Monday Museum Mystery: Who is this Artist and Botanist?

Monday Museum Mysteries are back! In this biweekly feature, we unlock the vault and share hidden treasures from our collection. Try your hardest to answer the questions asked, and when you think you know, check out the bottom of the post for the correct answer! This semester, Monday Museum Mysteries is teaming up with the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, so each post will focus in some way on women and their impact on the world!

Today on Monday Museum Mysteries, we are looking at art that connects to science. Our artist was extremely interested in botany. Do you know what botany is? Botany is the study of plants, and this female artist made hundreds of different plant drawings.

The Museum has many of her botanical drawings. She first sketched her work with pencil, and then she created the accurate, bright colors of her drawings with pastels. Who do you think our mystery botanist is?

In the detail of this flower, you can see the pencil marks she
made before she began to add color to her drawings.

Our mystery artist did not only draw flowers, but she also created sketches of fungi.

When she came across a new plant, she would record whether or not it had any purpose. Some plants can be eaten, used for medicine, or other helpful things. Our artist recorded this drawing of a money plant and made note of its special use on the back of the drawing. What do you think this plant is good for?

Perhaps the most interesting thing about our mystery artist is that she traveled to South Korea and recorded many plants that she found in the Asian country. Many of the plants that she drew can also be found in America. On each of her drawings, she provided the common names, the scientific names, the area where she found the plant, and the date when she recorded it. What specific information can you learn about the plants below based off of her notes? These details are part of what make her drawings so interesting and applicable to science!

You can see how she copied and pasted smaller
sketches and details onto the main drawing.

After her travels to Korea, our mystery artist published a book full of the drawings that she completed. Flowers and Folk-lore From Far Korea is the title of this famous book.

Who is this artist? After you have thought long and hard about who she is, then scroll down to the end of the post to reveal the answer!

This artist is Florence Hedleston Crane. She was born in Oxford, Mississippi in 1888 and traveled to Korea as a missionary. The Korean government actually requested that she write her book! The money plant that Florence drew had edible roots, and on the back of its drawing she wrote "roots eaten in salads."

Off of the notes on the one drawing, we learn that she was in Soonchun (or Suncheon), South Korea at Crescent Beach. She recorded these plants in August of 1919. The small purple plant is Pharbitis Nil Choisy, or more commonly known as a morning glory. There is another scientific name for the morning glory. The scientific names of water sage and blue bells are also included on the notes.

Did you guess the answer correctly? Be sure to check out our next Monday Museum Mystery for more exclusive looks into the University Museum's behind-the-scenes collection!