In Brief

Marsh's Expense Journal Entry for Digging Fossils

Image courtesy of Dexter Marsh Papers, Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library.

Dexter Marsh often noted payments to landowners for the "priviledge" of digging fossils on their property. The costs could be significant for a man of his means, but Marsh was a businessman who had a market to sell to and a visionary who wanted to create his own museum. He collected fish fossils, as mentioned in this entry, as well as fossil "bird tracks."