We have all heard of (and probably loved) the adorable animated movies about a bear, Winnie-the-Pooh. I can definitely remember sitting in front of my TV for hours watching him have adventures with Tigger and Piglet, and I’m sure all of you can too. That’s why this bit of news sort of freaked me out.
In the mid-1920s, A.A. Milne wrote the books when he was inspired by trips to the London Zoo with his son to see Winnipeg, the celebrity bear who inhabited the zoo after being brought there during World War 1. His son loved the animal, so much so that he named his own teddy bear Winnie.
Sadly, Winnipeg died in the 1930s. However, when she passed away, her body was donated to the Royal College of Surgeons’ Odontological Museum, and she has remained in that collection ever since. Her body even survived a bombing in 1941 that destroyed most of the collection.
Recently, her skull has been put on display for the first time at the Hunterian Museum in London. The Hunterian’s director, Sam Alberti, believes that this will be of particular interest for visitors from all walks of life–especially those who grew up with the messages of family and friendship after reading the books and watching the movies. It is in a display about items added to the 18th century collection, and Mr. Alberti hopes that it will serve as an entry point for people who others wouldn’t go into the museum. On top of all that, apparently Winnipeg’s skull offered an interesting case study: she had pretty severe gum disease. This, Mr. Alberti says, was probably because of the honey on the sticky buns she was being fed by the visitor’s of the zoo out of love. This drew an interesting parallel with the real-life bear and the animated movies. It’s interesting to see the inspiration behind an artist’s work. I think it really helps the audience connect with the works even more than they originally did.
This honestly sort of creeped me out a little, even though when asked if the exhibition ran the risk of scaring children, Alberti said that it is a happy message. They certainly didn’t want the message to be “Come to the museum and see Winnie-the-Pooh”, because that certainly isn’t what it is. It’s a skull nonetheless, but it gives the children the message that Winnipeg, the bear who inspired their favorite fluffy, cute, animated character, “has had this afterlife”.
Let me get this straight. They are putting the real life Winnie on display in the museum because of its gum disease? If that’s the case, then I would first applaud him on the great idea to draw attention to the museum. Next, I would feel a bit weirded out, just a bit though. Not because the bear is deeply connected to the cartoon produced by Disney, but because I’m weirded out by diseases and germs, especially the study of them. With that said, I don’t see a big issue with putting an animal on display for educational purposes. Many animals have been put on display in the name of science. There’s really nothing that special about this one bear that sets it apart from the trend. In another note, I fail to see the connection of this article to art. Would you mind explaining the connection to me?
No, they’re putting it on display in order to attract attention to the museum, as in recent years it has failed to attract the amount of people it needs to in order to keep it running. The gum disease is just an added bit of interest to the story. They aren’t doing it in the name of science, they’re doing it because they want children to come and see their favorite cartoon in real life. And the connection to art is the fact that it’s essentially a children’s book character come to life–it has almost nothing to do with science.
Growing up, I especially enjoyed reading and watching Winnie the Pooh. My favorite character would be Tigger and although Winnie may have not been my favorite character I enjoyed reading and watching his adventures. I think it is a great idea to display Winnipeg’s skull because even though it may not be the Winnie that we all know, it is nice to see the origin where Winnie came from. The skull, to me, allows us to remember the origin and appreciate where the inspiration for one of the most loved bears in the world. I also never knew that even the honey that Winnie loved so much had a background to it also. It’s amazing what research can do and also how accurate portrayals are.
As someone who has loved Winnie the Pooh growing up, I find this incredibly creepy. Seeing a skull that inspired my favorite bear is disturbing to say the least. Also, as a writer, I find sources of inspiration fascinating. Milne really used his experiences to come up with a character and a story that forever changed our childhoods.
Having been raised on Winnie the Poo stories and films, I find the display of this bear’s skull in a museum a little bit creepy. While the stories were inspired by this real-life bear, I feel that putting this skull in a museum will cause a lot of confusion for a little kid. It is difficult for them at times to distinguish between what is real and what is imagined and as such, exposing them to a dead Winnie the Poo might actually cause them great grief because they might think that the animated Winnie the Poo is dead too. Toying with children’s’ emotions in this way to raise more money for the museum is unethical.