Chrono-Biographical Sketch: E. Lucy Braun

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Braun, E(mma) Lucy (United States 1889-1971)
ecology, floristics

Photo courtesy of the Botanical Society of America.

E. Lucy Braun was an early- and mid-twentieth century leader and pioneer in the field of plant ecology. A lifelong Cincinnati resident, Braun used a thorough training in geology and botany to ground a program of research in vascular plant floristics focusing on the deciduous forests of her region. Her most influential work, from 1950, was entitled Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America, and documented in characteristic detail both the current condition of the biome and the history of its development after the end of the Ice Age. Into such studies she incorporated interests in, among other things, the origin of forest-based prairie vegetation elements; refugium theory; conservation of natural habitats; longitudinal study approaches; and botanical taxonomy. Braun retired early from teaching at the University of Cincinnati, but only to more fully devote herself to her research and to various public service ventures.

Life Chronology

--born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 19 April 1889.
--1910: A.B., University of Cincinnati
--1910-1913: assistant in geology, University of Cincinnati
--1912: A.M. in geology, University of Cincinnati
--1914: Ph.D. in botany, University of Cincinnati
--1914-1917: assistant in botany, University of Cincinnati
--1917: founds the Wildflower Preservation Society of North America
--1917-1923: instructor in botany, University of Cincinnati
--1923-1927: assistant professor of botany, University of Cincinnati
--1926: contributes to Naturalist's Guide to the Americas , edited by Victor E. Shelford
--1927-1946: associate professor of botany, University of Cincinnati
--1928-1933: edits Wild Flower for the Wild Flower Preservation Society
--1933-1934: president, Ohio Academy of Science (first woman president)
--1943: publishes her An Annotated Catalog of Spermatophytes of Kentucky
--1946-1948: professor of plant ecology, University of Cincinnati
--1950: publishes her Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America
--1950: president, Ecological Society of America (first woman president)
--1952: awarded the Mary Soper Pope medal in botany
--1955: publishes "The Phytogeography of Unglaciated Eastern United States and Its Interpretation" in Botanical Review
--1956: awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Botanical Society of America
--1961: publishes her The Woody Plants of Ohio
--1964: honorary D.Sc., University of Cincinnati
--1967: publishes her The Monocotyledoneae; Cat-tails to Orchids
--1971: first woman named to the Ohio Conservation Hall of Fame
--dies at Cincinnati, Ohio, on 5 March 1971.

For Additional Information, See:

--E. Lucy Braun (1889-1971): Ohio's Foremost Woman Botanist (1994).
--Notable American Women (1980): 102-103.
--Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists (1997).
--Ohio Journal of Science, Vol. 71(4) (1971): 247-248.
--Michigan Botanist, Vol. 12(2) (1973): 83-106.

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