Fig. 21 in A History Of Herpetology At The American Museum Of Natural History

Fig. 21. The oldest surviving Herpetology exhibit: ''Copperheads in the Palisades [New Jersey],'' a study from life circa 1905. This small group was first mentioned in the AMNH Annual Report for 1905. However, according to Mary Dickerson's internal departmental report dated March 13, 1911, the snakes had ''turned black, apparently 'gone bad' from the use of too much glycerine in the preparation.'' The original snakes were replaced in 1911 by these exquisitely painted wax casts (the tongues may be glass), which were posed exactly to replace the older specimens. This floor exhibit became case no. 12 in the 1927 Hall of Reptile and Amphibian Life (see fig. 31); it is the only one of the older cases not dismantled over the years. Photographed in the Department of Herpetology by Denis Finnin, November 1998.