Memorial for Alma: October-December 1968
Full size image is below.
A lovely memorial for Alma in the American Fern Journal, written by her good friend and colleague Lenette Rogers Atkinson
1968-10: ~TOUR STOPS~---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
This page is a stop in: The stop BEFORE this is:
- (There is none. This is the first stop in the Tour.)
1968-10: tour stops---~IMAGES~---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
Page 1Image #1 of eight for this articleScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Page 2Image #2 of eight for this articleScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Page 3Image #3 of eight for this articleScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Page 4Image #4 of eight for this articleScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Page 5Image #5 of eight for this articleScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Page 6Image #6 of eight for this articleScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Page 7Image #7 of eight for this articleScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
Page 8Image #8 of eight for this articleScroll down for the audio readingand for the transcript.
1968-10: tour stops---images---~AUDIO~---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
1968-10: tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Divided into 4 parts because I couldn't do the whole audio reading at once.
PART 1: Before India
American Fern Journal
Vol. 58 No. 4
October-December, 1968
Alma Gracey Stokey (1877-1968)
Lenette Rogers Atkinson
Alma Gracey Stokey will be remembered for many things, but perhaps most especially for her enduring interest in the ferns and for her pioneering work on fern gametophytes. In recognition of this outstanding work, the American Fern Society, in 1953, made her its tenth Honorary Member and the first woman to receive this honor.
Alma Stokey was born June 17, 1877, in Canton, Ohio, the second of five children of Margaret Purvines and Charles Frederick Stokey. She grew up in rolling, fertile eastern Ohio, which may explain why she was so content to spend most of her life in comparable New England. After High School in Canton, she taught in a public school before entering Oberlin College, then interrupted her studies by teaching to finance her college course, and took her B.A. at Oberlin in 1904, where she remained as an assistant in botany (1904-6). Her interests at college seem to have been as varied as in her later life. She sang in a choral group, as she was to do in others later. Not an athlete, with no hope of making a team, she nevertheless played basketball because practice players were needed. She was interested in foreign languages, and became proficient in Latin, German and French. Her interest in botany began under Dr. Frederick Grover, one of Oberlin's outstanding teachers. She attained her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under the tutelage of Dr. John M. Coulter and Dr. W. J. G. Land, and published her first botanical articles "The roots of Lycopodium pithyoides" in 1907 and "The anatomy of Isoëtes" in 1909. In 1908 she came to Mount Holyoke College as an instructor in botany, became an associate professor in 1911 and a full professor in 1916, and headed the department from which she retired in 1942. Oberlin College, her Alma Mater, bestowed upon her an honorary Doctor of Science in 1955.
Alma Stokey was trained in Morphology and anatomy; her orderly and perceptive mind had early discovered the gaps in our knowledge of the fern gametophyte. Strongly urged and encouraged by Professor F. O. Bower of Glasgow University, Scotland, who is the author of a monumental comparative work called "The Ferns," she set herself and her graduate students to work filling some of those gaps.
The first comparative work was on the Cyatheaceae (1930). Here the presence of multicellular hairs on the thalli of Cyathea and its close relatives and their absence in Dicksonia and its relatives encouraged her to think that the little known gametophytes might indeed contribute valuable characters to the study of fern relationships.
Vol. 58 No. 4
October-December, 1968
Alma Gracey Stokey (1877-1968)
Lenette Rogers Atkinson
Alma Gracey Stokey will be remembered for many things, but perhaps most especially for her enduring interest in the ferns and for her pioneering work on fern gametophytes. In recognition of this outstanding work, the American Fern Society, in 1953, made her its tenth Honorary Member and the first woman to receive this honor.
