Delia Akeley

Delia Julia Akeley , commonly known by her nickname, Mickie, was an American explorer. She was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, a daughter of Patrick and Margaret Denning, Irish immigrants.

Delia was born in 1869, although over the years, whether due to Delias own misrepresentation or that of others, her birth date has been given as 1875. Mickie ran away from home in her late teens and made her way to Milwaukee, where she married Arthur Reiss, a barber, in 1889. She was just shy of her 20th birthday . While in Milwaukee she met taxidermist, artist and inventor Carl E. Akeley, who was employed at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Akeley biographers Penelope BodrySanders and Jay Kirk suggest that Delia and Akeley had an affair in any case, Delia and Reiss soon divorced, and in 1902 Delia married Akeley, who by then had become TaxidermistinChief at the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago, later the Field Museum of Natural History. During his years at the Field, Delia assisted Akeley in the creation of his groundbreaking Four Seasons of the Virginia Deer dioramas, and joined him on a 190607 collecting expedition to Africa. Akeley later joined the American Museum of Natural History i

Source: Wikipedia