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

. Popenoe attended the Welsh Girls' School in Ashford until the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when she joined the

Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the W ...

. In 1918, she began work at Kew Garden in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

as an assistant to Dr. Otto Knapf. During this time, she also studied botany at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, 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 The United States National Herbarium is a collection of five million preserved plant specimens housed in the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It represents about 8% of the ...

in the Office of Foreign Plant Introduction. She conducted numerous studies of cultivated

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

. Through her work in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

she met the agricultural explorer and tropical fruit expert,

Wilson Popenoe Frederick Wilson Popenoe (March 9, 1892 – June 20, 1975) was an American Department of Agriculture employee and plant explorer. From 1916 to 1924, Popenoe explored Latin America to look for new strains of avocados. He reported his adventure ...

. They married on November 17, 1923. In 1925, her husband accepted a position with the

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...

as the director of agricultural experiments and moved the family to

Tela Tela is a town, with a population of 38,030 (2020 calculation), and a municipality in Honduras on the northern Caribbean coast. It is located in the department of Atlantida. History Colonial era Tela was founded by the Spanish conquistador ...

on the Atlantic Coast of Honduras. 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 M ...

in 1927 and

Cerro Palenque Cerro Palenque is an archaeological site in the department of Cortés in Honduras. The city was founded in the Late Classic (500-800 AD) but reached its peak population and grew to over 500 structures in the Terminal Classic (850-1100 AD). Archaeol ...

. Between 1928 and 1932 she excavated in the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

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 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 Doris Zemurray Stone (November 19, 1909 – October 21, 1994) was an archaeologist and ethnographer, specializing in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the so-called " Intermediate Area" of lower Central America. She served as the director of the Nat ...

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