{"id":6169,"date":"2023-05-20T04:50:42","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T08:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/?p=6169"},"modified":"2025-11-10T07:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:22:27","slug":"alice-eastwood-torontos-queen-of-botany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/eternal\/alice-eastwood-torontos-queen-of-botany-6169","title":{"rendered":"Alice Eastwood \u2013 Toronto\u2019s \u201cQueen of Botany\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Alice Eastwood is remembered in Canada&#8217;s scientific community as a <strong>talented botanist<\/strong>, writes <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\">toronto1.one<\/a>. She is the author of <strong>over three hundred scientific articles<\/strong>. The scientist also penned three hundred and ninety-five names for specific species of various terrestrial plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a69089ee41c1\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a69089ee41c1\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/eternal\/alice-eastwood-torontos-queen-of-botany-6169\/#Early_Years\" >Early Years<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/eternal\/alice-eastwood-torontos-queen-of-botany-6169\/#%E2%80%9CBotanical_Talent%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Botanical Talent&#8221;<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/eternal\/alice-eastwood-torontos-queen-of-botany-6169\/#Scientific_Expeditions\" >Scientific Expeditions<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/eternal\/alice-eastwood-torontos-queen-of-botany-6169\/#The_Rescuer\" >The Rescuer<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/eternal\/alice-eastwood-torontos-queen-of-botany-6169\/#The_Return\" >The Return<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/eternal\/alice-eastwood-torontos-queen-of-botany-6169\/#Additional_Activities\" >Additional Activities<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Early_Years\"><\/span>Early Years<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our heroine was born on <strong>January 19, 1859<\/strong>, in the city of Toronto. Her father was an employee at the Toronto Asylum for the Insane. And when the girl turned six, her mother passed away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, young Alice was cared for by her parents&#8217; relatives. But they weren&#8217;t always successful at this, and one day they decided to send the girl to a Toronto convent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1873, Alice began living with her father again. However, by that time, the man was living in Denver, and the girl had to move there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The year 1879 was marked by the future scientist&#8217;s graduation from high school. After that, she <strong>began a teaching career<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CBotanical_Talent%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Botanical Talent&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, our heroine was a <strong>self-taught botanist<\/strong>. In most cases, her knowledge was gleaned from various scientific publications on botany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1891, when the curator of the botany department at the California Academy of Sciences became acquainted with Alice&#8217;s specimen collection, she hired her as an assistant at the academic herbarium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The year 1892 was marked by a promotion for our heroine. She became another curator of the academy&#8217;s botany department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1894, Alice became the <strong>head of the Department of Botany<\/strong>, and she remained in this position until 1949, when she retired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Scientific_Expeditions\"><\/span>Scientific Expeditions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Alice&#8217;s early botanical works were mostly written after she undertook another <strong>collecting expedition<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, in 1892, our heroine organized such an expedition to collect desert plants. And during one of her subsequent expeditions, Alice was fortunate enough to find <strong>many previously unknown plants<\/strong>. In particular, this includes Hickman&#8217;s cinquefoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Rescuer\"><\/span>The Rescuer<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, our heroine <strong>saved the academic collection<\/strong> of type plants after the great earthquake that occurred in San Francisco in 1906.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Disregarding the curatorial conventions of that era, our heroine successfully separated many type specimens from the main collection. Thanks to this classification system, Alice was able to retrieve <strong>almost fifteen hundred specimens<\/strong> from the damaged building. It later turned out that the records and specimens our heroine rescued were all that managed to be saved from the entire academic collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the earthquake and until the academy was finally able to construct a new building, Eastwood studied herbaria in European countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Return\"><\/span>The Return<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"589\" height=\"714\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.toronto1.one\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2023\/05\/image-26.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2439\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.toronto1.one\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2023\/05\/image-26.png 589w, https:\/\/cdn.toronto1.one\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/35\/2023\/05\/image-26-247x300.png 247w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 589px) 100vw, 589px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The year 1912 marked Alice&#8217;s return to the academy, where she continued to work on restoring the lost part of the collection. Thanks to painstaking work and organizing expeditions, our heroine managed to collect <strong>approximately one-third of a million specimens<\/strong> by 1942. This meant that the collection was several times larger than the number of specimens destroyed in 1906.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Additional_Activities\"><\/span>Additional Activities<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Regarding Alice&#8217;s scientific works, throughout her career, she managed to write <strong>over three hundred articles<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also held the position of editor for the biological journal <strong>Zoe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1932, she began creating the journal <strong>Leaflets of Western Botany<\/strong>, which was successfully published until 1966.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, during the 1890s, Alice was at the head of the San Francisco Botanical Club. And in 1929, she actively participated in the creation of the American Fuchsia Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is worth noting that our heroine&#8217;s main botanical interests primarily converged on the western lilies of the USA and the genera <strong>Lupinus, Arctostaphylos, and Castilleja<\/strong>. And this is clearly evident in many of her works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wikipedia.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alice Eastwood is remembered in Canada&#8217;s scientific community as a talented botanist, writes toronto1.one. She is the author of over three hundred scientific articles. The scientist also penned three hundred and ninety-five names for specific species of various terrestrial plants. Early Years Our heroine was born on January 19, 1859, in the city of Toronto. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":6172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1166],"tags":[4024,4023,4022,2134,2912,4027,4029],"moimportance":[78,81],"motype":[1158],"moformat":[83],"class_list":{"0":"post-6169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-canadian-botany","9":"tag-canadian-education","10":"tag-canadian-science","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-research","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-scientific-development","15":"moimportance-golovna-novina","16":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatori","17":"motype-eternal","18":"moformat-vlasna"},"modified_by":"Katya Koshevaya","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6174,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169\/revisions\/6174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6169"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=6169"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=6169"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toronto1.one\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=6169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}