Alma Stokey was born June 17, 1877, in Canton, Ohio, the second of five children of Margaret Purvines and Charles Frederick Stokey. She grew up in rolling, fertile eastern Ohio, which may explain why she was so content to spend most of her life in comparable New England. After High School in Canton, she taught in a public school before entering Oberlin College, then interrupted her studies by teaching to finance her college course, and took her B.A. at Oberlin in 1904, where she remained as an assistant in botany (1904-6). Her interests at college seem to have been as varied as in her later life. She sang in a choral group, as she was to do in others later. Not an athlete, with no hope of making a team, she nevertheless played basketball because practice players were needed. She was interested in foreign languages, and became proficient in Latin, German and French. Her interest in botany began under Dr. Frederick Grover, one of Oberlin's outstanding teachers. She attained her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under the tutelage of Dr. John M. Coulter and Dr. W. J. G. Land, and published her first botanical articles "The roots of Lycopodium pithyoides" in 1907 and "The anatomy of Isoëtes" in 1909. In 1908 she came to Mount Holyoke College as an instructor in botany, became an associate professor in 1911 and a full professor in 1916, and headed the department from which she retired in 1942. Oberlin College, her Alma Mater, bestowed upon her an honorary Doctor of Science in 1955.
Alma Stokey was trained in Morphology and anatomy; her orderly and perceptive mind had early discovered the gaps in our knowledge of the fern gametophyte. Strongly urged and encouraged by Professor F. O. Bower of Glasgow University, Scotland, who is the author of a monumental comparative work called "The Ferns," she set herself and her graduate students to work filling some of those gaps.
The first comparative work was on the Cyatheaceae (1930). Here the presence of multicellular hairs on the thalli of Cyathea and its close relatives and their absence in Dicksonia and its relatives encouraged her to think that the little known gametophytes might indeed contribute valuable characters to the study of fern relationships.
PART 2: India, Java, and Ceylon/Sri Lanka
As the study of Cyathea was nearing its close (1929), there came a request for help in finding a competent teacher to organize the botany department at the Women's Christian College, Madras, sister college of Mount Holyoke. Alma Stokey was interested in this proposition and was influenced also, without a doubt, by the vision of hordes of ferns awaiting her in the tropics. She obtained two years' leave of absence and filled the position herself. Five years later she returned to Madras for another year. She wrote from Madras in 1936, "I have just filled out a blank for the Registrar of the University of Madras concerning age, degrees, etc. 'Special subject and qualifications for teaching if any' is too much for me, and I am in a proper state of humility, so I pass it over and leave it to them to find out."
Alma Stokey's sojourn in India and her three journeys around the world had a profound influence upon her. Her enthusiasm for her teaching in Madras, which extended her botanical education considerably, and her delight in the collecting trips she made into the mountains of India and Kashmir, in Ceylon, Java, and Formosa shine through her serial reports to family and friends (India Inklings and Java Jottings) and through her letters to me. In 1929, soon after her arrival in Madras, she wrote:
"I walked out to pick a few plants to use as illustrations and discovered afterwards that countless [students] had seen me do it and even knew what I had picked, which is more than I did myself....New Families!!!!!! I walk around the compound reviewing what I have learned and getting new things whenever I have a chance. I am learning countless representatives of the Euphorbiaceae. Every third plant [seems to belong] to the Euphorbiaceae, the Malvaceae or the Leguminosae. So far no ferns. Madras is poor in ferns...but I am going to Ceylon."
In October, 1929, returning from Michaelmas vacation she said,
"How I did wish in Ceylon...for someone who was interested in ferns...When I went to Hakgala [5600 ft. alt.] I saw tree ferns rampant all along the jungle and bordering streams -- magnificent specimens of Hemitelia Walkerae, Alsophila crinita, and A. glabra. They are really impressive. I saw Angiopteris evecta growing wild - found it myself. I had a good vacation but it seems good to be back in Madras raising fern prothalli."
