Jane Colden’s
“Botanic Manuscript”

The Legacy of America’s First Woman Botanist

Join author Fenella Greig Heckscher as she discusses her latest book, Jane Colden’s “Botanic Manuscript.”

Jane Colden (1724 to 1760) was America’s first woman botanist, yet her contributions to the field of early American botany remain little-known and her writings are mostly unpublished. Looking at Colden’s original writing, the correspondence of her father, Dr. Cadwallader Colden, and eighteenth-century botanic sources, Fenella Greig Heckscher provides a full account of her life and work.

Born into an educated family of Scottish heritage, Colden’s interest in botany began at an early age, when she learned the Linnaean system of plant classification from her father and followed his example to study and classify the plants of New York’s Hudson Valley. Colden’s acute powers of observation enabled her to create detailed descriptions and illustrations of more than 300 plant species in the province of New York. By the time of her death, her Botanic Manuscript remained a work-in-progress and little appreciated beyond European botany circles.

Richly illustrated with her own sketches and handwriting, this volume presents a full examination of Jane Colden’s Manuscript, highlights its important contributions to the early study of America’s flora, and, 300 years after her birth, restores Colden’s legacy as one of the country’s great botanists.

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