One of Gloucester Folk Museum's best loved exhibits – a stuffed rare breed cow called Daisy – has another claim to fame.
Recent research has discovered that the same taxidermy company that worked on specimens brought back to this country by Charles Darwin was responsible for 'stuffing' Daisy.
It comes at a time when the City Museum is staging an exhibition about the importance to science of taxidermy – particularly in relation to rare and endangered species.
Often mistaken by visitors for a bull – because of her long horns – Daisy comes from the same breed of Gloucester Cattle that helped Edward Jenner develop the smallpox vaccine.
Dating back to Tudor times herds of these cattle would have been driven past the site of the Folk Museum in Gloucester's Westgate Street on their way to the former cattle market at St Oswalds.
A letter dated August 1935 from E. Gerrard and Sons in London confirms completion of the work and despatch of the stuffed animal back to Gloucester.
Council Leader, Paul James, commented: " It is pure coincidence that we have discovered this correspondence at a time when we are staging an exhibition about one of the world's most endangered parrots – and the importance of taxidermy in preserving these animals for future scientific research.
" Daisy is a very popular exhibit and it is great that we have discovered this link through this long established family firm back to Charles Darwin. It is a measure of the importance attached to having this animal preserved that it was sent to this company in London to have this work carried out."
Councillor James added: " The great thing about our museums in Gloucester is that they constantly reveal these most fascinating insights both from our recent past as well as our 2,000 years of history."