In May, 1931, on her way back to Mount Holyoke, Miss Stokey worked for a month at the Treub Laboratory, Buitenzorg, Java. She wrote,
"I am now in the Paradise of Botanists...I have been here a little over two days and began work this morning. Seven is the correct hour but at seven I barely had one eye open and it was eight before I reached the laboratory. The correct thing is to work until two and then go home and let it rain. I see why rijstaafel was invented. From seven to two is a long period without sustenance and one needs the three square meals which are provided in rijstaafel. This morning I collected Kaulfussia, now labelled Christensenia....one of the thrills of my Botanical Life, Macroglossum Smithii, Angiopteris subfurfuracea, A. Miqueliana, Lygodium, and Cyathea. I hope to go to Tjibodas [4500 ft. alt.] soon and get some of Professor Bower's Plagiogyria. By the way, he wrote me a very nice letter which I shall save and frame along with the testimonial which the students gave me in Madras. Anybody who thinks I am a fool will be referred to them -- I doubtless shall need to refer to them myself occasionally...I am also consumed with curiosity to see if Plagiogyria germinates like a Polypod or...like a primitive type. I hope it is fruiting now. The ferns are apt to fruit in the dry season and it is just beginning. Polypods are much easier to work with as they fruit more steadily and do not go so much by seasons and they have a mixed sorus so that the fruiting period is longer. It seems good to be in a laboratory again after having wandered around for over a month."
Again from Buitenzorg in July, 1937:
My absorbing work is the Hymenophyllaceae. I never intended to do much with them. I started one in 1936 just to have a specimen to show my class in ferns. I found it so much more impressive than anything published that I decided to collect more....They are quick at first and then slow; that just suits me. I can give my attention to them here and get the early stages and then dally along four or five years for the mature ones. I am the right age for that [she was 60] -- old enough to know that five years will pass and young enough to hope to outlive them...I made three trips to the forest around Tjibodas. At first I wanted to pick Filmy Ferns every time I saw them but that had to be given up, as not even a coolie who is used to carrying a load up to 60 to 80 pounds could live up to that....I went up to the mountain laboratory [at Tjibodas] for six days and then had a trip from there to Labak Saät, a walk of ten miles with an ascent to 8000 feet. It is a paradise for ferns; that was where I got Plagiogyria and some of my filmy ferns. We saw plenty of Dipteris, but it was easier to collect in the garden at Tjibodas as I do not scale vertical faces of cliffs....At present I have about 60 cultures running....I shall try to reduce to 30 for travelling. There will not be room on my bed on the boat for more....nor will my basket hold more....The burning question now is: Can I keep my saman [luggage] at seven pieces or will it grow to eight? I cannot throw away garments as rapidly as I acquire ferns. I am thinking of travelling by airplane as that is the only way to be sure not to collect."
While at Buitenzorg, an ascent of Mount Salak was also arranged
"to see Christensenia in its native heath...a very primitive and peculiar fern. It is pictured in all the books dealing with fern types and it is always the same picture which does not give a very good idea of it. It grows 18-24 inches high and has a leaf like a buckeye, with very peculiar fructifications on the under side....I was told to wear trousers and spiked shoes for the trip...We walked nearly an hour up the gentle slopes covered by tea plantations, then plunged into a forest along a path, man-sized in width but not in height. I was so charmed with the beautiful Selaginellas, especially a large one of iridescent blue that I had great difficulty in keeping to my feet....began a steep ascent....used my hands freely until the coolie in front of me encountered a scorpion and was stung on the foot (apparently not badly), then into a ravine...the bank was very steep and very wet and very much covered with lianas which have a nasty way of catching the foot and pulling the hair....Only three Christensenias but the richest place I have ever seen...the riotous luxuriance of tropical rain forest of which I studied in my youth...It was a most enjoyable excursion; I contrasted it with the expedition in Hakgala, Ceylon, where my attendants were more concerned with keeping me intact than in finding ferns...no one seemed unduly concerned [on Mount Salak] about my skin or bones and did not help me unnecessarily. I would rather be a Botanist than a Lady."
