Allis Markham

Transcript: Allis Markham, Taxidermist and the owner of the company Prey Taxidermy

What drew me to this field? I’ve always loved animals. I’ve always loved science. And I’ve also loved always building things. I’ve always been incredibly handy. My father was an engineer. He actually worked for NASA and, you know, big shoes to fill there! But you know, we would always spend a lot of time making things. I loved painting, I loved sculpting, but I loved the outdoors. And when I was young, I started kind of collecting, like, little furs and minks. And I loved the ones with the little heads and the paws on them. And when I got older, I started collecting some taxidermy. And I was like, “Oh, but I wonder where it comes from. I hope this didn’t die to be this.” You know, I had all of those questions. And as I started looking for answers, I started looking into how to do it. And then, one day, I just lost my marbles, took my vacation, just two weeks, and I went to this taxidermy course in Montana, the middle of nowhere. And I loved it, OK. I really loved it. But I was like, “That’s great, but it’s learning how to mount things for hunters.” But I really always loved natural history museums and I was like, “I think I want to do that!” And I had a good job. I was a Director of Social Media for Disney. Like, I had a fancy six-figure job, and I quit that and I decided to get paid nothing, and I started volunteering in taxidermy at the Natural History Museum. And then after a couple of years of working for free, which, frankly, the education I got there from my mentor, I should have been paying. It was amazing! And I finally got hired, and we opened two amazing exhibits there, and then I kind of decided, like, “Alright, well, I really want to keep putting things together, I think I maybe want to strike it out on my own for a bit.” And my mentor was really supportive of that, and he was like, “Well, if you need help, I can consult, I can do this, I can help you do classes...” And he has! Like, we just finished up the Santa Barbara Museum, which he consulted on, and I always feel like I kind of always have someone there to catch me if I fall. So, it’s been really great.