Sherman F. Denton
Sherman F. Denton Antique Prints
Adirondack Retro has a large selection of rare Sherman F. Denton antique prints in stock and available to purchase. We also offer our prints matted or matted and framed by our professional staff. Sherman Foote Denton / Sherman F. Denton / S.F. Denton (1856–1937), is best known for his watercolor illustrations documenting some 100+ chromolithographs of various species of North American Fish, as well as a few other wildlife species, such as The Virginia Deer, Ring-Necked Pheasant, Lobster and Oysters for the State of New York Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commission's Annual Reports from 1895 to 1909. These highly collectible illustrations are widely admired for their exquisite detail and color to this day. Denton was an avid outdoorsman, naturalist, traveler, artist, entrepreneur, collector, inventor and author. His interest in natural history encompassed not only fish, but butterflies, moths, insects, birds, fossils, freshwater pearls and gems. During the 1880's, he and his brothers went on excursions to the Western U.S. and accompanied their father, a geologist, on an expedition to Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea, where they collected natural history specimens. Returning to the U.S., Denton worked as an artist for the United States Fish Commission at the Smithsonian Institute between 1890 and 1896, where he illustrated their reports and also developed and patented a method for mounting fish without losing their natural colors. He became the leading designer of fish models for collectors and museums such as The Smithsonian, The Field Museum in Chicago and the Agassiz Museum at Harvard. He also invented a method for mounting butterflies, and amassed the most important collection of freshwater pearls in the United States.