Alma Stokey's sojourn in India and her three journeys around the world had a profound influence upon her. Her enthusiasm for her teaching in Madras, which extended her botanical education considerably, and her delight in the collecting trips she made into the mountains of India and Kashmir, in Ceylon, Java, and Formosa shine through her serial reports to family and friends (India Inklings and Java Jottings) and through her letters to me. In 1929, soon after her arrival in Madras, she wrote:
"I walked out to pick a few plants to use as illustrations and discovered afterwards that countless [students] had seen me do it and even knew what I had picked, which is more than I did myself....New Families!!!!!! I walk around the compound reviewing what I have learned and getting new things whenever I have a chance. I am learning countless representatives of the Euphorbiaceae. Every third plant [seems to belong] to the Euphorbiaceae, the Malvaceae or the Leguminosae. So far no ferns. Madras is poor in ferns...but I am going to Ceylon."
In October, 1929, returning from Michaelmas vacation she said,
"How I did wish in Ceylon...for someone who was interested in ferns...When I went to Hakgala [5600 ft. alt.] I saw tree ferns rampant all along the jungle and bordering streams -- magnificent specimens of Hemitelia Walkerae, Alsophila crinita, and A. glabra. They are really impressive. I saw Angiopteris evecta growing wild - found it myself. I had a good vacation but it seems good to be back in Madras raising fern prothalli."
In May, 1931, on her way back to Mount Holyoke, Miss Stokey worked for a month at the Treub Laboratory, Buitenzorg, Java. She wrote,
"I am now in the Paradise of Botanists...I have been here a little over two days and began work this morning. Seven is the correct hour but at seven I barely had one eye open and it was eight before I reached the laboratory. The correct thing is to work until two and then go home and let it rain. I see why rijstaafel was invented. From seven to two is a long period without sustenance and one needs the three square meals which are provided in rijstaafel. This morning I collected Kaulfussia, now labelled Christensenia....one of the thrills of my Botanical Life, Macroglossum Smithii, Angiopteris subfurfuracea, A. Miqueliana, Lygodium, and Cyathea. I hope to go to Tjibodas [4500 ft. alt.] soon and get some of Professor Bower's Plagiogyria. By the way, he wrote me a very nice letter which I shall save and frame along with the testimonial which the students gave me in Madras. Anybody who thinks I am a fool will be referred to them -- I doubtless shall need to refer to them myself occasionally...I am also consumed with curiosity to see if Plagiogyria germinates like a Polypod or...like a primitive type. I hope it is fruiting now. The ferns are apt to fruit in the dry season and it is just beginning. Polypods are much easier to work with as they fruit more steadily and do not go so much by seasons and they have a mixed sorus so that the fruiting period is longer. It seems good to be in a laboratory again after having wandered around for over a month."
Again from Buitenzorg in July, 1937:
My absorbing work is the Hymenophyllaceae. I never intended to do much with them. I started one in 1936 just to have a specimen to show my class in ferns. I found it so much more impressive than anything published that I decided to collect more....They are quick at first and then slow; that just suits me. I can give my attention to them here and get the early stages and then dally along four or five years for the mature ones. I am the right age for that [she was 60] -- old enough to know that five years will pass and young enough to hope to outlive them...I made three trips to the forest around Tjibodas. At first I wanted to pick Filmy Ferns every time I saw them but that had to be given up, as not even a coolie who is used to carrying a load up to 60 to 80 pounds could live up to that....I went up to the mountain laboratory [at Tjibodas] for six days and then had a trip from there to Labak Saät, a walk of ten miles with an ascent to 8000 feet. It is a paradise for ferns; that was where I got Plagiogyria and some of my filmy ferns. We saw plenty of Dipteris, but it was easier to collect in the garden at Tjibodas as I do not scale vertical faces of cliffs....At present I have about 60 cultures running....I shall try to reduce to 30 for travelling. There will not be room on my bed on the boat for more....nor will my basket hold more....The burning question now is: Can I keep my saman [luggage] at seven pieces or will it grow to eight? I cannot throw away garments as rapidly as I acquire ferns. I am thinking of travelling by airplane as that is the only way to be sure not to collect."
