Martha Ann Maxwell (née Dartt 21 July 1831 – 31 May 1881) was an American naturalist, artist and taxidermist.

She made her own investments, and bought an interest in a boarding house, some mining claims, and she purchased a one-room log cabin on the plains east of Denver.

They took the squatter to court, and the decision came down in favor of the Maxwells but the German man living in their cabin refused to move out.

She removed the door from the frame and she entered the cabin and found amongst the man's possessions perfectly preserved stuffed birds and animals.

Attendees particularly admired that Maxwell created an entire natural habitat for each species, making it appear as if they were still alive.

[3] In mid-1874, she opened her Rocky Mountain Museum in Boulder, Colorado at the northeast corner of Broadway and Pearl Street to display her specimens for both education and entertainment.

A central part of the museum was Maxwell's exhibits of animals in their natural habitats, including a buffalo, birds, a bear, and a mountain lion.

[2] Altogether she collected many birds and mammals including black footed ferrets which had been described by John James Audubon but never seen by scientists, and the Otus asio maxwelliae (Mrs. Maxwell's Owl) named in her honor by ornithologist Robert Ridgway of the Smithsonian Institution.

[2] The Colorado commissioners agreed to pay for the packing and transportation of her specimens to and from Philadelphia and her living expenses while at the Centennial.

[6] She created a complex habitat diorama that included taxidermy animals (that she had both hunted and mounted), running water, and some live prairie dogs.

Buffalo and elk roamed across the plains while bears, mountain lions and smaller creatures were posed among the rocks, each at an elevation suggesting the altitude in which they were naturally found.

Like her Colorado museum displays, Maxwell's Centennial exhibition featured both taxidermy specimens and small live animals.

[6][9] In 1879, Maxwell moved to rooms in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York[10] and in 1880, opened a beachhouse/museum in Rockaway Beach, offering bathing as well as a display of her collection.

On the Plains, and Among the Peaks; or, How Mrs. Maxwell Made Her Natural History Collection was published in 1879 by the Philadelphia firm of Claxton, Remsen and Haffelfinger.

[13] After Maxwell's death her daughter contracted with J.P. Haskins in Saratoga Springs, New York to exhibit and/or sell the collection.