George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives

Kate Furbish Collection,
1870-2001, n.d.

6.0 linear feet; 16 folio volumes

Catalog Number: M70

Series List:

• Botanical Artwork
  2 linear feet; 16 folio volumes
• Personal Material, 1873-1909, n.d. 0.5 linear feet.
• Research Material, 1883-1898, n.d. 3 linear feet.
• Artifacts 4 items
• Images, 1896-2001, n.d. 0.25 linear feet
• Articles, Clippings and Ephemera, 1979, n.d.
  0.25 linear feet.

Agency History / Biographical Note:
Kate Furbish (1834-1931) was born Catherine in Exeter, New Hampshire, on May 19, 1834, to Benjamin and Mary Lane Furbish. When she was barely a year of age, the family relocated to Brunswick, Maine, where she developed a passionate interest for wildflowers. Like many young women of her time, Kate pursued a genteel education, which included painting and the study of French literature; she even spent a year in Paris perfecting her painting. In 1860, however, a serious interest for science gripped Furbish after she attended a series of botany lectures in Boston by George L. Goodale, later a professor of botany at Harvard.

The bulk of Furbish's life's work--collecting, classifying, and drawing the flora of Maine--was done between 1870 and 1908. By 1880 she had earned respect among well-known naturalists, including the eminent American botanist Asa Gray. In 1894, Furbish also helped to found the Josselyn Botanical Society of Maine and she served as president in 1911. In 1908, Furbish bequeathed her collection of paintings and drawings to Bowdoin College. She died on December 6, 1931.

Kate Furbish's name gained fame in 1976 when the wild snapdragon, named the Furbish lousewort, was rediscovered after having been believed to be extinct. This discovery helped stall and eventually stop the building of the Dickey-Lincoln dam and reservoir on the St. John's River, which would have flooded 88,000 acres of northern Maine forests.

Scope and Content:
Collection primarily comprises sixteen bound volumes of Furbish's sketches and watercolors of flora, entitled "Flora of Maine." Other items in the collection are correspondence, research materials such as flora identification notes and catalogues of Maine plants, herbaria, journals, manuscripts, artifacts, artifacts, printed ephemera and images of Furbish and her botanical artwork. There are digital images, negatives, photographic transparencies, photographs, slides, and microfilm.

General note: Personal material: Journals (1873 May 19 - 1877 Oct 2) available on microfilm; George J. Mitchell Dept. of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Me.; 1 microfilm reel.

Cite as: Kate Furbish Collection, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library.
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