Organisation(s)
MIN (main), B, BISH, BM, BR, CM, E, F, FH, FPDB, GH, IA, K (currently BM), KIEL, L, LD, LE, MANCH, MO, MSC, MTMG, NEB, NFLD, NY, PH, QK, S, UPS, US, WELT, WRSL
Countries
Australasia: Australia, New ZealandNorth American region: Canada, United StatesPacific region: Cook Islands, French Polynesia
Associate(s)
Chase, Ethel Winifred Bennett (1877-1949) (co-collector)
Kellerman, William Ashbrook (1850-1908) (specimens from)
Leland, Bernice (fl. 1906-1941) (co-collector)
MacMillan, Conway (1867-1929) (student)
Shaw, B.T. (fl. 1900) (co-collector)
Biography
American algologist from Davenport, Iowa who published on the local flora as an undergraduate before receiving her degree from the University of Minnesota (1895). At a time when it was unusual for women to obtain a degree in America, Tilden joined the Botanical Department as the first woman faculty member of the University of Minnesota. In 1934 she undertook a botanical collecting expedition to the South Pacific with a group of 10 students. When money began to run out she asked the University for an advance of several thousand dollars to complete the remainder of the expediton, predicting that sales of exsiccatae would more than cover the advance. The University responded on her return by asking her to retire. Tilden left the university and moved to Lake Wales, Florida where she founded the Golden Bough Community for retired academics, but later died desperately poor. Her achievements include writing the first American textbook on phycology, founding a marine station in British Columbia with her former professor, C. MacMillan, and writing an account of the American species of blue-green algae.
References
Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): 644; Chaudhri, M.N., Vegter, H.I. & de Bary, H.A., Index Herb. Coll. I-L (1972): 429; Lanjouw, J. & Stafleu, F.A., Index Herb. Coll. A-D (1954): 123; Vegter, H.I., Index Herb. Coll. T-Z (1988): 1023;
