Alice Eastwood

Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October 30, 1953) was a Canadian American botanist. She is credited with building the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences, located in San Francisco. She published over 310 scientific articles. There are seventeen currently recognized species named for her, as well as the genera Eastwoodia and Aliciella.

Biography

Alice Eastwood was born to Colin Skinner Eastwood and Eliza Jane Gowdey Eastwood on January 19, 1859, in Toronto Canada. The family moved to Denver, Colorado in 1873. In 1879, she graduated as valedictorian from Shawa Convent Catholic High School, located in Denver. For the next ten years, Eastwood would teach at her alma mater, forgoing a college education.

She was a self-taught botanist, and relied on knowledge from published botany manuals including Grey’s Manual and the Flora of Colorado. Her botanical knowledge led her to being asked to guide Alfred Russel Wallace up the summit of Grey's Peak in Denver. Eastwood was also a member of Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell's Colorado Biological Association.