Levi Fisher Ames, WINatural Curiosity1843–1923 
Levi Fisher Ames, untitled (details, installation views of the L. F. Ames Museum of Art), c. 1880–1920; gelatin silver prints. Collection of Howard Jordan, Wisconsin. Levi Fisher Ames decided to make his environment portable. A Civil War soldier, musician, carpenter, maker of musical instruments, prolific woodcarver, and animated storyteller, Ames hand carved his own impressive menagerie of over 600 domestic, wild, and mythical animals, carefully encasing each in a glass-fronted folding box. He exhibited them at regional fairs as a comprehensive sideshow in the belief that they needed to be seen as an interrelated work and that his storytelling was a central component of the whole. Related Links
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