HOME

About Us

Dora DuFran

Martha Maxwell

Jeannette Rankin

Nancy Russell

Well Behaved Women

Schedule

Contact Us

Brochure




 
   

Martha Maxwell
1831-1881

Naturalist    Taxidermist    Artist

  Martha Maxwell traveled to the Colorado Territory with the first wave of the Pike's  Peak Gold Rush in 1860.  A self-educated naturalist and artist, she found her passion and life's work quite by accident and contributed to the development of taxidermy and museum display with techniques that are still used today.    Listen to Martha's stories of her nearly eight
continuous years in the field in the Rocky Mountains, and her discovery of the subspecies - otus asio maxwelliae - that today bears her name - Maxwell's Owl.   Hear about the obstacles and challenges facing this early woman of science, a woman clearly ahead of her time.


This is a 45 minute - 1 hour program presented in first person with time for questions and discussion.
"To a naturalist intent upon knowing the secrets of the natural world, the capture of the smallest bud or insect gives as much pleasure as to have outwitted the fiercest grizzly in the mountains or the largest buffalo on the plains."
                                                                           Martha Maxwell, 1878  

     
    
Martha Maxwell, Martha Ann Dartt, Martha Ann Dartt Maxwell , taxidermist, naturalist, natural history, pioneer women, frontier women, women of the west, Maxwell's owl, Centennial Exhibition 1876