{"id":6258,"date":"2022-11-23T16:42:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T00:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=6258"},"modified":"2024-02-14T11:24:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T19:24:18","slug":"the-forgotten-botanist-sara-plummer-lemmons-life-of-science-art","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/the-forgotten-botanist-sara-plummer-lemmons-life-of-science-art\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon\u2019s Life of Science & Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sara Plummer Lemmon (1836-1923) was a transplanted easterner, moving from New York to California in her early 30s hoping to find a climate to improve her health. \u00a0She settled in Santa Barbara, establishing a library and becoming interested in the native flora.<\/p>\n

A decade later, she married John Gill (\u201cJG\u201d) Lemmon (1831-1908), a survivor of the notorious Andersonville prison in the Civil War, who had also moved to California for his health. Together they explored the mountains of Arizona, California, and Mexico, developing an important herbarium, now housed at the University of California, Berkeley.\u00a0 Sara was also a skilled botanical illustrator. \u00a0Her and JG\u2019s story is told in \u201cThe Forgotten Botanist\u201d by Wynne Brown.<\/p>\n

Sara was an advocate for having the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica<\/em>) named the state flower. Although first proposed to the state legislature in 1895 and passed by both houses nearly unanimously, two succeeding governors refused to sign the bill for unrelated political reasons, postponing enactment until 1903.<\/p>\n

The joint headstone for JG and Sara in Oakland\u2019s Mountain View Cemetery lists them as \u201cpartners in botany. \u00a0Author Brown reflects, \u201cThe actual balance of that partnership between JG and the woman known to the world as \u2018& wife\u2019 is still\u2014and probably always will be\u2014up for question,\u201d but she concludes that many future ecologists will \u201crely on the work of this determined couple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excerpted from Brian Thompson’s article in the Winter 2023 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sara Plummer Lemmon (1836-1923) was a transplanted easterner, moving from New York to California in her early 30s hoping to find a climate to improve her health. \u00a0She settled in Santa Barbara, establishing a library and becoming interested in the native flora. A decade later, she married John Gill (\u201cJG\u201d) Lemmon (1831-1908), a survivor of the notorious Andersonville prison in the Civil War, who had also moved to California for his health. Together they explored the mountains of Arizona, California,…<\/p>\n

Continue reading The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon\u2019s Life of Science & Art<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[335,1086,392,22],"class_list":["post-6258","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry","keyword-biography","keyword-botanical-illustration","keyword-botanists","keyword-reviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book\/6258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/book"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=6258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}