Mary Katharine Brandegee | |
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| Born | Mary Katharine Layne (1844-10-28)October 28, 1844 |
| Died | April 3, 1920(1920-04-03) (aged 75) Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, San Francisco |
| Known for | studies of California flora |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | California Academy of Sciences |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Curran, K.Brandegee |
Mary Katharine Brandegee (formerly Curran,née Layne; October 28, 1844 – April 3, 1920) was an Americanbotanist known for her comprehensive studies offlora inCalifornia.
Brandegee was born Mary Katharine Layne in Tennessee on October 28, 1844. She was the second child to Mary Morris Layne, a housewife, and Marshall Layne, a farmer.[1] The Laynes lived in westernTennessee and had nine other children.[2][3][4] Her family, already peripatetic, moved to California during theGold Rush of 1849, although her father chose to farm;[2] they settled inFolsom, California when Brandegee was 9.[4]
In 1866, Brandegee marriedconstable Hugh Curran and remained married to him until 1874, when he died ofalcoholism.[2][3] She got married again 1889, toTownshend Brandegee; they shared a love of science as she was a botanist and he was acivil engineer and plant collector.[2][3] The couple walked from San Diego to San Francisco collecting plants for their honeymoon.[5]
Brandegee died on April 3, 1920, inBerkeley, California, aged 75.[2][3]
The year after Curran died, Brandegee moved to San Francisco to attend medical school at theUniversity of California at Berkeley, becoming the third woman to ever matriculate there.[3][6] There, she studied medicinal plants and became interested inbotany. She received herM.D. in 1878, became licensed in California, and became a member of the California State Medical Society, but chose not to practice medicine.[2][6] BotanistHans Hermann Behr took her on as a student in 1879.[7]
Brandegee became a member at theCalifornia Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She collected plants throughout the state and worked in the academy'sherbarium to continue her botanical training, working alongsideAlbert Kellogg.[5][7] As she traveled, Brandegee found that several newly discovered species were actually not distinct. She believed in evolution, unlike Kellogg and botanist colleagueEdward Lee Greene, and she painstakingly researched botanical specimens to ensure that they had not previously been described, or were only varieties of known species.[6] Her specimens also allowed later scientists to precisely determine the ranges of plants in the Western US.[4]
After Kellogg retired in 1883, Brandegee became the academy's botany curator.[7] As curator, she turned her energy to improving the herbarium and took up writing and editing to establish and produce theBulletin 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 throughAsa Gray atHarvard, allowing for scientific independence.[1]
The Brandegees metH. W. 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.[8] Bradengee also helped establish the California Botanical Club, a group that welcomed both professional and amateur botanists across the Pacific Coast, fostering collaboration within the botanical community.[9]
In 1891, Brandegee took a pay cut to bringAlice Eastwood on board as a co-curator of the herbarium. Two years later when she resigned, Eastwood continued as the sole curator.[5][10] Brandegee and Townshend relocated in 1894 toSan Diego. They settled in theBankers Hill area and established a brick herbarium and San Diego's first botanical garden on their property.[1] Together, they collected plants throughout California, Arizona, and Mexico.[3]
After the1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the couple moved back and donated over 76,000 specimens from their personal collection to the University of California, Berkeley.[5][6] 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.[6]
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