Emma Cole

This article is about the American botanist and teacher. For the murder case, seeMurder of Emma Grace Cole.

Emma Jane Cole
Born	(1845-01-23)January 23, 1845 Ohio,U.S.
Died	April 25, 1910(1910-04-25)(aged 65) San Antonio, Texas,U.S.
Occupation(s)	Botanist, teacher, curator
Notable work	Grand Rapids Flora: A Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultivation in the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan

Emma Jane Cole(January 23, 1845 – April 25, 1910) was an American teacher, botanist, and curator, and the author ofGrand Rapids Flora: A Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultivation in the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan.She was inducted into theMichigan Women's Hall of Famein 2007.

Early life

Emma Jane Cole was born inOhioon January 23, 1845.During her childhood, her family moved to Vergennes Township, nearGrand Rapids, Michigan,where she attended Lowell Union School and Grand Rapids High School.

Her parents were Andrew Cole and Jerusha Cole. She had three siblings, brothers John and Hugh, and sister Mary Cole Altman.

In 1876, Cole enrolled atCornell Universityin New York, which had recently begun admitting women. She attended Cornell in 1876–1877 and 1879–1880 and completed coursework in botany, but is not recorded as having received a degree.

Career

Emma Cole worked as a teacher for much of her life.She was one of the first female members of the Kent Scientific Institute (predecessor of theGrand Rapids Public Museum), and served as the vice president and botanical curator.

Cole is well known for her 1901 book,Grand Rapids Flora: A Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Growing Without Cultivation in the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan.Realizing the need for a local reference in her teaching, Cole set out to document all the vascular plants present in Grand Rapids and its surrounding townships.To create this substantial botanical reference, she collected specimens from 1892 to 1900, creating a comprehensive survey of nearly 1300taxafound in the greater Grand Rapids area.

As a working professional botanist, Cole corresponded with many notable botanists and scientists of her time, includingBenjamin Lincoln Robinson,Merritt Lyndon Fernald,andCharles Sprague Sargent(Arnold Arboretum).

Death and legacy

Emma Cole died ofkidney failureon April 25, 1910, inSan Antonio, Texas,following a trip toMexico.She is buried in Bailey Cemetery inLowell, Michigan.

Cole's will funded three bequests:

• The department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at theUniversity of Michiganawards the Emma J. Cole Fellowship in Botany to a graduate student.
• The Board of Education of Grand Rapids was granted a trust to buy botany equipment for Central High School.
• The Emma J. Cole Flower Fund funded biannual "flower services" at eight Grand Rapids churches. The Emma J. Cole collection (held at theGrand Rapids Public Library) documents these "flower services."

Plant specimens collected by Cole are still used for research and study atherbariumsincluding theUniversity of Michigan Herbarium,theMichigan State Universityherbarium, theAlbion Collegeherbariumand the herbarium of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

A species of hawthorn that Cole discovered,Crataeguscoleae,was named for her.Charles Sprague Sargentwrote of the honor:

It is a pleasure to associate with this handsome shrub the name of its discoverer, Miss Emma J. Cole of Grand Rapids, Michigan, the author ofThe Grand Rapids Flora,and a careful and industrious student of the plants of central Michigan, where she has made a number of other important discoveries.

Cole was inducted into theMichigan Women's Hall of Famein 2007.

A project atCalvin Universityfrom 2014 to 2018 attempted to revisit and assess all the locations described inGrand Rapids Flora.