Martha Ann Maxwell (née Dartt 21 July 1831 – 31 May 1881) was an American
naturalist, artist and taxidermist. She helped found modern
taxidermy
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...
. Maxwell's pioneering diorama displays are said to have influenced major figures in taxidermy history who entered the field later, such as
William Temple Hornaday
William Temple Hornaday, Sc.D. (December 1, 1854 – March 6, 1937) was an American zoologist, conservationist, taxidermist, and author. He served as the first director of the New York Zoological Park, known today as the Bronx Zoo, and h ...
and
Carl Akeley
Carl Ethan Akeley (May 19, 1864 – November 17, 1926) was a pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, conservationist, inventor, and nature photographer, noted for his contributions to American museums, most notably to the Milwauk ...
(the father of modern taxidermy).
She was born in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
in 1831.
Among her many accomplishments, she is credited with being the first woman field naturalist to obtain and prepare her own specimens.
She was inducted into the
Colorado Women's Hall of Fame
The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2020, 170 women have been inducted.
History
There was a short-lived recogniti ...
in 1985.
Biography
Early life
Maxwell was born Martha Dartt to Spencer and Amy Sanford Dartt on 21 July 1831
in
Tioga County, Pennsylvania
Tioga County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 41,045. Its county seat is Wellsboro. The county was created on March 26, 1804, from part of Lycoming County and later organized in 1812. ...
.
Her father died in 1833 and her mother remarried in 1841 to Josiah Dartt, Spencer's first cousin. It was her grandmother, Abigail Stanford, who first instilled a love of nature in Maxwell, taking her for walks in the woods.
In 1851 Maxwell left for
Oberlin College in Ohio with plans to become a teacher. She had to drop out in 1852 due to her family being unable to afford the tuition. She returned to her parents, who were then living in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Marriage and children
Maxwell was teaching at a local school when James Maxwell, a Baraboo businessman, hired her in 1853 to chaperone two of his children at Lawrence College in Wisconsin. In return for her services, he agreed to cover her tuition. She had been there less than a year when James proposed to her. Despite him being twenty years older, with six children, Maxwell agreed. They were married in 1854 and had a daughter, Mabel, in 1857.
Interest in taxidermy
The Maxwell family was hit with financial ruin in the
panic of 1857. As a result of this, Maxwell and James joined the Colorado Gold Rush of 1860. They left their daughter Mabel behind in the care of her maternal grandparents. The Maxwells eventually settled in
Nevadaville, Colorado. While James pursued mining, Maxwell took in washing, mending and baked pies to earn her own income. She made her own investments, and bought an interest in a boarding house, some mining claims, and she purchased a one-room log cabin on the plains east of Denver.
In 1861 the boarding house burned down, leaving Maxwell with no way to earn an income and the family no place to live. The plan was to move to the cabin that Maxwell had bought but when they got there, they found that a claim jumper had moved into the cabin. They took the squatter to court, and the decision came down in favor of the Maxwells but the German man living in their cabin refused to move out. Maxwell waited for the man to leave the cabin on an errand. She removed the door from the frame and she entered the cabin and found amongst the man's possessions perfectly preserved stuffed birds and animals. The claim jumper was a taxidermist by training. Maxwell proceeded to put everything out on the prairie and reclaim her property.
Maxwell soon wrote to family members requesting a book that would help her “to learn how to preserve birds & other animal curiosities in this country.”
In 1862 Maxwell returned to Baraboo, where she studied taxidermy, taught by a local man named Ogden.
In 1868 James persuaded her to return to Colorado.
Career in taxidermy
Upon Maxwell's return to Colorado she began building a collection of native birds and mammals.
She made trips into the Rockies where she gathered chipmunks, various species of squirrels and birds. By the fall of 1868 Martha had prepared almost 100 specimens, ranging from chicks to hawks, and hummingbirds to eagles. She was asked to display her work at the Colorado Agricultural Society exhibition. Attendees particularly admired that Maxwell created an entire natural habitat for each species, making it appear as if they were still alive. Her work was acknowledged with a $50 prize and a diploma.
In mid-1874, she opened her Rocky Mountain Museum in
Boulder, Colorado at the northeast corner of Broadway and Pearl Street to display her specimens for both education and entertainment. A central part of the museum was Maxwell's exhibits of animals in their natural habitats, including a buffalo, birds, a bear, and a mountain lion. In addition, she included "comic groups" of animals, such as a small group of monkeys seated around a table playing poker, and live animals - two bear cubs, rattlesnakes, a mountain grouse, and squirrels.
