A Summative History
CHAPTER 1 “A MUSEUM HERE FOUNDED” A Summative History Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Museum Origins, 1897−1910 Kristine A. Haglund, In 1893 the city of Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposi- Richard K. Stucky, and tion, a celebration inspired by the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival Pamela Wineman in the Americas. The fair attracted global attention and inspired a generation to rethink architecture, science, industry, the arts, and city planning. Even the severe economic depression that started that year would not dampen the enthusiasm awakened by the exposition’s displays, performances, buildings, and demonstrations. Spurred in part by the exposition, Denver’s most prominent citizens visited Edwin Carter in his mountain home in Breck- enridge, Colorado (Fig. 1.1). Headed by Governor John L. Routt, the Denver entourage knew Carter held a magnificent collection of Colorado wildlife. Carter (Fig. 1.2) had come to Colorado during the 1859 Pikes Peak gold rush and had had modest success. He retired several years later, settled in a tiny cabin in Breckenridge in 1868, and pursued his passion for natural history, particularly the study of birds and mammals. Carter was a wholehearted collector, as one historian has written: Edwin Carter found such joy in collecting that he too structured his life and work around it. The prospecting and tanning that filled his summers played second fiddle to the wintertime pleasures of tramping through the Figure 1.1. Edwin Carter’s cabin, woods, observing, tracking, and taking game. Breckenridge, Colorado. Accompanied by a burro and his dog, Bismark, who pulled a small sled with food and supplies, the tall, thin miner roamed the hills in snowshoes, watching the small movements of the birds in trees and the way the snow dropped from the branches 11 DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE ANNALS | No.
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