Presented by The Dodge County Historical Society

Thure Kumlien was one of Wisconsin's earliest Swedish settlers and an accomplished ornithologist, botanist, and naturalist in the The BIRDMAN of KOSHKONONG mid-1800s, though his name is not well known today. 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, including the Smithsonian. Later, he prepared natural history exhibits for the newly established University of Wisconsin and became the first curator and third employee of the new Milwaukee Public Museum.