Mary Anna Day

Mary Anna Day (1852–1924) was an American botanist and librarian at the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University from 1893 to 1924. She edited and compiled the Card Index of New Genera, Species, and Varieties of American Plants, a quarterly publication that was considered "indispensable" to botanists. By 1923, the publication contained about 170,000 cards. Her publications also include a "List of local floras of New England" and "Herbariums of New England" for the New England Botanical Club. During childhood, Day moved with her family to Lancaster, Massachusetts, and went to school at Lancaster Academy. From 1871 to 1880, Day worked as a public school teacher in Massachusetts and public librarian in Clinton, Massachusetts. Day's first major assignment was the verification of about 5,000 bibliographical references in a collection of manuscripts by Asa Gray and Sereno Watson, which were being prepared for a posthumous publication by the curator William Coolidge Lane. Day aided in the publication of many botanical works, notably Gray's Synoptical Flora of North America and the 7th edition of Gray's Manual of Botany.