By Amanda M. Chandler, Greer Lowenstein

Mar 10 2022

Josephine Elizabeth Tilden (1869-1957) was one of few women allowed a faculty position at a co-ed university preceding the turn of the century (Creese and Creese 1998, Horsfield 2016). A determined and exuberant phycologist, Tilden produced more than 50 botanical resources and was internationally renowned for her expertise on algae of the Pacific Ocean. Despite never pursuing a doctorate degree, she was the first woman scientist hired by the University of Minnesota, where she eventually earned a professor position and convinced the university to allow the establishment of the Minnesota Seaside Station in British Columbia (Creese and Creese, Horsfield 2016). Funding for and fruition of this liberating student experience was carried out by Tilden and individuals who were swayed by her enthusiasm, as the agreement was that the university would allocate only instructors and equipment. During the seven years of its operation, the station hosted somewhere around 200 students, roughly half of which were women, in conducting field and laboratory work. Throughout her career, she incorporated this fieldwork-classroom hybrid experience into her teachings. Long-term lack of expected support from the university lead to its dissolution once Tilden could no longer provide funding, something she would not come to forgive despite remaining there until retirement (Horsfield 2016). She continued to lead students on extensive research trips that also included the collection of lichen specimens, even once taking a group of graduate students on a year-long collecting trip across Europe, down through Australia and New Zealand, and to parts of Oceania (Creese and Creese 1998, Horsfield 2016). Her last monograph, The Algae and Their Life Relations: Fundamentals of Phycology, was the first American attempt at compiling a summary of known traits for both marine and freshwater algae into a single volume. Her efforts toward phycological study were comprehensive beyond her personal endeavors, as she also contributed to bibliographical literature, developed standardized methods of representing algae in drawings, and even acted as an American delegate at various Pan-Pacific Congresses for science and food conservation.