Mary Katharine "Kate" Brandegee (October 28, 1844 – April 3, 1920) was an American

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 ...

known for her comprehensive studies of

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Life

Brandegee was born Mary Katharine Layne on October 28, 1844. She was the second child to Mary Morris Layne, a housewife, and Marshall Layne, a farmer. The Laynes lived in western

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and had nine other children. Her family, already peripatetic, moved to California during the

Gold Rush of 1849 The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

, though her father chose to farm; they settled in

Folsom Folsom may refer to: People * Folsom (surname) Places in the United States * Folsom, Perry County, Alabama * Folsom, Randolph County, Alabama * Folsom, California * Folsom, Georgia * Folsom, Louisiana * Folsom, Missouri * Folsom, New Jersey * ...

, California when Brandegee was 9. In 1866, Brandegee married

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

Hugh Curran and remained married to him until 1874, when he died of

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

. She got married again 1889, to Townshend Brandegee; they shared a love of science as she was a botanist and he was a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and plant collector. The couple walked from San Diego to San Francisco collecting plants for their honeymoon. Brandegee died on April 3, 1920, in Berkeley, 75 years old.

Career and legacy

The year after Curran died, Brandegee moved to San Francisco to attend medical school at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, becoming the third woman to ever matriculate there. There, she studied medicinal plants and became interested in

botany 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 w ...

. She received her

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

in 1878, became licensed in California, and became a member of the California State Medical Society, but chose not to practice medicine. Botanist

Hans Hermann Behr Hans Hermann Behr (August 18, 1818, Köthen (Anhalt), Köthen – March 6, 1904, San Francisco) was a German Americans, German-American Physician, doctor, entomologist and botanist. At the time of his death, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' r ...

took her on as a student in 1879. Brandegee became a member at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

in San Francisco. She collected plants throughout the state and worked in the Academy's

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 ...

to continue her botanical training, working alongside

Albert Kellogg Albert Kellogg (December 6, 1813 – March 31, 1887 ) was an American physician and the first resident botanist of California. He was a founding member of the California Academy of Sciences and served as its first curator of botany. Kellogg was a ...

. As she traveled, Brandegee found that several newly discovered species were actually not distinct. She believed in evolution, unlike Kellogg and botanist colleague

Edward Lee Greene Edward Lee Greene (August 20, 1843–November 10, 1915) was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part ''Landmarks of Botanical History'' and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American W ...

, and she painstakingly researched botanical specimens to ensure that they had not previously been described, or were only varieties of known species. Her specimens also allowed later scientists to precisely determine the ranges of plants in the Western US. After Kellogg retired in 1883, Brandegee became the Academy's botany curator. As curator, she turned her energy to improving the herbarium and took up writing and editing to establish and produce the ''Bulletin of the California Academy of Sciences''. Brandegee was a systematic botanist who became impatient with submitting species to Gray for a botanical description. As “acting editor” she provided botanists on the West Coast a way to publish their findings quickly instead of routing all new species naming through

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, allowing for scientific independence. The Brandegees met

H. W. Harkness Harvey Willson Harkness (May 25, 1821 – July 10, 1901) was an American mycologist and natural historian best known for his early descriptions of California fungal species. Born and raised in Massachusetts and trained as a physician, Harkness ...

at the California Academy of Sciences, and with him they founded the botanical journal, ''Zoe'', in 1890. ''Zoe'' provided a platform for articles, reviews and criticisms of her contemporaries. In 1891, Brandegee took a pay cut to bring

Alice Eastwood __NOTOC__ Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October 30, 1953) was a Canadian American botanist. She is credited with building the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco. She published over 310 scienti ...

on board as a co-curator of the herbarium. Two years later when she resigned, Eastwood continued as the sole curator. Brandegee and Townshend relocated in 1894 to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. They settled in the Bankers Hill area and established a brick herbarium and San Diego's first botanical garden on their property. Together, they collected plants throughout California, Arizona, and Mexico. After the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the couple moved back and donated over 76,000 specimens from their personal collection to the University of California, Berkeley. Despite the fact that she was a diabetic who suffered regular attacks, as insulin treatment had yet to be invented, Brandegee continued to collect specimens in California until her death in 1920.

Notes

External links

Townshend Stith and Katharine Layne Brandegee papers, 1871-1926
held by th

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brandegee, Mary Katharine Botanists active in California 1844 births 1920 deaths American women botanists People associated with the California Academy of Sciences People from Folsom, California Scientists from California 19th-century American botanists 20th-century American botanists 19th-century American women scientists 20th-century American women scientists University of California, Berkeley alumni