Martha Maxwell

Martha Ann Maxwell (née Dartt 21 July 1831 – 31 May 1881) was an American naturalist, artist and taxidermist. She helped found modern taxidermy. 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 and Carl Akeley (the father of modern taxidermy). She was born in Pennsylvania in 1831.

Maxwell was born Martha Dartt to Spencer & Amy Sanford Dartt on 21 July 1831 in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. 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.

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.

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 settling 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 until the man finally left the cabin on an errand. She removed the door from the frame and she entered the cabin and found amongst the mans 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.”

...
Wikipedia