Emma G. Cummings Explained

Emma Gertrude Cummings (December 2, 1856[1] – October 12, 1940[2]) was an American horticulturalist and ornithologist.

Early life and education

Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lived mainly in the town of Brookline.[3] She was educated at Boston Art School.

Career

thumb|"A street in Nassau" from her 1898 trip to the BahamasCummings was an active participant in Brookline civic life. In 1897 she contributed a chapter on botany to the town's publication Brookline: The History of a Favored Town.[4] The following April she published an account of the people and flora of the Bahamas, "A Spring Visit to Nassau" in Popular Science Monthly.[5] Cummings was the first woman to hold a town office in Brookline, when she was elected a member of the town's tree planting committee, from 1902-1939.[6] Cummings was elected an Associate of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1903.[7] Also in 1903, she gave a lecture to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society about trees in the Southern United States.[8] In 1904 her ornithological pocket guide Baby Pathfinder to the Birds, co-authored with Harriet E. Richards, was described in The Auk as "a convenient and helpful vade mecum",[9] praised in the Journal of Education as a valuable guide that "no beginner or would-be beginner should be without",[10] and cited by the Boston Herald as evidence of Cummings' exemplary status as a "twentieth century woman." She was a member of the tree planting committee from 1902 to 1939, and in 1938 published a book on the committee's history and notable trees of the town.[11] Her book Brookline's Trees was praised by The Boston Globe,[12] and the Boston Herald noted that it was "much used by teachers and in schools."[13] Cummings was also a member of the Brookline Historical Society and gave talks to the membership on her travels, such as to Hawaii in 1923, and she was on the science sub-committee of the Brookline Education Society.[14] [15]

Personal life

Cummings lived with her sister Mabel Cummings, and died in October 1940 in Westfield, Massachusetts.[16]

Selected works

thumb|picture from "Baby bird-finder by Harriet E. Richards and Emma G. Cummings

References

  1. Book: Mooar . George . The Cummings memorial, a genealogical history of the descendants of Isaac Cummings . 1903 . B. F. Cummings . New York . 470.
  2. Palmer . T. S. . Palmer . Ralph S. . Rapp . William F. . Schorger . A. W. . Obituaries . The Auk . April 1943 . 60 . 2 . 312–318 . 10.2307/4079693 . 4079693 . free .
  3. Web site: New England Naturalists: A Bio-Bibliography . Harvard Library . Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College . 15 September 2018.
  4. Book: Bolton, Charles Knowles. Brookline: The History of a Favored Town. C.A.W. Spencer. 1897. 169.
  5. [s:Popular Science Monthly/Volume 52/April 1898/A Spring Visit to Nassau|A Spring Visit to Nassau]
  6. News: Miss Emma G. Cummings, who was. 5 July 1901. The Buffalo Review. 2018-09-16. en. Newspapers.com.
  7. The Fifty-Ninth Stated Meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union. Lawrence E.. Hicks. Rudyerd. Boulton. The Auk. 59. 1. 1942. 143–156. 4079201. 10.2307/4079201.
  8. News: Interesting Southern Tree. 1 March 1903. The Nebraska State Journal. 2018-09-16. en. Newspapers.com.
  9. The 'Baby Pathfinder to the Birds'. J.A.A.. The Auk. 21. 395. 3. 1904. 10.2307/4070217. 4070217.
  10. Richards. Harriet E.. Cummings. Emma G.. Baby Pathfinder to the Birds. Journal of Education. 60. 79. 4. 1904. 44062273. 10.1177/002205740406000435. 220785805.
  11. Web site: Brigham . Dave . The Backside of America: Who Was Emma Cummings? . The Backside of America . 28 August 2018 . 2 May 2017.
  12. News: Twigs From Chateau Thierry Now Trees in Brookline. 21 December 1938. The Boston Globe. 2018-09-16. en. Newspapers.com.
  13. News: The Chatterer. Boston Herald. May 18, 1904. 6.
  14. Web site: Brookline Historical Society. 16 September 2018.
  15. Book: Year Book of the Brookline Education Society: Constitution, Officers and Members, with a Record of Meetings and Reports of Committees. Brookline Education Society. 5.
  16. 1940. The Smith Alumnae Quarterly. 32-34. 113.
  17. Web site: Brookline's Trees: A History of the Committee for Planting Trees of Brookline, Massachusetts and a Record of Some of Its Trees. by Emma G. Cummings: The Brookline Historical Society and the Committee for Planting Trees, Brookline, MA Hard Cover, First Edition. - art longwood books . www.abebooks.co.uk . 28 August 2018.
  18. Book: Barrow, Mark. A Passion for Birds: American Ornithology After Audubon. Princeton University Press. 2000. 286.
  19. Web site: Cultural Landscape Report for John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site. 16 September 2018.

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