Frances Theodora Parsons

Francis Theodora Parsons (December 5, 1861 - June 10, 1952), which was originally published as Mrs. William Starr Dana, was an American naturalist and writer who worked in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She has written several books, including a very popular guide to American wildflowers. Francis Theodora Smith was born in New York in 1861 to Denton Smith, a tea merchant, and Harriet Shelton Smith. She had a sister, Alice Josephine (1859–1909), who became an artist and later illustrated her two books. She received a private education at Miss Comstock School. It is said that she gained a love of botany in the summer spent with her grandparents in rural New York. Her first husband, William Starr Dana, whom she married in 1884, was a naval officer. He died in the flu epidemic of 1890, and six years later she married James Russell Parsons, a politician in New York State and later a diplomat. They had a son, Russell, and a daughter, Dorothea, who died in childhood. James himself died in 1902 in a car accident in Mexico City. After the death of James, Parsons moved to New York, where she was an active supporter of the Republican Party and the Progressive Party. She served in various official positions on party committees and led the successful campaign of Fiorello H. La Guardia to become president of the Aldermen Council in New York. She was also a supporter of women's suffrage. After losing her first husband, Parsons sought solace in long walks with her friend illustrator Marion Satterly. These trips prompted her first and most important botanical work, How to Know Wildflowers (1893), which was the first field guide to North American wildflowers. It was a sensation, the first listing in five days. How to recognize wild flowers received positive reviews from Theodore Roosevelt and Rudyard Kipling, among others.