Life Story: Jane Colden (1724 – 1766)

Jane Colden was born in the colony of New York in 1724. Her father Cadwallader Colden was a Scottish doctor who was serving as the lieutenant governor of the colony. Her mother Alice Christy Colden was a Scottish daughter of a minister. Alice moved to the colonies after marrying Cadwallader in 1715. Jane was the fifth of ten children, eight of whom survived to adulthood.

Like most colonial housewives, Alice oversaw the early education of her children. Alice grew up in a community where education was highly valued, so she made sure her daughters received an education equal to her sons. This set Jane’s family apart from other wealthy families of the time. Most wealthy young women were only taught what they needed to know to manage a household and uphold the family honor. Another thing that set Jane’s family apart is that all of the children had the opportunity to study science. Cadwallader was a trained doctor who delighted in scientific research, so he shared his research and experiments with his children. Jane took a particular interest in botany, the study of plants.

Jane’s family moved to a large estate in Orange County in 1728. Their home was surrounded by untouched wilds, and Cadwallader and Jane studied the plants in the area together. Cadwallader taught Jane the system of scientific classification and naming created by the famous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. The Linnaean naming system was based in Latin, which was not typically taught to girls in the Colonial Era, so Cadwallader translated the text for Jane. As Jane’s interest grew, Cadwallader bought books and samples for her to study. He also created opportunities for her to meet and correspond with other scientists in the region. 

In 1753 Jane began her most ambitious project yet. She set out to sketch and classify all of the plants that grew on her family’s property. Cadwallader had already published an essay on the plants of the area, but Jane believed there was much more to learn. For the next five years Jane diligently recorded every plant she found in great detail. She cataloged over 400 specimens and created print rubbings or line drawings of 341 of them using a technique she developed for capturing the details of leaves. Jane wrote detailed descriptions of every specimen she examined. She also recorded whether the plants had any use in making food or medicine. Some of this information she learned from local Indigenous people and she credited their contributions in her work. Jane’s work was extensive, but could not venture much beyond her family’s lands. The French and Indian War made it too dangerous to travel. 

In 1754 Jane met the famous botanist Alexander Garden. Alexander was very impressed with Jane’s work and became a supporter of her efforts. Jane so appreciated his support that she tried to name a plant she discovered in his honor. But the name she proposed had already been used for a different plant, so it was rejected. Alexander then tried to convince Carl Linnaeus to name a newly discovered plant after Jane, but he was unsuccessful. 

Jane completed her research in 1758. She collected everything together into a single manuscript she titled “Flora of New York.” Jane never published it, perhaps because such opportunities were not easily available to women in the colonies. But people still understood the value of her work. The manuscript was carefully preserved by a series of collectors and botanists until it was donated to the British Museum in the mid-1800s. Parts of it were finally published in the 1960s.

In addition to her botany work, Jane wrote a smaller manuscript she called “Memorandum of Cheese made in 1756.” In this book, she recorded the methods she used to produce many different cheeses. This book was less groundbreaking from a scientific perspective, but it is a testament to how Jane loved the scientific method and delighted in applying it to all aspects of her life. And Jane’s experimentation seems to have paid off. According to one visitor, her cheeses were the best they had ever tasted.

In 1759 Jane married a Scottish physician named William Farquhar. Like many women of the time, Jane gave up her personal work and interests to focus on caring for her home and family. Unfortunately, she and her first child both died in childbirth in 1766. She was only forty-one years old. 

After Jane’s death, the world of botany continued without her. Jane’s contributions were largely forgotten until 1895, when James Britten published a biography called “Jane Colden and the Flora of New York” in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. Since then, there have been consistent efforts to honor her contributions to the field and her place as one of the first women scientists in North America. In 1957 the Jane Colden Memorial Garden was constructed at Knox’s Headquarters State Historic Site in Orange County, New York. The garden contains only the plants Jane studied and recorded in her manuscript. The garden is still open to the public in the summer months today.

• botany: The scientific study of plants.
• French and Indian War: A colonial war that was fought from 1754 to 1763 between the British and the French. Indigenous communities sided with the colonial power they expected would best protect their sovereignty. The Spanish were allies of the British. Part of the larger global conflict known as the Seven Years’ War. The British triumphed and greatly expanded their territory in North America.
• print rubbing: A technique where a piece of paper is placed over a surface and rubbed with charcoal or a crayon to create an image on the paper.
• manuscript: A handwritten book.
• minister: A person who can lead Christian religious services.

• Pair this life story with Life Story: Maria Sibylla Merian for a lesson about women scientists in the American colonies. How are these stories similar? How do they differ? What accounts for their differences?
• Pair this life story with Life Story: Eliza Lucas Pinckney to discuss the different ways women employed scientific and botanical knowledge during the colonial period.
• To learn more about the limitations Jane Colden faced as a woman scientist, see Coverture and Patent for Cleaning and Curing Corn.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE