Fanny Dickerson Bergen (1846 – 1924) was an American folklorist, ethnobiologist and author.
Fanny D. Bergen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Fanny Dickerson 1846 |
| Died | 1924 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Folklorist |
| Spouse | Joseph Young Bergen |
| Children | 1 |
Biography
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Bergen was born Frances Dickerson in Mansfield, Ohio on 4 February 1846, to Thomas Dickerson and Rachel Gault of Richland County. Bergen worked as a teacher in old Woodville school then, Cleveland, Chicago and eventually at her alma mater Antioch College. Bergan attended Mansfield High school followed by Antioch College, Ohio graduating in 1875.[1] During her time there her husband botanist Joseph Young Bergen had also attended, completing his master's while she was there. They married in 1876.[2][3]
Bergen was a folklorist who worked on superstitions and customs. She had a specific interest in horticultural superstitions. As a result of her work documenting American immigrant animal and plant lore Bergen is regarded as being an early female pioneer of ethnobiology.[4]
She worked with her husband on a number of botanical books. In 1879 Bergen became ill with a spinal disease which invalided her. She was also a contributor to Popular Science Monthly and Journal of American Folklore. She was considered an authority on folklore despite her inability to go into the field. Her grandmother told her stories from her life in Lake George, New York and talked about quilts. Very few patterns had been recorded when Bergen photographed and wrote about them in her article which was one of the earliest collection quiltmakers of names and designs in 1894.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Bergen lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts where they had son Thomas Dickerson Bergen who was also a writer on Italian literature. He drowned in 1908. Bergen died in Boston in 1924.[11][7][8][14]
Bibliography
edit- Animal and plant lore; collected from the oral tradition of English speaking folk, (1899)
- Current superstitions: collected from the oral tradition of English speaking folk, (1896)
- The development theory, (1884)
- Glimpses at the plant world, (1894)
- A primer of Darwinism and organic evolution, (1890)
References and sources
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- ^ School, Mansfield High (2016-10-23). "Mansfield High School yearbook, Mansfield (Ohio), Richland County : Mansfield High School : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "Joseph Young Bergen". Science. 46 (1190): 379–380. 1917-10-19. Bibcode:1917Sci....46..379.. doi:10.1126/science.46.1190.379. ISSN 0036-8075. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ College, Antioch (2016-10-23). "Catalog for sessions : Antioch College". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Svanberg, Ingvar; Łuczaj, Łukasz (2014). "The Contributions of Early Women Ethnobiologists" (PDF). Pioneers in European ethnobiology. Monika Kujawska and Ingvar Svanberg. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet. p. 283. ISBN 978-91-554-8844-4. OCLC 896814661.
- ^ "Fanny Dickerson Bergen: Folklorist". Barbara Brackman's MATERIAL CULTURE. 2018-10-31. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "Bergen, Fanny D. 1846-1924 (Fanny Dickerson) [WorldCat Identities]". WorldCat.org. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ a b "Bergen, Fanny D. (Fanny Dickerson), 1846-1924 - Library of Congress". LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ a b Bronner, S.J. (2002). Folk Nation: Folklore in the Creation of American Tradition. American Visions: Readings in American Culture. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7425-8023-7. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Blake, S.F.; Atwood, A.C. (1967). Geographical Guide to Floras of the World: An Annotated List with Special Reference to Useful Plants and Common Plant Names. Hafner. p. 286. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ True, Rodney H. (1918). "Joseph Young Bergen". Botanical Gazette. 66 (5): 455–458. doi:10.1086/332366. JSTOR 2469205. S2CID 84804152.
- ^ a b "Woman explored all things superstitious in late 1800s". Coloradoan. 2014-03-29. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "Children's Column. - STORY OF A JOHNNY-CAKE. - Christian Colonist (SA : 1878 - 1894) - 2 Jun 1893". Trove. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "29 Jun 1895, 5 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Report : Harvard University. Class of 1901". Internet Archive. 2016-10-23. Retrieved 2020-05-22.