Agnes Chase's Scientific Illustration
Agnes Chase's Scientific Illustration
A deep devotion to science and civic engagement
Agnes Chase (1869–1963), a diminutive but determined botanist, worked as a scientific illustrator and then as a renowned curator of grasses at the United States National Museum. Denied access to funded expeditions because she was a woman, Chase fearlessly set off on self-financed solo field trips across South America in the early 20th century. Chase was also among the radical women's suffrage demonstrators arrested for picketing the Wilson White House in 1918–1919, and she participated in the jailed suffragists’ hunger strike.