Archives and Manuscript Collections
Personal Papers
DR. WINONA H. WELCH PAPERS (1879-1987)
17.6 linear feet (17 boxes)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Winona
H. Welch (1896-1990) was a bryologist specializing in Fontinaceae, and
later, the Hookeraceae, at DePauw University in Greencastle Indiana. Welch
and Truman G. Yuncker were responsible for the development of the herbarium
at DePauw.
In 1987, Welch donated that herbarium, which she had named the Truman
Yuncker Herbarium upon his death in 1964, to The New York Botanical Garden.
On the occasion of her ninety-second birthday, a Winona H. Welch Festschrift
was published in Brittonia.
Winona Welch was born on a farm in Jasper County, Indiana, three miles
northeast of the town of Goodland. She had decided to go to DePauw as a
child because she liked the name. But first she had to earn the money.
She went for teacher training to Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute
and the College at Winona Lake, Indiana. She taught at the Wildasin, Hancock,
and Brook public schools during World War I.
In 1919, she entered the freshman class of DePauw. She wanted to major
in chemistry but was discouraged from doing so by the head of the department.
She turned to biology and from there developed a concentration in botany
under Truman G. Yuncker. As his assistant in the herbarium, she helped
mount 4,000 specimens collected by Earl Grimes from an area around Russellville,
Indiana. Yuncker encouraged her to go to graduate school at the University
of Illinois, where she studied plant taxonomy under William Trelease and
plant ecology under W.B. MacDougall. Her masters thesis was an enumeration
of the plants in Jasper County.
Welch began to specialize in bryophytes, she said, because she felt
sorry for them--they were being studied less frequently than the vascular
plants. She was given a major bryophyte research project by Charles Deam,
the noted Indiana botanist. He invited her to produce a volume on mosses
to accompany his Flora of Indiana. This was not published until
1957.
Welch received her Ph.D. in 1928 from Indiana University. Her dissertation
was a study of the growth of Vaccinium in the limestone soil of Monroe
County, a sponsored fellowship. After spending the next two years at Indiana
University. T. G. Yuncker invited her to return to DePauw as an assistant
professor of botany.
She stayed in Greencastle for the rest of her life. Her association
with Truman Yuncker extended past the Botany Department and Welch effectively
became a member of the Yuncker family. The Yuncker daughters, Betty-Jane
and Barbara, remembered Welch as a kindly aunt who babysat them over the
years and accompanied the family on vacations and field collections.
At DePauw, Yuncker and Welch developed the herbarium founded by Lucien
Underwood in 1891. Welch was curator of the cryptogamic herbarium while
Yuncker concentrated on the vascular plants. By the time the herbarium
was turned over to The New York Botanical Garden, it had grown to 133,
500 collections and was termed "the most significant acquisition made by
the Garden since 1945."
Welch was considered one of the outstanding teachers at DePauw, inspiring
her students to love nature. She taught comparative morphology and evolution,
histology and microtechnique, some systematics, ecology, mycology, plant
pathology, and laboratory sections of general botany. She was made a full
professor in 1939. In 1956, when Yuncker retired from teaching, she was
named department head. When Yuncker died in 1964 and Welch was named curator
of the herbarium, she named it in his honor. She served from 1964 to 1981
and as Curator Emeritus from 1981 to 1987. It was Welch who contacted The
New York Botanical Garden when she realized that DePauw would be unable
to allocate resources to maintain and expand their life's work.
Welch showed the same grace and equanimity over the delayed publication
of her monographs on Indiana Mosses and the Fontinalaceae. Although her
first work on Fontinalaceae was published in A. J. Grout's 1934 Moss
Flora of North America North of Mexico, and the entire monograph
was completed by 1949, it had to wait until 1960 when a grant from the
National Science Foundation supplied enough money to subsidize its publication.
It is considered one of the best monographs ever written in bryology. Likewise
the Indiana Mosses, although completed in the 1930's, did not appear
until 1957.
