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JANE COLDEN (1724–1766) AND HER BOTANIC MANUSCRIPT
Author(s) -
Smith Beatrice Scheer
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1988.tb08817.x
Subject(s) - estate , biology , acre , art history , natural history , state (computer science) , classics , botany , history , law , agroforestry , political science , algorithm , computer science
Jane Colden's original manuscript, containing descriptions and drawings made about 1753 to 1758 of over 300 New York State plants, is housed in The British Museum (Natural History), London. Colden's detailed and careful descriptions in the new Linnaean system were evidently taken from living specimens growing on the 3,000‐acre Colden estate near Newburgh, New York. Letters reveal that her contributions to botany were recognized by the prominent botanists of her day, including John Bartram, Collinson, Garden, Ellis, and Linnaeus, but over a century and a half passed before a more intimate acquaintance with her manuscript established Jane Colden as America's first woman botanist.