Delbridge work group to solicit requests for Brockhouse animal collection

A new building to house the Brockhouse collection could cost as much as $8 million

The city of Sioux Falls will request proposals from nonprofit organizations that might be interested in acquiring some or all of the Brockhouse taxidermy collection housed at the Great Plains Zoo and Delbridge Museum.

That was the consensus of a working group established by Mayor Paul TenHaken to study the collection following the zoo’s closure of the Delbridge last year. The recommendation came Friday following a detailed report on the collection that had been prepared by A.M. Art Conservation of Cold Spring, New York and internationally known taxidermy expert George Dante.

Overall, the report found that the majority of the collection was in good to exceptional condition. That was a testament to the top-notch taxidermy sought by Sioux Falls businessman Henry Brockhouse, who shot most of the animals on international hunting trips in the decades before he died in 1978. Brockhouse had the animals – rare in that there are so many full-body specimens – prepared by the Jonas Brothers, who are considered among the great artisans of taxidermy.