While at Buitenzorg, an ascent of Mount Salak was also arranged
"to see Christensenia in its native heath...a very primitive and peculiar fern. It is pictured in all the books dealing with fern types and it is always the same picture which does not give a very good idea of it. It grows 18-24 inches high and has a leaf like a buckeye, with very peculiar fructifications on the under side....I was told to wear trousers and spiked shoes for the trip...We walked nearly an hour up the gentle slopes covered by tea plantations, then plunged into a forest along a path, man-sized in width but not in height. I was so charmed with the beautiful Selaginellas, especially a large one of iridescent blue that I had great difficulty in keeping to my feet....began a steep ascent....used my hands freely until the coolie in front of me encountered a scorpion and was stung on the foot (apparently not badly), then into a ravine...the bank was very steep and very wet and very much covered with lianas which have a nasty way of catching the foot and pulling the hair....Only three Christensenias but the richest place I have ever seen...the riotous luxuriance of tropical rain forest of which I studied in my youth...It was a most enjoyable excursion; I contrasted it with the expedition in Hakgala, Ceylon, where my attendants were more concerned with keeping me intact than in finding ferns...no one seemed unduly concerned [on Mount Salak] about my skin or bones and did not help me unnecessarily. I would rather be a Botanist than a Lady."
PART 3: After India
Any area promising ferns intrigued her. She also made two trips to Jamaica and spent a winter in Hawaii.
By 1951, after publishing on the development of the thallus in the Cyatheaceae, Hymenophyllaceae, Marattiaceae, Dipteris, Actiniopteris, and Gleicheniaceae, it had become evident that although sensitive to environmental change and made unstable by it, the tiny gametophytic plants showed differences and similarities which could be useful. In 1960, on the occasion of the first publication of Phytomorphology, the official organ of the International Society of Plant Morphologists, Miss Stokey published her well-documented thesis "The contribution of the gametophyte to the classification of the homosporous ferns." The title could as well have read "The development and characteristics of the thallus as an aid to understanding fern relationships and evolution." It had become apparent that certain gametophytic characters are relatively stable and often constant for a genus: Germination as a mass or as a filament; development of the plate from the terminal cell or cells of the filament or from subterminal cells if the filament ends in a hair; symmetrical or asymmetrical thallus when the meristem is apical or lateral; color of rhizoids; kinds of hairs; type of antheridium, that is, whether the wall consists of three or four cells or of several cells; type of archegonial neck, that is, cylindrical or bulbous, long or short, curving away from or toward the notch. Her writing was concise, her standards high both for herself and for her students. At Mount Holyoke College, at Woods Hole, in Java and Formosa, and at the Women's Christian College, Madras, India, Alma Stokey pursued her studies. After her retirement from teaching in 1942, she gave full time to research, growing thalli of some 300 ferns from spores collected by herself or others, and publishing some 30 articles.
[Footnote: The majority appear in the Botanical Gazette, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Phytomorphology, or The American Fern Journal. Much of her work is still being edited.]
In her teaching Miss Stokey, admiring Agassiz, was a strong believer in the direct approach and weekly field trips in spring and fall were an integral part of her courses. Nor did she lack that professorial attribute, absent-mindedness. So intense was her desire to cover as much ground as possible that she often left her Gray's Manual behind at some spot where the class had stopped to run down a flower in the key.
Besides her teaching, departmental administration, and faculty committees, Miss Stokey found time to help organize the Mount Holyoke War Garden, 1917-1919, one of the first of its kind, to serve on the College Entrance Examination Board, to contribute abstracts to Botanical and Biological Abstracts, and to serve 20 years on the Associate Board of the Women's Christian College, Madras - 11 years as Chairman of the Personnel Committee, and seven as Corresponding Secretary.
