Eliza Frances Andrews

Eliza Frances Andrews (August 10, 1840 - January 21, 1931) was a popular American writer of the Gilded Age. Her shorter works were published in popular magazines and papers, including the New York World and Godey's Lady's Book. Her longer works include The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl and two botany textbooks.

Andrews gained fame in the fields of literature, education, and science, and had success both as an essayist and a novelist. Her father was a lawyer, judge, and plantation owner, possessing around two hundred enslaved people. Andrews grew up on the family estate, Haywood, the name of which she would later use in a pseudonym, "Elzey Hay". attended the local Ladies' Seminary school, and later graduated among the first class of students from LaGrange Female College in 1857. She was well-versed in literature, music, and the arts, and was conversant in both French and Latin. She also worked as a school librarian during this time period. She returned once again to Washington and devoted herself full-time to lecturing and writing. As she observed in the introduction to her Wartime Journal that “In the lifetime of a single generation the people of the South have been called upon to pass through changes that the rest of the world has taken centuries to accomplish”

Post civil-war

The influences of the antebellum and wartime South, which Andrews describes as a "unique society," are evident in her work throughout her life. Between the Confederate surrender in April 1865 and the end of the 1860s, Andrews wrote for several local and national magazines and newspapers, including the New York World and Scott's Monthly, providing commentary on issues the South faced during the early years of Reconstruction; she expressed concerns about universal male suffrage due to what she viewed as African Americans' ignorance of informed voting practices. Andrews was an amateur botanist, collecting samples and conducting minor research whenever she could find the time. During her botanical career, Andrews became a strong proponent of conservation, using her published pieces to criticize turpentine distillers and developers for destroying woodlands. Her first textbook, Botany All the Year Round (1903) was aimed at a high school audience, particularly those in rural schools. It contained activities and labs aimed at attracting these schools to a low-budget scientific discipline that utilized the natural world around them, instead of pricey experimental materials. A Practical Course in Botany, her second textbook, however, was aimed at a college and university audience and stressed the relationship between botany and more practical fields such as agriculture and economics. The book was internationally acclaimed and was translated for use in French schools. Andrews was also nominated to be a member of the Italian International Academy of Science, although she was unable to travel to Naples and accept the honor.

Andrews wrote her last article, on the white oak, in 1926.

After her death, Andrews bequeathed the royalties from her books to the city of Rome, Georgia for a municipal forest reserve, although the city eventually turned the money back over to her estate due to a lack of funds, likely related to the Great Depression. She also donated more than 3,000 plant specimens from her personal collection to the Alabama Department of Agriculture.

Andrews died in Rome, GA on January 21, 1931, at the age of ninety. She is buried in the family plot in Resthaven Cemetery, in Washington, GA.

Gallery