Smith, James P, Jr

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Humboldt State UniversityDigital Commons @ Humboldt State UniversityBotanical Studies Open Educational Resources and Data2018Mary Agnes ChaseJames P. Smith JrHumboldt State University, james.smith@humboldt.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/botany_jpsPart of the Botany CommonsThis Grasses: General is brought to you for free and open access by the Open Educational Resources and Data at Digital Commons @ Humboldt StateUniversity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Botanical Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Humboldt State University.For more information, please contact kyle.morgan@humboldt.edu.Recommended CitationSmith, James P. Jr, "Mary Agnes Chase" (2018). Botanical Studies. 81.https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/botany_jps/81MARY AGNES CHASE (1869–1963):FROM ILLUSTRATOR TO DEAN OF AMERICAN AGROSTOLOGISTSJames P. Smith, Jr.Professor Emeritus of BotanyDepartment of Biological SciencesHumboldt State UniversityArcata, California17 February 2018Mary Agnes Chase was born in 1869. Her father died when she was quite young, which unfortunately put her andher family on a pathway of financial insecurity that precluded higher education. In 1903, shortly after the death ofher husband, Agnes Chase moved to Washington, D. C. as a scientific illustrator for the Department of Agriculture.Botany was an acceptable career for women in those days, especially if it meant becoming a botanical illustrator.Becoming a real botanist who explored for plants, described new species, and published papers was an entirelydifferent matter. In 1905, she started to work for Albert Spear Hitchcock, one of the country’s leading botanists anda world-renowned expert on the grasses. Being a person of great intelligence and sensitivity, she fell in love withgrasses. So began a distinguished botanical career of her own. She became Hitchcock’s scientific collaborator andwas a major force behind the publication of The Manual of Grasses in 1935. Chase was an avid field botanist, oftenpaying for collecting trips with her own money. She retired as Senior Botanist at the Smithsonian in 1939, havingbecome the successor to Hitchcock. She stayed on as an unsalaried research scientist, working five or six days aweek, until her death in 1963. One of her greatest accomplishments was the revision of The Manual, which appeared in 1951. Many of us, wantingto give her the recognition that she deserved, always call it “Hitchcock and Chase.” A year before her death, Chaseand Cornelia Niles published the Index to Grass Species, a photographic reproduction of about 80,000 index cardsthat showed where the scientific names of grasses were first published and additional items of nomenclature.Admittedly, it was not an instant best-seller, but for those of us who delve into this arcane subject, the Index is aninvaluable resource. I am not sure that any other major plant or animal group ever had such a reference. Her pen and pencil illustrations have been preserved in the Hitchcock-Chase Collection of Grass Drawings at the HuntInstitute for Botanical Documentation of the Carnegie Mellon University. If you look carefully, you will discover thata number of the beautiful grass illustrations in the two volumes of the Flora of North American North of Mexico are reproductions of her originals.In her later years, Mrs. Chase might have been seen as the type specimen of the pleasantly eccentric little old lady.She even brought in home-made cookies for her colleagues in the Herbarium. But as a young woman she was notall that shy and retiring. She was a suffragette and a pacifist. On two occasions she was jailed for helping at thepublic burning of copies of speeches by President Woodrow Wilson and for picketing across the street from the WhiteHouse in support of a woman’s right to vote. She went on a hunger strike, was force fed, but apparently notsubjected to enhanced interrogation. She was active in a number of suspect organizations with questionableobjectives – the Women’s Party, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People, the Socialist Party, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the Women’s InternationalLeague for Peace and Freedom. She was opposed to the use of alcohol and tobacco. Government officials in the U.S. D. A. raised the issue of her continued employment. Her boss, A. S. Hitchcock, came immediately to her defense.The crisis passed. She would spend the rest of her life defending and supporting women’s causes, particularly inattracting more women into the sciences. -1-TIMELINE1869   Born in Iroquois County, Illinois 1888   Marries William Ingraham Chase, who dies a year later of tuberculosis1890   Hired by the Inter-Ocean newspaper in Chicago as proofreader and typesetter1897   Begins her formal recording of