of Minnesota. Jaques sent a letter to one of the curators to say that he thought the curator’s exhibition photos were flat and in need of retouching, and that he Jaques was the man for the job. Jaques was not hired.

Diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from the Whitney Bird Hall at AMNH

Jaques was completely undeterred and sent off an application and some of his paintings to Frank Chapman the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. This was a daring move since Jaques had no introduction to the influential Chapman. Still, Jaques’ art was impressive enough that Chapman convinced James L. Clark, the head of exhibitions, to hire Jaques without so much as an interview. In 1924 Jaques packed up and moved to NYC for his new job.

Diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from the Whitney Bird Hall at AMNH

Jaques proved to be a remarkable artist known for producing quality work in a short amount of time. As a child Jaques spent much of his time outdoors drawing and hunting with his father. This outdoor experience allowed him to help scientists with their field work when he accompanied them on field expeditions.

Diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from the Whitney Bird Hall at AMNH

Jaques was far from perfect, and his main weaknesses were being rude, blunt, and grudge holding. He started fights with Chapman over his pay and vacation hours, with Clark over the design of the North American Mammal Hall, and with James Perry Wilson, another diorama artist, over practically anything. Wilson was a quiet man who lived with his mother and went to classical music concerts alone. Jaques made fun of Wilson’s odd habits and noted that Wilson used his brain, but in strange ways like figuring out where to stand on the train platform in order it get a good seat on the train. All Wilson ever said about Jaques was that his painted birds were sometimes too large, a true observation.

Musk Ox diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from the North American Mammal Hall at AMNH

Jaques worked for AMNH for 18 years and produced many beautiful works of art, but he did not end his stay there on a good note. In 1957 the museum decided Jaques’ work was too stylized and they had another artist, Matthew Kalmenoff, to retouch parts of the Glacier Park Timberland diorama. When Jaques found out, he immediately quit his job and never set foot in AMNH again. 

Diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from The Minnesota Museum of Mining

Jaques did work with museums other than AMNH including The National Museum of Wildlife Art, The Minnesota Museum of Mining, and The Bell Museum of Natural History. Jaques may have been a difficult person to work with, but his artwork continues to inspire visitors every day.

Diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from The Minnesota Museum of Mining

Diorama background by Francis Lee Jaques from The Minnesota Museum of Mining

Close up of the Musk Ox diorama background

Are Old Methods of Food Preservation Still Necessary?

Refrigeration is something we take for granted today to the point where I often forget not everyone in the past had this luxury. Some people still don’t. In the past, people came up with other ways to preserve food such as canning, pickling, and fermenting. Today, those of us in the developed world can preserve our fresh fruits and veggies for longer and thanks to international trade, can buy a variety of produce all year round, so why should we bother using these “outdated” methods of preservation?

I recently attended Boston’s Third Annual Fermentation Festival, and I’m sure everyone there would argue strongly that yes, fermentation is something we need to keep doing.

Amanda Feifer, a speaker at the festival, talked about why fermentation is beneficial to us today. In her talk she focused on fermentation of vegetables (lactic acid fermentation) not yeast fermentation, and I this post I am going to do so as well.

Homemade fermented sauerkraut

All vegetables and fruits come with a layer of bacteria on them, some “good” and some “bad” bacteria. The bad bacteria (such as Pectobacterium carotovorum) cause rotting, but the good ones will allow the food to ferment. Unlike vinegar based pickling or canning, which preserve food by creating a sterile environment where no bacteria can grow, fermentation is all about cultivating the right bacteria. By right bacteria, I mean lactic acid bacteria.

Lactic acid bacteria eat the starches in food and produce acid as waste. This acidic environment kills all the rest of the bad bacteria, preventing the food from rotting.

Plate of fermented pickles to judge at the festival

The job of fermenters is to give the lactic acid bacteria a head start. To do this, they place the food they want to ferment in a salty brine. Lactic acid bacteria don’t mind the salt, but the bacteria that cause rotting are halophobic (salt fearing), and will start to die. The lactic acid bacteria then start creating a more and more acidic environment to the point where it is too acidic for the first strain of bacteria. The first strain then dies off and a new strain of lactic acid bacteria take over and continue to lower the pH and increase acidity. This process is quite effective at preventing rotting, as Amanda Feifer explained, and no one is ever know to have fallen ill from eating fermented food. This may be because bad ferments have obviously gone wrong and no one in their right mind would eat them, but still ferments are actually safer than most food.

Pickle judging

But since refrigeration can prevent rotting too, what’s the point of eating this acidic and pungent food? Luckily for us aficionados of fermentation, there are many health benefits to eating ferments. Lactic acid bacteria are probiotic and the fermentation process makes B vitamins, preserves C vitamins, and cultivates enzymes. Actually microbiologists, like Benjamin Wolfe, are still working on understanding everything going on in ferments and why it’s good for us. There’s a bunch of unknown processes going on in one jar of seemingly simple sauerkraut. In addition to all the health benefits, known and unknown, there is one last reason to eat fermented food, and that’s because it tastes good.

 

Homemade cherry jam, dill pickles, and bread and butter pickles

Canned food and vinegar-based pickles are also delicious, but neither have the same health benefits as ferments. Canned food and vinegar pickles have a longer shelf life than fermented foods, but they are harder to make and more likely to go wrong. I still don’t see canned foods and vinegar pickles going out of fashion soon because of refrigeration, mainly because people like tradition. We want to eat toast and fruit jelly for breakfast and have a pickle on our sandwich whether or not we have to preserve cucumbers and berries anymore. I, for one, will continue to eat and make all types of preserved foods, canned, pickled, and fermented, with gusto!