Althea Sherman

Sherman was born in Farmersburg Township, Clayton County, Iowa, to parents Mark Bachelor Sherman and Melissa Sherman (née Clark). She was the fourth of six children in the family. Her father was a self-taught leather tanner and shoe maker, working in New York State and then in Wisconsin. 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. Even though his daughter Althea Sherman later lamented in her writings about the decline of animal and plant life due to habitat loss from agricultural development, her father's farm income financed her education and supported her in her later life as she conducted ornithological research. Sherman and her two older sisters, Amelia Sherman and Ada Sherman, travelled 40 miles from home to attend a college preparatory academy at Upper Iowa University. All three sisters subsequently enrolled at Oberlin College. Sherman's sisters both pursued courses for a career in medicine, but Althea Sherman continued to pursue the study of art. At Oberlin College, Sherman pursued the classical course of art study, as opposed to the literary course of study. She later attributed a part of her scientific success to her studies of Greek, Latin, and the arts, especially illustration. Sherman studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. She later returned to Oberlin College to complete a master's degree in art in 1882. Sherman later taught at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, leaving in 1885 to study at the Art Students League of New York. In 1887, Sherman moved to Wichita, Kansas, to be closer to her older sister Ada. She later returned to her hometown in Iowa to care for her ailing parents. 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. Her father died in 1896 and Sherman remained to care for her mother until her mother's death in 1902. Sherman continued to reside at her Iowa family home with her older sister, Dr. Amelia Sherman. ==Scientific career==

by Sherman|266x266px Following a 20-year career in the arts, Sherman then began her career ornithology, making use of her skills as an observer and illustrator. Prior to Sherman's time, biologists frequently sacrificed birds to examine them morphologically. Instead, Sherman pioneered the study of bird behavior, focusing on the observation of birds in their native habitats. Early in her investigations, she set up an observation facility near her home which she called her "Acre of Birds." There, Sherman included natural cavities in trees for nesting sites, as well as birdhouses, nesting platforms, and brush piles. Her birdhouses were constructed with holes for viewing the birds and for reaching in to evaluate the development of the nestlings. From her home in Iowa, Sherman followed the scholarly literature in ornithology and became a member of 15 scientific or ornithological societies. Some ornithologists believed that Sherman was being inappropriately judgmental of house wrens. Many people provided bird boxes for house wrens to nest. Since these birds prey on other birds, Sherman contended the practice of providing bird boxes gave house wrens an unfair competitive advantage in the wild. This debate is sometimes known as "The Great Wren Debate" and has continued well into the 21st century. Sherman's publications early in her career reported on observations of bird behavior, while later publications included more extensive interpretations. Over the course of her career, she served as a mentor for ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice, who was 30 years younger than Sherman. Sherman and Nice corresponded frequently, with Sherman at times offering advice and suggestions. 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. Her scientific endeavors were self-financed, which also aided her overcoming gender discrimination. Chimney Swifts' Tower 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. Her observations were the first of their kind. Sherman collected 18 years of data using this tower. ==Honors and legacy==

Sherman's research findings led to her being elected as a member of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1912, which at the time had only 100 members. Sherman died at age 89 prior to her publication of a book summarizing her chimney swift data. However, Fred J. Pierce published Sherman's book Birds of an Iowa Dooryard posthumously, with publication limited to 1500 copies. Sherman's ornithological publications formed a part of ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent's treatise Life Histories of North American Birds. ==Representative publications==

• Sherman, Althea R. “The Nest Life of the Sparrow Hawk.” The Auk, vol. 30, no. 3, American Ornithological Society, 1913, pp. 406–18. • Sherman, Althea R. “The Old Ornithology and the New.” The Wilson Bulletin, vol. 42, no. 1, Wilson Ornithological Society, 1930, pp. 3–10. • Sherman, Althea R. “Birds by the Wayside, in Europe, Asia, and Africa.” The Wilson Bulletin, vol. 27, no. 1, 1915, pp. 243–71. ==References==