The Birdman of Koshkonong: The Life of Naturalist Thure Kumlien

Thure Kumlien was one of Wisconsin's earliest Swedish settlers and an accomplished ornithologist, botanist, and naturalist in the mid-1800s. He settled on the shore of Lake Koshkonong in 1843 and soon began sending bird specimens to museums and collectors in Europe and the eastern United States. He prepared natural history exhibits for the newly established University of Wisconsin and became the first curator of the new Milwaukee Public Museum. Kumlien never gained widespread notoriety. Yet...