By 1951, after publishing on the development of the thallus in the Cyatheaceae, Hymenophyllaceae, Marattiaceae, Dipteris, Actiniopteris, and Gleicheniaceae, it had become evident that although sensitive to environmental change and made unstable by it, the tiny gametophytic plants showed differences and similarities which could be useful. In 1960, on the occasion of the first publication of Phytomorphology, the official organ of the International Society of Plant Morphologists, Miss Stokey published her well-documented thesis "The contribution of the gametophyte to the classification of the homosporous ferns." The title could as well have read "The development and characteristics of the thallus as an aid to understanding fern relationships and evolution." It had become apparent that certain gametophytic characters are relatively stable and often constant for a genus: Germination as a mass or as a filament; development of the plate from the terminal cell or cells of the filament or from subterminal cells if the filament ends in a hair; symmetrical or asymmetrical thallus when the meristem is apical or lateral; color of rhizoids; kinds of hairs; type of antheridium, that is, whether the wall consists of three or four cells or of several cells; type of archegonial neck, that is, cylindrical or bulbous, long or short, curving away from or toward the notch. Her writing was concise, her standards high both for herself and for her students. At Mount Holyoke College, at Woods Hole, in Java and Formosa, and at the Women's Christian College, Madras, India, Alma Stokey pursued her studies. After her retirement from teaching in 1942, she gave full time to research, growing thalli of some 300 ferns from spores collected by herself or others, and publishing some 30 articles.
[Footnote: The majority appear in the Botanical Gazette, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Phytomorphology, or The American Fern Journal. Much of her work is still being edited.]
In her teaching Miss Stokey, admiring Agassiz, was a strong believer in the direct approach and weekly field trips in spring and fall were an integral part of her courses. Nor did she lack that professorial attribute, absent-mindedness. So intense was her desire to cover as much ground as possible that she often left her Gray's Manual behind at some spot where the class had stopped to run down a flower in the key.
Besides her teaching, departmental administration, and faculty committees, Miss Stokey found time to help organize the Mount Holyoke War Garden, 1917-1919, one of the first of its kind, to serve on the College Entrance Examination Board, to contribute abstracts to Botanical and Biological Abstracts, and to serve 20 years on the Associate Board of the Women's Christian College, Madras - 11 years as Chairman of the Personnel Committee, and seven as Corresponding Secretary.
PART 4: Non-fern interests
Miss Stokey's family meant much to her. She solved the problem of vacationing with them and continuing year-round research by building a cottage, appropriately named Fernbank, near the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Her captivation with the area and its colony was rapid and complete. In 1914 her first proposed visit of one week stretched into six. The next year she bought a building lot there sight unseen, so sure was she that nothing near the laboratory could be undesirable. She was a member of the Corporation from 1917 until her death.
Alma Stokey was blond, blue-eyed, stocky, and endowed with such excellent health that she did not have to give it conscious thought. Although she was short, she developed an unproportionately long stride which often left her friends and students panting far behind. When asked about her hobbies, she gave walking as the first. This she indulged in in unusual ways: Walking along the English Downs, or in the Swiss Alps, or up Mount Washington in New Hampshire, or climbing Adams Peak in Ceylon with the faithful to see the sun rise. At 53 when she might easily have preferred her own fireside, she went on a camping trip in Kashmir:
"We could get only six [pack] ponies so we abandoned six chairs. Really, I wish you could see the style in which we camp. This is late in the season in Kashmir and we had to use the winter route, in snow-filled valleys, to go to Zoja La Pass -- five miles, up 2000 feet [from 9300 to 11300 feet alt.]. But that isn't my best effort!...We could have gone three or four miles more if it had been meadow instead of snow. It is not a spectacular pass like the Khyber,...but we found it interesting. We met caravans of ponies carrying numbdahs [rugs] made in Ladakh and brought to Srinagar to be embroidered, lamas, coolies, mail runners, yaks, and nothing else but snow and mountains."
