The Taxidermist, the Duke, and the Museum Elephant

In 1913, the Duke of Alba hunted an elephant in Sudan and donated it to the newly opened Natural Science Museum, of which he was a patron. The museum director thought it an impossible task and ordered the skin stored away; but Luis Benedito, the new taxidermist, had other plans. Having studied taxidermy in Germany with the best experts, he was determined to stuff the largest land animal on Earth. The museum had no money or space, and Luis had never even seen an elephant—but those were mere obstacles for this man.