Reinheimer, Philip, 1863-1948.

Philip Reinheimer was a self-taught craftsman who joined the Colorado Museum of Natural History, the original name of Denver Museum of Nature & Science, in 1915 and, over three decades, brought the Museum national recognition in the art and science of mounting and displaying fossil vertebrate skeletons in lifelike positions. Philip Reinheimer was born in 1863 in the province of Alsace-Lorraine in northeastern France. After immigrating as a young man, he worked in steel mills in the eastern United States. He was married and had three sons in Pennsylvania. Reinheimer came to Denver in 1905 at age 42 and found employment as a park policeman for the City. In 1915 he joined the Museum staff as a fireman in the heating plant. Museum management soon recognized his skills as a metalworker and craftsman and moved him to the paleontology laboratory. Reinheimer first learned fossil excavation and cleaning techniques in 1917 from colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History on a joint project at Agate Springs fossil quarry in northwestern Nebraska. He had more on-the-job training when the Museum opened its own fossil quarry in 1920 at the Horsetail Creek site in Weld County, Colorado. Back in the laboratory, Reinheimer accepted the challenge of designing and constructing systems to mount the fossilized skeletons in lifelike poses. He continually developed and improved mounting techniques while keeping visible supports to a minimum. Reinheimer and his staff mounted many fossils for display, including such large specimens as mammoths, mastodons, and dinosaurs, one of which is 75 feet long. Through his skills the Museum became a nationally recognized leader in vertebrate display techniques. Reinheimer was chief preparator in the vertebrate paleontology department for many years, and on retiring in 1947, he was named honorary preparator. He died in early 1948 at age 85, less than a year after retiring.

From the description of Philip Reinheimer Papers 1929-1949. (Denver Museum of Nature & Science). WorldCat record id: 69957581

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