Elizabeth Gertrude Britton
| Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (née Knight) | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
January 9, 1858 New York City, New York, United States |
| Died | February 25, 1934 (aged 76) The Bronx, New York, United States |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | Botany, Bryology |
| Alma mater | Hunter College |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | E.Britton |
| Spouse | Nathaniel Lord Britton |
Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (née Elizabeth Gertrude Knight) (January 9, 1858 – February 25, 1934) was an American botanist, bryologist, and educator. She and her husband, Nathaniel Lord Britton played a significant role in the fundraising and creation of the New York Botanical Garden. She was a co-founder of the predecessor to the American Bryological and Lichenological Society. She was an activist for protection of wildflowers, inspiring local chapter activities and the passage of legislation. Elizabeth Britton made major contributions to the literature of mosses, publishing 170 papers in that field.
Elizabeth Gertrude Knight was born on January 9, 1858 in New York City, one of five daughters, to James and Sophie Anne (née Compton) Knight. Her family operated a furniture factory and sugar plantation in the vicinity of Matanzas, Cuba, and she spent much of her childhood there. In later childhood, she attended a private school in New York; she then attended Normal College (later, Hunter College) and was graduated from there in 1875, at the early age of seventeen. On August 27, 1885 she married Nathaniel Lord Britton, an Assistant in Geology at Columbia College who shared her growing interest in botany. The couple had no children.
After graduation in 1875, Elizabeth Knight joined the staff of Normal College as a critic teacher. She joined the Torrey Botanical Club in 1879, and in 1881 she published her first scientific paper in that organization's Bulletin, reporting observations of unexpected white flowers in two species of plants. In 1883, she was named a Tutor in Natural Science. Also in that year, she specialized in bryology and her first paper concerning mosses appeared. Elizabeth collected fertile specimens of Eustichium norvegicum in Wisconsin and wrote the first description of its fruits; known since 1827, the plant had hitherto been known only in a sterile condition. At the beginning of her botany career, she also studied a rare grass fer, Schizaea pusilla, in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1879. Britton wrote as many as 346 papers, about half of them were on mosses, and the rest on the preservation of ferns and wildflowers.
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