Hoping to find more support in a larger city, Maxwell moved her museum to Denver a little more than a year later.
However she was unable to make the venture profitable.
Altogether she collected many birds and mammals including black footed ferrets which had been described by
John James Audubon but never seen by scientists, and the
''Otus asio maxwelliae'' (Mrs. Maxwell's Owl) named in her honor by ornithologist
Robert Ridgway
Robert Ridgway (July 2, 1850 – March 25, 1929) was an American ornithologist specializing in systematics. He was appointed in 1880 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to be the first full-time curator of bi ...
of the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
.
By then she was also a regular correspondent of
Spencer Fullerton Baird. Maxwell sent him two bird specimens in 1874 and he in turn supplied her with catalogs of birds and mammals.
Developed taxidermy techniques
Maxwell developed her own way of preserving the animals by molding them in plaster and then covering these molds with the animals' skins, which she had preserved.
She later used iron frames over which to stretch the skins, rather than sewing the skins together and stuffing them, as most other taxidermists did.
She also insisted that replica backgrounds portraying the animals' natural habitat were used.
Philadelphia Exposition
In 1876 Maxwell was asked to produce an exhibit for the
Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
, the first official World's Fair.
The Colorado commissioners agreed to pay for the packing and transportation of her specimens to and from Philadelphia and her living expenses while at the Centennial. To compensate Maxwell for her time, she would be allowed to keep the proceeds from the sale of any duplicate specimens and photographs of herself and her display.
She created a complex habitat diorama that included taxidermy animals (that she had both hunted and mounted), running water, and some live prairie dogs.
It is speculated this display was the first of its kind.
The display was one of the most popular at the internationally attended event
and was heavily covered by the press.
The exhibition proved so popular that the fair's official photographic firm, the Centennial Photographic Company, was unable to keep up with the demand for images. When Maxwell had photographic copies of their images made and began selling them, however, officials forced her to stop.
Many Centennial visitors apparently wanted a keepsake of Maxwell's popular display. Maxwell had arranged mammals and birds from both the plains and mountain regions into a realistic natural setting. Buffalo and elk roamed across the plains while bears, mountain lions and smaller creatures were posed among the rocks, each at an elevation suggesting the altitude in which they were naturally found. Like her Colorado museum displays, Maxwell's Centennial exhibition featured both taxidermy specimens and small live animals.
Financial struggles
In the years following the Centennial, Martha Maxwell continued to struggle financially. Other exhibitions of her specimens, including one in
Washington, D.C.
)
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in 1876, failed to garner much attention.
In 1879, Maxwell moved to rooms in the Williamsburg section of
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and in 1880, opened a beachhouse/museum in Rockaway Beach, offering bathing as well as a display of her collection.
''On the Plains, and Among the Peaks''
After the Centennial, Maxwell worked with her half-sister Mary Dartt to publish an account of Maxwell's taxidermy work. ''On the Plains, and Among the Peaks; or, How Mrs. Maxwell Made Her Natural History Collection'' was published in 1879 by the Philadelphia firm of Claxton, Remsen and Haffelfinger. Although the book received positive reviews, it was not a financial success.
Death and afterward
Maxwell died in Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York on 31 May 1881 of an ovarian tumor.
After Maxwell's death her daughter contracted with J.P. Haskins in
Saratoga Springs, New York
Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...
to exhibit and/or sell the collection. The collection was exhibited several times but was then placed into storage. Unfortunately it was not put away carefully and pieces began to disintegrate. In 1920 Maxwell's sister, Mary, tried to retrieve the collection and planned to donate work to the University of Colorado. However, the pieces had aged badly and there was nothing worth preserving.
Bibliography
*
*
*
* Dartt, Mary (2021). ''On the Plains, and Among the Peaks; or, How Mrs. Maxwell Made Her Natural History Collection''. Ed. Julie McCown. Louisville, CO: University Press of Colorado.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Martha
1831 births
1881 deaths
American naturalists
American mammalogists
People from Tioga County, Pennsylvania
Taxidermists
People from Gilpin County, Colorado
People from Boulder, Colorado
Women in craft