Abigail Kimber

Abigail Kimber (1804 – 22 March 1871) was an American botanist, botanical collector, social reformer, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist.

Early life Abigail Kimber, nicknamed Abby, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1804 to parents Emmor and Susan Kimber. Emmor and Susan Kimber ran a Quaker girls boarding school called Kimberton, considered one of the three most important boarding schools in southeastern rural Pennsylvania in the 1830s. The school survived only 32 years, from 1818 until Emmor Kimber's death in 1850, but during its time it came to specialize in training pupils to become teachers. Kimber continued teaching for the 30 years that Kimberton remained open.

Social activism Abigail Kimber was an anti-slavery activist, taking an active role in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society as Recording Secretary, Vice President, and President at different periods throughout her involvement. Kimber was also on the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. In June of 1840, Kimber attended the World Antislavery Convention in London, England. Through her travels to the convention, Kimber met and debated with British women on the "Woman Question." Kimber is noted as the second recorded donator of plant objects to the Delaware County Institute of Science. The donation was submitted on November 22, 1834, and consisted of “Brown hematite and plumbago," a type of mineral and a shrub. Kimber was noted to collect both plants and minerals, which she forwarded to William Darlington, who went on to cite her collections in his 1837 and 1853 editions of his botanical index Flora Cestrica: An Attempt to Enumerate and Describe the Flowering and Filicoid Plants of Chester County, in the State of Pennsylvania. William Darlington later argued in the 1853 edition of his index that the best way to diffuse botany was to educate women in the science, perhaps inspired by the women botanists he interacted with, including Kimber.

Death Abigail Kimber died on March 22, 1871, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 66 or 67 of unknown causes.

Publications Familiar Botany; to which is added, a Complete Botanical Dictionary, 12 mo. Philadelphia, 1854.