Adele L. Grant
Adele L. Grant | |
---|---|
Born | Adele Gerard Lewis June 3, 1881 |
Died | June 19, 1969 | (aged 88)
Known for | Founder of Graduate Women in Science and Prytanean Women's Honor Society |
Academic background | |
Education | University of California, Berkeley, B.S., 1903 Washington University in St. Louis, M.Sc. and Ph.D. |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Botany |
Institutions | Cornell University Huguenot College Missouri Botanical Garden University of California, Los Angeles San Francisco State College University of Southern California George Pepperdine College |
Adele Gerard Lewis Grant (June 3, 1881 – June 19, 1969) was an American botanist, academic, and plant collector. She founded the Prytanean Women's Honor Society, the first U.S. collegiate honor socieety for women, and Sigma Delta Epsilon, a scientific fraternity for women graduate students which survives as the national organization Graduate Women in Science.
Early life
[edit]Adele Gerard Lewis was born in Carpinteria, California in 1881.[1][2] Her parents were Rebecca and Henry Lewis, a wealthy farmer and rancher in Capinteria.[3] She had three siblings and several half-siblings from her father's previous marriages.[3][4]
She attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with B.S. degrees in chemistry and zoology in May 1903.[5][6] While at Berkeley, she founded and was the first president of the Prytanean Women's Honor Society, with faculty advisor Mary Bennett Ritter, in the fall of 1900.[7][8][9] This was the first women's collegiate honor society in the United States.[8] Following her vision, the group raised money to start student healthcare program and a loan fund for female students.[8][10]
She continued with her studies, enrolling in the Henry Shaw School of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis, earning an M.Sc. in botany.[2][1] While in graduate school, she was a teaching fellow and also worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden.[1] In March 1905, she discovered four new species in Pacific Coast flora.[11][12]
While working on her Ph.D. in botany from Washington University in St. Louis, she returned to California.[2][1][13] She went on plant collecting trips to Central America, Mexico, and California.[1][14] She worked briefly for the California Fish and Commission, detailing the economic value of birds.[15][16]
From 1916 to 1917, she was a graduate student at Stanford University.[17][18] While at Standford, she was admitted to Sigma Xi science and engineering honor society, as a graduate student in botany.[19] She also took graduate classes at the University of California and the University of Chicago.[20]
In the summers of 1917 and 1920, she taught at the Sierra Summer School, jointly sponsored by the state of California and U.S. Forestry Department.[21][22][20] In July 1918, Grant taught at the summer session of the Fresno State Normal School.[23]
Career
[edit]After receiving her Ph.D., Grant joined the faculty of Cornell University, starting around 1920.[1][2][24] At Cornell in May 1921, she started and served as the first president of Sigma Delta Epsilon, a scientific women's fraternity for graduate students which survives as the national organization Graduate Women in Science.[25][24]
From February 1926 to 1930, she was head of the department of botany at Huguenot University College in Wellington, South Africa.[2][26] While in South Africa, she collected plants, mostly from the Scrophulariaceae family.[1] She also went on collecting trips to Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia in 1928 and 1929, followed by Kenya and Mozambique in 1930.[1] She woked with botanists at the Bolus Herbarium of the University of Cape Town to create an important herbarium.[1]
She returned to the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1930, working as its acting curator.[1][27] She then took her collection to the University of California, Los Angeles where she continued her research.[1] She taught at the San Francisco State College and George Pepperdine College before teaching at the University of Southern California for 23 years.[1][2][28] She was the supervisor of science for the Los Angeles County Schools from 1942 to 1952.[2][28] She retired from teaching in 1965.[28]
She published monographs of the genera Mimulus and Hemimeris L.[1] The standard author abbreviation A.L.Grant is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[29]
Honors
[edit]- Graduate Women in Science named its Sigma Delta Epsilon Adele Lewis Grant Fellowship in her honor.[2]
- When the Missouri Botanical Garden was recognized as the North American center for the study of African plants in 1969, her plant collection was moved there.[1]
- Delta Kappa Gamma Internatonal created the Dr. Adele Lewis Grant Scholarship of Delta Kappa Gamma.[30]
Personal life
[edit]On August 17, 1905, Lewis married George Francis Grant of Tuolumne County, California in Carpinteria.[31] The couple later divorced and had no children.[32]
In March 1917, she made presentations and distributed petitions against the proposed California legislation that would allow hunters to kill beneficial birds that ate insects.[17] She was the founder of the Alpha Pi and the Gamma Kappa (1955) chapters of Delta Kappa Gamma professional society for women educators.[33][34]
She died after a long illness in a convalescent hospital in Inglewood, California on June 19, 1969.[28]
