Rose Schuster Taylor Explained

Rose Schuster Taylor
Birth Date:January 5, 1863
Birth Place:Middleton, Wisconsin, United States
Death Place:Berkeley, California, United States
Nationality:American
Other Names:Mrs. H. J. Taylor
Education:University of Wisconsin
Occupation:writer and naturalist
Known For:one of the founders of the Yosemite Museum
Notable Works:The Last Survivor,
Yosemite Indians and Other Sketches
Father:Peter Schuster
Mother:Barbara Hallauer Schuster
Children:4, incl Paul Schuster Taylor (economist)

Rose Schuster Taylor (who wrote as Mrs. H. J. Taylor; January 5, 1863 – January 25, 1951) was a Wisconsin-born writer, naturalist and librarian, based in California.

Early life

Rose Eugenia Schuster was born in Middleton, Wisconsin, one of twelve children of Peter Schuster and Barbara Hallauer Schuster.[1] Both of her parents were immigrants; her father was born in Bavaria and her mother was born in Switzerland. She spoke German at home in her childhood.[2] She graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1885, with a bachelor's degree in history.[3]

Career

Rose Schuster Taylor taught school as a young woman, and was a librarian in Sioux City, Iowa during her marriage.[4] She moved to California,[5] and was one of the founders of the Yosemite Museum and served as the museum's librarian for many years.[6] She worked with students in the Yosemite Field School of Natural History.[7] In 1929, she was a member of the First Park Naturalists' Training Conference.[8]

She wrote several books, including The Last Survivor (1932), a brief text about Maria Lebrado, a Yosemite Indian (Ahwahnechee) woman,[9] [10] and Yosemite Indians and Other Sketches (1936).[11] Her shorter essays and reports, many on ornithology, botany, or Yosemite history, appeared in various journals and magazines.[12]

Personal life and legacy

Rose Schuster married Henry James Taylor, an educator and lawyer, in 1887.[13] They had four children; their son, Paul Schuster Taylor became a noted economist. She was widowed when Henry died in 1902, in New Zealand. She died in 1951, aged 88 years, at her home in Berkeley, California. Some of her papers are archived with her son Paul's, at the Bancroft Library.[14]

The Hawaii Audubon Society has an annual scholarship named for Rose Schuster Taylor.[15]

Notes and References

  1. Rose Schuster Taylor, "Peter Schuster: Dane County Farmer" Wisconsin Magazine of History 28(3)(March 1945): 280.
  2. Alison Clark Efford, German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era (Cambridge University Press 2013): 38.
  3. https://books.google.com/books?id=NLZGAQAAMAAJ&dq=Rose+Schuster+Taylor&pg=RA1-PA223 Catalogue of the University of Wisconsin for the Academic Year 1892–1893
  4. Reuben Gold Thwaites, The University of Wisconsin: Its History and Its Alumni (J. N. Purcell): 656–657.
  5. Jan Goggans, California on the Breadlines: Dorothea Lange, Paul Taylor, and the Making of a New Deal Narrative (University of California Press 2010): 40–42.
  6. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23284506/rose_schuster_taylor_1951/ "Rites Sunday for Mrs. Taylor"
  7. Carl P. Russell, "Mrs. H. J. Taylor, 1863–1951" Yosemite Nature Notes 30(2)(February 1951): 1–2.
  8. http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/online-library/naturalist-proceedings/members.htm Proceedings of the First Park Naturalists' Training Conference, November 1 to 30, 1929
  9. Rose Schuster Taylor, The Last Survivor (Johnk & Seeger 1932).
  10. Rebecca Solnit, Savage Dreams: A Journey Into the Hidden Wars of the American West (University of California Press 2013): 275–276.
  11. Mrs. H. J. Taylor, Yosemite Indians and Other Sketches (Johnk & Seeger 1936), at Yosemite Online Library.
  12. Jean M. Lindale, "Obituary: Rose Schuster Taylor" The Wilson Bulletin (64(1)(1952): 51–52. via JStor
  13. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23279390/rose_schuster_taylor_1951/ "Mrs. Rose Taylor Schuster, 1885 Graduate of U. W., Dies in Berkeley"
  14. http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf7489n98b&doc.view=entire_text&brand=lo Guide to the Paul Schuster Taylor Papers, 1660–1997
  15. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23284620/rose_schuster_taylor_1977/ "Scholarship"