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Colonel Gibson Sloan Peterson
TAXIDERMIST/NATURALIST
by Mark Wormus

IN PAST ISSUES, BREAKTHROUGH READERS HAVE enjoyed many articles profiling some of taxidermy’s greatest pioneers. All noted for great contributions of the industry, men such as Carl Akeley, James L. Clark, and Roy Chapman Andrews shared one common career thread: they were primarily museum preparators, curators, and taxidermists in the public sector.

But there is a select group of men who made perhaps even more relevant strides in the industry than the prominent museologists of the 20th century. They learned exacting museum taxidermy techniques, developed business plans, established specific goals, and built very successful commercial studios in the private sector. This group included the Schwarz Studios, the Jonas Brothers, and Peterson Sculptor Taxidermists.

Perhaps not even aware of it, a young Gibson Sloan Peterson was highly self-motivated and goal oriented. In 1927, at twelve years old, in North Carolina, and working toward earning the rank of Eagle Scout, he was exposed to the field of taxidermy. At that point began a long and distinguished career that would take him across the world, and bring the world of serious big game hunters to his renowned studios.

Peterson spent his learning years pursuing knowledge in the formal arts of painting, drawing, and sculpture, with the intent of applying those skills toward a commercial taxidermy practice. He financed his own education in these subjects by means of a formal job, while acquiring any information he could find about taxidermy. One particular book, Taxidermy and Museum Exhibition, by...

...Continued in the Summer 2003 Issue of Breakthrough.

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