Cecile Hulse Matschat (1895–March 4, 1976) was an American geographer and botanist, known best as the author of books on gardens, gardening and the Okefenokee Swamp.

Biography

Cecile Hulse Matschat was born in 1895 and grew up in upstate New York, later studying art at the Pratt Institute. Growing up, she began studying

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth ...

in nearby swamps and in New Jersey, eventually expanding her explorations to the Everglades,

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. She collected the orchids for paintings. Throughout Matschat's career, she wrote 16 books including her Rivers of America book on the Suwannee River —''Suwanee River: Strange Green Land'' (Farrar & Rinehart, 1938)— provided rare insight into the society and history of the people of the Okefenokee Swamp. She won a

Literary Guild The Literary Guild of America is a mail order book sales club, book club selling low-cost editions of selected current books to its members. Established in 1927 to compete with the Book of the Month Club, it is currently owned by Bookspan. It was a ...

award and membership in the Explorer's Club for the work. Matschat was a member of the Society of Woman Geographers from 1937 to 1966. Matschat died on March 4, 1976, in

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Works

* ''Mexican Plants for American Gardens'' ( Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1935) * ''The Garden Calendar'' (Houghton Mifflin, 1936) * ''The Garden Primers'' (Houghton Mifflin, 1937), illustrated by Jean Martin ** ''How to Make a Garden'' ** ''Planning the Home Grounds'' ** ''Annuals and Perennials'' ** ''Shrubs and Trees'' ** ''Bulbs and House Plants'' * ''Suwanee River: Strange Green Land'' ( Farrar & Rinehart, New York, 1938), illus. Alexander Key – Volume 3 of the Rivers of America Series * ''Seven Grass Huts: An Engineer's Wife in Central And South America'' (Farrar & Rinehart, 1939), illus. Matschat * ''American Wild Flowers'' (

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, New York, 1940) * ''Preacher on Horseback'' (Farrar & Rinehart, 1940; Cassell, London, 1941) * ''Murder in Okefenokee'' (Farrar & Rinehart, 1941) * ''American Butterflies and Moths'' (Random House, 1942), illus. Rudolf Freund * ''Tavern in the Town'' (Farrar & Rinehart, 1942; Cassell, 1944) * ''Highway to Heaven'' (Farrar & Rinehart, 1942) * ''Murder at the Black Crook (Farrar & Rinehart, 1943; Cassell, 1945) * ''Land of the Big Swamp: A Story of the Okefenokee Settlement'' ( John C. Winston, Philadelphia, 1954), illus. Alexander Key * ''Animals Of The Valley Of The Amazon'' ( Abelard-Schuman, New York, 1965), illus. Edward Osmond

References

External links

Cecile Hulse Matschat
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Authorities — with 19 catalog records {{DEFAULTSORT:Matschat, Cecile Hulse 1895 births 1976 deaths American garden writers American nature writers Members of the Society of Woman Geographers Pratt Institute alumni

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links