Mary A. Albertson (21 June 1838 – 19 August 1914), born Mary Ann Mitchell, was an American

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

. From 1904 to 1914, she curated the

Maria Mitchell Maria Mitchell ( ; August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) that was later known as " Miss Mitchell's Comet ...

memorial located on

Nantucket Island Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined cou ...

, Massachusetts. Her work there covered both the nascent botany department and the astronomical observatory. In the botany department, she curated an

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

of Nantucket plants, in memory of her cousin Mitchell's love of flowers. She died in 1914 on Nantucket Island. Albertson's daughter Alice Owen Albertson was the author of the book ''Nantucket Wildflowers'' (G. P. Putnam's sons, 1921).

References

1838 births 1914 deaths People from Nantucket, Massachusetts 19th-century American astronomers 20th-century American botanists 19th-century American women scientists 20th-century American women scientists American women botanists 19th-century American botanists {{US-botanist-stub