Melissa L. Sevigny

This is a great read. You learn not only about the two botanists and challenges of their expedition through the Grand Canyon. The book puts these women in the contest of their times both as scientists and as white women traveling in the lands where so many indigenous people had so recently been displaced.
I learned a lot and the book made me hungry for more information on the work scientists do to better understand the environment we live in and the people that have shaped the land for millennia.… (altro)

Very entertaining and informative recount of the botanical expedition by river raft in 1930s, a time when "women don't do such things". A woman botanist and a grad student have a chance to join an expedition down the Grand Canyon during a time when there are efforts afoot to dam the river, and it is a time when scientists are expanding ideas of evolution and ecosystems. They jump at the chance.
Sevigny uses descriptions that come alive. Describing Ocotillo, "green leaves erupted", "a spray of red flowers exploded", "lose precious water every time the pores open...sucking in carbon dioxide to transform into sugars" (p 191). "Every algae-slicked pool hummed with an uncanny chorus...chorus which rose, claiming sand, water, and stone. Nothing here belonged to humans, not now." (p.112). "Inside the rock, pressed thin as paper, tiny fish were forever frozen midswim" (p.135)
The botanists left journals and diaries which gave a personal perspective to their experience, and the author wrote vividly, filling in descriptions of what they were seeing and the interactions among the crew members. As women, it was 'naturally' assumed that they would do all the cooking. As women, they were often frustrated by not being allowed to run the wilder rapids, as they were assigned to walk the river edge (when there was one!).
Sevigny gives us a perspective which these botanists did not have in her inclusion of native people's use of the area; e.g. the Hualapai planted & tended a particularly large sweet species of Agave (p.144); when they were barred from their traditional wintering grounds they began planting Cottonwoods in order to have firewood (p.194). People called the Grand Canyon "pristine...ignoring centuries of stewardship by Native Americans" (p.172-3). She also comments on use of the canyon and river by other people of color; the park was segregated (p.157) and there is no record of Black people living in Boulder City despite it having been constructed to house the dam workers (some of whom were Black) (p.210).
Yes, there is some description of the plants (and their latin names), but Sevigny researched widely and brings in related items from previous trips down the river (by whites), American politics, geology, management of the National Park, and an introduction to the development of botany as a science. I never knew that Linnaeus classified plants by counting their stamens & pistils (now science is using evolutionary relationships based on DNA to reclassify them). It was up to Asa Gray, a confidant of Darwin in the 1850s, to develop a taxonomy based on the whole plant structure, even tho that required more specialized training.
The book contains a lengthy list of sources, including oral interviews and archived films.… (altro)

Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter were botanists, which was allowable for women in the 1930s, though they were generally discouraged from more than leisurely walks in the fields. Both where well-educated: Clover was a professor at the University of Michigan with a specialization in cacti, while Jotter was a graduate student whom Clover mentored. In 1938, these two women went on a trip down the formidable Colorado River, to collect plants and learn about the plants in and around the Grand Canyon.

Sevigny's account of the trip is fascinating, as much about the river itself as about the Nevills Expedition - the one Clover and Jotter were on with Norm Nevills and a few others with disparate goals for the trip. Including stories of other expeditions and giving enough history and science for lay readers to appreciate the importance of the trip, Sevigny grounds the story in its time and place, letting us see the challenges of women in their field - many thought they shouldn't be on such a dangerous river at all, and when newspapers covered it, they sensationalized and often glossed over or didn't mention that the women were scientists. National parks' complicated history and ignoring of Indigenous peoples' knowledge (indeed, often moving tribes off the land to make the park) add to the details of the history. Sevigny also does a great job of balancing the science as known then versus now, detailing the changes in understanding of ecology through the changes in the river, as dams were added after the 1938 expedition. A compelling story about people that deserve to be remembered for their scientific contributions.… (altro)