her collections; begins collaboration with minister-botanist E. J. Hill1900   Illustrates plants in C. F. Millspaugh’s Plantae Utowanae for the Field Museum of Natural History1901   Hired by the U. S. D. A. as a meat inspector in the Chicago stockyards (–> 1903)1903   Illustrates plants in C. F. Millspaugh’s Plantae Yucatanae for the Field Museum of Natural History ( –>1904)1901   Hired as Assistant in botany at the Field Museum in Chicago1903   Moves to Washinton, D. C. and is hired as botanical illustrator by the U. S. D. A.1905   Begins association (artist û scientific colleague) with A. S. Hitchcock1907   Appointed by Hitchcock as Scientific Assistant in Systematic Agrostology1911   Excluded from expeditions to Panama because of her gender1913   Collecting trip to Puerto Rico, her first extended foreign trip1915   Spends 10 days in jail for helping to burn copies of President Woodrow Wilson’s speeches1918   Arrested a second time for attending a rally in Lafayette Square picketing the White House 1922   Visits European herbaria and museums (–> 1923)1923   Promoted to Assistant Botanist1924   Collecting trip to Brazil 1925   Appointed Associate Botanist1929   A second collecting trip to Brazil; scales Mt. Aconcagua, the highest in South America1935   A second trip to European herbaria1936   Appointed Senior Botanist in charge of all Systematic Agrostology1937   Appointed custodian of the Section of Grasses at the U.S. National Museum 1939   Retires, but stays on as Research Associate at the U. S. National Museum1940   Collecting trip to Venezuela, her last major expedition1956   Receives Certificate of Merit from the Botanical Society of America1958   Receives honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Illinois, her only college degree1959   Made the eighth Honorary Fellow of the Smithsonian Institution1961   Becomes Fellow of the Linnean Society of London1963   Dies in Bethesda, Maryland; her ashes are interred beside her husband’s grave.PUBLICATIONS1897. Illustrations in Lamson-Scribner, F. Americangrasses. Bull. Div. Agrostology, U. S. D. A. 7: 1-331.1900. Illustrations in Millspaugh, C. F. PlantaeUtowanae. Field Columbian Museum. Bot. Series No. 50:113-124.1903. Illustrations in Millspaugh, C. F. PlantaeYucatanae. Field Mus. Bot. 3: 15-84.1904. Chase, A. & Millspaugh, C. F. Plantae Yucatanae.Field Mus. Bot. 3: 85-151.1904. The North American allies of Scirpus lacustris.Rhodora 6: 65-71.1906. Notes on genera of Paniceae. I. Proc. Biol. Soc.Washington 19: 183-192, her first scientific paper1908. Notes on genera of Paniceae. II. Proc. Biol. Soc.Washington 21: 1-10.1908. Notes on genera of Paniceae. III. Proc. Biol. Soc.Washington 21: 175-118.1908. Notes on cleistogamy in grasses. Bot. Gaz. 45:135, 136.1908. Text-figures in Gray’s new manual of botany.Rhodora 10: 207, 208.1910. Hitchcock, A. S. & A. Chase. The North Americanspecies of Panicum. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 17(6): 1-396.1911. The subterranean organs of Cinna arundinacea.Rhodora 13: 9, 10.1911. Notes on genera of Paniceae. IV. Proc. Biol. Soc.Washington 24: 103-160.1911. Ornithological observations on cleistogamy.Rhodora 13: 76.-2-1911. Amateur botanical illustrating. Rhodora 13: 93-95.1914. An unwelcome invader. Bromus villosus Forsk.(Bromus maximus Desf.) Rhodora 16: 166.1914. Field notes on the climbing bamboos of PortoRico. Bot. Gaz. 58: 277-279.1915. Hitchcock, A. S. & A. Chase. The tropical NorthAmerican species of Panicum. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb.17(6): 459-539.1916. The structure of the spikelet of Aphanelytrum.Bot. Gaz. 61: 340-343.1917. Hitchcock, A. S. & A. Chase. Grasses of the WestIndies. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 18(7): 261-471.1917. Rev. E. J. Hill. Rhodora 19: 61-69.1918. Axillary cleistogenes in some American grasses.American J. Bot. 5: 256-258.1919. Some causes of confusion in plant names. J.Forestry 17(2): 159-162.1920. The North American species of Brachiaria. Contr.U. S. Natl. Herb. 22(1): 33-44.1920. The North American species of Cenchrus. Contr.U. S. Natl. Herb. 22(1): 45-77.1921. The North American species of Pennisetum.Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 22(4): 209-234.1921. The Linnaean concept of pearl millet.American J.Bot. 8: 41-49.1921. Gramineae. In, Standley, P. C. Flora of GlacierNational Park. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 22(5): 280-294.1922. First book of grasses: the structure of grassesexplained for beginners. Macmillan. New York, NY. 121pp.1923. Visit to European herbaria. Smithsonian Misc. Coll.74: 80-82.1923. The identification of Raddi’s grasses. J.Washington Acad. Sci. 13: 167-179.1923. Pennisetum vulcanicum Chase. J. WashingtonAcad. Sci. 13: 363.1923. Paspalum botteri, Syntherisma fiebrigii. In,Standley, P. C. New species of plants of Salvador. J.Washington Acad. Sci. 13: 436.1924. A new species of Panicum found in alfalfa seed.J. Washington Acad. Sci. 14: 343-345.1924. Actachne, a cleistogamous grass of the highAndes. J. Washington Acad. Sci. 14: 364-366.1925. Collecting grasses in Brazil. J. New York Bot.Gard. 26: 196-198.1925. Introduction and botanical notes. In, Niles, C. D.A bibliographic study of Beauvois’ agrostographie.Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 24: 135-214.1925. Poaceae. In, Tidestrom, I. Flora of Utah andNevada. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 25: 61-98.1926. Botanical expedition to Brazil. Explorations andfield-work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1925.Smithsonian Misc. Coll. 78. Pp. 48-54.1927. New grasses from Panama. J. Washington Acad.Sci. 17: 142-147.1927. Eastern Brazil through an agrostologist'sspectacles. Smithsonian Rep. 1926: 383-403.1927. Calamagrostis leonardi and Leptochloa monticola.In, Leonard, E. C. Fourteen new species of plants fromHispaniola. J. Washington Acad. Sci. 17: 72, 73.1927. Chase, A. & A. W. Sampson. Range grasses ofCalifornia. Univ. California Exp. Stat. Bull. No. 430. 94pp.1928. Native ornamental grasses. Natl. Hort. Mag. 7: 9-11.1929. The North American species of Paspalum. Contr.U. S. Natl. Herb. 28: 1-310.1931. [Description of] Paspalum longum. In, Johnston,I. M. Flora of the Revillagigedo Islands. Proc. CaliforniaAcad. Sci. IV. 20: 52, 53.1933. A new grass of Texas. J. Washington Acad. Sci.23: 137, 138.1935. Studies in the Gramineae of Brazil. J. WashingtonAcad. Sci. 25: 187-190.1935. [Description of] Paspalum redundans, P.galagageium, and P. galagageium var. minoratum. In,Hitchcock, A. S. New species of grasses from theGalapagos and the Revillagigedao Islands. Proc.-3-California Acad. Sci. IV. 21: 297, 299, 300.1936. Illustrations in Swallen, J. R. The grasses ofBritish Honduras and Petén, Guatemala. Carnegie Inst.of Washington.1937. Notes on types of North American grasses.American J. Bot. 24: 33-35.1937. First book of grasses. Second edition. W. A.Silveus. San Antonio, TX. 125 pp.1937. Arthraxon hispidus var. cryptatherus (Hack.)Honda in Pennsylvania. Rhodora 39: 100.1937. New species of Paspalum from tropical America.J. Washington Acad. Sci. 27: 143-146.1938. The carpet grasses. J. Washington Acad. Sci. 28:178-182.1938. New grasses from Oregon. J. Washington Acad.Sci. 28: 51-55.1939. Hitchcock, A. S., J. R. Swallen, & A. Chase.Poaceae. North American Flora 17(8): 543-638.1939. Papuan grasses collected by L. J. Brass. J. ArnoldArboretum 20: 304-316.1939. Genera 130-136 of Poaceae. North American Flora17: 568-579.1939. Paspalum setiglume. In, Gleason, H. A. & E. P.Killip. Flora of Mount Auyan-Tepui. Brittonia 3: 150-152.1940. Report to the Minister of Agriculture of Venezuela.Forage Crop Gaz. 4: 7-10.1940. Studying the grasses of Venezuela. Explor. Field-Work Smithsonian Inst. 1940: 61-66.1943. Papuan grasses collected by L. J. Brass. 2. J.Arnold Arboretum 24: 77-89.1943. New grasses from South America. J. WashingtonAcad. Sci. 33: 316, 317.1944. Grasses of Brazil and Venezuela. Agriculture inthe Americas 4: 123-126.1946. Enneapogon desvauxii and Pappophorum wrightii,an agrostological detective story. Madroño 8: 187-189.1950. Pogonatherum Beauv. J. Arnold Arboretum 31:130-132.1951. Manual of the grasses of the United States.Revised edition. Misc. Publ. No. 200. U. S. Dept. ofAgric. Washington, D. C.1951. Sampson, A. W., D. W. Hedrick, & A. Chase.California grasslands and range forage grasses. Univ.California Exp. Stat. Report No. 724. Pp. 5-131.1952. New species of grasses from Venezuela. J.Washington Acad. Sci. 42: 122-124.1959. First book of grasses. Third edition. SmithsonianInst. Washington, D. C. 127 pp.1962. Chase, A. & C. Niles. Index to grass species.Three vols. G. K. Hall. Boston, MA.BIBLIOGRAPHYCooper-Freytag, L. J. 1997. Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963). In, Grinstein, L. S. et al. Women in the biologicalsciences: a biobibliographic sourcebook. GreenwoodPress. Pp. 70-74.Faust, T. R. 1996. Mary Agnes Meara Chase. In,Shearer, B. F. & B. S. Shearer. Notable women in thelife sciences: a biographical dictionary. GreenwoodPress. Pp. 63-67.Fosberg, F. R. & J. R. Swallen. 1959. Agnes Chase.Taxon 8(5): 145-151.Henson, P. M. 1996. [Agnes Chase]. In, Clark, L. G. & R.W. Pohl. Agnes Chase’s first book of grasses. Fourthedition. Smithsonian Inst. Washington, D. C. Pp. xiii-xviii.Henson, P. M. 2003. What holds the earth together:Agnes Chase and American agrostology. J. History ofBiology 36: 437-460.Isely, D. 1994. Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963). Onehundred and one botanists. Iowa State Univ. Press.Ames. Pp. 303-305.Stieber, M. T. 1980. Chase, Mary Agnes. In, NotableAmerican women: the modern period. Belknap Press.Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA. Pp. 146-148.-4-

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