The Alumni Association honors Edith Scamman for her contribution to science. A graduate of Wellesley with a master's from Radcliffe, Ms. Scamman contributed immensely to the field of botany early in this century, mostly through her field work and discovery of previously unknown plant species. She visited numerous remote corners of the world throughout her life, among them the tundras of Alaska, the forests of Costa Rica, early Viking farm steads in Iceland and Greenland, and isolated stations in the Bering Straits. Among her many discoveries were a poppy, a crucifier, and a spring beauty. All of her discoveries bear her name in some form; for example, a vascular plant she discovered is named Cerastium scammaniae Polunin. She became an internationally sought expert on ferns and served as secretary of the American Fern Society. The Harvard Gray Herbarium of Harvard University sponsored many of her nine trips to Alaska to update and expand the 1880s work of John Muir. Her last Alaskan trip, conducted using mules, was done at age of 72. As a result of her work in Alaska and Costa Rica, she increased Harvard's collection with more than 5,000 Alaskan vascular plants and 1,400 Costa Rican plants (including 500 species of ferns). She was a prolific writer about her field work, publishing both books and papers, and after her death the American Fern Journal published a profile of her and a bibliography of her writings. Throughout her many travels, she maintained two homes, one in Cambridge within walking distance of Harvard and her family farm in Saco, which she left to Thornton Academy. She died in November 1967 at the age of 84, and her memorial service was conducted at Appleton Chapel in Harvard Yard.

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