Carl Wilde arrived in South Africa from Albertinenburg, Prussia (now Germany) in 1861, aged 27 and accompanied by his wife, Justine (Malherbe, 1966). He is presumably the same person as Carl (or Carel) Wilde, a highly qualified taxidermist and ardent collector of natural history specimens, formerly at the Berlin Museum, who was appointed as taxidermist at the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, in 1889. He was recruited by the museum's director, Dr S. Schönland*, and arrived for duty on 7 November. During 1890 he collected many specimens for the museum, but resigned early in 1892. That same year he was appointed as the first taxidermist of the State Museum of the South African Republic (later the Transvaal Museum) in Pretoria; however, he appears to have left again within a year or two. He probably continued his taxidermy as a private practice, for in 1907 the Transvaal Museum bought a number of carefully mounted large antelope skins from him.

List of sources:
Cape of Good Hope. Report of the committee of the Albany Museum, 1889, 1890, 1892.

Gunning, J.W.B. A short history of the Transvaal Museum. Annals of the Transvaal Museum, 1908, Vol. 1(1), pp. 3-13.

Malherbe, D.F. du T. Family register of the South African nation (3rd ed.) Stellenbosch: Tegniek, 1966.

Transvaal Museum. Annual report for the year 1906-07. (National Archives, Pretoria, Vol. TKP 196).

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2020-04-23 17:30:14