Feb 26 2021
Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton’s career as a bryologist and her central role in founding The New York Botanical Garden are well known. Less known, however, are her connections to the Caribbean, and to Cuba specifically. In fact, partly because of the time she spent there as a child, Britton played important leadership roles in the many expeditions that the NYBG mounted to Cuba throughout the 1910s and 1920s. She would go on to receive a number of honors due to this leadership.
By taking a closer look at Elizabeth Knight Britton’s early career and her work on the Caribbean, we can learn more about the NYBG’s history in the Caribbean as well as about the challenges faced by women scientists at the turn of the century.
