Lumina Cotton Riddle Smyth Explained

Lumina Cotton Riddle (1871–1939) was an American botanist. She was a direct descendant of John Cotton.^[1]

Early life and education

Born 18 March 1871, one of several children of Ida (nee Carlton) and George Riddle. Studied at Ohio State University where she received her BS in 1897, MS in 1898^[2] and her doctorate in botany in 1905 - the first botany doctorate and the second doctorate of any kind awarded by the institution. She was taught by William Ashbrook Kellerman.^[3]

Life

Riddle taught at the Akeley Institute, Michigan, from 1899 to 1900. In 1901 she was curator of natural history at Washburn College in Topeka. She then worked as a high school teacher at Altoona, Kansas, 1901–02, returning to Washburn College as curator from 1903 to 1904 and as Acting professor of zoology and physiology.^[4]

In 1906 Riddle married Bernard Bryan Smyth, curator of both the herbarium and ornithological collections at Kansas State Museum. The couple worked together on researching flora in Kansas.

Also in 1906 she joined the staff of Kansas State Museum, Topeka, becoming a curator in 1913 and staying there until 1915. In 1917 she once again took the role of curator at Washburn College.

She returned to high school teaching at Munden, Kansas between 1917 and 1918, before becoming a school superintendent until 1920. She then worked at Ottawa University as an assistant biology professor from 1921 to 1924.^[5]

Riddle was a member of the Agassiz Association,^[6] the AAAS, the Britton and Brown Botanical Club and both the Kansas^[7] and Ohio Academies of Science.

Riddle died in Cleveland, Ohio on 2 February 1939

Works

• Catalogue of the Flora of Kansas, Part I. Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci.. 273–95. (with Bernard B. Smyth). 1911. 23/4(?). ^[8]
• The Embryology of Alyssum. Botanical Gazette. 27. 314–323. 1899. ^[9]
• Development of the Embryo Sac and Embryo of Staphylea trifolia. Ohio Naturalist. 5. 353–363. 1905. ^[10]
• Occurrence of Podagrion Mantis in the Eggs of the Common Mantis. Trans. of the Kansas Academy of Sci. (1903-) 21: 178-179^[11]

External links

• Occurrence of Podagrion Mantis in the Eggs of the Common Mantis
• Ohio State Library website Studies on Fasciation Smyth's thesis

Notes and References

1. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LTSYePZvSXYC&pg=PA1099&lpg=PA1099&dq=Lumina+Cotton+Riddle+John+Cotton&source=bl&ots=hSl9nU076B&sig=ACfU3U2b95ekCgqJIyT0UdReSxI13rFq6w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0uLHM44iGAxVvZ_EDHeOKBeM4ChDoAXoECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=Lumina%20Cotton%20Riddle%20John%20Cotton&f=false Google Books, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z, by Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Dorothy Harvey, page 1099
2. Rudolph. Emanuel David. 1990-05-01. Women Who Studied Plants in the Pre-Twentieth Century United States and Canada. Taxon. English. 39. 2. 151–205. 10.2307/1223016. 1223016.
3. https://mbd.osu.edu/collections/herbarium/history-osu-herbarium Ohio State University website, ‘Museum of Biological Diversity section, History of the OSU Herbarium
4. https://www.washburn.edu/academics/college-schools/arts-sciences/files/directions/winter-2011-directions.pdf Washburn College website, Directions magazine, Winter 2011, page 4
5. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rUCUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT397&lpg=PT397&dq=bernard+smyth+botany+science+lumina++Ohio+Academies+of+Science&source=bl&ots=7gNYF9Nfi1&sig=ACfU3U3BlIzdDpd0yfpVY9Qdvb5wE5gskQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiTzK6MsJKGAxVLQkEAHcsBDzUQ6AF6BAgkEAM#v=onepage&q=bernard%20smyth%20botany%20science%20lumina%20%20Ohio%20Academies%20of%20Science&f=false Google Books website, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives, by Marilyn Ogilvie, Joy Harvey, page 1099
6. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3625412?seq=2 JStor website, Some of the Founders and Workers of the Kansas Natural History Society and the Kansas Academy of Science, article by Lyman C. Wooster published in Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science (1903-), Vol. 40 (Apr. 1-3, 1937), Page 216
7. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3624602?seq=6 JStor website, Transactions of the Kansas Academic of Science (1903-), Vol 33 (April 17, 1930), page 6
8. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3624594 JStor website, Catalogue of the Flora of Kansas, Part I, article by Bernard B. Smyth and Lumina C. Riddle Smyth published in Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science (1903-), Vol. 23/24 (Jan., 1911), pp. 273-295
9. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2465376 JStor website, The Embryology of Alyssum, article by Lumina Cotton Riddle published in Botanical Gazette, Vol. 26, No. 5 (Nov., 1898), pp. 314-324
10. https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Development_of_the_Embryo_sac_and_Embryo.html?id=XCRVAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y Google Books website, Development of the Embryo Sac and Embryo of Staphylea trifolia
11. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3624537 JStor website, Occurrence of Podagrion Mantis in the Eggs of the Common Mantis, article by Lumina C. Riddle Smyth published in Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science (1903-), Vol. 21 (Dec., 1907), pp. 178-179