Oral Paper

         Botanical History

Uncovering women botanists in New England’s Botanical History

Presenting Author
Lisa Delissio
Description
As the field of botany was professionalized during the nineteenth century, highly accomplished women botanists were commonly pushed to the margins. Much of their work was not well preserved, and what remains is often hidden. That is one reason why women are in the minority in lists of nineteenth-century botanists, and why we lack both appreciation for their enduring contributions and access to historical women role models – essential to the recruitment of women into the sciences and reducing gender bias.  The good news is that herbaria can provide us with clues leading to the discovery of these significant scientists. An exploration of the Peabody Essex Museum Herbarium (PEM) revealed hundreds of outstanding specimens by women botanists who received only passing mention in accounts of the history of botany in New England. Through the collections of a dozen herbaria, both at PEM and elsewhere, and multiple libraries and archives, the life and work of one of these, Charlotte Nichols Saunders Horner (July 5, 1823 - July 18, 1906) was uncovered. While not well known within today’s botanical community, Horner was among the most highly accomplished New England botanists of her time. Her outstanding botanical aptitude and interest were supported by an adventurous family background, a dedicated botany teacher, and a child-free marriage to an enthusiastically engaged husband. Active during a fertile period for botany, she rose to become an expert on the plants of the Northeast United States and Colorado. Unusual for a woman of her time, she was compensated for her expertise through her highly successful academic botanical supply business.   Horner made significant contributions to the botanical literature, prominent modern herbaria, and public education. Her many accomplishments included being one of only a handful of women in the Northeast United States to publish in scientific journals in the late 1800s, the first woman to give a scientific talk for the 50-year-old Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the first person to be awarded its silver medal for expert displays native plants. More than 1,300 of Horner’s herbarium specimens, collected over three decades, still exist and add value to more than a dozen scientific collections. Horner’s contributions continue to make a difference to scientific progress around the world. We are fortunate that she left a legacy of herbarium specimens and published articles that secure her place in New England’s botanical history.