Background
Watts was the daughter of Danish immigrants. She grew up in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, but began a teaching career in a one-room schoolhouse outside of the city.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
Reading the Landscape of Europe by May Theilgaard Watts (2009-08-01)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K14UJA0/?tag=2022091-20
Reading the Landscape of America READING THE LANDSCAP -NOP/034 Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008LX7ZFG/?tag=2022091-20
Reading the Landscape, An Adventure in Ecology
(5 1/2 x 8" 230pp. How to see the earth from an ecological...)
5 1/2 x 8" 230pp. How to see the earth from an ecological point of view.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012RYQ7I/?tag=2022091-20
Reading the landscape;: An adventure in ecology
(From dust jacket notes: "Evolution, climate, animals, and...)
From dust jacket notes: "Evolution, climate, animals, and man all have their effects on the growing things of an area. May Theilgaard Watts, the distinguished naturalist, recreates the history of many regions by their revealing plant life. In every chapter, she describes a different location - a neighbor's yard, a forest in the Great Smokies, a mountain top and other sites. In each instance, she explains the plants she sees and what they mean, skillfully building up evidence for a picture of the place's past."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006AUYYG/?tag=2022091-20
Reading the Landscape of America by May Theilgaard Watts (1999-03-15)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NH030JC/?tag=2022091-20
Flower Finder: A Guide to the Identification of Spring Wild Flowers and Flower Families East of the Rockies and North of the Smokies, Exclusive of Trees and Shrubs (Nature Study Guides)
( Pocket sized, key-style field guide for identifying spr...)
Pocket sized, key-style field guide for identifying spring wildflowers and flower families. Area covered is US and southern Canada, east of the Rockies and north of the Smokies. Work through the key, answering a series of simple questions, to find the family the flower belongs to, and then the name of the individual species.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0912550007/?tag=2022091-20
Reading the Landscape of America
(In this natural history classic, the author takes the rea...)
In this natural history classic, the author takes the reader on field trips to landscapes across America, both domesticated and wild. She shows how to read the stories written in the land, interpreting the clues laid down by history, culture, and natural forces. A renowned teacher, writer and conservationist in her native Midwest, Watts studied with Henry Cowles, the pioneering American ecologist. She was the first to explain his theories of plant succesion to the general public. Her graceful, witty essays, with charming illustrations by the author, are still relevant and engaging today, as she invites us to see the world around us with fresh eyes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0912550236/?tag=2022091-20
Reading the Landscape of America by May Theilgaard Watts (1999-03-15)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K0SUJCU/?tag=2022091-20
Reading the landscape of Europe by May Theilgaard Watts (1971-08-01)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M13CZPT/?tag=2022091-20
Flower Finder: A Guide to Identification of Spring Wild Flowers and Flower Families
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007EDV78/?tag=2022091-20
Reading the landscape of Europe
(Take a field trip with American naturalist May Theilgaard...)
Take a field trip with American naturalist May Theilgaard Watts to see how nature, history, and culture have written their stories on the landscapes of Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Britain. In this sequel to her popular book Reading the Landscape of America, Watts explores the hills of Italy, the grouse heath of Yorkshire, the Black Forest of Germany, the limestone plateaus of France, and much more, explaining the forces that shaped these landscapes and continue to change them. She draws on botany, ecology, and geography, but also literature and folklore, to interpret the clues written on the land, as she considers the shapes of rooflines and coastlines, the ecology of forests and hedgerows, or the design of a vegetable plot. Illustrated with pen and ink drawings by the author. Includes a key to identifying the trees of Europe.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060145366/?tag=2022091-20
May Watts
Edit ProfileEducation
She attended college during the summer at the University of Chicago, where she studied botany and ecology with Henry Chandler Cowles. Watts graduated in 1918 as a Phi Beta Kappa.
Career
As a scientist, Watts worked at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, as a staff naturalist. She produced scientific studies as well as flower and tree identification guides. She retired in 1961. While working at the arboretum, she authored several books and guides that helped nonscientists to interpret the landscape.
Her 1957 Reading the Landscape was among the most widely read and used for decades by educators.
Watts described places ranging from backyard gardens to the Indiana Dunes to the Rocky Mountain timberline. She wrote a similar volume, Reading the Landscape of Europe.
She extended her knowledge of the natural world to the public in a column written for the Chicago Tribune, and had an educational horticulture program on public television Watts also led efforts to establish the Illinois Prairie Path on an abandoned railroad line.
Inspired by the public footpaths of Britain and by the Appalachian Trail in the eastern United States, she believed Midwestern residents needed similar recreational trails.
Her 1963 letter-to-the-editor of the Chicago Tribune warned that “bulldozers are drooling” and rapid action needed to be taken. She was honored at the 1971 dedication ceremony. She has had the May T. Watts Nature Park in Highland Park, Illinois, and the May Watts Elementary School in Naperville, Illinois, named after her.
Her house in Highland Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The architect for the house was John South. Van Bergen and the landscape architect was Jens Jensen.
Works
book
-
Reading the landscape of Europe
(Take a field trip with American naturalist May Theilgaard...)
-
Reading the Landscape of America
(In this natural history classic, the author takes the rea...)
-
Reading the landscape;: An adventure in ecology
(From dust jacket notes: "Evolution, climate, animals, and...)
-
Flower Finder: A Guide to the Identification of Spring Wild Flowers and Flower Families East of the Rockies and North of the Smokies, Exclusive of Trees and Shrubs (Nature Study Guides)
( Pocket sized, key-style field guide for identifying spr...)
-
Reading the Landscape, An Adventure in Ecology
(5 1/2 x 8" 230pp. How to see the earth from an ecological...)
- Reading the Landscape of Europe by May Theilgaard Watts (2009-08-01)
- Reading the Landscape of America READING THE LANDSCAP -NOP/034 Paperback
- Reading the Landscape of America by May Theilgaard Watts (1999-03-15)
- Reading the Landscape of America by May Theilgaard Watts (1999-03-15)
- Reading the landscape of Europe by May Theilgaard Watts (1971-08-01)
- Flower Finder: A Guide to Identification of Spring Wild Flowers and Flower Families
-
Reading the landscape of Europe
