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Caption

  • A taxidermy giraffe head from below against a purple ceiling.
  • The side profile of a preserved giraffe specimen from the neck upwards.
  • A taxidermy giraffe specimen on its side in a crate on its side. Two people are looking at it through the clear protective covering around the crate.
  • A preserved giraffe specimen in a large wooden crate being lowered by crane into a building site.

Masai giraffe

1901

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Description

Gerald the giraffe is one of RAMM’s most iconic specimens. He was brought to the museum by big game hunter Charles Peel from Moshi, Tanzania, in 1901. Ever since then, the giraffe has been one of the museum’s most popular attractions.

In 2013, he was measured using a laser. From hooves to horns (known as ossicones), he is 5.05 metres. His height meant he had to stay inside RAMM during its redevelopment (2001–11). He was simply too tall to store elsewhere.

During the redevelopment, he was placed in a crate for many months. When the time came to move him to the upper floor, he was taken out of a window on Upper Paul Street. After spending the night in Northernhay Gardens behind the museum, he was lowered through the roof by a crane. He’s stood in the Case Histories gallery ever since.

You can learn more about Gerald, including why he used to be called George, on RAMM’s collections site.

Visual description: A five-metre-tall taxidermy giraffe specimen. The giraffe is standing and looking straight ahead, its neck stretched to full height.

RAMM Treasures Trail - Object 9 - Masai Giraffe

Learn about the ninth object in our RAMM Treasures of the Museum trail, Gerald the giraffe.

Treasures of the Museum: Masai Giraffe

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Transcript

Alison Neely: My name is Alison Neely. I'm a volunteer guide at RAMM.

I grew up near Exeter and I've been coming to the museum most of my life, and one of the things that used to draw me in was Gerald the giraffe.

Gerald is a Masai or Kilimanjaro giraffe. He's about five metres and five centimetres tall – that's 17 feet – from his hooves to his ossicones, and his ossicones are his horns.

As a child, I used to come and see Gerald, and he used to stand in part of what is now the café and his head used to go up through the banisters of the floor above. And as a child, you'd go in and see him, look up and see his head going through the banisters, and then you'd come rushing up the stairs and go and stand around the banisters and look at him in the eyeball, and that was quite an impression as a six-year-old.

Now, as a volunteer at RAMM, I get to see Gerald every time I come in and he's still as tall, still as impressive, even though he is in a different home.

It's quite a story about how he got upstairs. The museum was closed for four years while it was being refurbished, and then Gerald and only a few other items couldn't be moved out because they were too big.

So, he was put in a crate, and he lay on his side for many, many months and then when the time came to bring him to his new home upstairs, he had to be taken out of a window on Upper Paul Street. (Incidentally, that's the same window that he came in through).

And then he was put on a low loader. He was driven around to Northernhay Gardens up behind the museum, and then he was lowered in through the roof into his current position. It was quite an amazing thing, seeing him on the TV being lowered through the roof of the museum.

Gerald has been in the museum for 100 years. He had been shot in about 1901 by a man called Charles Peel, and then his family moved to Devon. They donated a lot of animals to the museum.

Gerald now stands in a gallery called Case Histories. He stands next to the elephant that arrived at the museum around the same time as he did. It isn't many days I'm here that somebody doesn't say to me, ‘Have you still got Gerald?’ I think Gerald made a big impression on many generations of Devon children.

Credits

Watch RAMM staff and volunteers tell us why they love each of the 16 objects, and hear the fascinating stories that make these items so special.

Additional Information

Dimensions
5050 mm
Accession Number
99/1919/100

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