Mary Agnes Chase
Personal Information
Born: 1869
Died: 1963
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
dropped out of school after grammar school; later took botany classes at University of Chicago & Lewis Institute but never received a degree
""Grass is what holds the Earth together. . . .Grass made it possible for the human race to abandon his cavekife & follow herds. . . .Grasses have been so successful in the struggle for existence that they have a wider geographic range than any other plant family, & they occupy all parts of the Earth." (encyclopedia.com)"
— Mary Agnes Chase
Professional Life
Field of Study: Botany; Agrostology
Institution/Corporation: Smithsonian Institution; USDA
Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: University of Ilinois (1958); Member: Women's Party; Socialist Party; Women's Christian Temperance Union; The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Honorary Fellow of the Smithsonian Institution (1959); Fellow Linnean Society of London (1961); Silent Sentinels; the Fellowship for Reconciliation; Women's International League for Peace & Freedom
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1956 Certificate of Merit, Botanical Society of America
Achievements: botanist whose specialty was agrostology (the study of grass); with Albert Spear Hitchcock, wrote 2 books on North American grasses in 1910 & 1915, & 1 on grasses of the West Indies in 1917; 1922, wrote a book for beginners on grasses; 1924 conducted fieldwork in Brazil; 1940 at age 71 was invited by Venezuelan government to develop a range management program there
dropped out of school after grammar school to financially help her family
began her career at USDA as an illustrator but was a Senior Botanist in charge of Systematic Agrostology Dept by the time of her retirement in 1939
continued to work on her collections 5 or 6 days weekly at the Smithsonian & National Herbarium after her retirement & continued until shortly before her death
was an active suffragist & participated in demonstrations organized by members of the National Women's Party
at a demonstration in 1918 protesting President Wilsons failure to fulfill his campaign promise to support women's suffrage was 1 of the women who were arrested & conducted a hunger strike while in custody, she was force fed until her release
her supervisor at USDA, Hitchcock, was ordered to fire her on the grounds of behavior unbecoming a government employee but he refused saying he could not conduct his research without her vital assistance
father was an Irish railway worker who was lynched when she was 2
mother took all 5 children & moved to chicago & changed their last name from Meara to Merrill
family was again displaced 3 months later as a result of the Great chicago Fire
grew up in poverty
Married William Ingraham Chase in 1888 but he died of TB 1 year later & left her in debt
when looking for funding for their research expeditions, Hitchcock was often given funding while Chase was denied it because she was female & deemed unfit for fieldwork
she self-funded many of her expeditions & sometimes got funding from women's groups she was a member of
local female missionaries & female scientists often helped her by providing lodgings & assistance with obtaining supplies & working out logistics
worked as an illustrator at Chicago's Field Museum under C. F. Millsbaugh for 2 years until he recommended her for a job at USDA
her home, Casa Contenta, was always open to visiting female botanists
collected & catalogued over 19,000 species of grasses & 500 new species which she discovered in Brazil