Mary Banning: One of the First Female Taxonomists in Mycology

Authored by Kate Wyer

This letter, written by Mary E. Banning to Charles H. Peck in March of 1890, outlines her continued attempts to find a publisher for her groundbreaking book on Maryland’s fungi. Peck was her mentor and a well-respected mycologist. However, even with his help, Banning couldn’t overcome the sexist norms within the larger field.

Mary Elizabeth Banning was born on April 6, 1822, on Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore. In her lifetime, she would discover and illustrate twenty-one new species of fungi. However, due to sexist gatekeepers in the sciences, she would die virtually unknown, unrespected, and in poverty. Elevating her story and accomplishments is an act of social justice, one in keeping with St. John’s Vincentian lens of transparency when one asks, “who determined what objects should be preserved for the purpose of communicating human knowledge as it exists within our cultural heritage institutions and whose perspective am I representing?” (Angel n.d., 5).

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