Martha Maxwell - Not Your Typical Lady

We tend to view the Victorian women as delicate and fragile.  Perhaps in England they were, but in America the women not only kept the house and children, but also went west.  Martha Ann Maxwell is one such woman.  In 1860 Martha and her husband James left their youngest daughter behind, and arrived in Denver Colorado with the rest of their children.  While James prospected in the Rockies Martha ran a boarding house.  After her boarding house burned down Martha and James moved out of town to live on one of their claims only to find it occupied by a German claim jumper.  Martha became fascinated by his stuffing and mounting birds.  She learned all she could about the art of taxidermy and over the next several years she collected her own specimens, preserved and mounted them in natural poses with nature.  She was asked to show her Colorado animals at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876.  Martha Maxwell was a naturalist and should be remembered for her breaking ground for women in the west and in taxidermy.  Not quite spurs and roses and not quite a typical lady.