1910-09-05: ​​~TOUR STOPS~---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1910-09-05​: tour stops---images---~AUDIO~---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1910-09-05: ​tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Sept. 5th

Dear Mother:

I have just written to Eva but I shall write a little to you to show off the stationery with which we are provided.

Sept. 6th

On train from Cambridge to London.  I have been spending the day in Cambridge and have enjoyed it very much except that I don’t care much about seeing sights alone.  It is a good deal like Oxford but not so beautiful.

Theodora and I came down from Sheffield Wed. A.M. and I spent the afternoon shopping.  I am not as rich as you think as the first check Eva sent did not arrive.  I hope it will come some day but it will be too late to use it here.  I bought you a challie dress which I hope you will make up this fall.  It is purplish.  If it has been sent up I’ll put in a sample.  I got it because I liked your purple wrapper fifteen or twenty years ago.  I bought a light challie for myself.  I got the white and tan kid gloves for Aunt Sallie + I’ll try to get the thread ones tomorrow.  It will be my last chance.  I sail Saturday at 5:30 P.M. from Liverpool.

I had a very interesting time the last few days in Sheffield.  When I got the daily program Monday morning I noticed that there was to be a paper on Isoetes in the afternoon.  I had planned to go to a small garden party given by the Earl and Countess Fitzwilliam at their country place but of course gave it up.  I am much in love with the Earl so I gave up a good deal for Isoetes.  The paper did not come up until five o’clock and I was so tired and excited when it was given that I shook in my seat.  He referred to my paper in very complimentary terms and said I was the only person who had written a correct account of the growth of the stem since Van Mohl in 1840.  But he said he could not see why I had not gone a little further and shown its similarity to a certain fossil or why Prof. Bower, the expert on that group had not seen it.  Just as he finished his paper Mr. Gynne Vaughan went up to Prof. Bowen who was presiding + told him I was there.  He asked me to speak.  I said I agreed with Prof. Lang in his interpretation of Isoetes but I was not enough of a paleobotanist to pronounce upon the comparisons.  After the meeting, Prof. Lang was introduced to me.  He had not known I was there until after he spoke.  We had a very nice talk together and he said my not seeing the relations of Isoetes if I was not a paleobotanist but he did not see how Prof. Bower missed it as he had every chance and is an expert Botanist.  Prof. Bower came up and said he was sorry he hadn’t known I was there because they would like to have had a paper from me.  He brought up a lot of people and introduced them.  He is, I think, the greatest living botanist so I felt quite set up.  Theodora made her maiden speech that afternoon so we were both excited.  She offered some information about roots in response to a question of Prof. Bowers.

We ended the meetings by a grand party Tuesday night.  By the Earl + Countess Fitzwilliam and the Duke of Norfolk.  I never saw such beautiful illuminations and fireworks.

With love,

​Alma
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1910-09-05​: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
​Mama Margaret was staying with Laura in Ohio while Alma was in England.

2.
British Association for the Advancement of Science - Wikipedia says:

The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA).

I didn’t find much about the 1910 meeting except that the association didn’t usually hold its meeting in Sheffield.

3.
I bought you a challie dress which I hope you will make up this fall.

Wikipedia says:

Challis, sometimes referred to as challie or chally, is a lightweight woven fabric, originally a silk-and-wool blend, which can also be made from a single fibre, such as cotton, silk or wool, or from man-made fabrics such as rayon.

If it has been sent up I’ll put in a sample.  Alma is on the train, so I guess she was having the challie sent to wherever she was staying.

A later note about challie: I found it mentioned in an ad in an 1890 newspaper, on the same page as this article: Here's the ad, with challie at the bottom, very cheap:
4.
I got the white and tan kid gloves for Aunt Sallie + I’ll try to get the thread ones tomorrow.
Aunt Sallie must be Aunt Sallie Provines Ballard, a younger sister of Mama Margaret's.  She lived in Canton, so Mama Margaret would have seen her while staying with Laura.

5.
When I got the daily program Monday morning I noticed that there was to be a paper on Isoetes in the afternoon.
Isoetes:
The anatomy of Isoetes by Alma Gracey Stokey is available online.  I believe it was her PhD thesis.  I have skimmed it.  It wasn’t until I read, years later, in her letters to Will about the difficulties of preparing slides that I comprehended a little of the work that went into it.

6.
I had planned to go to a small garden party given by the Earl and Countess Fitzwilliam at their country place but of course gave it up.

The Earl Fizwilliam seems to be:

William "Billy" Charles de Meuron Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, KCVO, CBE, DSO (25 July 1872 – 15 February 1943)

7.
He referred to my paper in very complimentary terms and said I was the only person who had written a correct account of the growth of the stem since Van Mohl in 1840.
Von Mohl - from Wikipedia:

Hugo von Mohl FFRS HFRSE (8 April 1805 – 1 April 1872) was a German botanist from Stuttgart. He was the first person to use the word "protoplasm".

8.
But he said he could not see why I had not gone a little further and shown its similarity to a certain fossil or why Prof. Bower, the expert on that group had not seen it.
Professor Bower is in the Non-family page on this website for India folks etcetera.  He's the etcetera.
​
9.
I said I agreed with Prof. Lang in his interpretation of Isoetes but I was not enough of a paleobotanist to pronounce upon the comparisons.
Prof. Lang of Glasgow - from Wikipedia:

William Henry Lang FRS[1] FRSE FLS LLD (12 May 1874–29 August 1960) was a British botanist and served as Barker professor of cryptogamic botany at the University of Manchester. He was also a specialist in paleobotany.

There’s lots about ferns in the Wikipedia article.  He travelled to Sri Lanka and Malaysia to collect ferns.

10.
Just as he finished his paper Mr. Gynne Vaughan went up to Prof. Bower who was presiding + told him I was there.
Gynne Vaughan sounds like Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, but I don't know.
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