Image courtesy of Photograph of Kate Furbish. Pejepscot Historical Society via Maine Memory Network. Used with permission.
Most people called her “Kate.” She was born Catherine Furbish in Exeter, New Hampshire, on May 19, 1834, the daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Lane) Furbish.
By the age of one year, the family had moved to Brunswick, Maine, where young Catherine developed a passionate interest for wildflowers. Like many other well-off young girls of her time, Kate acquired a ‘genteel education,’ which included painting and the study of French literature. She even spent a year in Paris perfecting her painting. In 1860 she attended a series of botany lectures in Boston by George L. Goodale, later a professor of Botany at Harvard, and as a result developed a serious interest in science. Continue reading
