Carl Cotton
Carl Cotton (1918–1971) was an American taxidermist known for his work on exhibition development at the Field Museum of Natural History from 1947 to 1971. He was the first African American taxidermist at the Field Museum and, as noted by museum staff, likely the first professional black taxidermist in all of Chicago. Early life and education Born in 1918, Cotton spent his childhood in South Side, Chicago, in the area around Washington Park. He grew up around other children that would go on to have creative histories related to the art mecca they lived in, including local historian Timuel Black, poet and author Gwendolyn Brooks, and artist Charles White. Black discussed how he was childhood friends with Cotton and that, because of his young interest in the field of taxidermy, “cats and rats ran when they saw Carl.” He had already been practicing on the methods of stuffing and mounting already deceased small animals he found and, once his skills had improved enough, neighbors would bring their pets that had died to be stuffed as well. Cotton was noted by Black to have the desire to "preserve the image of other life besides human life". A school field trip to the Field Museum as a child was likely the inspiration for his desire to have a position there. Career Cotton first wrote a letter to the Field Museum's director in 1940 to request a taxidermy job, saying that he was an amateur taxidermist that had an interest in working on reptiles and that he already had a personal collection of 30 live snakes he could use for the museum. His request was refused however, with the director noting that they had no openings in the department and that they usually required their taxidermists to have a graduate degree in the practice or existing professional experience and notoriety. During WWII, Cotton was involved in the naval service as a stenographer and, after returning, wrote another letter to the Field Museum in 1947, this time requesting to showcase his abilities as a volunteer. That was enough for him to be hired as a temporary assistant for the vertebrate anatomy department and after a month of presenting his skills, he became a full-time employee of the museum. His chosen specialty at the time was avians, with over a fourth of all the birds in the museum being prepared by Cotton. He helped to create an adaptive coloring exhibit on birds, but Cotton also branched out into other organisms, working on mammals, reptiles, and eventually insects and the salmon display. In 1966, the museum opened its new official exhibitions department and made Cotton the first staff member, giving him the responsibility for preparing exhibits that represented the other departments individually and in collages. Some of the techniques he developed for taxidermy include how to replicate animals that have no hair on their skin, particularly reptiles, with one example being making a snapping turtle out of the bioplastic cellulose acetate. His skills also included an