Jane Catharine Tost (1817-1889) was an Australian taxidermist.
Tost and her siblings learned taxidermy from their parents, John and Catherine Ward. John Ward was a bird breeder and naturalist. Tost was employed at British Museum in the 1840s and 1850s before emigrating to Australia.[1]
She was employed stuffing and mounting specimens for the Royal Society of Tasmania at the Hobart Town Museum in 1856-60, and had the same position at the Australian Museum in Sydney in 1864-69. This position was unusual for her gender and she was a pioneer as such. From 1872 onward, she managed the Tost & Coates Berlin Wool Depot and Taxidermists in Sydney with her daughter Ada Jane Rohu (1848-1928), and from 1860, mother and daughter participated in international exhibitions and won many prizes.
References
edit- ^ Regnault, Claire (2021). Dressed : fashionable dress in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840 to 1910. Wellington, New Zealand: Te Papa Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-9941460-6-9. OCLC 1245592939.