[click images to enlarge]

 

The first thing Rusty ever wore was a tie. Two ties, actually, purchased one at a time from the university book store across the street, the second tie after it became very apparent that the first would scarcely encircled the giant sloth’s throat. Since that first costume in 1999, the staff of the University of Iowa Museum of Natural history has gone on to dress their model Megalonyx jeffersoni as Zorro, Lincoln, Cupid, Darwin, Santa Claus, Harry Potter, and King Tut. The list goes on, with the most recent crop of sloth dressers interpreting their favorite example of Ice Age megafauna through such feminine icons Little Red Riding Hood and Rosie the Riveter.

The 2009 Field Guide honors the sesquicentennial of the UIMNH and its first decade of sloth dressing. All 24 documented costumes of the first ten years are represented. Printed on Stonehenge warm white paper with hand-set Bembo types and polymer plates. Edition of 62.