Louis Paul Jonas (July 17, 1894 – February 16, 1971) was an American sculptor of

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...

, taxidermist, and natural history exhibit designer. Born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, Jonas moved to the United States at the age of 12 and went to work at his brothers' taxidermy studio, Jonas Brothers, in

Denver, Co Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

. Later he moved to New York City, where he studied under

Carl Akeley Carl Ethan Akeley (May 19, 1864 – November 17, 1926) was a pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, conservationist, inventor, and nature photographer, noted for his contributions to American museums, most notably to the Milwauk ...

, a noted field naturalist, taxidermist, and animal sculptor. There, they created the African elephant group in the center of Akeley Hall at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York. Jonas opened Louis Paul Jonas Studios, Inc in Mahopac, NY, and eventually moved to Hudson, NY. The studio was known for its miniature and full size animal sculptures, taxidermy, and natural history exhibits featured in over 50 museums worldwide. The company created the first full sized dinosaur sculptures for the 1964 New York World's Fair in the "Dinoland" area, which was sponsored by the Sinclair Oil Corporation. Jonas consulted with noted paleontologists Barnum Brown, Edwin H. Colbert and

John Ostrom John Harold Ostrom (February 18, 1928 – July 16, 2005) was an American paleontologist who revolutionized modern understanding of dinosaurs in the 1960s. As first proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in the 1860s, Ostrom showed that dinosaurs were ...

in order to create sculptures that were as accurate as possible. After the Fair closed, the dinosaur models toured the country on special flatbed trailers as part of a company advertising campaign. Many of the statues are now on display at various museums and parks

Sculptures on display

In 1932, Louis Paul Jonas and his brothers created the taxidermy model of the famous Australian race horse

Phar Lap Phar Lap (4 October 1926 – 5 April 1932) was a champion New Zealand–bred Thoroughbred racehorse who is widely regarded as New Zealand's greatest racehorse ever. Achieving incredible success during his distinguished career, his initial u ...

that is now on display at the

Melbourne Museum The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, the museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, ...

. In 1983, the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

in Washington, D.C. hosted an exhibition of 75 wildlife miniatures created by Jonas.

Dinosaurs

Life-sized fiberglass models of dinosaurs created by Jonas Studios for the 1964 New York World's Fair are on display at: * The

Houston Museum of Natural Science The Houston Museum of Natural Science (abbreviated as HMNS) is a natural history museum located on the northern border of Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, United States. The museum was established in 1909 by the Houston Museum and Scientific Soc ...

houses a life-sized

ankylosaurus ''Ankylosaurus'' is a genus of armored dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America, making it among the last of the n ...

statue. *

Dinosaur Valley State Park Dinosaur Valley State Park is a state park near Glen Rose, Texas, United States. History Dinosaur Valley State Park, located just northwest of Glen Rose in Somervell County, Texas, is a scenic park set astride the Paluxy River. The land fo ...

Glen Rose, Texas Glen Rose is a city in and the county seat of Somervell County, Texas, United States. As of the 2012 census estimate, the city population was 2,502. History 19th century The area was first settled in 1849 by Charles Barnard, who opened a tradin ...

features a

tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

and a

brontosaurus ''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from Greek , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of gigantic quadruped sauropod dinosaurs. Although the type species, ''B. excelsus'', had long been considered a species of the closely related ' ...

statue. * The Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument in Jensen, Utah features a

stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...

statue. * The

Milwaukee Public Museum The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) is a natural and human history museum in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The museum was chartered in 1882 and opened to the public in 1884; it is a not-for-profit organization operated by the Milwaukee Public Mus ...

houses a

struthiomimus ''Struthiomimus'' (meaning "ostrich mimic", from the Greek στρούθειος/''stroutheios'' meaning "of the ostrich" and μῖμος/''mimos'' meaning "mimic" or "imitator") is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous of No ...

statue in its ''The Third Planet'' dinosaur display. * The

Brookfield Zoo Brookfield Zoo, also known as the Chicago Zoological Park, is a zoo located in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield, Illinois. It houses around 450 species of animals in an area of . It opened on July 1, 1934, and quickly gained international recogn ...

Brookfield, Illinois Brookfield (formerly Grossdale) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located west of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 19,476. The city is home to the Brookfield Zoo. Geography Brookfield is located at ...

includes a

trachodon ''Trachodon'' (meaning "rough tooth") is a dubious genus of hadrosaurid dinosaur based on teeth from the Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana, U.S.Leidy, J. (1856). "Notice of remains of extinct reptiles and fishes ...

sculpture. * "'' Uncle Beazley''", a model of a

triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...

that Jonas designed and constructed for the 1964 New York World's Fair and that appeared in ''The Enormous Egg'' television movie in 1968, is on display at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. From the 1970s to 1994, the statue was located on the National Mall in front of the National Museum of Natural History. (Some sources state that the

Kentucky Science Center The Kentucky Science Center, previously known as the Louisville Museum of Natural History & Science and then Louisville Science Center, is Kentucky's largest science museum. Located in Louisville, Kentucky, on "Museum Row" in the West Main Dist ...

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

(formerly named the "Louisville Museum of Natural History and Science" and the "Louisville Science Center") now owns the triceratops model). A Jonas Studios sculpture of a stegosaurus, "Steggie II", is located in front of the

Cleveland Museum of Natural History The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre (220 ha) concentration of educational, cultural and medical instit ...

. Another copy, known as "Wally", is located at the

Berkshire Museum __NOTOC__ The Berkshire Museum is a museum of art, natural history, and ancient civilization that is located in Pittsfield in Berkshire County, Massachusetts ( United States). History The Berkshire Museum, founded by local paper magnate Zenas C ...

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...

. Still another is on display at the

Fernbank Museum of Natural History Fernbank Museum of Natural History, in Atlanta, Georgia, is a museum that presents exhibitions and programming about natural history. Fernbank Museum has a number of permanent exhibitions and regularly hosts temporary exhibitions in its expansi ...

in Atlanta. Children play on the National Mall, Washington, D

References

External links

Jonas Studios
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonas, Louis Paul 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Animal artists 1894 births 1971 deaths Taxidermists Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States American military personnel of World War I 20th-century American painters American male painters