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Adele L. Grant

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Adele Gerard Lewis Grant (June 3, 1881 – June 19, 1969) was an American botanist, academic, and plant collector. She founded the Prytanean Women's Honor Society, the first U.S. collegiate honor socieety for women, and Sigma Delta Epsilon, a scientific fraternity for women graduate students which survives as the national organization Graduate Women in Science.

Adele L. Grant
Born
Adele Gerard Lewis

(1881-06-03)June 3, 1881
Carpinteria, California, US
DiedJune 19, 1969(1969-06-19) (aged 88)
Inglewood, California, US
Known forFounder of Graduate Women in Science and Prytanean Women's Honor Society
Academic background
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley, B.S., 1903
Washington University in St. Louis, M.Sc. and Ph.D.
Academic work
DisciplineBotany
InstitutionsCornell University
Huguenot College
Missouri Botanical Garden
University of California, Los Angeles
San Francisco State College
University of Southern California
George Pepperdine College

Early life

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Adele Gerard Lewis was born in Carpinteria, California in 1881.[1][2] Her parents were Rebecca and Henry Lewis, a wealthy farmer and rancher in Capinteria.[3] She had three siblings and several half-siblings from her father's previous marriages.[3][4]

She attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with B.S. degrees in chemistry and zoology in May 1903.[5][6] While at Berkeley, she founded and was the first president of the Prytanean Women's Honor Society, with faculty advisor Mary Bennett Ritter, in the fall of 1900.[7][8][9] This was the first women's collegiate honor society in the United States.[8] Following her vision, the group raised money to start student healthcare program and a loan fund for female students.[8][10]

She continued with her studies, enrolling in the Henry Shaw School of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis, earning an M.Sc. in botany.[2][1] While in graduate school, she was a teaching fellow and also worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden.[1] In March 1905, she discovered four new species in Pacific Coast flora.[11][12]

While working on her Ph.D. in botany from Washington University in St. Louis, she returned to California.[2][1][13] She went on plant collecting trips to Central America, Mexico, and California.[1][14] She worked briefly for the California Fish and Commission, detailing the economic value of birds.[15][16]

From 1916 to 1917, she was a graduate student at Stanford University.[17][18] While at Standford, she was admitted to Sigma Xi science and engineering honor society, as a graduate student in botany.[19] She also took graduate classes at the University of California and the University of Chicago.[20]

In the summers of 1917 and 1920, she taught at the Sierra Summer School, jointly sponsored by the state of California and U.S. Forestry Department.[21][22][20] In July 1918, Grant taught at the summer session of the Fresno State Normal School.[23]

Career

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After receiving her Ph.D., Grant joined the faculty of Cornell University, starting around 1920.[1][2][24] At Cornell in May 1921, she started and served as the first president of Sigma Delta Epsilon, a scientific women's fraternity for graduate students which survives as the national organization Graduate Women in Science.[25][24]

From February 1926 to 1930, she was head of the department of botany at Huguenot University College in Wellington, South Africa.[2][26] While in South Africa, she collected plants, mostly from the Scrophulariaceae family.[1] She also went on collecting trips to Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia in 1928 and 1929, followed by Kenya and Mozambique in 1930.[1] She woked with botanists at the Bolus Herbarium of the University of Cape Town to create an important herbarium.[1]

She returned to the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1930, working as its acting curator.[1][27] She then took her collection to the University of California, Los Angeles where she continued her research.[1] She taught at the San Francisco State College and George Pepperdine College before teaching at the University of Southern California for 23 years.[1][2][28] She was the supervisor of science for the Los Angeles County Schools from 1942 to 1952.[2][28] She retired from teaching in 1965.[28]

She published monographs of the genera Mimulus and Hemimeris L.[1] The standard author abbreviation A.L.Grant is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[29]

Honors

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  • Graduate Women in Science named its Sigma Delta Epsilon Adele Lewis Grant Fellowship in her honor.[2]
  • When the Missouri Botanical Garden was recognized as the North American center for the study of African plants in 1969, her plant collection was moved there.[1]
  • Delta Kappa Gamma Internatonal created the Dr. Adele Lewis Grant Scholarship of Delta Kappa Gamma.[30]