There were other interests. She enjoyed music. She liked to sing and her musical appreciation was, I think, critical and penetrating. Her friends will remember the dozens of picnics she organized and the Indian dinners she cooked. At one time she found it interesting to join an etching class in a nearby city.
Alma Stokey left the working world a little time ago when deafness and physical debility set her somewhat apart. She possessed the desire and ability to study and learn, which continued and increased throughout most of her life. She disliked and avoided altercation, but when necessary did not mince words. Her adaptability in new places, her humor, her enthusiasm, her critical judgement and integrity, the disarming humility which concealed so well her talents -- all these qualities made Alma Stokey an outstanding and unusual woman.
415 South Pleasant Street, Amherst, Mass. 01002
Alma Stokey was blond, blue-eyed, stocky, and endowed with such excellent health that she did not have to give it conscious thought. Although she was short, she developed an unproportionately long stride which often left her friends and students panting far behind. When asked about her hobbies, she gave walking as the first. This she indulged in in unusual ways: Walking along the English Downs, or in the Swiss Alps, or up Mount Washington in New Hampshire, or climbing Adams Peak in Ceylon with the faithful to see the sun rise. At 53 when she might easily have preferred her own fireside, she went on a camping trip in Kashmir:
"We could get only six [pack] ponies so we abandoned six chairs. Really, I wish you could see the style in which we camp. This is late in the season in Kashmir and we had to use the winter route, in snow-filled valleys, to go to Zoja La Pass -- five miles, up 2000 feet [from 9300 to 11300 feet alt.]. But that isn't my best effort!...We could have gone three or four miles more if it had been meadow instead of snow. It is not a spectacular pass like the Khyber,...but we found it interesting. We met caravans of ponies carrying numbdahs [rugs] made in Ladakh and brought to Srinagar to be embroidered, lamas, coolies, mail runners, yaks, and nothing else but snow and mountains."
There were other interests. She enjoyed music. She liked to sing and her musical appreciation was, I think, critical and penetrating. Her friends will remember the dozens of picnics she organized and the Indian dinners she cooked. At one time she found it interesting to join an etching class in a nearby city.
Alma Stokey left the working world a little time ago when deafness and physical debility set her somewhat apart. She possessed the desire and ability to study and learn, which continued and increased throughout most of her life. She disliked and avoided altercation, but when necessary did not mince words. Her adaptability in new places, her humor, her enthusiasm, her critical judgement and integrity, the disarming humility which concealed so well her talents -- all these qualities made Alma Stokey an outstanding and unusual woman.
415 South Pleasant Street, Amherst, Mass. 01002
1968-10: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
This article came from:
2.
Alma Stokey was born June 17, 1877, in Canton, Ohio, the second of five children of Margaret Purvines and Charles Frederick Stokey.
It surprises me that Lenette didn't spell the name Provines correctly.
3.
She attained her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under the tutelage of Dr. John M. Coulter and Dr. W. J. G. Land
So far I don't remember seeing anything about Dr. Land, but Alma mentioned seeing Dr. Coulter at the 1915 conference that she attended in California:
4.
Strongly urged and encouraged by Professor F. O. Bower of Glasgow University, Scotland, who is the author of a monumental comparative work called "The Ferns," she set herself and her graduate students to work filling some of those gaps.
I have listed Professor Bower in the Non-family page for India Folks Etcetera on this website.
5.
It was a most enjoyable excursion; I contrasted it with the expedition in Hakgala, Ceylon, where my attendants were more concerned with keeping me intact than in finding ferns
At the time, Alma told her 10-year-old niece Kay about how she was not allowed to wander off into the jungle in Ceylon:
6.
Any area promising ferns intrigued her. She also made two trips to Jamaica and spent a winter in Hawaii.
Lenette modestly refrains from mentioning that she and her husband were a major part of the Hawaii trip.
7.
