American cryptogamic botanist at Wellesley College. Clara Cummings, Hunnewell Professor of Cryptogamic Botany, was interested in the mosses, liverworts and lichens of North America and abroad. Having studied as an undergraduate at Wellesley from 1876, she showed such a talent in the field of botany that she was kept on as an employee at the college's museum. Working as a curator between 1878 and 1879 she was soon named instructor of botany, a position she retained until 1886. At this time Cummings travelled to Europe where she studied in Zurich before returning to Wellesley to an assistant professorship. In 1905 she was named Hunnewell Professor of Botany and that year took temporary charge over the botany department. The following year, however, her professional title was adjusted to better reflect her speciality. In this role Cummings published many papers, including work on the lichens of Alaska and Labrador (regions of particular interest to her) and a Catalogue of Musci and Hepaticae of North America, North of Mexico (1885). As a taxonomist her views were conservative and Cummings made few radical changes in this field. An associate editor of Plant World she collected mosses and lichens in New England and California in particular, but also visited Jamaica where she gathered plant specimens. Cummings was active in the botanical society and was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as president of of the Society of Plant Morphology and Physiology (1904) and a member of the Torrey Botanical Club.

Sources:
Anon, 1907, "Miss Clara E. Cummings. Hunnewell Professor of Cryptogamic Botany at Wellesley College", The Bryologist, 10(2): 33-34
Anon, 1907, "Scientific Notes and News", Science, 25: 76-80
D. Lipscomb, 1995, "Women in Systematics", Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 26: 323-341.