Dorothy Popenoe (19 June 1899 – 30 December 1932; born Dorothy Kate Hughes) was an English

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, and

scientific illustrator Technical Illustration is illustration meant to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be components of technical drawings or diagrams. Technical illustrations in general aim "to generate expressive i ...

. Popenoe attended the Welsh Girls' School in Ashford until the beginning of World War I when she joined the Women's Land Army. In 1918, she began work at

Kew Garden Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

in London, England as an assistant to Dr. Otto Knapf. During this time, she also studied botany at the University of London, becoming an expert in grasses. In July 1923, she accepted an invitation from Agnes Chase to join the staff of the United States National Herbarium in the Office of Foreign Plant Introduction. She conducted numerous studies of cultivated bamboo. Through her work in Washington, D.C. she met the agricultural explorer and tropical fruit expert, Wilson Popenoe. They married on November 17, 1923. In 1925, her husband accepted a position with the United Fruit Company as the director of agricultural experiments and moved the family to Tela on the Atlantic Coast of

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. While in Honduras, Popenoe developed an interest in archaeology and worked on several Honduran archaeological sites including in the Maya fortress of

Tenampa Tenampa is a municipality located in the montane central zone in the State of Veracruz, about 30 km from state capital Xalapa. It has a surface area of 69.92 km2. It is located at . In 1455 war came to the municipality by means of the emperor ...

in 1927 and Cerro Palenque. Between 1928 and 1932 she excavated in the pre-Columbian cemetery at

Playa de los Muertos Playa de los Muertos (Beach of the Dead) is an archaeological site from the Mesoamerican chronology, Middle Formative period and is located on the Honduras north coast, in the Ulua River, Ulua valley,Joyce, Rosemary A. and John S. Henderson 2001 B ...

. However she could not complete her work because in December 1932, she ate an unripe, uncooked

akee The ackee, also known as ankye, achee, akee, ackee apple or ayee (''Blighia sapida'') is a fruit of the Sapindaceae (soapberry) family, as are the lychee and the longan. It is native to tropical West Africa. The scientific name honours Captain W ...

fruit, which is believed to have poisoned her and as a result she died. The results of her excavations at Playas de los Muertos were published posthumously in 1934. Archaeologist Doris Stone included her analysis of the materials Popenoe excavated in her 1941 work "Archaeology of the North Coast of Honduras."

Selected publications

*''The ruins of Tenampua, Honduras'' 1936Popenoe, introduction

References

Books * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Popenoe, Dorothy 1899 births 1932 deaths 20th-century Mesoamericanists English archaeologists 20th-century British botanists English explorers English naturalists Mesoamerican archaeologists Women Mesoamericanists British women archaeologists English Mesoamericanists 20th-century archaeologists 20th-century British women scientists 20th-century naturalists