Emma Dean Powell

Harriet Emma Dean Powell (July 7, 1835 – ) was an American botanist and ornithologist, and the wife of John Wesley Powell. She accompanied and cared for him after the loss of his arm during the Civil War and was with him during many of his trips to explore the Western United States serving as a scientific assistant collecting samples.

Early life Harriet Emma Dean was born on July 7, 1835, in New York City to Joseph Dean, a hat maker, and Harriet Head. By 1855, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where her half cousin, John Wesley Powell, would visit when she was 18. In 1862, after Powell had enlisted in the Illinois Infantry, he received a short leave to go to Detroit to marry Emma Dean and she accompanied him back to camp after their wedding.

Civil War and Western expeditions John Wesley Powell lost his arm below the elbow during the Battle of Shiloh, Emma Dean received permission from General Ulysses S. Grant to accompany her husband to battlefield camps to tend and assist him.

After the Civil War, Powell returned to teaching and Emma accompanied him and his students on geologic and nature field trips in the 1860s and 1870s. Throughout 1868 and 1869 Powell surveyed the Colorado Territory. While most of their party returned east during the fall, Powell and what remained of his colleagues, built cabins for a winter camp in the Rockies along the White River. Emma was on the expedition as well, the only woman in the party. During this expedition, she served as assistant ornithologist and prepared around 175 specimens for study. At one point, the expedition members had not been heard from in months, and some presumed them dead, particularly in the media due to reports from a John A. Risdon. Emma Dean sent out multiple notes stating the story was a fabrication, as she had been present for part of the expedition, and had received letters dated after the date of the supposed demise. She also stated that no party members or those connected with it otherwise, were named John A. Risdon. Fourteen bird skins (used for taxidermy) in the Smithsonian's collection are attributed to Powell from her 1867 expedition.

Later life On September 10, 1871, Emma Dean gave birth to the Powells' only child, Mary Dean Powell in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was active in the Wimodaughsis, a national women's club in Washington, D.C., started by Anna Howard Shaw and Susan B. Anthony. Emma Dean Powell died on March 13, 1924, in Washington, D.C. She is buried along with her husband in Arlington National Cemetery.