page_title: Mary Cynthia Dickerson
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Mary Cynthia Dickerson / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of Moths and Butterflies (1901)
context_page_description: Mary Cynthia Dickerson was an American herpetologist and the first curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, as well as the first curator in the now defunct department of Woods and Forestry. For ten years she was the editor of The American Museum Journal, which was renamed Natural History during her editorship. She published two books: Moths and Butterflies and The Frog Book as well as numerous popular and scientific articles. She described over 20 species of reptiles and is commemorated in the scientific names of four lizards.
context_section_description: Mary Cynthia Dickerson was born in Hastings, Michigan, on March 7, 1866 to parents Wilbur and Melissa Dickerson. In her early life she cared for her three small brothers. In a memorial, Maud Slye wrote "She put herself through college at a time when it was not easy for a girl to do this." She attended the University of Michigan from 1886 to 1887 and from 1889 to 1891, after which she taught high school biology in Michigan and Illinois from 1891 to 1895. She then attended the University of Chicago, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1897. From 1897 to 1905 she was head of zoology and botany at Rhode Island Normal School, where she led students on nature walks in Providence and collected observations for her books Moths and Butterflies (1901) and The Frog Book (1906).
  Moths and Butterflies, illustrated with Dickerson's photographs, was well received. A reviewer for The American Naturalist opened "This is really an excellent book, both in conception and in execution." A review in the Journal of Education stated "This work must, simply on the ground of merit, be placed in the front rank of nature studies... Not only is its descriptive matter free from everything like pedantry and professionalism, but the illustrations fairly make the study eloquent."  A mixed review by the American Journal of Psychology wrote Dickerson "has the fatal error of the pedagogue that the number of topics and range must be sacrificed to thoroughness of method. Happily, however, she does not carry this principle, which has trivialized so many text books, so far as to interfere with the really great merit of her book."
  The Frog Book, published in 1906, explored the frogs and toads of North America.  "For many years amateur naturalists and nature-study teachers have been asking for a popular reference book on our common amphibians" wrote a reviewer in The Independent, "However, the need of a popular frog book is now well met". A reviewer for Science wrote: "Not only are the habits of the common frogs well portrayed, but the eggs and tadpoles are figured, as has not been done before". A more mixed review for The Nature Study Review writes "the work is more than interesting, it is quite accurate and very usable," but notes "the life-histories are a disappointment from the viewpoint of the scientist. It would seem that the 'ten years of observation and study' to which the author confesses should have furnished more accurate data on such fundamental points as breeding seasons, number of eggs laid, quantity and kinds of food, etc."
  From 1907 to 1908 she was an instructor at Stanford University, where she co-authored three papers with ichthyologist David Starr Jordan, including the description of a new species of halfbeak. She began working at the American Museum of Natural History in November 1908, and spent the remainder of her career at the institution.
caption: Cover to Moths and Butterflies
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