Jane Colden's Plants | Legacy of America's First Woman Botanist

About this event

How did Jane Colden achieve the first descriptions of American flora in colonial New York at a time of European botanical patriarchy? Jane Colden (1724-1760) is known as America's first woman botanist yet her work has received little explanation. This talk, based on a richly illustrated new book that explores her writing, tells how she achieved the first descriptions of American flora in colonial New York at a time of European botanical patriarchy. Jane learned botany from her father, Dr. Cadwallader Colden who had studied in Edinburgh's Physic Garden. To explain the unknown American plants around his Hudson Valley farm he embraced the new Linnaean plant classification. He encouraged Jane's botanical descriptions, seeking books and connections with European knowledge. Jane Colden's Botanic Manuscript entries, over 300 scientific descriptions of plants, include her detailed observations and leaf drawings. Her work became known to European botanists but Linnaeus denied naming a plant for her. Her Manuscript, valued through European fascination for America flora to enter Sir Joseph Banks' collections and settle in London's Natural History Museum, offers her unique legacy. Fenella Greig Heckscher's childhood in English countryside began her love for wildflowers while at studies at Oxford University led her to medicine. Marriage and a medical career in New York followed. After retirement a Hudson Valley home offered gardening and finding America flora. From Garden Club friends Fenella heard of Jane Colden's botanic work. During London visits she studied Colden's original manuscript in the Natural History Museum and a fascination that became a book. This is an in-person event and there will be a drinks reception in the library after the talk.