Henry Rosenthal counts his cattle by the head, so when he says he has 50 head of cattle, he actually means 25 stuffed calves with two heads each. Those are the ones that have undergone taxidermy treatment. He also has preserved fetuses, skeletal remains, and a ton of ephemera and art devoted to two-headed calves and a few other animals. You can find them at the Two-Headed Calf MOOseum in San Francisco. Rosenthal became fascinated with polycephaly -a condition in which an embryo begins to split into twins, but doesn't fully separate- in his 20s when he saw a two-headed calf, and soon after he got a chance to purchase a stuffed specimen. His collection became a museum, or moo-seum, as the 2020 pandemic was taking off. The stuffed calves were joined by photographs, newspaper accounts, paintings, drawings, and figurines, all portraying calves born with two heads.
Want to visit the Two-Headed Calf MOOseum? It's only open by appointment, but that's easily arranged if you are going to San Francisco. Or you can see what they have and learn the story behind the collection at Atlas Obscura.
Comments (0)
Commenting on Neatorama will earn you NeatoPoints!