Alice Eastwood
| Alice Eastwood | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 19, 1859 Toronto, Canada |
| Died |
October 30, 1953 (aged 94) San Francisco, California, United States |
| Resting place | Toronto |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Eastw. |
Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October 30, 1953) was a Canadian American botanist. She is credited with building the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences, located in San Francisco. She published over 310 scientific articles. There are seventeen currently recognized species named for her, as well as the genera Eastwoodia and Aliciella.
Alice Eastwood was born to Colin Skinner Eastwood and Eliza Jane Gowdey Eastwood on January 19, 1859, in Toronto, Canada. The family moved to Denver, Colorado in 1873. In 1879, she graduated as valedictorian from Shawa Convent Catholic High School, located in Denver. For the next ten years, Eastwood would teach at her alma mater, forgoing a college education.
She was a self-taught botanist, and relied on knowledge from published botany manuals including Grey’s Manual and the Flora of Colorado. Her botanical knowledge led her to being asked to guide Alfred Russel Wallace up the summit of Grays Peak in Denver. Eastwood was also a member of Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell's Colorado Biological Association.
In 1891, after reviewing Eastwood’s specimen collection in Denver, Mary Katharine Brandegee, Curator of the Botany Department at the California Academy of Sciences, hired Eastwood to assist in the Academy’s Herbarium. There Eastwood oversaw tremendous growth of the Herbarium. In 1892, Eastwood was promoted to a position as joint curator of the Academy with Brandegee. By 1894, with the retirement of Brandegee, Eastwood was procurator and Head of the Department of Botany, a position she held until her 1949 retirement.
She died in San Francisco on October 30, 1953. The Academy retains a collection of her papers and works.
In her early botanical work, Eastwood made of number of collecting expeditions in Colorado and the Four Corners region. She became close with the Wetherill Family, and visited Alamo Ranch in Mesa Verde often, beginning in July 1889. Long before that, she was considered a part of the family, and so did not sign the guest register on later trips. Each time Eastwood visited, she was particularly welcomed by Al Wetherill, who shared a sincere interest in her work. In 1892, he served as her guide on a 10-day trip to southeastern Utah to collect desert plants.
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