American Historical Ephemera & Photography

2 1/4 x 3 1/2 in. carte-de-visite on cardstock mount showing Mrs. Maxwell in a hunting outfit, cradling a rifle. A dog rests at her feet (toning to image and mount, some soiling/spotting). With "Mrs. M.A. Maxwell’s Rocky Mountain Series" printed on mount below image. 

Martha Maxwell (1831-1881) was born in Pennsylvania. When her family experienced financial ruin as a result of the Panic of 1857, they moved to Colorado where Martha became acquainted with, then fascinated by, taxidermy (a German squatter in their cabin had been trained in the art). After traveling to Wisconsin to study taxidermy, she returned to Colorado in 1868, and opened a museum to display her work in Boulder in 1874. She moved to the larger city of Denver a year later, and her displays garnered so much attention that she was asked to produce an exhibit for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. Martha died from ovarian cancer in 1881, leaving behind a daughter who successfully solicited some posthumous attention for her work, though much of it was left to disintegrate in storage thereafter.