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Vivian Lee Bowden

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D. Vivian Lee Bowden
Vivian Lee Bowden in her Seattle home, 2014
Born(1943-02-23)February 23, 1943
Washington, D.C., U.S.
DiedJanuary 9, 2017(2017-01-09) (aged 73)
Seattle, Washington U.S.
Known forresearch and writing on the garden strawberry
SpouseDouglas M. Bowden

D. Vivian Lee Bowden (February 23, 1943 – January 9, 2017[1]) was a science journalist who discovered the unpublished drawings of early French botanist Antoine Nicolas Duchesne and authored an influential history of the garden strawberry. Her extensive research conducted in both Europe and America has been widely cited.

Life and education

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D. Vivian Lee was born in Washington DC, on February 23, 1943.[1] She received her BS from Stanford University and her MS from Columbia School of Journalism.[2] Before marriage, she worked as a science journalist for Life magazine.[1][2] She married Douglas M. Bowden in New York, NY in 1966.[3] Lee Bowden resumed her education after raising a family, and earned a Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.[1]

Research

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Lee conducted extensive research in her work on the historical background of the strawberry.[2][4] At the behest of Henry A. Wallace, Lee visited France, Germany and the Netherlands in summer 1962 to research the history of the garden strawberry.[5] On July 10, 1962, she discovered in the Paris Jardin des Plantes a collection of 73 original drawings of Fragaria by Antoine Nicolas Duchesne.[6] Duchesne prepared these for use in his monumental book describing strawberry history, taxonomy, and cultivation. Due to budgetary constraints, the drawings were not published, and were overlooked for almost 200 years.[7] The drawings provide significant historical context for the pioneering work of Duchesne.[8] Lee made her discovery at age 19, the same age that Duchesne published his book.

Lee presented her findings in an invited talk at a national meeting,[9] and wrote four chapters on the history of strawberry for the positively reviewed[4][10] and widely cited[11] book The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology.[2] Her contribution is clearly acknowledged in the preface, but not on the title page, and most subsequent authors have misattributed the chapters to George M. Darrow, a USDA strawberry geneticist. In his discussion of the nomenclature of the garden strawberry, taxonomist M. Guédès alludes to the thoroughness of her scholarship, and properly cites her contribution.[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "The Reverend Vivian (Vivi) Lee Bowden's Obituary | The Co-op Funeral Home of People's Memorial". funerals.coop.
  2. ^ a b c d Darrow, George M. (1966). "The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology." National Agricultural Library. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  3. ^ "New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan". Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S.: Marriage License Indexes, 1907–2018 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.
  4. ^ a b Unknown. "Book Review of 'The Strawberry...'". www.cabdirect.org. Retrieved 2021-03-20. In describing the evolution of the cultivated strawberry Miss Vivian Lee has made exceptional use of early literature, and her account, spread over five chapters, goes into fine detail. Miss Lee's ability as an experienced journalist has enabled her to present a lengthy discourse in a most readable form.
  5. ^ "Henry A. Wallace Collection – Iowa Digital Library – The University of Iowa Libraries". wallace.lib.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Strawberry in Literature". The Times. San Mateo, California. 3 July 1964. p. 5.
  7. ^ Chauvet, Michel (1983). "Foreword to Duchesne's strawberry drawings – PlantUse English". uses.plantnet-project.org. Retrieved 2021-03-20. The first author to mention their existence and their interest seems to have been Lee (1964)
  8. ^ Liston, Aaron; Cronn, Richard; Ashman, Tia-Lynn (2014). "Fragaria: A genus with deep historical roots and ripe for evolutionary and ecological insights". American Journal of Botany. 101 (10): 1686–1699. doi:10.3732/ajb.1400140. ISSN 1537-2197. PMID 25326614.
  9. ^ Nelson, R. Arvid (2009). A Commemorative Keepsake Volume Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (PDF). Charlottesville, Virginia: RBMS. p. 18.
  10. ^ Unknown. "Book Review of 'The Strawberry...'". www.cabdirect.org. Retrieved 2021-03-20. Miss D. V. Lee is mainly responsible for the next three chapters, which cover the early history of the strawberry, especially the role played by Duchesne, and the origin of the first large-berried European varieties.
  11. ^ "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  12. ^ Guédès, Michel (1984). "Naming the Dessert Strawberry (Rosaceae)". Taxon. 33 (4): 724–726. doi:10.2307/1220795. ISSN 0040-0262. JSTOR 1220795. Although no one seems to have noted the problem (even D. Vivian Lee, pp. 40-72 in G. Darrow, The Strawberry. 1966) Duchesne was very clear...
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