The Botanizers - by Elizabeth B Keeney (Paperback)

About the Book

Botanizers: Amateur Scientists in Nineteenth-Century America

Book Synopsis

Keeney examines the role of botany in the lives of nineteenth-century 'botanizers, ' amateur scientists who collected, identified, and preserved plant specimens as a pastime. Using popular magazines, fiction, and autobiographies of the day, she explores the popular culture of this avocation, which attracted both men and women by the thousands.

Review Quotes

"Keeney's thoroughly researched study offers a rare view of science that incorporates the enthusiastic public as well as the systematists who engaged in and supported botany during the nineteenth century. Like the botanists she studies, Keeney relishes the small details and makes them part of a larger story. . . . The amateur tradition here is credited for its role both in creating new outdoor leisure activity and in contributing to the effort to document the natural history of North America. The book's well-collected illustrations are a bonus." -- Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, University of Minnesota

"Substantial. . . . A good reminder of how much natural history has both reflected and contributed to the American psyche." -- Natural History