Four Seasons: Deer Diorama

Please use this guide as a starting point for your research. If you need further assistance, contact us via email at reflib@fieldmuseum.org.

“One day I am going to make four splendid habitat groups, the like of which no museum has ever possessed, and thousands who have never seen deer in the wilds will learn how they are influenced by the cycle of the seasons.” - Carl Akeley

The Four Seasons Diorama, located on the Main level of the Field Museum in the Nature Walk and Messages from the Wilderness exhibition, is a series of four dioramas showing how a family of white-tailed deer change and grow over the course of the year.  In 1898, Akeley began work on the diorama in the evenings his studio in Chicago’s Hyde Park, while working days at the Field Museum mounting African mammals as part of his role as Chief Taxidermist. His wife Delia was responsible for crafting much of the foliage that surrounded the deer. The planning and preparation process took four years and was sold to the Field Museum and installed in 1902. It was one of the first dioramas in the United States to feature animals surrounded by their natural habitat and painted landscape backgrounds. It was lauded as being the most scientifically accurate diorama of its time. The lifelike features of the 16 deer had a lasting impact on the art and realism of taxidermy.  

His aim was to replicate a specific site near Channing, Michigan around 15 miles from Florence County, Wisconsin where the deer were located. It's important to note that at the time white-tail deer had been nearly eliminated from Illinois and southern Wisconsin by over-hunting and habitat decimation from expanded farmlands. Several stories exist around who exactly collected these deer and how many deer were shot in total to obtain the necessary specimens, and while no one story can be verified, each is quite plausible. 

Because of the success of The Four Seasons Diorama, museum dioramas became increasingly popular. In 1909, future United States president Theodore Roosevelt came to the Field Museum to see The Four Seasons Diorama for himself. Publications also recognized the influential diorama and students of taxidermy came to study Akeley's new methods. Published in 1941, the Field Museum of Natural History Handbook stated, "especially noteworthy are four handsome scenes showing America's most common and best-loved game animal, the white-tailed or Virginia deer. They illustrate the habits and appearance of this animal in the four seasons-spring, summer, autumn, and winter and show the care and growth of the young, the changes in color of the adults from season to season, and the interesting process of the growth, development, and shedding of the antlers." Today, The Four Seasons Diorama continues to be one of the most-loved exhibits in the Field Museum.