Maggie's Birds

Next date: Wednesday, 15 January 2025 | 09:00 PM to Tuesday, 01 April 2025 | 05:00 PM

Come along and see Sugar Valley Library Museum's newest digital exhibition and learn about the life of Maggie Johnston, a teenage taxidermist from West Wallsend.

Nineteenth century museums often featured lifelike displays of stuffed birds and animals. These were a revolutionary new way of helping visitors to understand the natural world. Maggie Johnston was a prolific taxidermist. She reportedly added more than 100 stuffed birds to her parent's hotel. It later became known as the Museum Hotel. The hotel was in the busiest part of West Wallsend on the corner of Wilson and Laidley Street. It had accommodation upstairs for visitors and boarders. Her display of birds at the head of the staircase is still remembered by people in West Wallsend.

Maggie was the star of the 1890 Minmi Show, winning first place for a case of stuffed birds. This was revolutionary at the time as taxidermy was a field dominated by men. She also placed first for her fancy woolwork, paper flowers and three categories of needlework. Born in 1870, she must have been practicing these skills through her teens to dominate the show.

John Humphrey, Maggie's to-be husband, was sent from Scotland to install machinery into the local West Wallsend colliery. While working, he stayed at the Museum Hotel. Maggie and John married in 1893. Their daughter was born in Sydney in 1894. Maggie gave her daughter her mother's name: Mary Mounter.

To find out more about Maggie Johnston, her family, and to see some of her exquisite taxidermy birds on display - walk through to our museum and view the "Teenage Regional Female Taxidermist". This display is one of the many great local history stories currently displaying as a part of the "Westy: We Built This History" exhibition.

When

Location

Sugar Valley Library Museum, 156 Portland Drive, Cameron Park, 2285, View in Google Maps