Martha (passenger Pigeon)

Martha (c.1885 - September 1, 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo) was the last known living passenger pigeon; she was named "Martha" in honor of Martha Washington.

In 1857 an attempt was made to put the passenger pigeons of Ohio under legal protection. The state senate was however of the opinion that the passenger pigeon was not threatened with extinction. Thus the passenger pigeon was hunted until 1914 when Martha was the last living specimen of the species.

By the end of the 19th century, the last group of passenger pigeons, all descended from the same pair, was kept by Professor Charles O. Whitman at the University of Chicago. The last attempt to breed the remaining specimens was done by Whitman and the Cincinnati Zoo, which included attempts at making a rock dove foster passenger pigeon eggs. Whitman sent Martha, which was to be the last known specimen, to the Cincinnati Zoo in 1902. By 1908, Martha and two males were the only passenger pigeons left after a young Ohio boy shot the last wild passenger pigeon in March 1900, and four captive males in Milwaukee died during the winter. One of the Cincinnati males died in 1909, followed by the remaining male in 1910. Martha herself died at 1 p.m. on September 1, 1914.

After her death at the age of 29 Martha was frozen and sent to the Smithsonian, where she was stuffed and exhibited. From the 1920s through the early 1950s she was displayed in the Bird Hall. She was then part of the Birds of the World exhibit from 1956 to 1999. During this time she left the Smithsonian twice—in 1966 to be displayed at the San Diego Zoological Society’s Golden Jubilee Conservation Conference, and in 1974 to the Cincinnati Zoo for the dedication of the Passenger Pigeon Memorial. Martha is now no longer on public display at the Smithsonian.

John Herald, a bluegrass singer, wrote a song dedicated to Martha, entitled "Martha: Last of the passenger pigeons". The song tells the story about the passenger pigeons' extinction and Martha's life in her cage in Cincinnati Zoo.