A note on Jules Verraux:
Taxidermist and collector of human skeletons

Jules Verraux: Taxidermist and collector of human skeletons

Extract from Barbara Mearns and Richard Mearns Biographies for Birdwatchers (Academic Press):

"The collection which was brought home (by Jules Verreaux and his uncle Pierre Antoine Delalande, around 1820, after spending a couple of years in the Cape) consisted of a staggering 131, 405 specimens, most of which were plants. Other items included 288 mammals, 2, 205 birds, 322 reptiles, 265 fish, 3, 875 shellfish, human skulls of Hottentots, Namaquas and Bushmen, and nearly two dozen skeletons unearthed from an old Cape Town cemetery and from the Grahamstown battlefield of 1819".

[Extract courtesy of Miquel Molina]

Back to top