Guide to the Katherine Esau Papers

Laurie Hannah and Sarah Vitone

Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration

University of California, Santa Barbara

Harder South 9615

Santa Barbara, California 93106-9615

Phone: (805) 893-2401

Fax: (805) 893-4222

Email: hannah@lifesci.ucsb.edu

URL: http://ccber.lifesci.ucsb.edu/library

Guide to the Katherine Esau Papers

Collection number: MS-08

Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration

University of California, Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, California

Processed by:: Laurie Hannah and Sarah Vitone
Date Completed:: 2008
Encoded by:: Laurie Hannah

Descriptive Summary

Title: Katherine Esau papers

Dates: 1924-1997

Collection number: MS-08

Creator: Esau, Katherine, 1898-1997

Collection Size: 30 linear ft. 360 online items

Repository: Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (University of California, Santa Barbara). C. H. Muller Library

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9615

Abstract: The Katherine Esau papers represent the entire body of plant anatomy research Esau conducted from 1924 when she began research on curly top virus in sugar beets for the Spreckels Sugar Company to 1991 when she published her last article. The collection includes correspondence, research notes, photographs, biographical material, objects, and printed matter.

Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English German Russian

Selected digitized images from this collection.

view online item

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration, UC Santa Barbara. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Cheadle Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred Citation

Katherine Esau papers, MS-08, Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration. University of California, Santa Barbara.

Acquisition Information

Materials given to UCSB by Drs. Ray Evert and Jennifer Thorsch, Esau's executor and power of attorney. Part of the papers were donated to Davidson Library, while the bulk of the research papers and the plant anatomy slide collection and photographs are housed at the Cheadle Center.

Processing Information

Arrangement and description of this collection was funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Biography / Administrative History

Katherine Esau (1898-1997), a world-renowned pioneer in plant anatomy was a prodigious researcher and author. Born of a Mennonite family in Ekaterinoslav, Russia (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine), she and her family fled Russia after the Revolution and moved to Berlin. She completed her undergraduate education in Germany in agriculture and worked there in several jobs. In 1922 the family immigrated to the United States and settled in Reedley, California.

Esau's early interests in plant anatomy centered on how viruses act on plants and their effect on plant tissue and development. During her employment at the Spreckels Sugar Company in Salinas, California in 1924, she worked on the development of resistance to curly top virus in sugar beets. She was invited to continue her research on sugar beets through the graduate program at UC Berkeley and the field station at Davis, earning her PhD in 1932. After graduate school, she was hired at the agricultural college at Davis (now University of California) and became one of the first women on the faculty, staying there until 1963. While teaching, she continued her research on viruses and specifically phloem, the food conducting tissue in plants. Esau was a popular teacher and was known for her ability to speak and write clearly, synthesizing the 19th century anatomy literature in plant structure and development and integrating it with current research. In the 1950s, she collaborated with botanist Vernon Cheadle, who chaired the Botany Department, on further phloem research. When he came to UCSB to become Chancellor, she moved to Santa Barbara, establishing an electron microscope lab at UCSB, and teaching plant anatomy as Emeritus Professor before retiring in 1967. She continued her research well into her 90s, publishing 162 articles and five books.

Over her 64-year career, Esau received many awards and degrees including the President's National Medal of Science in 1989. Her many classic textbooks are still used today in botany classes around the world. Esau was very generous both in her teaching and in giving back to academia. She established three endowments in plant anatomy and, with her family, contributed generously to several Mennonite educational institutions. A number of excellent biographies of Esau as well as her own autobiography and oral history provide insight into this fascinating woman.

Scope and Content of Collection

The Katherine Esau papers represent the entire body of plant anatomy research Esau conducted from 1924 when she began research on curly top virus in sugar beets for the Spreckels Sugar Company to 1991 when she published her last article. The course of her research has been described often by Esau herself and is summarized in her autobiography, included in the papers.

Series I Correspondence: This first series of general correspondence includes letters of thanks from many people who found her teaching and writings helpful; requests for biographical information; and letters regarding her various publications. A small number are research-focused. Publishers' correspondence is located in Series II.

Series II Research and Publications: The bulk of the papers are included in this series and consist of publication drafts and reviews; published articles by Esau and her colleagues, most notably Vernon Cheadle, James Cronshaw, Lynn Hoefert, Robert Gill, and Jennifer Thorsch; her extensive reprint collection; and 15 binders with notes taken on hundreds of publications in plant anatomy from the late 1800s to the late 1900s. Esau's photograph collections form a large subseries and consist of negatives, prints, lantern slides and 35 mm slides, used to illustrate her many publications. These electron microscope images were derived from anatomical preparations she made of plant materials, many of which are also preserved at the Cheadle Center as fluid plant collections.

Series III Academic Activities: This series consists of files about the various chairs and teaching positions that were either endowed by her or named after her.

Series IV Professional Activities: This series describes Esau's lectures and contributed papers at symposia, as well as the many academic and scientific honors and awards she received for her research.

Series V Miscellaneous Subjects: This series consists of several folders about colleagues and printed matter about language and communication, a special interest of Esau who was known for her clear writing and speaking.

