1 1/4"Reed, from Southwestern United States, Ex Thunderbird Native American Museum, NJ

1 1/4"Reed, from Southwestern United States, Ex Thunderbird Native American Museum, NJ
1 1/4" Reed, from Southwestern United States, Ex Thunderbird Native American Museum, NJ

 Dorothy Middleton Nelson was the founder, curator and proprietor of the Thunderbird Museum on Mt. Laurel Road during the 1930s through the 1960s. At one time it held one of the largest collections of Native American artifacts (nearly 50,000) in North America.

 Photo credit: "Dorothy’s Dream: Dorothy Middleton and her Indian Artifact Museum" by O. Kirk Spurr PhD

For nearly fifty years Dorothy Middleton Nelson made her collection of Indian archaeological and ethnological materials–reputedly the fourth largest private collection in North America at the time.