Since I mentioned Olga....

Photo courtesy UMD website http://www.d.umn.edu/biology/herbarium/

Yesterday I sent admiration for Frances and mentioned Olga.   Like Frances, I met Olga through a book, hers:  The Flora of Northeastern Minnesota.  This was the quintessential local key to identifying plants  while I worked on the Superior National Forest.

One of the first things I did as I Biologist on the Superior National Forest in the late 1970's - early 1980's was to verify past locations of rare plants on the Aurora and Kawishiwi Districts.  I hired another young botanist, Kate and together we got lost in the woods in search of Olga's collections. Many a time, it seemed we were in the exact spot notated on the herbarium specimens.  We would have an Olga seance of sorts, chanting her name and asking for her assistance.  (Almost like my mother would pray "St Francis Dear St Francis come around, somethings lost and cannot be found.")    A fair number of times it worked.

The  University of Minnesota, Duluth website pays tribute to another heroine of mine:


"The herbarium at the University of Minnesota Duluth was founded by Dr. Olga Lakela (1890-1980), a native of Finland who emigrated to northeastern Minnesota as a child. She earned a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Minnesota and was the first Biology Department Head on the Duluth campus. Approximately half of our specimens were collected by Dr. Lakela, and her extensive work in St. Louis and Lake counties, Minnesota is summarized in her book, A Flora of Northeastern Minnesota (1965, University of Minnesota Press). Olga Lakela founded this herbarium in 1935, and the University named it after her in 1960. A bequest from Dr. Lakela supports the maintenance and growth of the collection, as well as botanical research at UMD."

So here is to another great woman of the woods.  Thanks Olga.

Heroine on the Hill

We took a hike up East Avenue to one of my favorite spots in Red Wing:  Oakwood Cemetery.  I have posted photos here before (http://nancyberlin.blogspot.com/2010/10/not-so-spooky.html) and remarked on the beauty of the oaks there.  Today, I discovered the grave of Frances Densmore.

I can remember the very day my interest in botany was planted.  I was walking in the woods with my  Grandmother Agnes, she would poke her cane at plants and tell me their names and how they were used by her German ancestors or local Indian people.   To learn more I read Frances Densmore's book "How Indians Used Wild Plants for Food, Medicine and Crafts."  There weren't many female field biologists in Minnesota even when I was in college, so women like Frances and Olga Lakela were my heros.

The Minnesota Historical Society has the following to say about Frances Densmore: (http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/124frances_densmore.html)

"Frances Densmore was born in 1867 in Red Wing, Minnesota. She studied piano, organ, and harmony at Oberlin Conservatory. Densmore became interested in the music of the Omaha tribe after reading a book about the ethnomusicology of the tribe, and soon pursued the study of Native music herself. In 1905 she visited the Ojibwe bands in Grand Marais and Grand Portage where she started to transcribe the music. Although Densmore began her work in Minnesota, observing and recording the cultures of the Dakota and Ojibwe, she traveled across North America preserving the customs and traditions of many Native American tribes. She was a prolific author, writing over twenty books and 100 articles, and recorded over 2,000 wax cylinders of Native music. Her records preserved a vast amount of Native American music and culture during a period when white settlers were moving into Native lands and encouraging the tribes to adopt Western customs."


Back to Oakwood.  A simple stone marks a great woman.

No Excuses

It is that peony time of year

I am coming up on one year in the new house.  It's time to get back to blogging.  No excuses.  I really did enjoy sharing stories and images, even to a limited audience.  There is alot to share with a new town, becoming a master gardener, house projects, new recipes, a community garden plot.  So here goes, I'll gear up and start again in the coming week.