Without Benefit of Insects: the Story of Edith M. Patch of the University Of
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The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Miscellaneous Publications Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station 12-2014 MP763: Without Benefit of nsecI ts: The tS ory of Edith M. Patch of the University of Maine K. Elizabeth Gibbs Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs Part of the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Gibbs, K.E. 2014. Without benefit of insects: The ts ory of Edith M. Patch of the University of Maine. Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station Miscellaneous Publication 763. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Miscellaneous Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ISSN: 1070-1508 Without Benefit of Insects The Story of Edith M. Patch of the University of Maine K. Elizabeth Gibbs Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station Miscellaneous Publication 763 Without Benefit of Insects The Story of Edith M. Patch of the University of Maine K. Elizabeth Gibbs Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture 5782 Winslow Hall University of Maine Orono, ME 04473 Miscellaneous Publication 763 December 2014 About the author K. Elizabeth Gibbs is professor emerita of entomology at the University of Maine. Her early years were spent in southern Quebec, and she is a graduate of McGill University. She makes her home in Hampden, Maine. This publication is dedicated to the memory of Geddes Wilson Simpson who encouraged my interest in Edith M. Patch. The University of Maine does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender status and gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies: Director, Office of Equal Opportunity, 101 North Stevens Hall, 207.581.1226. Contents Preface iii Chapter 1 1 Early Years in Massachusetts and Minnesota 2 University of Minnesota 8 Chapter 2 14 Entomology in Maine 14 The Maine Agricultural Experiment Station 15 Edith in Orono—Early Research and Publications 17 Graduate Work at Cornell 32 Chapter 3 37 Braeside 37 Aphids 40 Writings for General Readers and Children 47 Chapter 4 59 Post–World War I: The 1920s 59 Research and Writing for Adults 61 Books for Children 72 On Writing for Children 77 Edith in the Community 80 The Presidency of the Entomological Society of America 82 Chapter 5 87 Winding Down Her Research Career 87 Books for Children 89 Without Benefit of Insects 99 Edith and University of Maine Students 103 Retirement 104 Chapter 6 106 Retirement Years 106 Books for Children 107 Correspondence with Max Fitch 108 Travel 111 The Food-Plant Catalogue 112 Women in Entomology 114 Environmental Concerns 118 World War II at Braeside 120 i Spiritual Concerns 121 The Last Years at Braeside 123 Epilogue 127 Appendix: Publications of Edith M. Patch 131 notes 141 illustrations Edith Patch as a young woman 9 Holmes Hall as it looked in 1904 16 Mt. Vernon House women’s dormitory 18 One of the first greenhouses at the University of Maine 20 Edith Patch and other staff in 1914 21 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station poster 24 Illustrations from “The Potato Plant Louse” 27 Illustrations of aphid wings from “Gall Aphids of the Elm” 31 Braeside 38 Insect house at the University of Maine 43 Edith Patch in 1916 46 “Burial of Cock Robin” illustration 48 Corbie Craw illustration 50 Poly, the Easter Butterfly 56 Edith Patch’s office in Holmes Hall in 1926 60 Aroostook Farm in Presque Isle, Maine 62 Photograph from Edith Patch’s travels in England 69 Colored illustration of the life stages of a meadow caterpillar 72 Passenger pigeon illustration from Bird Stories 74 Frontispiece from Holiday Meadow 77 Edith Marion Patch ca. 1930 82 Illustration from Holiday Shore 91 Photograph from a camping exploration of the Southwest 96 Edith Patch in the Southwest in 1936 97 Illustration from Prairie Neighbors 108 DDT trials at Aroostook Farm in 1945 119 Edith Patch and friends 125 ii Preface My first encounter with edith Marion Patch, founder of the Department of Entomology at the University of Maine, was in the early 1970s, when I saw her photograph on the wall of the office of the department. I would later become a faculty member in this department, and Geddes W. Simpson, then department head, encouraged my interest in this early entomologist by occasionally leaving on my desk items related to Patch from his personal collection. In the following years, I continued to add to this miscellaneous collection with donations from various persons at the University of Maine and from the Orono–Old Town community, especially following publicity related to efforts to preserve and reha- bilitate her home, Braeside, and the formation of the Friends of Dr. Edith Marion Patch to support this project. The decision to seriously pursue a study of her life and work came with my retirement from the University of Maine. The process of reviewing material associated with Patch and becoming familiar with her life made me aware of the dif- ficulties she faced in attaining the objectives she established for herself early in life: to have a career as an entomologist, to study under John Henry Comstock at Cornell, and to write factual natural history stories for children. Realizing these objectives, as she did, required extraordi- nary resources of commitment, intelligence, perseverance, an agreeable personality, and an acceptance of some isolation in a profession and a society that did not readily accept professional women scientists. Although brief biographies of Edith Patch have appeared in peri- odicals and collections of short pieces on the lives and contributions of early entomologists, no complete account of her life and work is avail- able.1 The most extensive treatment of her work is that of her role as a science and environmental educator.2 My objective is to document the life and work of this entomologist, all-around naturalist, environmental- ist, and author and to trace her pathway to national and international prominence. The resources and assistance of several institutions and many individuals have helped me in this endeavor. The single most impor- tant source of material was the Patch Papers in the Special Collections Department of the University of Maine’s Fogler Library, and I acknowl- edge with thanks the help of archivists Muriel Sanford and Desirée Butterfield-Nagy and their staffs. Most of the items in this collection appear to have been associated with Edith Patch’s office at the University of Maine rather than her home at Braeside. There are no personal iii journals or diaries and little correspondence with family members or personal friends. Also, there is no correspondence with her publishers although she was known to do her writing for the lay public and children at home. This suggests that this material, if it existed, may have been either dispersed or destroyed after her death or when her home was sold. A set of photographs and a collection of pottery offered for sale at an auction at this time have survived. Maxine B. Clapp and Penelope Karosch provided material from the University Archives at the University of Minnesota; Maurice J. Tauber suggested useful references at Cornell University. David L. Denlinger directed me to material in the Rare Books and Manuscript Department of the Ohio State University Libraries. Individuals who knew Patch, Jean Burnham Adams, V. Bates, Jennie P. Boynton, Henry Briggs, Janice Fuller, Marion Hannemann, Frances Murray, Ralph S. Palmer, Samuel Ristich, Brownie Schrumph, Geddes Simpson, Charles Smith, Lucia J. Stuart, Elizabeth Tibbetts, Sarah J. Thompson, Stephen Walczak, Miriam Webster, and Betty Weeks pro- vided interesting reminiscences. Many others provided material from family resources. Members of the Fitch family of New Sharon, Maine, early tenants at Braeside and lifelong friends; the Otto family, neigh- bors of Edith Patch in Orono; and the Geddes Simpson family provided especially valuable collections of memorabilia, correspondence, and reminiscences. Carolyn Benatti assisted with early library research. Mary Jo Sanger and Mary Bird generously shared the results of their research and interviews. Barbara Harrity, editor at the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, Barbara Wicks, Andrei Alyokhin, Harold C. Gibbs, and others patiently provided reviews and corrections for various drafts of this book. iv Chapter 1 on the evening of deceMber 29, 1936, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America was drawing to a close. After enjoying the banquet, members anticipated the an- nual public address, which was the last item on the program. During the break between the banquet and the public address, the members were finishing conversations, discussing and evaluating research papers presented during the scientific sessions, and wondering what they would hear from the speaker at the annual public address, which was due to begin at 8 P.M. For the older members of the society, the name of the speaker, Edith Marion Patch, was familiar as that of a former president of the society and from past meetings as a presenter of papers on aphids, her specialty.