UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, October 13, 1993
9
Swearingen looks out over his farm in north Lawrence before feeding his sheep. Swearingen spends about two hours a day feeding the animals on his 100 acre farm.
TOM SWEARINGEN：
THE MAN WHO DOES EVERYTHING
Tom Swearingen, director of exhibits at the Museum of Natural History, puts a gloss on the eyes of a stuffed groundhog in an exhibit. Swearingen does much of the taxidermy work at the museum.
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almost a curse," she said. "Anything you can come up with he's either done it, or he knows how to do it, or he can sit right down and do it better."
One Easter, she decided to learn crochet. Her husband had beat her to it.
"I said, 'Tom, you know this gets a little old.' We thought he was kidding, so we gave him some thread and a hook, and he did sit down and crochet a doily."
Swearingen feeds his dog, Buddy, who shows his affection by giving Swearingen a kiss. Swearingen stays busy tending the sheep, horses, dogs and cats that populate the farm.
A museum of stories
Pick an exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Chances are Swearingen did almost Everything.
"Skies are like the eyes of a person," he said. "I call it a sentimental sky."
It's the sentimental streak in Swearingen that compels him to collect the stories behind the museum and its exhibits.
"He's a storyteller," said Hooper. "He's a walking history book because he's been here as long as anyone."
"It was like falling into the pot and coming out smelling like a rose," he said.
Swearingen has been at the Museum of Natural History since he graduated from KU in 1960. But he credits his art career to Kansas State University. Swearinger was a pre-veterinary student and spinner on the track team until a groin injury caused him to fall behind in his veterinary studies. An oil painting class he took instead inspired him to transfer to KU for a degree in commercial art and design.
A M KU, Swearingen discovered the Museum of Natural History, where his love of art and animals became one. Swearingen knew he'd finally found his niche.
"It's really developed into an art form. Back then it was stuffing animals. Now it's like a piece of sculpture."
As a young boy in Horton, Swearingen was compelled by religious parents to attend church. To alleviate his boredom, he would sketch horses during the services. A 50-cents-a-week correspondence course from the Northwest School of Taxidermy in Omaha, Neb., introduced him to taxidermy.
"It was kind of a very primitive type of course, but it was the only thing available," he said.
Swearingen persuaded George Young, the Natural History Museum's former taxidermist, to take him on as his only apprentice. Young Swearingen found that there was an art to stuffing animals.
For 34 years, Swearingen has worked to make the museum his own collection, fixing it up as he might restore one of his antique rocking horses.
"He's essentially really invested himself in the museum and the exhibits, and the program shows it," said Philip Humphrey, director of the museum and professor of biological science.
here, nine-tenths or more were just specimens sitting on a table with a sheet behind them and a label."
"it's still never been finished since it was founded in the 1930s," he said. "When I came
Swearingen's efforts have brought recognition to himself and the museum. He was invited to Bahrain to help establish a museum there. He has done work for the Smithsonian Institution. He was offered a job at the Bronx Zoo in New York but chose to stay at KU even though occasional lack of support for exhibitions frustrated him.
"I never got bored here," he said. "I got disgusted and discouraged at times, but I never got bored."
Swearingen said he judged the success of the museum by the reactions of children.
"We want them to see that everything doesn't come out of a can," he said. "We want them to see how things live in harmony."
Swearingen, himself, is a museum. Even his family is a collection of sorts. He and his wife have raised three children from their previous
A collector of Everything
marriages and one from their own.
Swearingen is a jack-of-all-trades, an almost compulsive hobbyist and an avid collector.
"He's big on preserving tradition and heritage," Nancy Swearingen said. "He thinks things are discarded with little regard, so he saves everything. If you really want to know Tom, you should take a look at his farm."
Everything is saved at the Swearingens' 100-acre farm just north of Lawrence. An antique boxcar sits inside the barn. The front yard, or playground as the Swearingsen call it, sports a swing set and doll house made out of abandoned junk. Inside the cabin-style farmhouse, antique toys crowd the floors, and knickknacks battle for shelf space. Swearingen's own artwork papers the walls. Each room houses a different collection of antique horse paraphernalia.
"Tom takes everyone's castoffs," Nancy Swearingen said. "And there's stories to almost everything we've got."
Tom Swearingen's most valuable collection is his animals. He has raised Everything from beavers, raccoons and minks to dogs, horses and sheep. People often send their aging animals to his farm to live out the rest of their lives.
"At one time, our farm was kind of like a geriatric ward," Swaringen said.
bear to part with them. More than 60 animals are buried in the yard on the side of the house. When Big Momma, Swearingen's favorite prize cow died, he had Rumsey Funeral Home come to the farm to dig her a grave.
"All the neighbors thought we were crazy," Swearingen said. "They were about to commit me to Osawatomie."
While others admire Swearingen's kind heart and achievements, he remains modest, almost bewildered at the attention. Ask him about his latest creation, a sheep mailbox he made for the neighbors.
"They needed a mailbox," he shrugged. "You just get an idea, and you do it."
Those who know Swearingen say he is not only competitive but also full of fun and energy.
But Swearingen doesn't just do it. He has to do Everything perfectly. Swearingen is a competitor. He shows horses and sheep. He competes in taxidermy competitions, and he often takes home top honors.
"Tom likes to be the best," his wife said. "If they showed canine, he'd show them too."
"He cracks a smile, and you kind of wonder what's up," Hooper said. "You want to have a saddle horn to hold onto, but the ride is always fun."
And when his animals die. Swearingen can't
His legacy: Our heritage
Swearing doesn't want the ride to end when he is no longer at the museum.
Like any curator, Swearingen tries to preserve the traditions dear to his heart.
Just as George Young taught young Swearingen his skills, so Swearingen trains those he works with to carry on the tradition of being able to do Everything.
"He's kind of passing down all his skills and talents and just keeping that knowledge alive," said David Baccadutre, exhibits coordinator for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. When Baccadutre was a student at KU, Swearingen took him as an apprentice. "Not a lot of people can walk into an exhibition setting and do it all."
Swearing, modest to the end, just wants his collections to survive.
"Some people look at a person when they're gone and say, 'Gosh, what did that guy ever add to the earth?' he said. "I'd hate to be looked at that way."
Dumpyour emotionalbaggage!
Wednesday, October 20th, 1993
7pm - 9pm, Pine Room, Kansas Union
Emotional bagage is all of the traits and behaviors we can't see in curseurs but that keep getting in our way. If you can get our defenses and anxieties under control, we will be able to see the baggage ourselves. This program will provide a forum of discovery into our inner selves so that we can help in develop our emotional bagage
Dr. Barbara W. Ballard, Associate Dean of Student Life and Director, The Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center
This program is sponsored by the Emily Terry Women's Resource Center, 115 Long Hall. For more information, contact Renée Speicher 848-3552.
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