Life — April 8, 1915 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Taxidermists' Club" This satirical cartoon depicts a grotesque "club" of stuffed and mounted animal specimens arranged in a gallery-like space. The title reads "CLUBS WE DO NOT CARE TO JOIN: THE TAXIDERMISTS' CLUB." The humor relies on visual grotesquerie—various animals (giraffe, llama, bulls, bears, monkeys, and others) are displayed as taxidermied specimens, some posed absurdly or unnaturally. The joke mocks exclusive social clubs by suggesting membership would mean being literally "stuffed"—dead and mounted like museum pieces. This reflects early 20th-century satire on wealthy men's clubs, presenting club membership as a fate worse than death, rendered through darkly comedic animal imagery. The cartoon's tone suggests disdain for pretentious social institutions.