Biographies
The first biography contains information which provides us with a history of Jenny’s pressed plant collection and manuscript, bringing us through the 1780s history of this work and providing us with some insights into the individuals whose hands it passed through on its way to Germany. According to the author of the 1787 article work published in News Magazine for the Arts, Jane’s manuscript was a collection of 341 sheets of paper, of which about 170 have complete plant descriptions. The second biography is based upon a review by Stephen Britten [of the Britten and Brown series on local flora] of previous writings published about Jane’s work in the German documents, especially those authored by Pritzel, which are reviewed on a separate page.
The most important thing to note here about the first description of Jane’s work is the listing of plants provided, and the detailed history of her manuscript provided in several footnotes and in the main text of this work. Along with Cadwallader’s work, this is the earliest detailed description of plants native to Coldenham, and similar parts of the Hudson Valley.
(more biographies to come)
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This next biography of Jane was produced more than a century later by British botanist James Britten. James Britten’s contribution to the review of her life includes additional insights into Jane that we otherwise might not have. It is important to realize that Britten’s writing is a recapitulation of a lot of Jane’s life history, to which missing information has been provided whenever possible. An interesting dilemma we have to keep in mind about Britten’s work is that his review comes nearly 150 years after Jane’s work was completed. Britten of course lacked any direct or indirect first hand experience with Jane’s friends, professional comrades and the like. This work therefore may have some limits to its value due to lack of direct hand experience with Jane’s writings until more than a century later. This is not the issue with the prior biography of Jane provided on this page.
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[Note the above sequence of possession for the originals. Schrader’s item appears on a separate page.]
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Brian Altonen, MPH, MS 
