Taxidermy Past and Present with Ben Marks and Kayleigh Kueffner

March 18, 2017 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Tank

Join Ben Marks and Kayleigh Kueffner from the Museum’s bird department will present on taxidermy past and present, showing how advances in science at the Field lead to modern taxidermy as we know it. Plus, as the head of Zoological collections, Ben will answer questions regarding the millions of animals the Museum has inside its walls.

While The Backroom will remain open to regular bar foot traffic during our events and discussions, seating for them is first come, first served.

Ben Marks – Collections Head

Ben is an evolutionary biologist with an emphasis in biogeography of birds. He uses Field Museum specimens to study biogeographic patterns at various spatial scales. His research interests span the fields of systematics, population genetics, phylogeography, conservation biology, and historical biogeography.

Kayleigh Kueffner – Research Assistant

Kayleigh graduated with a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in December of 2013. While there, she primarily focused on printmaking, artist books, and painting. During her last semester, she began an internship at the Field Museum of Natural History in the Bird Division. She started out cleaning and boxing bones and eventually moved onto skinning birds for specimen studies. She nows work for the Education department at the Field and continues to work in various labs across the science departments. Days that she is not at the Field Museum, she is continuing to print and work with my hands constantly.