Comstocks of Cornell

Anna Botsford Comstock (1854–1930) was an American artist, educator, conservationist, and a leader of the nature study movement. In 1895, she was appointed to the New York State Committee for the Promotion of Agriculture. In this position, she planned and implemented an experimental course of nature study for the public schools. Beginning in 1897, she taught nature study at Cornell University until her retirement as Professor in 1922. Comstock edited the Nature-Study Review from 1917 to 1923 and both wrote and illustrated several books, including Ways of the Six-Footed (1903), How to Keep Bees (1905), The Handbook of Nature Study (1911), The Pet Book (1914), and Trees at Leisure (1916). In 1923, the League of Women Voters chose Anna Botsford Comstock as one of the twelve greatest living American women to have "contributed most in their respective fields for the betterment of the world." In 1988, she was inducted into the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Hall of Fame.Karen Penders St. Clair is an independent researcher and holds a position in the School of Integrated Plant Science and Horticulture at Cornell University.

Combining biography and autobiography, Mrs. Comstock interweaves in this book the story of her personal and professional life with that of her distinguished scientist husband, John Henry Comstock. She tells of the early experiences with a vividness and clarity that will give the reader the feeling of sharing in them. She tells of the Comstock's mutual interests and ambitions while both were students at Cornell University: the hardships they encountered as struggling young scientists; Dr. Comstock's success as an entomologist, author, and lecturer; and Mrs. Comstock's contributions as an artist and pioneer in the development of nature study.(United States Quarterly Book Review) Karen Penders St. Clair's masterful recovery of Anna Botsford Comstock's personal voice corrects a historical injustice. It also bestows a gift to us all, as we hear and learn from a woman of great warmth and wisdom in her full humanity.- Scott J. Peters, Cornell University Anna Botsford Comstock's voice has been returned to her in this carefully edited and amended edition of her memoir of her husband John Comstock, her observations of life around her, and of Cornell University during its early days. Anna Comstock was Cornell student, scientific illustrator, wife, mother of Nature Studies, Cornell faculty woman, and one of the three most admired female citizens of the world she inhabited. Her words return us to a different world and are worth attending.- Carol Kammen, Thompkins Country Historian Certainly, anyone who studies the history of science will find nuggets of information about the rise of American science departments and AAAS history. Those interested in nature-study and early science education will also find this book worthwhile. And since Anna does not just write about academics, [The Comstocks of Cornell] provides context to what a rural life was like at the turn of the 20th century.(Plant Science Bulletin)