Clara Eaton Cummings

Clara Eaton Cummings (13 July 1855 – 28 December 1906) was an American cryptogamic botanist and Hunnewell Professor of Cryptogamic Botany at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Clara Eaton Cummings
Born13 July 1855
Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA
Died28 December 1906(1906-12-28) (aged 51)
Concord, New Hampshire, USA
NationalityAmerican
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
InstitutionsWellesley College

Life and education

Cummings was born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on July 13, 1855 to Noah Conner and Elmira George Cummings.[1] In 1876, she enrolled at the women's liberal arts college Wellesley, only one year after the opening of the institution.

Career

Cummings primarily studied cryptogamous (spore-reproducing) plants such as mosses and lichens. She characterized hundreds of lichen specimens but was "very conservative" on declaring new species.[2] Much of her work appeared in the books of other botanists,[2] although she did publish a catalog of liverworts and mosses of North America in 1885.[3]

She became a curator at the botanical museum at Wellesley from 1878–79 and was hired at Wellesley as an associate professor of botany for the 1879 school year.[1][4] In 1886 and 1887 she studied under Dr. Arnold Dodel at the University of Zurich where she did private work and prepared charts for a Cryptogamic Botany illustration. While in Europe, she traveled to various botanical gardens to study some of the great botanists.[5] After returning from Zurich, Cummings became an associate professor of cryptogamic botany at Wellesey.[1]

In 1904, she published a catalog of 217 species of Alaskan lichens collected during the Harriman Expedition which included 76 species new to Alaska and at least two species new to science.[6]

In February and March 1905, Cummings took a trip to Jamaica where she collected lichens. After her death, her collection was sent to the New York Botanical Garden.[7]

Cummings was an associate editor of Plant World[8] and named in 1899 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[9] In 1941 she was the president of the Kansas Academy of Science. She became a member of the Society of Plant Morphology and Physiology and served as Vice President in1904.[10] She was a member of the Mycological society, the Torrey Botanical Club, the Boston Mycological Club, and the Boston Society of Natural History.[4]

Partial bibliography
  • Catalogue of Musci and Hepaticae of North America, North of Mexico (1885)[10]
  • The Lichens of Alaska (1904)[12]

Notes
  1. The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine. Granite Monthly Co. 1907-01-01.
  2. Palmieri, Patricia Ann. In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at Wellesley. p. 117.
  3. Cummings, Clara (1885). Catalogue of Musci and Hepaticae of North America, North of Mexico. Howard and Stiles.
  4. Kiser, Helene Barker (1999). "Clara Eaton Cummings". In Pamela Proffitt (ed.). Notable Women Scientists. Gale Group. pp. 119–120. ISBN 978-0-7876-3900-6.
  5. Wellesley news : Free Download & Streaming. Wellesley, Mass : Wellesley College. Retrieved 2015-11-21 – via Internet Archive.
  6. Fink, Bruce (3 May 1907). "A Memoir of Clara E. Cummings". The Bryologist. 10 (3): 37–41. doi:10.1639/0007-2745(1907)10[37:amocec]2.0.co;2. JSTOR 3238923.
  7. Riddle, Lincoln W. (1912-05-01). "An Enumeration of Lichens Collected by Clara Eaton Cummings in Jamaica: I". Mycologia. 4 (3): 125–140. doi:10.2307/3753489. JSTOR 3753489.
  8. Wayne, Tiffany K. (2011). American Women of Science Since 1900. Vol. 1. Abc-Clio. p. 94. ISBN 9781598841589.
  9. "Historic Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  10. "Cummings, Clara Eaton (1855-1906)". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. International Plant Names Index.  Cumm.
  12. Cummings, Clara Eaton. The lichens of Alaska. Washington. hdl:2027/mdp.39015052517748.
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