author

Montagu Browne

1837–1923

Best known for lively, practical books on taxidermy and natural history, this Victorian writer helped make museum work and specimen study more approachable for amateurs as well as specialists. He was also closely associated with Leicester’s museum world, where his interests in science, display, and public education came together.

1 Audiobook

Practical taxidermy : a manual of instruction to the amateur in collecting, preserving, and setting up natural history specimens of all kinds. To which is added a chapter upon the pictorial arrangement of museums. With additional instructions in modelling and artistic taxidermy.

Practical taxidermy : a manual of instruction to the amateur in collecting, preserving, and setting up natural history specimens of all kinds. To which is added a chapter upon the pictorial arrangement of museums. With additional instructions in modelling and artistic taxidermy.

by Montagu Browne

About the author

Born in 1837 and active through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Montagu Browne was an English taxidermist, naturalist, and author. Records gathered from library and reference sources consistently connect him with books such as Practical Taxidermy, Artistic and Scientific Taxidermy and Modelling, and The Vertebrate Animals of Leicestershire and Rutland, showing the range of his work from hands-on instruction to regional natural history.

His writing stands out for its practical purpose. Rather than treating natural history as something distant or purely academic, he wrote for readers who wanted to collect, preserve, study, and arrange specimens carefully. That made his books useful not only to hobbyists, but also to museum-minded readers interested in display, classification, and the presentation of scientific material.

Browne is also linked with Leicester Museum, where historical notes from Leicester Museums place his retirement in 1907, reflecting a substantial role in the institution’s earlier development. He died in 1923, leaving behind work that captures a very hands-on, Victorian approach to natural history.