Pennsylvania Deer and Their Horns

Pennsylvania Deer and Their Horns, published in 1915, stands alongside a number of Shoemaker’s volumes, such as Wolf Days in Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Lion or Panther, dedicated to telling the tales of vanishing or extinct Pennsylvania wildlife. Pennsylvania Deer and Their Horns places these tales within the greater context of the Pennsylvania sportsmen’s and hunting culture. While lamenting the extinction of the old-stock Pennsylvania deer species, Shoemaker celebrates the hunter and the sport and writes in a hopeful spirit that the sport will continue without causing extinction.

Shoemaker writes that the book is meant to “establish a standard of comparison of old and new deer and their horns . . . by presenting descriptions and measurements of the best known heads of moose, elk and deer killed in the commonwealth, an added zest will be given to efforts of collectors and hunters.” In the chapters that follow, the author describes and compares fossil and extinct Pennsylvania deer, big deer, little deer, the gray moose or elk, and black moose. Descriptions of famous hunters, hunting methods, and traditions appear alongside hunting lore and tales of legendary stags and their famous pursuers.

The volume concludes with three chapters on deer, elk, and moose horns, with descriptions and measurements of antlers, along with stories of unusual and “freak” heads and sets of antlers. The text is heavily illustrated with photographs of famous hunters and their game, alongside many photographs of the deer and horns themselves.