One of the joys of this whole project has been learning about so many extraordinary people who had meaningful impacts on our world. I wanted to highlight some of those women or are less known than others - at least to me. This post is essentially a continuation of the post on women of the EC Movement (4/5/23) (and secondarily the posts about Ann LaBastille (7/22/23) and Florence Merriam Bailey (4/16/23)).
Some of the women were, in fairness, reasonably prominent in their time. Many authored books in the Collection, others owned them. What they have in common is that I'd never heard of them before - this is not about the Rachel Carsons or even the Mabel Osgood Wrights or Sylvia Earles of the world. If you're interested to learn more about any or all, I recommend jumping into the Catalogue.
Clara Barrus - I haven't actually written in detail about Barrus yet, but she is all over the John Burroughs section. She was his companion for decades, his literary executor and his biographer - she played a big part in keeping his legacy alive. She was also one of the few women to earn a medical degree in the US in the 19th century, working at a psych hospital and teaching psychiatry at an NYC college.
Gene Stratton-Porter - Wildly successful novelist who was also an important naturalist and natural history author, nature photographer and conservationist. Fascinating. See Music of the Wild (1910).
Eloise Gerry - First female US Forestry Service scientist. See Pinchot's The Training of a Forester (1914), with signed letter to her from him tipped in. Also see John of the Mountains (1938) in the John Muir Related Materials section, also with her ownership sig.
Isabelle Story - First female National Park Service division head. The National Parks and Emergency Conservation (1933).
Alice Hamilton - Giant. A pioneer in industrial safety. Exploring the Dangerous Trades (1943).
Harriet Weaver - First female CA State Park ranger. The Giant Redwoods (1946).
Olive Bown Goin - "First and foremost a housewife"... who had a Masters in science and worked at various universities. World Outside My Door (1955).
Ruth Harrison - British pioneer against ills of industrial agriculture. Animal Machines (1964).
Elna Bakker - Elementery school teacher and self-taught naturalist. An Island Called California (1971).
Shirley Ann Briggs - Artist, writer, naturalist, close friend and collaborator with Rachel Carson. See Paul Brooks' Speaking for Nature (1980) inscribed to her.
Margery Facklam - Prolific author of books on scientific topics for youth and adults. Changes in the Wind (1986).
Naomi Hunt - Long-time NPS staffer who worked with Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson on NP beautification and later edited NPS' magazine. See Hartzog (1988), inscribed to Hunt.
Farida Wiley - Self-taught naturalist who became an educator and guide at the American Museum of Natural History for sixty years. She edited three of the five books in Devin-Adair's American Naturalist series (see Reference section 1951-55).
Ellen Swallow (Richards) - Earned the first doctorate from MIT...except they did not want to give it to a woman. So, they didn't. See Robert Clarke's bio Ellen Swallow: The Woman Who Founded Ecology (1973) in the Reference section.
Frances Hamerstrom - Groundbreaking ornithologist and naturalist who was Aldo Leopold's only female grad student. See her memoir My Double Life (1990)
There are plenty of other women (albeit not enough) represented in the Collection. These are some of the rather less well-known amongst them.
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