Aside from her teaching and research, Welch was an active participant
in professional and social organizations. Among the many scientific organizations
to which she belonged, she was a charter member of the American and International
Societies of Plant Taxonomists and held every executive office of the American
Bryological and Lichenological Society. In Greencastle, she belonged to
the Daughters of the American Revolution and Professional Women's Club,
and she attended the Women's Club with Mrs. Yuncker.
No biography of Winona Welch is complete without mention of her deep
religious faith. This sustained her from her childhood and she was an active
member of the Presbyterian Church in Greencastle. During her retirement
she organized a Bible class at the retirement community where she lived
with her sister.
As a woman scientist, Welch held her share of firsts: first woman head
of a department at DePauw and first woman president of the Indiana Academy
of Science among them. She was also active in the conservation field. In
1969, an area in Putnam County, Indiana was named the Winona Welch Botanical
Area to honor her contributions.
Although Welch lived her whole life in Indiana, she collected in all
fifty states and almost all of the provinces of Canada, as well as Panama,
the West Indies, and the South Pacific. In 1938 she spent six months in
European herbariums studying Fontinalaceae for her monograph. She was an
active participant in bryological forays where she met scientists such
as Howard Crum, William Steere, George Nichols, Margaret Fulford, the Dailys,
Lewis Anderson, and dozens more--all of whom became lifelong friends.
Her last years were spent in a retirement community, Asbury Towers,
overlooking the DePauw campus. It was there that her many friends feted
her life and work on the publication of the Brittonia Festschrift.
Winona Welch died on January 16, 1990.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The Winona Welch Papers (1879-1987) document Welch's Fontinaceae and
Hookeraceae research and her career as curator of the Truman G. Yuncker
Herbarium at DePauw University. Additionally, they document the transfer
of the herbarium to The New York Botanical Garden in 1987 and the issue
of Brittonia published as a Festschrift in Welch's honor. The collection
contains photocopies, manuscripts, correspondence, postcards, notes, index
cards, photographs, negatives, illustrations, and slides, and is
arranged into 15 series.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1: Correspondence
Series 2: DePauw Herbarium
Series 3 Welch Library
Series 4: Biographical Information
Series 5: Professional Associations
Series 6: Personal Files
Series 7: Festschrift
Series 8: Manuscripts and Publications
Series 9: Historic Trees
Series 10: Research Files
Series 11: Fontinaceae Literature
Series 12: Hookeraceae Literature
Series 13: Photographs
Series 14: Slides
Series 15: Negatives
Series 1 Correspondence, 1921-1988
9.5 lin. in. Arranged alphabetically.
This series contains Welch's professional correspondence generated through
her research, teaching, and professional associations. Other correspondence
is found in Series 2: DePauw Herbarium and Series 7: Festschrift. The Festschrift
correspondence contains solicitations and tributes used to compile the
Festschrift. Welch's personal correspondence, including congratulatory
letters on the occasion of the Festschrift, is found in Series 6: Personal
Files.
Series 2 DePauw Herbarium, 1879-1987
4.1 lin. ft. Arranged by subject.
This series contains records of herbaria incorporated into the DePauw
herbarium during Welch's stewardship. The list of contributors is contained
in an index file arranged alphabetically. Welch's own cryptogamic collections
are independently cited. Other independent herbariums found in the DePauw
collection are the Mary Haines and Lucy Dickerson Grose collections. Also
found here are the original plant accession logs and visitors' book for
the DePauw Herbarium. Correspondence in this series relates to incoming
and outgoing loans and determinations. Photographs of the transfer of the
herbarium are found in Series 13: Photographs. At the same time the DePauw
Herbarium was transferred, the Wabash College Herbarium was also moved.
Photographs and slides documenting this transfer are found in Series 13:
Photographs.
Series 3 Welch Library, n.d.
6.5 lin. in. Arranged alphabetically.
This series contains articles and books in Welch's personal library,
arranged alphabetically on index cards.
