PHOTOGRAPH (DIGITAL): 'ELSA' 1924, FROM MINNA LIPFERT ALBUM

One of many items received via the Cancer Council when miss Gertrude Lipfert died at the family home in 1989, 270 York Street, Subiaco. Daughter of Otto Lipfert, taxidermist at WA Museum. Otto Lipfert was born in Germany in 1864 .. He trained and worked there as a furrier, but he developed a keen interest in nature and the animal species that were exciting Europeans in Australia. On hearing there was no taxidermist in Western Australia he migrated in 1892, making the voyage in a British ship so that he could learn English on the way. In 1894 he became the first taxidermist to work for the Western Australian Museum. He made his first collecting trip—to the Abrolhos Islands—that spring. Lipfert was naturalised in 1900. In 1902 he married German-born Anna Struck at the German club in Perth. The couple built a house at 270 York St (formerly Gibney Street), Subiaco, where members of the Lipfert family lived until 1989. Three daughters: Minna, Gertrude and Elsa. Otto died in Perth in 1942.