Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, 1858-1934

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Botanist and bryologist. Co-founder of the New York Botanical Gardens.

Elizabeth Gertrude Britton was born in NYC and grew up in Cuba, where her family owned a furniture factory and sugar plantation. After finishing private high school in NYC, she attended Normal College, and at 17, after receiving a degree in critic and natural sciences, she joined the school’s faculty. At 21, she joined the Torrey Botanical Club, and two years later, she published her first paper in the organization’s journal. She became fascinated with bryology – the study of mosses, and at 25, she published her first scientific work on the subject.

At 27, she married Nathaniel Lord Britton, a geologist at Columbia College, and resigned from her teaching position. After the wedding, Britton took an unpaid position at Columbia as a moss collector. In addition, she got appointed the editor of the Torrey Botanical Club’s journal, where, in 1889, she published a series of papers called Contributions to American Bryology. Britton and her husband traveled through the US and the West Indies to collect botanical specimens, and she published her finding and observations in various professional magazines.

In 1888, on a trip to England, the Brittons visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and decided to establish a comparable institute in NYC. On their return to the US, they proposed their initiative to the Torrey Botanical Club, and within two years, the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) was founded. Britton’s Knowledge of liverworts and mosses contributed to the garden’s collection, and in 1912 she was named Honorary Curator of the Mosses.

In 1898, at the age of 40, Britton co-founded the Sullivant Moss Society, later renamed the American Bryological Society, and served as its president from 1916 to 1919.

In the early 1900s, Britton became a loud advocate for the conservation of wildflowers. In 1902, when the Wild Flower Preservation Society of America was founded, she was appointed to the Board of Managers, and later she served as the organization’s secretary and treasurer. Devoted to the cause, Britton published papers, gave lectures, and conducted a campaign to adopt regional legislation to preserve and protect wildflowers. Thanks to her efforts, numerous endangered wildflower species were saved throughout the country, including the Wild American holly used as a Christmas decoration.

Throughout her life, Britton published more than 300 scientific papers, half of them about mosses. She died at the age of 76 from an apoplectic stroke.

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Fun Facts

  • She did not have children.
  • She wrote the chapters on mosses for her husband's research on the Flora of Bermuda and The Bahama Flora.
  • She identified and detailed six different families of mosses.
  • She chaired the Bryophyta division at the Women's National Science Club.
  • In 1893, she was the only woman among the 25 nominees for charter membership in the Botanical Society of America.
  • She chaired the conservation committee of the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State.
  • She was one of the nineteen women listed in the first edition of American Men of Science in 1906.
  • 15 species of plants are named in her honor, including the moss genus Bryobrittonia.
  • Mount Britton, in El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, honors Elizabeth and her husband.
  • A memorial plaque in her honor stands in the new Wild Flower Garden of the New York Botanical Garden.
  • The Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton Archive is at the NYBG Mertz Library.

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Category: Science & Technology
Tags: NYC Women and Scientist

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