Mary Gibson Henry facts for kids

Mary Gibson Henry (1884 – 1967) was an amazing American botanist and plant collector. She was from Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, close to Philadelphia. She even became the president of the American Horticultural Society. A beautiful flower, the daylily Hymenocallis henryae, was named after her!

Mary's Early Life and School

Mary Gibson Henry was born in 1884 near Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Susan Worrell Pepper and John Howard Gibson. Her family loved gardening and plants. Her great-grandfather, George Pepper, was even part of the first Pennsylvania Horticulture Society in 1828. Mary finished her schooling in 1902. She graduated from the Agnes Irwin School in Philadelphia.

Mary's Exciting Career as a Botanist

Mary created and cared for many gardens and greenhouses at her home. She grew a big kitchen garden, native rock plants, and fruit trees. She learned a lot from plant catalogs from other countries. She also used seed lists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Traveling for Plants

In 1923, Mary visited the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland. After her visit, she started writing letters to William Wright Smith. He was in charge of the garden until he passed away in 1956. She also wrote to Francis Pennell. He was a plant expert at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

Mary began going on plant collecting trips every two years starting in 1929. She was inspired by William Bartram. He wrote about a plant called Rhododendron speciosum. This made her want to find special plants that she couldn't buy. On her first trip, her husband and four children joined her. Over the next 40 years, she went on more than 200 plant expeditions!

Adventures in Nature

After her five children grew up, Mary continued her collecting trips. She traveled in a car with a driver to faraway places. She explored the American coastal plain, piedmont, and Appalachian Mountains. Later, she visited the Ozarks and the Rocky Mountains. Her trips went all the way from New Mexico to British Columbia.

Mary wrote about her adventures. She said that rare and beautiful plants are often found in hard-to-reach places. She often had to push through or crawl under thorny bushes. This would sometimes tear her clothes and give her scratches. She also walked through many swamps where rattlesnakes lived. She said this made her work even more interesting!

One time, Mary and her daughter had a scary experience. Three armed men stopped them. Mary later said it happened so fast it felt like a movie. She had wondered what it would be like to be stopped like that. She felt it wasn't so bad after all.

Mary's Important Roles

Mary was the president of the Philadelphia Botanical Club. She was also a council member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She became a director of the American Horticultural Society. In 1941, she became a research associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Her garden became a special place for plant research in 1950. It is now called the Henry Foundation for Botanical Research.

Mary's Family Life

Mary married John Norman Henry in 1909. He was a doctor.

Mary's Legacy

Mary Henry passed away in April 1967 while on a collecting trip in North Carolina. Her private botanical garden was 50 acres (about 200,000 square meters). It is now a non-profit organization called the Henry Foundation for Botanical Research. This amazing garden is open for everyone to visit and learn from.

See also

In Spanish: Mary Gibson Henry para niños