Personal life

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On August 17, 1905, Lewis married George Francis Grant of Tuolumne County, California in Carpinteria.[31] The couple later divorced and had no children.[32]

In March 1917, she made presentations and distributed petitions against the proposed California legislation that would allow hunters to kill beneficial birds that ate insects.[17] She was the founder of the Alpha Pi and the Gamma Kappa (1955) chapters of Delta Kappa Gamma professional society for women educators.[33][34]

She died after a long illness in a convalescent hospital in Inglewood, California on June 19, 1969.[28]

Further reading

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  • P. Goldblatt, 1976, "The African Herbarium of Adele Lewis Grant", Taxon, 25 (2/3): 375-376

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Grant, Adèle Gerard (1881-1969)". Global Plants. JSTOR.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Sigma Delta Epsilon (SDE) Adele Lewis Grant Fellowship". Graduate Women in Science. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Lewis Contest Out of Court". The Weekly Press. Santa Barbara, California. December 28, 1905. p. 7. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Estate of Mrs. Lewis". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. August 18, 1905. p. 8. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Scholarships and Degrees at the University". The San Francisco Examiner. May 13, 1902. p. 6. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Regents Meet at the U.X. and Grant Degrees". Oakland Tribune. May 13, 1902. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Prytanean: The First 100 Years | CAA Alumni Chapters". alumnichapters.berkeley.edu. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  8. ^ a b c "The importance of women's organizations". Feminist Legal Theory. University of California, Davis School of Law. November 13, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  9. ^ "The Prytaneans. A Womans Club Formed at Berkeley-Mss Adle Lewis President". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. October 3, 1900. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "University Military Ball". The Berkeley Gazette. March 13, 1901. p. 8. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Our New Floral Species Found by a Girl". The San Francisco Examiner. April 2, 1905. p. 4. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "An Important Discovery in the World of Flowers". The Ventura Weekly Post and Democrat. April 7, 1905. pp. 1, 1. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Mrs. Adele Lewis Grant". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. June 13, 1920. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Collection: Adele L. Grant field notes". University and Jepson Herbaria Archives, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via ArchivesSpace Public Interface.
  15. ^ "Mrs. Adele Lewis Grant". The Oakdale Graphic. July 21, 1916. p. 4. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "The Second Day of Sessions". Stockton Evening and Sunday Record. November 23, 1915. p. 2. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ a b "Notes and Personals". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. March 10, 1917. p. 5. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "To Teach in South Africa". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. February 2, 1926. p. 3. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Sigma Xi". San Francisco Chronicle. May 6, 1917. p. 39. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b "6th Session of Summer School Opens June 28". The Fresno Morning Republican. May 2, 1920. p. 9. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Summer School in Sierras Opens Third Season June 23". The Fresno Morning Republican. May 20, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "Happy Hikers in High Sierra". The Fresno Morning Republican. July 29, 1917. p. 28. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Normal Summer School Begins". The Fresno Morning Republican. July 2, 1918. p. 16. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers..com.
  24. ^ a b "Mrs. F. J. Humphrey". Carpinteria Herald. February 14, 1924. p. 1. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "GWIS History - Graduate Women In Science". www.gwis.org. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  26. ^ "To Teach in South Africa". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California ·. February 2, 1926. p. 3. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ "Former Stanford Women Here for Week-End". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. June 27, 1931. p. 7. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ a b c d "Obituary for Adele Grant". The Los Angeles Times. June 20, 1969. p. 36. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ International Plant Names Index.  A.L.Grant.
  30. ^ "Scholarship for City Teacher". Tulare Advance-Register. May 3, 1965. p. 2. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "Marriage Licenses". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. August 15, 1905. p. 8. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ^ According to the 1920 U.S. Census. va Ancestry.
  33. ^ "Alpha Pi to Meet Jan. 19". The San Bernardino County Sun. December 14, 1969. p. 40. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ^ "Women Educators Celebrate Birthday". The Van Nuys News. January 12, 1968. p. 33. Retrieved September 18, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
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