A Woman's Guide to Taxidermy at the Smithsonian

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

As a child, she used to go out in the woods and climb trees to see owls close up. Roxie was one of probably the first women to do the taxidermy work at the Smithsonian. The process involves keeping the bird's feathers intact, while carefully removing all the muscle and most of the skeleton. In 1944, Roxie got a job preparing dead birds for the museum's collections.

On October 4, 1960, Eastern Airlines Flight 375 took off from Boston’s Logan airport, and then, two minutes later, it crashed. 62 people died. Investigators couldn't figure out what had happened, and they decided to ask a scientist working at the Smithsonian for help. Roxie Laybourne's investigation helped launch a whole new field of science that changed aviation and forensics.

Special thanks to the Smithsonian Institution Archives for letting us share audio of Roxie Laybourne.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Listen back through our archives at youtube.com/criminalpodcast.

We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.

Episode transcripts are posted on our website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices