Emma Jane Cole (January 23, 1845 – April 25, 1910) was an American teacher, botanist, and curator, and the author of ''Grand Rapids Flora: A Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultivation in the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan.'' She was inducted into the

Michigan Women's Hall of Fame The Michigan Women's Hall of Fame (MWHOF) honors distinguished women, both historical and contemporary, who have been associated with the U.S. state of Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regi ...

in 2007.

Early life

Emma Jane Cole was born in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

on January 23, 1845. During her childhood, her family moved to Vergennes Township, near

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

, where she attended Lowell Union School and Grand Rapids High School. Her parents were Andrew Cole and Jerusha Cole. She had three siblings, brothers John and Hugh, and sister Mary Cole Altman. In 1876, Cole enrolled at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in New York, which had recently begun admitting women. She attended Cornell in 1876–1877 and 1879–1880 and completed coursework in botany, but is not recorded as having received a degree.

Career

Emma Cole worked as a teacher for much of her life. She was one of the first female members of the Kent Scientific Institute (predecessor of the

Grand Rapids Public Museum The Grand Rapids Public Museum, located on the bank of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, is among the oldest history museums in the United States. It was founded in 1854 as the "Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History". The muse ...

), and served as the vice president and botanical curator. Cole is well known for her 1901 book, ''Grand Rapids Flora: A Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultivation in the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan.'' Realizing the need for a local reference in her teaching, Cole set out to document all the vascular plants present in Grand Rapids and its surrounding townships. To create this substantial botanical reference, she collected specimens from 1892 to 1900, creating a comprehensive survey of nearly 1300

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

found in the greater Grand Rapids area. As a working professional botanist, Cole corresponded with many notable botanists and scientists of her time, including

Benjamin Lincoln Robinson Benjamin Lincoln Robinson (November 8, 1864 – July 27, 1935) was an American botanist. Biography Robinson was born on November 8, 1864, in Bloomington, Illinois. In 1887, he received an A.B. from Harvard. He married Margaret Louise Casson on ...

Merritt Lyndon Fernald Merritt Lyndon Fernald (October 5, 1873 – September 22, 1950) was an American botanist. He was a respected scholar of the taxonomy and phytogeography of the vascular plant flora of temperate eastern North America. During his career, Fernald pub ...

, and

Charles Sprague Sargent Charles Sprague Sargent (April 24, 1841 – March 22, 1927) was an American botanist. He was appointed in 1872 as the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, and held the post until his death. He pub ...

(

Arnold Arboretum The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a botanical research institution and free public park, located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1872, it is the oldest public arboretum in N ...

Death and legacy

Emma Cole died of

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...

on April 25, 1910, in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, following a trip to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. She is buried in Bailey Cemetery in

Lowell, Michigan Lowell is a city in Kent County of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,783 at the 2010 census. Lowell is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is about east of the city of Grand Rapids. The city is mostly surrounded by ...

. Cole's will funded three bequests: * The department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

awards the Emma J. Cole Fellowship in Botany to a graduate student. * The Board of Education of Grand Rapids was granted a trust to buy botany equipment for Central High School. * The Emma J. Cole Flower Fund funded biannual "flower services" at eight Grand Rapids churches. The Emma J. Cole collection (held at the

Grand Rapids Public Library The Grand Rapids Public Library located in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan i ...

) documents these "flower services." Plant specimens collected by Cole are still used for research and study at

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

s including the

University of Michigan Herbarium The University of Michigan Herbarium is the herbarium of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. One of the most-extensive botanical collections in the world, the herbarium has some 1.7 million specimens of vascu ...

, the

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

herbarium, the

Albion College Albion College is a private liberal arts college in Albion, Michigan. The college was founded in 1835 and its undergraduate population was approximately 1,500 students in 2014. They participate in NCAA Division III and the Michigan Intercolle ...

herbarium and the herbarium of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. A species of hawthorn that Cole discovered, ''

Crataegus ''Crataegus'' (), commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, Voss, E. G. 1985. ''Michigan Flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. Part II: Dicots (Saururaceae–Cornacea ...

'' ''coleae,'' was named for her.

wrote of the honor: Cole was inducted into the

in 2007. A project at

Calvin University Calvin University, formerly Calvin College, is a Private university, private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, Ch ...

from 2014 to 2018 attempted to revisit and assess all the locations described in ''Grand Rapids Flora.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Emma Jane 1845 births 1910 deaths 19th-century American botanists 19th-century American women scientists 20th-century American botanists 20th-century American women scientists American women botanists Cornell University alumni Deaths from kidney failure People from Kent County, Michigan Scientists from Michigan Scientists from Ohio American women curators American curators