Another member of a husband and wife team was Anna Botsford Comstock, who married the entomologist John Henry Comstock in 1878. In the case of Ms. Comstock she also wrote works on her own and was a major force in the study of natural history into the mid 20th Century, her work still being popular long after her death.
Born in Otto, New York, Anna grew up on the family farm and was introduced to the wonders of the natural world by her Quaker mother Phebe. She attended Chamberlain Institute and Female College in Randolph, New York. After returning to Otto and teaching for a year, she entered Cornell University. She left the university after two years and married J. H. Comstock, the chief entomologist for the U. S. Department of Agriculture from 1879-1881. Under his guidance she had particularly developed an interest in insect drawing and she soon was illustrating her husbands books on insects.
After a break, she reentered Cornell and graduated with a degree in natural history in 1885. She continued illustrating her husband's books and reports, including his "Manual for the Study of Insects." She became one of the four first women to be inducted into the scientific research society of Sigma Xi. She also studied wood engraving at the Cooper Union in New York City.
She taught natural history at Cornell and was soon writing and illustrating her own books, including the justly famed "Handbook of Nature Study" (1911) which was reprinted over 20 times and published in eight languages. The popularity of the book amazed her husband.
Comstock was without a doubt a major figure in the development of nature study in the early Twentieth Century. She probably influenced more young people to at least take up natural history as a hobby than anybody during that period. My only personal connection with Anna Botsford Comstock is through the generations of entomologists and natural scientists who came after her and whom I studied under, but I am also pleased to have been inducted into Sigma Xi as well, nominated by one of my committee members at the University of Arizona. I am still a member.
I will add a parenthetical note here. With the numerous women that I have focused on in these diaries who contributed to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects, and who died prior to 2000, you would think that there would be some respect for current scientists and science educators who are women. I was very disturbed (but unfortunately unsurprised) to see this on NPR -http://www.npr.org/.... I find it horrifying at this day and age that women who are involved with STEM are harassed by a (fortunately) small minority of men who are (unfortunately) very vocal in their misogyny.
Literature References:
Bonta, Marcia Myers. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. Texas A & M University, College Station.
Bonta, Marcia Myers. 1995. American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women Naturalists. Texas A & M University, College Station.
Internet References
Anna Botsford Comstock http://www.answers.com/...
Anna Botsford Comstock http://www.britannica.com/...
Anna Botsford Comstock http://en.wikipedia.org/...