In her teaching Miss Stokey, admiring Agassiz, was a strong believer in the direct approach and weekly field trips in spring and fall were an integral part of her courses.
Wikipedia says:
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (/ˈæɡəsi/ AG-ə-see; French: [aɡasi]; May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
8.
Miss Stokey's family meant much to her. She solved the problem of vacationing with them and continuing year-round research by building a cottage, appropriately named Fernbank, near the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Her captivation with the area and its colony was rapid and complete. In 1914 her first proposed visit of one week stretched into six. The next year she bought a building lot there sight unseen, so sure was she that nothing near the laboratory could be undesirable.
I love having this confirmation that Alma bought the Fernbank lot sight unseen, but it was in 1917, not 1915, that she bought it. At the moment I don't have anything about Alma's 1914 stay in Woods Hole except for a note in a University of Chicago alumni magazine:
9.
Alma Stokey left the working world a little time ago when deafness and physical debility set her somewhat apart.
Um...she had a stroke. But maybe she had become less active before that?
This article came from:
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/1545948
2.
Alma Stokey was born June 17, 1877, in Canton, Ohio, the second of five children of Margaret Purvines and Charles Frederick Stokey.
It surprises me that Lenette didn't spell the name Provines correctly.
3.
She attained her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under the tutelage of Dr. John M. Coulter and Dr. W. J. G. Land
So far I don't remember seeing anything about Dr. Land, but Alma mentioned seeing Dr. Coulter at the 1915 conference that she attended in California:
4.
Strongly urged and encouraged by Professor F. O. Bower of Glasgow University, Scotland, who is the author of a monumental comparative work called "The Ferns," she set herself and her graduate students to work filling some of those gaps.
I have listed Professor Bower in the Non-family page for India Folks Etcetera on this website.
5.
It was a most enjoyable excursion; I contrasted it with the expedition in Hakgala, Ceylon, where my attendants were more concerned with keeping me intact than in finding ferns
At the time, Alma told her 10-year-old niece Kay about how she was not allowed to wander off into the jungle in Ceylon:
6.
Any area promising ferns intrigued her. She also made two trips to Jamaica and spent a winter in Hawaii.
Lenette modestly refrains from mentioning that she and her husband were a major part of the Hawaii trip.
7.
In her teaching Miss Stokey, admiring Agassiz, was a strong believer in the direct approach and weekly field trips in spring and fall were an integral part of her courses.
Wikipedia says:
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (/ˈæɡəsi/ AG-ə-see; French: [aɡasi]; May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history.
8.
Miss Stokey's family meant much to her. She solved the problem of vacationing with them and continuing year-round research by building a cottage, appropriately named Fernbank, near the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Her captivation with the area and its colony was rapid and complete. In 1914 her first proposed visit of one week stretched into six. The next year she bought a building lot there sight unseen, so sure was she that nothing near the laboratory could be undesirable.
I love having this confirmation that Alma bought the Fernbank lot sight unseen, but it was in 1917, not 1915, that she bought it. At the moment I don't have anything about Alma's 1914 stay in Woods Hole except for a note in a University of Chicago alumni magazine:
9.
Alma Stokey left the working world a little time ago when deafness and physical debility set her somewhat apart.
Um...she had a stroke. But maybe she had become less active before that?
1968-10: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---notes---~LINKS~---site navigation
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- ALMA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- MAMA MARGARET: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- PAPA CHARLES: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- NON-FAMILY: INDIA FOLKS ETCETERA ----- Professor Bower
OTHER DOCUMENT LISTS:
- DOCUMENTS SORTED BY WHERE THEY WERE WRITTEN ----- Western Massachusetts
- DOCUMENTS SORTED BY SOURCE ----- Elsewhere - jstor
- AUDIO READINGS OF THE DOCUMENTS: 1960-1969
OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
1968-10: tour stops---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---~SITE NAVIGATION~-
WHERE AM I?
WHAT ARE THE PREVIOUS PAGE AND THE NEXT PAGE?