New Book on Aven and Ruth Nelson Combines
Botany with Life Reflections

Freida E. Knobloch

A new book about the life of legendary Wyoming botanist Aven Nelson and his wife invites readers to reflect upon their own work and hearts.

University of Iowa Press recently published "Botanical Companions: A Memoir of Plants and Place," written by Frieda E. Knobloch, an interdisciplinary associate professor at the University of Wyoming.

"I wanted people to know about Aven and Ruth Nelson, especially Ruth and her contributions to Aven's work, as well as his contributions to her work," says Knobloch, who teaches in the UW American Studies and Women's Studies programs, and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. "Yet beyond Wyoming, botany and the Nelson team, I really wanted to ask readers to think about how they learn anything. What kinds of people made it possible for them to know what they know, or how is it that individuals learn to enjoy what they love.

"I wanted people to think about how the work we do with our heads and hands is connected to the work we do with our hearts," she says.

Aven Nelson arrived at UW in 1887, and became one of the country's leading botanists, widely acclaimed as the uncontested authority in the field of Rocky Mountain flora. He established UW's Rocky Mountain Herbarium, known today as the nation's leader in plant inventory and regional vascular plant biodiversity documentation. He served as UW president from 1917-22.

Nelson's second wife, Ruth Ashton, compiled field guides to Rocky Mountain plants and wrote botany articles for magazines.

Knobloch's book traces the Nelsons' field work, yet it turns away from being an entirely scholarly analytical work. She invites readers to ask how the affected emotional and intellectual lives of people are shaped by place. Each chapter asks readers to think about those big connections, she says.

She explains that academics do not talk about connections between their work and what it means to them personally, why they enjoy doing it, how they study, or relationships at home.

"I wanted academics to think too, about where their work comes from and how the ways they learned to think in school affects how they organize their life at home," says Knobloch.

Individuals wanting to read about the Nelsons and botany are certainly going to get that, Knobloch notes, but the core of the book deals with "how we organize our lives and our thinking."

One point of inspiration came to Knobloch when she realized Aven Nelson, after marrying Ruth, in 1931 again started his serial numbering of plants with number one. His first number one was in 1894, according to Knobloch, who studied Nelson's collecting books and actually visited many of the places where he collected.

"It was obvious that he started the numbers over again because he started a new life," she says. "This is when I started thinking about writing how botany fit into his personal life. Neither Aven nor Ruth kept a diary but I did see a few signs of Aven's personal life showing up in his list of plants."

The book, says Knobloch, turned into a reflection about what one's work and life say to each other intimately.

Knobloch, who joined the UW faculty in 1997, received her doctorate from the University of Minnesota. She is author of "The Culture of Wilderness: Agriculture as Colonization in the American West," published by the University of North Carolina Press.