Althea Rosina Sherman (1853 – 1943) was an American illustrator, educator, self-taught ornithologist, and writer who commissioned the building of the "Chimney Swifts' Tower" in Clayton County, Iowa.

Once these trades were widely adapted by large factories, Mark Sherman became a farmer, making success of farm in Farmersburg Township, Iowa, which he acquired through a land grant after the Mexican-American War.

[1] Sherman later taught at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, leaving in 1885 to study at the Art Students League of New York.

[3] In 1892, Sherman became a supervisor of drawing in the Tacoma Public Schools in Washington (state) until she returned to her hometown of National, Iowa, in 1895 to care again for her ailing father.

[4] Sherman made observations about habitat requirements, feeding habits, and also the population growth and decline for various bird species.

[4] Sherman used her skills as an artist to illustrate her observations and studies, publishing over 70 articles on 38 species over her career that spanned three decades.

The visitors ranged from professional ornithologists to lay people who were simply interested in seeing the observation facilities that Sherman had crafted.

[3] In 1914, Sherman traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, to observe various bird species worldwide.

The New York Times quoted Sherman after observing behavior of house wrens in which they invade and destroy the eggs of other birds.

Over the course of her career, she served as a mentor for ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice, who was 30 years younger than Sherman.

[3] She also mentored Oberlin College ornithologist Lynds Jones, with whom Sherman subsequently worked closely on The Wilson Bulletin.

[7]: 142 As a self-taught ornithologist who mostly used a home-crafted outdoor observation facility for her investigations, Sherman mostly avoided the gender discrimination in scientific circles that was common at the time.

[7]: 172–174 In 1915, Althea commissioned the building of a 28-foot tall, 9-foot square wooden tower which was designed to attract nesting chimney swifts for observation.

A staircase ran through the center with doors and peepholes so that Sherman could observe and document the life cycle of the chimney swift birds.

[4][13] Sherman's ornithological publications formed a part of ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent's treatise Life Histories of North American Birds.