19th century Wisconsin bird specimens

Collections_group of bird specimens with tags

Collections_exhibition title wall to right, view of gallery

Collections_view down gallery, display cases with objects

Collections_19th century sepia photograph showing display cases with specimens

Collections_microscope on right with attachments, meteorite on left

Collections_six mounted bird specimens arranged in group

Collections_open wood box with watercolors, color swatches

19th century Wisconsin bird specimens

dimensions variable

2020

natural history specimens

Thuré Kumlien immigrated to Wisconsin from Sweden in the 1840s. He and his family settled in Busseyville, near Lake Koshkonong. Although Kumlien was a farmer, his passion was observation and study of the natural world. He was a skilled taxidermist, supplying skins and mounts of birds and mammals to museums, schools and other collectors across Wisconsin, the eastern United States, and Europe. Kumlien became the Milwaukee Public Museum’s first conservator in 1883.

Most of these bird specimens were collected near Thuré Kumlien’s farm in Busseyville in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Collection of the Milwaukee Public Museum.

history of natural history, Wisconsin history