Further reading
[edit]- P. Goldblatt, 1976, "The African Herbarium of Adele Lewis Grant", Taxon, 25 (2/3): 375-376
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Grant, Adèle Gerard (1881-1969)". Global Plants. JSTOR.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Sigma Delta Epsilon (SDE) Adele Lewis Grant Fellowship". Graduate Women in Science. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
- ^ a b "Lewis Contest Out of Court". The Weekly Press. Santa Barbara, California. December 28, 1905. p. 7. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Estate of Mrs. Lewis". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. August 18, 1905. p. 8. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Scholarships and Degrees at the University". The San Francisco Examiner. May 13, 1902. p. 6. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Regents Meet at the U.X. and Grant Degrees". Oakland Tribune. May 13, 1902. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Prytanean: The First 100 Years | CAA Alumni Chapters". alumnichapters.berkeley.edu. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- ^ a b c "The importance of women's organizations". Feminist Legal Theory. University of California, Davis School of Law. November 13, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- ^ "The Prytaneans. A Womans Club Formed at Berkeley-Mss Adle Lewis President". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. October 3, 1900. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "University Military Ball". The Berkeley Gazette. March 13, 1901. p. 8. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Our New Floral Species Found by a Girl". The San Francisco Examiner. April 2, 1905. p. 4. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "An Important Discovery in the World of Flowers". The Ventura Weekly Post and Democrat. April 7, 1905. pp. 1, 1. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Mrs. Adele Lewis Grant". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. June 13, 1920. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Collection: Adele L. Grant field notes". University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via ArchivesSpace Public Interface.
- ^ "Mrs. Adele Lewis Grant". The Oakdale Graphic. July 21, 1916. p. 4. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Second Day of Sessions". Stockton Evening and Sunday Record. November 23, 1915. p. 2. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Notes and Personals". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. March 10, 1917. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "To Teach in South Africa". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. February 2, 1926. p. 3. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Sigma Xi". San Francisco Chronicle. May 6, 1917. p. 39. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "6th Session of Summer School Opens June 28". The Fresno Morning Republican. May 2, 1920. p. 9. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Summer School in Sierras Opens Third Season June 23". The Fresno Morning Republican. May 20, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Happy Hikers in High Sierra". The Fresno Morning Republican. July 29, 1917. p. 28. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Normal Summer School Begins". The Fresno Morning Republican. July 2, 1918. p. 16. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers..com.
- ^ a b "Mrs. F. J. Humphrey". Carpinteria Herald. February 14, 1924. p. 1. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "GWIS History - Graduate Women In Science". www.gwis.org. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- ^ "To Teach in South Africa". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California ·. February 2, 1926. p. 3. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Former Stanford Women Here for Week-End". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. June 27, 1931. p. 7. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d "Obituary for Adele Grant". The Los Angeles Times. June 20, 1969. p. 36. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. A.L.Grant.
- ^ "Scholarship for City Teacher". Tulare Advance-Register. May 3, 1965. p. 2. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Marriage Licenses". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. August 15, 1905. p. 8. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ According to the 1920 U.S. Census. va Ancestry.
- ^ "Alpha Pi to Meet Jan. 19". The San Bernardino County Sun. December 14, 1969. p. 40. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Women Educators Celebrate Birthday". The Van Nuys News. January 12, 1968. p. 33. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- Cornell University faculty
- 1881 births
- 1969 deaths
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- 20th-century American botanists
- American women botanists
- Missouri Botanical Garden people
- University of California, Los Angeles staff
- American women academics
- Pepperdine University faculty
- University of Southern California faculty
- San Francisco State University faculty
- People from Carpinteria, California
- Washington University in St. Louis alumni
- California State University, Fresno faculty
- Stanford University alumni
- College sorority founders
- College honor society founders
- Graduate Women in Science members