Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Esau, Katherine, 1898-1997
- Abstract:
- The collection contains copies of all of Esau's publications and research notebooks. There is also personal and biographical material including her awards, correspondence, and family history.
- Extent:
- 8 linear feet (16 document boxes and 1 oversize box).
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
Katherine Esau Papers. UArch FacP 23. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains copies of all of Esau's publications and research notebooks. There is also personal and biographical material including her awards, correspondence, and family history.
Series I contains biographical and bibliographic material, including Esau's awards.
Series II consists of a few academic files relating to teaching and administration.
Series III contains all of Esau's publications.
Series IV contains research notes from 1936 to 1987.
Series V contains professional correspondence.
Series VI contains personal photographs and material related to Esau's family, especially her brother, Paul.
Series VII contains confidential professional recommendations and reviews.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Katherine Esau (1898-1997), professor of biology at the University of California Santa Barbara, is best known as the author of the textbooks Plant Anatomy (1953) and Anatomy of Seed Plants (1960) and for her research on plant diseases and viruses, particularly on agricultural crops. In addition to her textbooks, Esau published over 100 articles. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1940, was the sixth woman chosen as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1957), and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1989 by President George H.W. Bush.
Esau was born in 1898 to a German Mennonite family in Ekaterinoslav, Russia (now Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) where her father served as mayor in the years before the Russian Revolution. She studied agricultural science in Moscow, Russia, and, after the Revolution in Berlin, Germany, where her family fled to avoid persecution by the Bolsheviks. Shortly after Katherine's graduation in 1922, the Esau family immigrated to the United States and Katherine continued to study plant anatomy at the University of California, Davis. Since UC Davis did not yet award doctorates at that time, she was granted her doctorate for her UC Davis-based research through UC Berkeley in 1931, at which point she joined the faculty of the Biology Department at UC Davis.
In 1963, Dr. Esau moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she continued her research with former UC Davis botanist, and later UCSB Chancellor, Dr. Vernon I. Cheadle. Dr. Esau's research centered on the structure of plant tissues and the means by which viruses and other pathogens spread through the phloem. She was one of the first plant biologists to use an electron microscope and in 1969 was given an electron microscope solely for her use. She retired from teaching in 1965, but continued her research and writing until 1994.
Please also see http://www.botany.org/bsa/misc/esau.html for further biographical information.
- Acquisition information:
- Material donated by Jennifer Thorsch, executer of Esau's estate, 1995.
- Physical location:
- Del Sur, University Archives, 29A; 30B (oversize).
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Access to personal recommendations and reviews in Series VII restricted, pending review.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
- Preferred citation:
-
Katherine Esau Papers. UArch FacP 23. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062