Series VI Personal Papers: These files include autobiographical materials by Esau, such as her handwritten autobiography, personal items, family history and correspondence, and family photos; and articles written about her by colleagues.

Arrangement

The papers are organized into 6 series: I. Correspondence, II. Research and Publications, III. Academic Activities, IV. Professional Activities, V. Miscellaneous Subjects, and VI. Personal Papers.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Plant anatomy

Growth (Plants)

Guayule--California

Virus diseases of plants

Esau, Katherine, 1898-1997

University of California, Davis

University of California, Santa Barbara

Angiosperms--Morphology

Photographs

scrapbooks

Other Finding Aids

See Guide to the Katherine Esau Papers 1870-1990 [bulk 1935-1987], UArch FacP 23, UCSB Davidson Library Special Collections.

Related Material

See the Vernon I. Cheadle Papers, Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration, UCSB and the Katherine Esau Papers, Special Collections, Davidson Library, UCSB. The Esau materials in Davidson Library were part of the original bequest to UCSB and contain additional family and professional correspondence, research notes, Esau's publications, family photos, and her awards.

Esau's microscope slide collection of thousands of plant anatomy preparations are located at the Cheadle Center. The photographs that are part of her papers were derived from these slides. An artifact collection of personal objects has been inventoried separately.

Collection Contents

Correspondence

Chronological

Box 1, Folder 1

Correspondence 1937-1987

Box 1, Folder 2

Correspondence 1988-1992

Subject

Box 1, Folder 3

Requests for Permission to Reproduce Material 1989-1992

Box 1, Folder 4

Dedication of Books 1977-1984

Box 1, Folder 5

World Center for Women's Archives, etc. 1940-1945

Scope and Content Note

Also includes U.S. Office of War information and letter and Esau's response in Russian.

Box 1, Folder 6

Biographical Directory Entries 1952-1987

Box 1, Folder 7

McGraw-Hill Book Company 1965-1978

Box 1, Folder 8

Eschrich, Walter 1965-1978

Box 1, Folder 9

O'Hern, Elizabeth 1987-1992

Box 1, Folder 10

Gressley, Gene M. 1972-1983

Research and Publications

Books

Box 1, Folder 11

Anatomy of Seed Plants - Page Proofs Ch. 3-8

Box 1, Folder 12

Anatomy of Seed Plants - Page Proofs Ch. 9-18

Box 1, Folder 13

Anatomy of Seed Plants - Page Proofs Ch. 19-Glossary

Box 1, Folder 14

Anatomy of Seed Plants - Publicity Materials

Box 1, Folder 15

Anatomy of Seed Plants - Reviews 1960-1977

Box 1, Folder 16

Plant Anatomy - Reviews 1965-1972

Box 1, Folder 17

"The Phloem" in Handbook of Plant Anatomy - Reviews 1970-1975

Box 1, Folder 18

Vascular Differentiation in Plants - Review 1970-1975

Box 1, Folder 19

Viruses in Plant Hosts - Reviews 1969-1971

Box 1, Folder 20

Correspondence About Esau's Publications 1969-1971

Box 1, Folder 21

Publisher's Correspondence 1950-1991

Box 1, Folder 22

Records of Graduate Students at UC Davis 1965-1991

Articles 1930-1991

Scope and Content Note

Complete set of articles written by Esau.

Plant Anatomy Reprint Collection

Scope and Content Note

16.5 linear feet of articles by scientists other than Esau on all aspects of plant anatomy. Esau also maintained over 40 boxes of index cards referencing these publications.

Notebooks

Scope and Content Note

13 binders contain notes taken from others' publications, research data, and some correspondence. Subjects include early work on viruses, research for the USDA Guayule Research Project, phloem studies, and general plant anatomy.

Photographs

Scope and Content Note

35 boxes of photographs from Esau's research in several different formats: 4 x 5 negatives of plant anatomical images, most of which are derived from microscope slides of plant dissections, glass plate negatives and lantern slides of various sizes, and black and white prints of varying sizes, most of which were used in publications.

Academic Activities

Box 1, Folder 23

Katherine Esau Professorship, University of Wisconsin 1987-1988

Box 1, Folder 24

Esau Chair, UCSB, Correspondence 1988-1994

Box 1, Folder 25

Katherine Esau Electron Microscopy Facility, UCSB 1990-1991

Box 1, Folder 26

Esau Endowed Chair, UC Davis 1987-1990

Box 1, Folder 27

Esau Chair in Plant Sciences, Bethel College 1988-1998

Professional Activities

Invited Lectures and Symposia

Box 1, Folder 28

Faculty Research Lecture, UC Davis 1945-1946

Box 1, Folder 29

Prather Lectures, Harvard University 1959-1960

Box 1, Folder 30

Botany Symposia, UC Davis 1984-1992

Scope and Content Note

Includes UC Davis 75th Anniversary and Katherine Esau International Symposium.

Cassette 1

Communication Channels Between Cells and Their Origin in Higher Plants Pt. 1 May 14, 1984

Cassette 2

Communication Channels Between Cells and Their Origin in Higher Plants Pt. 2

Photo_box 1

Communication Channels Between Cells and Their Origin in Higher Plants

Box 1, Folder 31

Invitational Lectures and Misc. Meetings 1956-1978

Scope and Content Note