Mary Dickerson Biography Project
A book in development.
Mary Cynthia Dickerson (1866-1923) was a herpetologist and the first curator of the American Museum of Natural History’s department of herpetology. She authored several popular books, including one on moths and butterflies (1901) and another on the frogs and toads of North America (1906). Dickerson participated in field biology trips for collecting, described new species, and trained notable herpetologists who helped shape the field. She died tragically, suffering from a mysterious and debilitating psychiatric condition.
She is largely a forgotten scientist, a woman who helped shape the modern field of herpetology; no book-length biography has ever been written about her. Using archival research, this biography will document her life, her influence on herpetology, and her mental decline. Furthermore, it will contextualize her work, especially as it sits alongside the 20th-century inflection and maturation of biology.