While countless attractions at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition could make a reasonable claim to be the “most interesting” exhibit on the fairgrounds, the article reprinted below awards that honor to the “Exhibit of Large North American Mammals” in the Kansas State Building.

Professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche’s unique panorama is one of the few large displays from the 1893 Exposition that remained intact after the close of the Fair. The University of Kansas Natural History Museum houses the display, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2018. In 2025, the Museum announced the receipt of a gift to support a major restoration project.

Prof. Dyche’s Exhibit of North American Mammals at the World’s Fair

The exhibit of mounted animals in the Kansas State building is considered by thousands of people to be the most interesting show on the grounds. It has, from the very first day of the Fair, attracted large crowds of enthusiastic admirers.

The exhibit occupies, an annex 88 x 66 feet, built on the north side of Kansas State building. The mounted specimens—105 whole animals and 20 large heads—were not only prepared by Mr. Dyche in his laboratory of anatomy and zoology at the university, but most of them and scores of others were captured by him in the mountains and plains of the West and Northwest. The animals represented are:

Virginia or common deer, mule deer, moose, Woodland caribou or reindeer, American elk or wapiti, Rocky Mountain sheep, Rocky Mountain goats, American antelope or prong buck, buffaloes, mountain lions (pumas, panthers, painters or cougar—all the same animal), large grey or timber wolves, coyote wolves, different species of foxes, including a most handsome and valuable silver gray fox, wolverines, fishers, lynxes, wild cats, ocelots or tiger cats, bears, jack-rabbits, prairie dogs, etc.

The exhibit is arranged after the fashion of a panorama. An artificial ground-work, twenty feet high in places, has been modeled out of papier mache and made to represent as far as possible the natural habitat of each species of animal. For the moose group a swamp has been worked out, for the mountain goats and sheep rocky crags have been built up. A buffalo grass plain has been constructed for such species as the bison, antelope, jack-rabbit, and prairie dog. The effect is agreeably strengthened and made more realistic by a panorama painting which extends the wood lands, mountains and plains as far as the eyes care to look.

The south section of Prof. Dyche’s Animal Exhibit, showing the artificial rocky crags for the display of mountain goats and sheep. [Image from World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated Sep. 1893.]

The method used by Mr. Dyche in mounting these animals is most unique and interesting. As it would take an illustrated article in itself to show the details of the process we will only hint at it here. A statue is built for each animal upon a framework of wood and iron, bolted together. Mr. Dyche goes at the work of building a statue in much the same fashion as a sculptor would. In order to facilitate work and to keep the statues as light as possible they are usually made hollow. On the outside of the frame-work wood fiber—excelsior—is wound and sewed on until the animal’s body is represented in rough outline. Of course it is necessary for the operator to understand the anatomical proportions of the animal he is reproducing. Pages of field notes, measurements, drawings, sketches and photographs of animals both living and dead, are resorted to. The statue just finished in the rough is now modeled in clay and made to assume all the delicate outlines and anatomical proportions of the original body. The skin which has been shaved down to an even thickness all over and which has been in tan liquor all the way from three months to a year is now placed on the completed statue. It is sewed up and days or even weeks are spent in working out the characteristic out lines of the animal’s anatomy.

The true and life-like appearance of the animals as they stand in their respective groups continually excites the admiration and wonder of visitors. They seem to be living, winking and breathing creatures, and one is disappointed that they do not move about. The scene embraces as much of the natural habitat of the animals as the limited space of five or six thousand feet allows. The rocks, large trees and logs in the exhibit have been modeled out of papier mache and are perfect imitations.

The north section of Prof. Dyche’s Animal Exhibit, showing two moose “engaged in a desperate battle.” [Image from World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated Sep. 1893.]

It is impossible to give a detailed description of all the different groups. The most interesting is the moose group, numbering seven animals. Nearby is another group of two bulls engaged in a desperate battle. Equally as interesting is two monstrous lions quarreling over the dead body of a deer. Another group contains the finest specimen of buffalo in existence. The elk group, headed by a magnificent bull, which was killed by Mr. Dyche in 1890, in Colorado, is one of the finest in the exhibit.

On one of the rocky crags in the background is a group of ten Rocky Mountain sheep. Another crag contains a group of seven white Rocky Mountain goats. A lioness just emerging from a rocky cavern with her two kittens on their first hunt makes an attractive group. Another group consisting of a female panther placidly watching the antics of three of her offspring, is admired by every one. The exhibit of foxes, wolves, coyotes and other smaller animals is equally as interesting and attractive as the larger ones.

SOURCE

“Prof. Dyche’s Exhibit of North American Mammals at the World’s Fair” World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated Sep. 1893, p. 166.