Sherman Foote Denton (1856 - 1937)

Sherman Foote Denton

Sherman Foote Denton was an American naturalist, inventor, illustrator, and writer.

Denton was one of the best later natural history artists. He served as an artist for the Smithsonian Institution's U.S. Fish Commission and was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to create the book Game Fish of New York. And the annual reports of the Fish and Game of New York State for 1895-1909 featured 99 species of freshwater and marine fish, as well as a number of other items, including lobsters, oysters, ring-necked pheasant, and Virginian deer. These have been published in both book and folio form. Denton also developed a method of mounting fish that preserved their lifetime color.

Along with his brothers Shelley Wright and Robert Winsford, Denton founded the Denton Brothers Butterflies Company, which sold butterfly specimens. Sherman invented and patented in 1901 the mounting of scale specimens on a white plaster tablet under glass instead of the traditional mounting.