Large shark is reborn
Milltown taxidermist restores 73-year-old behemoth for museum
BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer

David B. Schwendeman works on the eye of a 32-foot whale shark during the restoration process. The specimen was recently unveiled at New York's Vanderbilt Museum.

MILLTOWN — David B. Schwendeman recently found out that size does matter.

The third-generation taxidermist restored a 32-foot whale shark to its full, large-as-life glory along with a team he assembled, helping to reverse the clock for the 73-year-old weatherworn fish specimen. It is the largest piece of taxidermy work ever to be mounted, Schwendeman said.

"It was quite a challenge, and we did things that had never been done before," Schwendeman said. "It was definitely one of the highlights of my career."

That highlight reached its height last week when the refurbished fish was unveiled at its home in the Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport, N.Y.

While it was a project that others in the field said could not be done, the Milltownbased taxidermist took it on with the passion that was passed on by his father and his grandfather. Schwendeman and the others worked on it for more than a year at the museum.

Suspended over a glass floor in the museum's Diorama Hall, the deteriorated whale shark swayed precariously as the team members worked their magic. They built scaffolding in order to reach the fish and to first secure the original skin back onto the mannequin. They then applied protective coatings and got the skin back to its original texture, color and strength.

"That's what taxidermy is — trying to achieve the illusion of life," Schwendeman said. William K. Vanderbilt II paid to have the whale shark mounted in 1935, Schwendeman said. Over the years, it has needed restoration on several occasions. The most recent decline was caused by a leaking ceiling in the museum, which eroded the protective coating on the specimen's skin and resulted in the closing of Diorama Hall in 1996.

According to Schwendeman, taxidermists at the time the whale shark was caught off Fire Island, N.Y., did not have the ability to know the true color and other features of the fish, because of the changes that take place after dying. To achieve as true-to-life specimen as possible, Schwendeman consulted with the Georgia AquariuminAtlanta, which is home to four of the mammoth creatures.

"This is state-of-the-art," Schwendeman said. "It's really neat."

The restoration of the shark and nine surrounding dioramas was paid for with a $135,000 Save America's Treasures grant from the federal government and a matching contribution from Suffolk County.

Schwendeman has been in his family business for 30 years. He started at the age of 10, when he would help his father, David J. Schwendeman, and his late grandfather, Arthur Schwendeman, around the family's studio, which was established in 1921 on South Main Street in Milltown, Middlesex County.

While in the beginning, Schwendeman's main goal was to earn enough money for Christmas presents, hunters and other customers at Schwendeman's Taxidermy Studio would often ask the budding stuffer if he planned to enter the family business.

"It was kind of subtle brainwashing, I guess," Schwendeman said.

After earning a master's degree at North Carolina State University, Schwendeman returned to Milltown to again help with the business, since his grandfather's health was waning. He has manned the oldest family-owned business in the borough ever since.

Though some might think taxidermy is a dying art, the work continues to roll in for Schwendeman.

"It seems to be recession-proof," Schwendeman said. "We just can't keep up with it."

Since having animal specimens mounted is a luxury for hunters and other enthusiasts, the business sometimes declines in that aspect, but work for museums and other special projects is virtually constant. About 70 percent of Schwendeman's business comes from museums and nature centers, he said.

"It's for science and education," Schwendeman said.

One example of such an undertaking was Schwendeman's work for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. In partnership with Yale University, he helped to recreate a scene from the woodlands of Connecticut, installing mounted wildlife creatures of various species.

Currently, Schwendeman is working with his sister, Mary Ellen Schwendeman- Davis, who teaches biology in the South River school system. During her summer vacation, she is working to put together displays that can be brought to area schools for study purposes. She also installed a temporary taxidermy display at Milltown's Parkview School.

"She's pretty excited about it," Schwendeman said.

The connection between taxidermy and biology is a strong one, he noted, and he is also excited about delving deeper into it. In line with his aim is his work with the Lawrence Brook Watershed Partnership, an area organization that strives to preserve the water quality in the area.

Schwendeman also finds himself doing more eclectic projects for high-profile clients. He provided his workmanship for "Crybaby Lane," a Nickelodeon movie, and rented a number of specimens to the late news anchor Peter Jennings for a party at the newsman's New York penthouse.

Schwendeman's studio was featured on the Martha Stewart television show. He also did mechanical animals for window displays on Madison Avenue in New York.

Sometimes, Schwendeman is forced to turn down projects that are proposed to him with too little notice.

"We get calls from Saturday Night Live on Friday for an animal," Schwendeman said. Despite some big clients, Schwendeman is not getting rich off the business, he said.

"We're not making a lot of money, because it's time-intensive," Schwendeman said. "Everything ... has got to be hands-on and have that personal touch. Taxidermy just takes time."

Mounting a deer head, for example, takes more than a year. Other projects can take more than two years to complete, according to Schwendeman. While his end of the work takes only a few days, a specimen can take about eight months or more to be returned from a tannery, he said. The long process hardly makes for quick turnover.

Prices start at about $600 for birds and other small animals, and increase from there, depending on the animal. Alaskan brown bears can cost up to $5,000 to mount, Schwendeman said.

"We're really dedicated to quality," Schwendeman said. "We're not in it for the money. We're in it for the specimen, the animal. It's a tribute to the animal. Taxidermy is art."

Though Schwendeman, like his predecessors, is dedicated to the art, he does not adorn his home with mounted animals like many of his customers. The only specimen found in Schwendeman's home, where he lives with his wife, Angel, and daughter, Abigail, 14, is a bird he did with his grandfather when he was first learning the business.

It remains to be seen whether Abigail will be a future taxidermist, but she seemed to be cut out for it at a young age, according to Schwendeman.

"When my daughter was very young, 3 or 4 years old, we gave her the squeamish test," Schwendeman said. "She had to touch a deer's eyeball."

Abigail passed with flying colors at the time, but since she has entered her teen years, she is interested in other, more "girly" things, Schwendeman said.

Nephews, nieces and other family members help out in the studio, making it truly a family business.

From the time when the eldest Schwendeman taxidermist mounted a pair of birds at the age of 14 back in 1913 until now, the family business has seen animals of every type. While the Schwendemans are willing to stuff deceased pets if they are species like fish or reptiles, cats and dogs are strictly out of the question. Still, the studio fields calls about every two weeks or so from grieving pet-owners who want to hang onto their beloved's memory.

"We advise people to get a new pet," Schwendeman said. "We find it distasteful. It's like having Aunt Tillie in the corner."