(Pp. ix, 165, with 151 text-figures. Publisher's tan textu...)
Pp. ix, 165, with 151 text-figures. Publisher's tan textured cloth, green lettering on front and spine, printed dust jacket, 4to. Limited Edition of 1500 copies to commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Garden Club of Orange and Dutchess Counties. Includes biographical information and selections from her "Flora of New York" in typeset and in the original, handwritten manuscript on facing pages.
Jane Colden was an American botanist. She was an early student of the Linnaean method of plant classification.
Background
Jane Colden was born in New York City, New York, United States. Both her parents were Scotch, and members of families wherein education was a tradition and not a luxury. Her father, Cadwallader Colden, was a graduate of Edinburgh University, a correspondent of Linnaeus, and distinguished as a scientist as well as a statesman. Her mother was Alice Christie, the daughter of a clergyman at Kelso, Scotland. Governor Colden took up his residence at Coldengham, nine miles from Newburgh, New York, when his daughter Jane was four years of age, and she grew up on this great estate, whose hospitable owners were hosts to all the notable visitors of the day. Her father was an ardent botanist, and made a special study of the flora of Orange County in which there is evidence of his daughter’s collaboration.
Education
Jane, the fifth child in a family of ten, received her entire education from her father and mother. She early showed a love of botany and shared with her father an enthusiasm for the great Swedish botanist, Linnaeus, and a mastery of his system which is recorded with admiration in many contemporary letters. Peter Collinson wrote to Linnams on May 12, 1756, “I but lately heard from Mr. Colden. He is well; but, what is marvellous, his daughter is perhaps the first lady that has so perfectly studied your system. She deserves to be celebrated. ” And Dr. Alexander Garden wrote to John Ellis on March 25, 1755, “not only the doctor himself is a great botanist, but his lovely daughter is greatly master of the Linmean method, and cultivates it with assiduity. ”
Career
In 1753-1758, Jane Colden compiled a catalog of the flora of New York, collecting images and information on more than three hundred species of plants in the lower Hudson River valley, and classifying them according to the Linnean system. Governor Colden also taught his daughter to take the impression of the leaves of plants in printers’ ink, and she seems also to have made drawings. She also developed a technique for making ink from leaves. During her life Jane met and corresponded with many of the leading naturalists of the time. Her manuscript, that described the flora of New York, is kept in the British Museum.
A plant sanctuary in her honor was established in the late 1990s at Knox's Headquarters State Historic Site in New Windsor.
Achievements
Jane Colden became the first woman in the New World to be distinguished as a botanist. She was most respected for her extensive botanical study of New York area at the time.
(Pp. ix, 165, with 151 text-figures. Publisher's tan textu...)
Connections
On March 12, 1759, Jane married Dr. William Farquhar, described by her brother as “An old widower, but very worthy good Scotchman, ” by whom she had a child who died in 1766. Her husband practised medicine in New York City and long survived her.
