Martha Maxwell, Taxidermist (1876)
Above: Martha Maxwell and her Colorado diorama at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition (1876)
Martha Maxwell (1831-1881) was a pioneering American naturalist and taxidermist. Her diorama of Colorado wildlife created quite a stir at the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition. I read an excerpt from a book about Maxwell’s life, titled On the Plains and Among the Peaks, or How Mrs. Maxwell Made Her Natural History Collection, penned by her sister, Mary Dartt, for the 73rd volume of the LibriVox Short Nonfiction Collection.
Listen to my recording here.
Read the book on-line here.
Stereograph Of Rock Mountain Display at Philadelphia Exhibition (1876)
You might enjoy:
Birding in British Guiana & Venezuela, 1908-1909
By Ox Team to California, A Narrative of Crossing the Plains in 1860
Phoebe Yates Pember,
Reminiscences of a Southern Hospital, by Its Matron