Ada Hayden
{{short description|American botanist, educator, curator and preservationist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ada Hayden
| image = Ada Hayden.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| honorific_suffix =
| birth_date = 14 August 1884
| birth_place =
| death_date = 12 August 1950
| death_place =
| alma_mater = Iowa State University
Washington University in St. Louis
| occupation = Botanist
| parents =
}}
Ada Hayden (14 August 1884 – 12 August 1950) was an American botanist, educator, and preservationist. She was the curator of the Iowa State University Herbarium, which was renamed the Ada Hayden Herbarium (ISC) in her honour in 1988.{{cite web|title=The Ada Hayden Herbarium|url=https://www.herbarium.iastate.edu/|url-status=live|website=www.public.iastate.edu|publisher=Iowa State University|accessdate=27 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518055828/http://www.herbarium.iastate.edu:80/ |archive-date=2013-05-18 }} During her career, she added more than 40,000 specimens to the herbarium.{{cite book| last=Conard|first= Rebecca| editor-last1=Hudson|editor-first1=David|editor-last2=Bergman|editor-first2=Marvin|editor-last3=Horton|editor-first3=Loren|title=The biographical dictionary of Iowa|date=2009|publisher=Published for the State Historical Society of Iowa by the University of Iowa Press|location=Iowa City|url=http://uipress.lib.uiowa.edu/bdi/DetailsPage.aspx?id=161|accessdate=30 March 2015}} Her studies and conservation work were particularly important in ensuring the preservation of the tallgrass prairie.
The Hayden Prairie State Preserve, the first area dedicated as a preserve under Iowa's State Preserves Act of 1965, is named in her honor.{{cite book |title=The Guide to Iowa's State Preserves |last=Herzberg |first=Ruth, and Pearson, John A. |year=2001 |publisher=University of Iowa Press|location=Iowa City IA |isbn=978-0-87745-774-9 |page=71}} Also named in her honor is the Ada Hayden Heritage Park in Ames, Iowa.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cityofames.org/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/2/471|title=City Facilities {{!}} City of Ames, IA|website=www.cityofames.org|access-date=2019-03-29}}
Childhood and education
Ada Hayden was born August 14, 1884 near Ames, Iowa to Maitland David Hayden and Christine Hayden. While still in high school, Louis Hermann Pammel became her mentor. She earned a bachelor's degree in botany from Iowa State College in 1908, a master's degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1910, and a Ph.D. from Iowa State in 1918. She was the first woman and fourth person to receive a doctorate from Iowa State College.{{cite book|last1=Shirley|first1=Shirley|title=Restoring the tallgrass prairie an illustrated manual for Iowa and the upper Midwest|date=1994|publisher=University of Iowa Press|location=Iowa City, IA|isbn=9781587292200|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K5S8HElyyG8C&pg=PA3}}
Career
Hayden taught botany as an instructor at Iowa State beginning in 1911, and continued in this role until she earned her doctoral degree. She became an assistant professor of botany in 1920, and a research assistant professor at the Agricultural Experimental Station (Lakes Region) and curator of the herbarium in 1934.{{Cite web |title=Ada Hayden |url=https://ameshistory.org/content/ada-hayden |access-date=2025-03-01 |website=ameshistory.org}} She worked closely with Louis Pammel and Charlotte King, contributing to The Weed Flora of Iowa{{Cite book|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001494143|title=The weed flora of Iowa|first1=L. H.|last1=Pammel|first2=R. R.|last2=Rothacker|first3=D.|last3=Porter|first4=F. D.|last4=Butcher|first5=Ada|last5=Hayden|first6=Jules Cool|last6=Cunningham|first7=J. C.|last7=Gilman|first8=John N.|last8=Martin|first9=Charlotte M|last9=King|series=Bulletin (Iowa Geological Survey); 4|date=March 9, 1926|publisher=Published by the Iowa Geological survey, by the State of Iowa|via=Hathi Trust}} (1926) and Honey Plants of Iowa (1930). In both these works and her own, Hayden displayed a significant proficiency with photography when portraying the subjects of her research.
She concentrated on prairie plants of the lakes region, and is credited with "possibly the best published native flora survey… of any part of Iowa". She was an early advocate of prairie preservation through writing and speaking. In 1944, she and J. M. Aikman released a report identifying possible areas of preservable prairie in Iowa and Hayden became director of the "Prairie Project". She systematically developed a database of information relevant for decisions about land acquisition, working with the State Conservation Commission (SCC) to purchase areas of relict prairie. Despite her relentless work and dedication to studying flora and prairies, she was denied many permanent teaching and research jobs at Iowa State. {{Cite web |title=Ada Hayden |url=https://www.herbarium.iastate.edu/ada-hayden |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=Ada Hayden Herbarium |language=en}}
She was an active member of the Ecological Society of America for many years.{{cite web|title=Ada Hayden, Preserving Iowa's Prairies|url=http://esa.org/history/ada-hayden-preserving-iowas-prairies/|website=esa.org/history|publisher=Ecological Society of America|accessdate=25 March 2016}}
Ada Hayden died of cancer in 1950, at age 65.She was succeeded as herbarium curator by Richard Walter Pohl. {{cite journal|author=Isely, Duane|authorlink=Duane Isely|title=Ada Hayden: a tribute|journal=Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science|volume=96|number=1|year=1989|pages=1–5|url=https://scholarworks.uni.edu/jias/vol96/iss1/3/}} After her death, in 1988 a herbarium on Iowa State's campus was dedicated in her name. In 2002-2004, "Ada Hayden Heritage Park", near where Ada grew up, was named after her.{{Cite web |last=Hovick |first=Emma |title=Ada Hayden: The First Woman at Iowa State to receive a Ph.D. |url=https://iowastatedaily.com/58936/news/ada-hayden-the-first-woman-at-iowa-state-to-receive-a-ph-d/#:~:text=In%202002,%20it%20was%20proposed,work%20here,%E2%80%9D%20Lewis%20said. |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=Iowa State Daily}}
References
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External links
- {{commons category-inline}}
- [https://n2t.net/ark:/87292/w9sb7j Ada Hayden Papers] at [http://www.lib.iastate.edu/ Iowa State University Library].
- [https://n2t.net/ark:/87292/w95t3g496 "Botanist, Basketball Player, and Budding Conservationist: Ada Hayden's Student Years at Iowa State"]
- [https://n2t.net/ark:/87292/w9s46h57x Ada Hayden Digital Collection] at [http://www.lib.iastate.edu/ Iowa State University Library]
{{Iowa Women's Hall of Fame}}
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Category:American women ecologists
Category:American women botanists
Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni
Category:Deaths from cancer in Iowa
Category:20th-century American botanists
Category:20th-century American women scientists