Women in the Field: The Naturalists

1
Women in the Field The Naturalists

• Name Jane Colden (early 1700)
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• father thought women should be educated
• wealthy, landowner, father became lt. Governor
  of New York
• taught her Linnean system (naming plants)
• father chose her to learn plants, other 5 kids
  led normal lives
• married age 35 to older man, died in childbirth
  at 41
• What did she do?
• discovered and named St. Johns Wort - now
  medicinal - depression
• and new species of clematis
• collected and ID plants for other male
  scientists
• What barriers to overcome?
• During her lifetime, was not recognized as an
  expert

2
Women in the Field The Naturalists

• Name Graceanna Lewis (early 1800)
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Quaker, single mother raised 4 daughters,
  believed in womens education,
• Sacrifice to send to Quaker school for girls
• Mother naturalist also, discovered iron ore on
  property, kept books on nature and the stars
• G also influenced by female teachers at Quaker
  school
• Never married, did raise a niece with one of her
  sisters
• What did she do?
• Wrote books on the Natural History of birds which
  were published
• Became a school teacher but lectured publically
  on zoology
• What barriers to overcome?
• Could not get university teaching job

3
Women in the Field The Naturalists

• Name Martha Maxwell (late 1800)
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Moved west as a pioneer, lost mother,
• Lived in cabin in woods
• Part of gold rush
• Learned to hunt
• Married but it didnt work out, put her daughter
  in a school and went back out hunting
• Died poor, barely enough food
• Man named Haskins stole her collection showed
  it himself for money
• What did she do?
• Set up taxidermy exhibits, studied nature
• Now small remnant of her work in Smithsonian
• What barriers to overcome?
• Most people were astonished to find a female
  hunter, taxidermist
• http//www.taxidermy.net/forums/IndustryArticles/
  03/j/03FAB88C5B.html

4
Women in the Field The Naturalists

• Name Annie Alexander (late 1800s)
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Father encouraged
• Educated
• Farm girl
• Never married, female companion she described in
  letters as a dandy girl
• What did she do?
• Discovered fossils, had natural history
  collection
• Collected 4600 botanical specimens donated to
  universities out west
• What barriers to overcome?
• Gender issues
• Never published, never recognized
• What do you think about her choices?

5
Women in the Field The Naturalists

• Name Ellen Quillin (late 1800s)
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Father encouraged, educated all 6 daughters
• Poor but spoke 5 languages
• Married Roy Quillin, fellow collector, older
  scientist
• No kids
• What did she do?
• Flowerlady of Texas
• Attended U of Michigan, only female student in
  300 to take Geology
• Became a teacher
• Started a museum of natural history
• What barriers to overcome?
• Poverty in youth
• U of Michigan in 1900s not exactly female
  friendly
• What do you think about her choices?

6
Women in the field Botanists

• Emanuel Rudolph 1, 185 published female
  botanists in 19th century
• 28 married
• 23 made plant collections
• 50 teachers
• Mostly from California, New York, Pennsylvania
  and Massachusetts
• Some from midwest
• Few from south

7
Women in the Field Botanists

• Name Kate Brandegee
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Parents pioneers in Utah, Nevada, finally
  California
• 4 brothers sisters, only scientist
• Not know if parents supported but went to U of
  California got MD
• Couldnt support herself as MD, people skeptical
  of young female MDs
• Turned to Botany
• What did she do?
• Became curator of California Academy of sciences
• Got involved in taxonomy dispute lumpers vs
  splitters
• What barriers to overcome?
• Married twice
• Couldnt make it as an MD
• Most of her work given to others with little
  recognition in her lifetime, esp. Edward Greene,
  her mentor and her 2nd husband Brandegee who took
  all the credit for botanical books she wrote
  illustrated.
• What do you think about her choices?

8
Women in the Field Botanists

• Name Alice Eastwood
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Orphaned at age 6, lived with various relatives
  and finally a convent
• Uncle trained as a naturalist/botanist
• Became a high school teacher but lived for
  summers when she explored the west
• Invested in real estate in Denver, made enough to
  quit teaching and go back to school to study
  botany
• Engaged once but he died, had 1 other love affair
  when older, he also died, never married,
  botanized until her 90s
• What did she do?
• Became an assistant curator of a herbarium,
• Taught botany courses
• Donated money to U of California for books on
  botany
• Friends with Kate Bandegee
• What barriers to overcome?
• Personal life
• What do you think about her choices?

9
Women in the Field botanists

• Name Ynes Mexia
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Family of 6
• Texas
• Messy homelife (fathers affairs, step-kids,
  fight over his money when he died, etc).
• Married young but he died, married again age 38
  but was a disaster,
• Independently wealthy but was also supported by
  universities and USDA on her collecting trips
• Rude, outspoken, most people did not like her but
  she didnt care
• What did she do?
• Traveled throughout south America, South west US
  and Mexico collecting donating specimens to
  various institutions
• What barriers to overcome?
• Personal
• Died young due to unkown sease contracted in
  South American
• What do you think about her choices?

10
Women in the Field botanists

• Name Mary Young
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Father mother educated, father minister
• Several siblings
• Encouraged by parents
• Went to Wellesley College in Mass
• Became a teacher (once taught at Dundee High
  Illinois)
• PhD U of Chicago, became college instructor
• Died young age 47 of cancer, no kids
• What did she do?
• Botanical taxonomist
• Traveled summers collecting
• Famous for primitive camping and using mules to
  carry goods specimens
• What barriers to overcome?
• Why not professor?
• Never married (but had young male grad students
  traveling with her in the summer).
• What do you think about her choices?

11
Women in the Field botanists

• Name Agnes Chase
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Father died age 2, mother raised 5 kids alone
• Poor, rural illinois, then moved to Chicago
• At 19 married 34 year old already diagnosed with
  TB, he died a few years after the marriage, no
  kids
• Newspaper proof reader, botanized in her spare
  time
• Mentors Rev. Ellsworth Hill and Charles
  Millspaugh, curator of Botany at Chicago field
  museum
• Minimal education, self taught
• What did she do?
• Became botanical illustrator for USDA
• What barriers to overcome?
• Often only women at scientific botanical meetings
  (midwest not as enlightened as east or west
  coast)
• Designated Uncle Sams chief women explorer of
  the USDA
• Best known for her work in Agronomy (study of
  grasses)
• What do you think about her choices?

12
Women in the FieldEcologists

• Name Carrie Dormon
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Parents supported, educated, well off
• Inherited 600 acre farm
• Father sent to school to keep from being too
  tomboyish
• Taught school for years
• What did she do?
• Known for saving natural lands in the south, LA
  Kisatachie
• Wrote books on nature and plants
• Indentified several new species of flowers
• What barriers to overcome?
• Never married, one romance but chose the woods
  over the man
• Parents died young
• What do you think about her choices?

13
Women in the FieldEcologist

• Name Rachel Carson
• Background (historical, parents, etc)
• Mother supported and encouraged
• No mention of her father
• Mother supported college
• What did she do?
• Persuaded JFK to start the EPA
• Book Silent spring alerted US public to dangers
  of chemicals
• Book The Sea Around Us nature best seller
• What barriers to overcome?
• Never married, raised sisters child after she
  died
• Scientists banded against her initially
• Worked as a scientist in a male dominated field
• What do you think about her choices?