Series 4 Biographical Information, 1928-1982
2.5 lin. in. Arranged by subject.
Biographical clippings, including a newspaper obituary and a resume,
comprise this series. Also found here are an autobiography related to Dr.
Welch's childhood and adolescence, and memorabilia associated with her
academic career. Photographs, most of which were used in the Festschrift,
are found in Series 7: Festschrift.
Series 5 Professional Associations,
1907-1990
3.5 lin. in. Arranged by subject.
This series contains printed matter documenting the activities in the
many scientific associations in which Dr. Welch was active. Determinations
made by Dr. Welch for Elizabeth Britton are contained in the Sullivant
Moss Society folder.
Series 6 Personal Files, 1904-1988
4 lin. in. Arranged by subject.
Materials in this series relate to Dr. Welch's personal life, including
her activities in the Asbury Towers retirement community, the Presbyterian
Church, and the social clubs to which she belonged. Also included here
are personal materials related to her early mentors Henry S. Conard and
William Trelease. Correspondence in this series consists of congratulatory
notes on the Festschrift and letters from former students. Memorabilia
includes covers from her personal guest logs.
Series 7 Festschrift, 1987-1988
3 lin. in. Arranged by subject.
This series consists of manuscripts used in the 1988 Festschrift and
the correspondence soliciting them. Other materials related to the Festschrift
are photocopies of the photo layouts and captions in the volume, and photocopies
of biographical information and clippings sent by the DePauw University
archives.
Series 8 Manuscripts and Publications,
1924-1977
6.5 lin. in. Arranged chronologically.
Found here are manuscripts and reprints of Welch's botanical research.
Series 9 Historic Trees, 1922-1986
2.5 lin. in. Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Another of Welch's interests was historic and large trees, primarily
in Indiana but also in other States. This series contains her reference
files assembled on this subject.
Series 10 Research Files, 1876-1987
4.5 lin. in. Arranged alphabetically by subject.
This series contains files assembled by Dr. Welch on topics outside
her dedicated field. Especially noteworthy here is the documentation of
areas in Indiana included in the Natural Heritage Program.
Series 11 Fontinaceae Literature ,
n.d.
1.8 lin. ft. Arranged by subject.
This series consists of photocopies of the literature used by Dr. Welch
for her monograph on Fontinaceae, as well as notes and correspondence.
Series 12 Hookeraceae Literature, n.d.
6.5 lin. ft. Arranged by subject.
This series consists of photocopies of the literature used by Dr. Welch
for her resesearch on Hookeraceae, as well as notes and correspondence.
Series 13 Photographs, 1924-1987
3 lin. in. Arranged by subject.
This series contains photos documenting Welch's life, most of which
were included in the Festschrift volume. Here also are photographs documenting
the transfer of the DePauw and Wabash College herbariums to The New York
Botanical Garden. Other photos are a series of views of the Grand Canyon,
probably purchased in 1931. Negatives have been removed and are found in
the negative series.
Series 14 Slides, ca. 1942
1.3 lin. ft. Arranged by subject.
These are slides of Cryptogams and Angiosperms made by Earl Harger and
given to Dr. Welch in 1942. Also here are slides documenting the 1987 Herbarium
move.
Series 15 Negatives, 1987
1 fldr.
This series contains negatives used in the production of the 1988 Festschrift
honoring Dr. Welch.
RELATED COLLECTIONS
The New York Botanical Garden
RG4 The William Steere Records
PP The Truman Yuncker Papers
DePauw University Archives
The Winona H. Welch Collection
The Truman G.Yuncker Collection
Cornell University
The Albert Leroy Andrews Collection
Processed February 2000 by Laura Zelasnic under a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) PA-23141-98 and a
grant from the Harriet Ford Dickenson Foundation.
For more information and a complete description contact:
Susan Fraser, NYBG
Archivist
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library
The New York Botanical Garden
Bronx, NY 10458-5126
(718) 817-8879
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