Finding Aid to the Ethel Bailey Higgins Papers, ca. 1933-1963 LA.1994.0414

Finding aid prepared by Anne Bullard

San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library

1994-04-14

1788 El Prado, Balboa Park

San Diego, CA 92101

library@sdnhm.org

URL: http://sdnhm.org/science/research-library

Language of Material: English

Contributing Institution: San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library

Title: Ethel Bailey Higgins Papers

Identifier/Call Number: LA.1994.0414

Physical Description: 2.25 Linear Feet

Date (inclusive): ca. 1933-1963

Abstract: The Ethel Bailey Higgins Papers consists of botanical research material including plant lists, correspondence, and manuscript material assembled by Higgins during her tenure as curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Language of Material: English

Scope and Contents

The Ethel Bailey Higgins Papers, ca. 1933-1963, consist of three boxes of archival materials relating to Higgins' career at the San Diego Natural History Museum as Curator of Botany. Series I consists of manuscript material (draft and final) regarding plant collectors of San Diego; Series II contains bundles of plant lists; Series 3 consist of correspondence.

Biographical/Historical

Ethel Bailey Higgins (1866–1963) was the curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1943 to 1957 and associate curator from 1957 to 1963. Higgins is the author of Our Native Cacti (1931), Annotated Distributional List of the Ferns and Flowering Plants of San Diego County, California (1949), and other popular works on plants of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Born Ethel Phoebe Bailey in Vassalboro, Maine on May 10, 1866, she moved to Los Angeles, California with her parents in 1900, where she worked as a photographer, specializing in botanical subjects. She married John C. Higgins in 1914, and the couple moved to San Diego in 1915; that year, she exhibited photographs during the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. She joined the San Diego Natural History Museum staff in 1933 and became Curator of Botany in 1943 succeeding Frank Gander. In 1957, she was succeeded as curator by Reid Moran and continued her work with the Museum as associate curator into her mid-90s. Higgins died on March 9, 1963 in San Diego, California.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open to researchers by appointment. Contact the Research Library Director, San Diego Natural History Museum.

Conditions Governing Use

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Ethel Bailey Higgins Papers (LA 1994.0414). Research Library, San Diego Natural History Museum.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Manuscripts for publication

Natural history -- California -- San Diego County

Women botanists -- San Diego County (Calif.) -- Archival resources

Eastwood, Alice, 1859-1953

Orcutt, Charles Russell, 1864-1929

Box 81

Series I. Manuscript material 1950-1960

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear Feet

Scope and Contents

Plant Collectors of Baja to 1958, original manuscript (draft and final). Includes correspondence and notes created in preparation of book.

Box 207

Series II. Plant lists

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear Feet

Scope and Contents

15+ bundles. Approximately 40 inches of 3 x 5 in cards of plant lists, assembled by Higgins. Also includes rolls of typescript lists and a 1947 issue of McLean's Medical Almanac.

Box 303

Series III. Correspondence ca. 1914-1956

Physical Description: 0.25 Linear Feet

Scope and Contents

4 folders. Contains correspondence, 1914-1956. Includes letters to Higgins from Alice Eastwood, 1945-1947 and correspondence regarding the Orcutt, San Diego post office and books found by Charles Russell Orcutt at Dominican monasteries in Baja California.