Description
The papers of Elizabeth May McClintock, botanist and Curator of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences. Included are
publications, notes, correspondence, photographs, and miscellaneous files.
Background
Academy botanist Dr. Elizabeth McClintock was born in Los Angeles on July 7 of
1912. She earned a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree at the University of
California in Los Angeles in 1937 and 1939 respectively. She served UCLA as
its Herbarium Botanist from 1941 to 1947. She then moved to San Francisco
and became Associate Curator of Botany in 1948.
A doctorate followed in 1956 from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, with a
specialization in the taxonomy and distribution of flowering plants, especially
California natives.
Dr. McClintock continued at the California Academy of Sciences, becoming
Curator of Botany in 1969. She served simultaneously as a Resident Associate
at the Herbarium of the University of California at Berkeley, and was a
collaborator on the Jepson Manual Project.
She was a member of the American Institute of Biological Science, the Botany
Society of America, and the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. She also
served as editor of the Journal of the California Horticultural Society (1945-1975)
and as associate editor of Pacific Horticulture (1976-2000).
On October 19, 2004, she died peacefully at Hanna House in Santa Rosa, at the
age of 92. Her legacy endures in her publications, among them two editions of
the Flora of San Bruno Mountains(1968); An Annotated Checklist of Woody
Ornamental Plants of California, Oregon and Washington (1979);
Poisonous Plants of California (1986); California Flora (1985); and Trees of
Golden Gate Park (2001).
Extent
22 records center cartons, 2 half size records center cartons, 3 archives boxes, 1 half-size archives box (24.7 cubic feet)