| UID | |
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| Historical Notes | Althea Sherman was born in Clayton County, Iowa on October 10th, 1853 to Mark and Melissa Sherman. Sherman attended the local county school with her siblings and then continued her education at Upper Iowa University. After attending Upper Iowa, Althea went on to Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio where she studied art. Soon after graduating, she returned to Oberlin to obtain her master’s degree. During this time she began to travel and teach art in many different locations, including Carleton College, in Northfield, Minnesota, and in many other cities including New York City, Wichita, Kansas, and Tacoma, Washington. Althea returned home to Iowa in 1895 when her father became very ill, and she cared for him until his death in 1896. After his death, she remained in Iowa teaching art to the community members. In 1910 Althea began to seriously study the local birds around her. She began to sketch and write observations of birds around her home, using her training as an artist to thoroughly document her sightings. Sherman also started to create her own nesting boxes for observation. In an addition to nesting boxes, Sherman built a wooden blind and later a tower to study chimney swifts. The tower stood 28 feet tall and held an artificial chimney with a staircase built around the chimney for viewing purposes. Althea continued to study birds in her various observation posts with local bird watchers and ornithologists until her death on April 16th, 1943. Sherman left her property to the State of Iowa in hopes that a wildlife preserve would open. Unfortunately that did not happen, and her land was sold off and her chimney swift tower was removed from the property. Today the Althea R. Sherman Project owns the tower and is working to create the wildlife preserve that she dreamed of. |
| Record Source | |
| Source | viaf |
| Maintenance Status | new |
| Maintenance Agency | Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives |
| Maintenance Event | |
| Authored | Althea Sherman letter to Philip DuMont regarding the "Birds of Polk County, Iowa", January 5, 1932 Questionnaire for a new birds of Iowa, Althea Sherman |
| Contributed | Oscar Allert letter to Philip DuMont regarding Starling sightings, May 20, 1934 Records Committee review for rare bird sighting for Rock Wren at National in 1914 |
| Related Documents | Records Committee review for rare bird sighting for Mountain Bluebird at Charles City in 1914 Photograph of a Chimney Swift observation tower Walter Rosene, Jr. letter to Pam Allen regarding the nomination of the Goldfinch as the Iowa State bird, March 24, 1993 |
| Related Birds | Common Starling Rock Wren Mountain Bluebird Chimney Swift American Goldfinch |
| Related People | |
| Related Places | Allamakee County Winneshiek County Howard County Clayton County National Polk County Charles City Iowa |
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Image Source: http://library.iowabirds.org/Journals/1940-1949%20Vol.%2010-19/1943-Vol%2013/IBL-13-2.pdf