Mary Katharine Brandegee

Mary Katharine Brandegee (formerly Curran, Layne; October 28, 1844 – April 3, 1920) was an American botanist known for her comprehensive studies of flora in California. She was also the first woman curator of the botany department at the California Academy of Sciences.

Life Brandegee was born Mary Katharine Layne in Tennessee on October 28, 1844. She was the second child to Mary Morris Layne, a housewife, and Marshall Layne, a farmer. The Laynes lived in western Tennessee and had nine other children. Her family, already peripatetic, moved to California during the Gold Rush of 1849, although her father chose to farm; they settled in Folsom, California when Brandegee was 9.

In 1866, Brandegee married constable Hugh Curran and remained married to him until 1874, when he died of alcoholism. She got married again 1889, to Townshend Brandegee; they shared a love of science as she was a botanist and he was a civil engineer and plant collector. The couple walked from San Diego to San Francisco collecting plants for their honeymoon.

Brandegee died on April 3, 1920, in Berkeley, California, aged 75.

Career and legacy The year after Curran died, Brandegee moved to San Francisco to attend medical school at the University of California at Berkeley, becoming the third woman to ever matriculate there. There, she studied medicinal plants and became interested in botany. She received her M.D. in 1878, became licensed in California, and became a member of the California State Medical Society, but chose not to practice medicine.

Brandegee became a member at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She collected plants throughout the state and worked in the academy's herbarium to continue her botanical training, working alongside Albert Kellogg. Bradengee also helped establish the California Botanical Club, a group that welcomed both professional and amateur botanists across the Pacific Coast, fostering collaboration within the botanical community.

In 1891, Brandegee took a pay cut to bring Alice Eastwood on board as a co-curator of the herbarium. Two years later when she resigned, Eastwood continued as the sole curator. Brandegee and Townshend relocated in 1894 to San Diego. They settled in the Bankers Hill area and established a brick herbarium and San Diego's first botanical garden on their property. Together, they collected plants throughout California, Arizona, and Mexico.

After the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the couple moved back and donated over 76,000 specimens from their personal collection to the University of California, Berkeley. Despite the fact that she was a diabetic who suffered regular attacks, as insulin treatment had yet to be invented, Brandegee continued to collect specimens in California until her death in 1920.