Paper Tiger is an exciting history of the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger in which the reader is taken on a journey behind artists’ brushstrokes and photographers’ lenses into the world of science, printing processes, publishing entrepreneurs, circulating libraries and bounties. Using thylacine illustrations from early British and Australian zoological and natural history literature, Carol Freemen reveals how inaccurate and misleading published images were . . . and how profoundly they affected attitudes toward living thylacines.
Written with sensitivity and an eye for detail, Paper Tiger uncovers forgotten drawings and lost photographs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, telling a story full of mystery and revelations. It demonstrates how pictures and words can have a vital influence on a species’ survival.
Soft cover edition.