This article examines the ways in which visitors came to see the Beutelwolf (thylacine) that is in the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde (MfN) in Berlin. We analyse nineteenth-century zoo-related materials, key popular German natural history writings, and historical museum guides to show how the emphasis on ‘seeing’ specimens, combined with the production of images inside and outside the museum, created a particular view of the species as ‘primitive’ and destined for extinction due to its inability to adapt to the modern world. We conclude with some suggestions for how contemporary representations of extinction in the MfN might need to be reconsidered in the light of these findings.
