© Phil Leggett

Maude the Tigon

(Manchester Museum, 2015–)

A famous animal is in the public eye again

Maude the Tigon was the most famous animal at Bellevue Zoo (Manchester) in the late 1930s and 1940s. After she died, in 1949, her skin was given to Manchester Museum to be mounted by a taxidermist. For whatever reason, that never happened and the skin was kept rolled up, like a rug, in the collection store.

I commissioned a leading taxidermist, Phil Leggett, to prepare a mount of Maude, with the 65-year-old skin and working from archive photographs.

When Maude went on display she drew immediate and wide attention

When Maude went on display she drew immediate and wide attention in the media, and a source of public fascination. She was included in ‘A history of Lancashire in 70 objects’ in 2017 through a public vote, after the skin had been carefully stored away for many decades.