Mary Ann Booth

Mary Ann Allard Booth (September 8, 1843 – September 15, 1922) was an American microscopist.

Biography Mary Ann Allard Booth was born on September 8, 1843, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, to Samuel and Rhoda Colton Booth. Mary Ann was the only child of Samuel and Rhonda, but she had a half-brother from her father's first marriage. Historical records indicate that Booth had a disability, though they do not specify the nature of her condition. Booth had a fully equipped laboratory in her Springfield home, where she prepared and stored microscope slides. She also had an interest in photography, which she incorporated into her microscopic work.

She was elected as one of the first female Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society in 1889 and was also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her other association memberships include the Royal Photographic Society, the American Microscopic Society, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Noted for her preparation of diatoms and pollens, Booth earned a Diploma of Honor in Entomology (Women's Department) at the 1884–85 New Orleans World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. In 1907, she famously prepared the micrographs used by Rupert Blue during his efforts to stop bubonic plague in San Francisco.

In 1901, she become the second person and first woman in the town of Springfield to own an automobile. She first purchased a steam motor and later an electric runabout. Her lectures provided an inside look into her work and included a workshop on how to make slides. Booth died of apoplexy in her yard while photographing squirrels, she was seventy-nine years old. She left behind a $91,314 estate. She also left behind a collection of her works to the Springfield Science Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts.