Treasures from Our West: Gray wolves

Originally featured in Points West magazine in Spring 2013

Gray wolves taxidermy mounts

Jack D. Putnam was a nationally-renowned taxidermist and sculptor based in Denver, Colorado. He held the position of Curator of Exhibits at the Denver Museum of Natural History for nearly twenty-five years. During his tenure at the Denver museum, he led several expeditions around the world to study and acquire specimens for the museum’s world-famous wildlife dioramas.

Jack passed away in 2011, leaving behind his devoted and equally accomplished and adventuresome widow, Lila. When Jack passed, she began looking for appropriate homes for Jack’s most prized, private collection of taxidermy mounts.

Lila turned down some lucrative financial offers from other institutions and private collectors to donate these two magnificent gray wolf mounts to the Draper Museum of Natural History, “…where they will be presented in a truly exceptional scientific and educational natural history museum.” The wolves were harvested by licensed hunters in British Columbia in the 1960s, and prepared by Putnam around 1965. The gray wolf has become a modern icon of the Yellowstone region, embodying both the long-enduring conflicts and profound adulation associated with large carnivores in human cultures. These specimens are now incorporated into an exhibit at the Draper’s Expedition Trailhead.

Gray wolf taxidermy mounts. Gift of Lila D. Putman in Memory of Jack D. Putnam. DRA.305.181 and DRA.305.182

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