Object Details
- Author
- Unknown
- Subject
- United States National Museum
- National Museum of Natural History (U.S.)
- National Collections
- Cincinnati Zoo
- Category
- Historic Images of the Smithsonian
- Martha is no longer on exhibit. See also MNH-917 close-up for a closer view.
- Summary
- A passenger pigeon Martha (named after Martha Washington), the last survivor of an American species that numbered in the millions prior to the 1880's, died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Her body was donated to the Smithsonian Institution and brought to the United States National Museum, now the National Museum of Natural History, for permanent preservation. Mounted in a display case with this notation: "MARTHA, last of her species, died at 1 p.m., 1 September 1914, age 29, in the Cincinnati Zoological Garden. EXTINCT", this bird documents an unhappy chapter in the conservation of wildlife.
- Contained within
- Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 416, Box 1, Folder 4
- Contact information
- Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu
- 1967
- Standard number
- SIA2010-0612 and MNH-917
- Restrictions & Rights
- No restrictions
- Type
- Photographic print
- Exhibit
- Physical description
- Number of Images: 1; Color: Black and white; Size: 8w x 10h; Type of Image: Animal, Exhibit; Medium: Photographic print
- Place
- North America
- Smithsonian Archives - History Div
- Topic
- Birds
- Cincinnati
- Exhibitions
- Extinct birds
- Martha (Animal)
- Ornithology
- Passenger Pigeons
- Taxidermy
- Zoological Gardens
- Zoological specimens--Collection and preservation
- Record ID
- siris_sic_11640
