Increase Lapham came west to Wisconsin via New York and Kentucky in 1836, and he soon established himself as one of the state's premier experts on the natural history of the Badger State. In fact, he was the state's first scientist, and by the time he died in 1875, he had created the first accurate maps of the state, made investigations into local effigy mounds, and provided his services in a host of different ways to the betterment of Wisconsinites. During these years, he also maintained correspondence with the leading geologists, botanists and other scientists of his day. He kept an album of photographs of these individuals, and this forms the basis of this online collection offered by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Merely by browsing throughout the collection, visitors will be able to view images of noted geologist, Sir Charles Lyell, botanist Asa Gray, and Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. The collection is rounded out by an essay on these cartes-de-visite and hyper-text links to some of Lapham's seminal works, such as his 1855 book, "The Antiquities of Wisconsin".