The following information is from Gene Meier, an art historian from Illinois who specializes in 19th and early 20th century artists who did panoramas, dioramas, and cycloramas. Taxidermy is a part of this study.

Carl Akeley was a taxidermist and sculptor and photographer. Carl Akeley is talked about BY EVERYONE. He was the father of modern taxidermy. At one point Akeley worked as taxidermist for the Milwaukee Public Museum, which in the 1880s was across the street from William Wehner's panorama studio.

There is a legend that Akeley learned about creating dioramic backgrounds for his taxidermic works from visiting panoramas, especially the two in Milwaukee that were next to one another--Wehner/Heine & Lohr, and Kindt ...