Judge — July 21, 1923 — page 17: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This illustration by Elizabeth Curtis depicts a surreal museum or exhibition scene featuring various exotic animals—an elephant, leopard, fish, monkeys, and other creatures—arranged around a small child and adult figure on a checkered floor, with a skeletal anatomy diagram on the wall behind. The caption reads: "Father—Yes, I know, my boy! They are standing very still now, but you should just see them in the night time!" The joke appears to reference a common Victorian-era attraction: **taxidermy museums or natural history displays**. The father's comment suggests the animals appear lifelike during the day but seem to animate or come alive at night—a humorous play on the uncanny quality of realistic taxidermy specimens. This reflects period anxieties about artificial representations of nature and the "living dead" quality of preserved animals.