Original or Copy - Map / Extermination of the American Bison, William Hornaday 1889

W.T. Hornaday - Framed Original Printed Bison Decimation Map

                            - was $975; sale $475 plus actual shipping/packing/insurance.

Hornaday was the Chief Taxidermist for the Smithsonian Museum. After reviewing the Museum's collection and conducting a written survey, he recognized the rapid decline in the population of American Bison.

He went west to collect specimens for the Museum in anticipation of the Bison's extinction, and was shocked at what he saw and learned: "Just as a carefree and joyous swimmer for pleasure suddenly is drawn into a whirlpool - in which he can swim but from which he cannot escape - so in 1886 I was draw into the maelstrom." Bechtel 2012, quoting Hornaday's unpublished autobiography. Hornaday prepared a massive report for the Smithsonian on the extermination of the bison, filled with important observations and data.

But this map tells the story on a single page. The dark red circle on the map shows "the area once inhabited by the the American Bison," and the dates in red tells the date of extinction in each locale. We learn there were bison in Indiana and Kentucky until 1810, and in Iowa and Missouri until 1870, and the much smaller concentric green circles show the same just 10 years later.

Hornaday returned to Washington a changed man. He spent the rest of his life as perhaps the first effective voice for the preservation of species. He played a major role in the survival not only of the American Bison, but the Alaskan fur seal, the snowy egret and others.

This "original" map was cut from the Smithsonian Journal where it was originally published (no, I did not do the dastardly deed, but did get the preservation done.).  And no, it is not the hand done original that Hornaday did (That is in the libraby of congress   

• Issued with: United States. National Museum. Annual report of the Board of regents of the Smithsonian institution ... Report, 1887

The small copies are also fun wall hangings and being copies, are just as accurate.   16" x 24"