Mrs Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (née Knight) (9 January 1858–25 February 1934)

American botanist and bryologist. Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton was born in New York City but spent much of her childhood in Cuba where her family ran a furniture factory and sugar plantation. In 1875 Britton graduated from Normal (now Hunter) College, New York City, and for the next 10 years worked there, building a reputation as a leading amateur botanist. By 1883 she had specialized in bryology and had published her first scientific paper in the field. On August 27, 1885 she married Nathaniel Lord Britton, an Assistant in Geology at Columbia College After which she resigned her teaching position at Normal College, and took charge of the moss collections at Columbia in an unofficial, unpaid capacity. Between 1886-88 she was editor of the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. Britton and her husband travelled to England in 1888 where she worked on mosses at the Linnaean Society of London. Inspired by the quality and quantity of Kew's herbarium, library, and gardens, the couple set about organizing an institution of comparable stature for New York. The New York Botanical Garden was incorporated in 1891, and in 1896 Nathaniel Britton became first director. The Columbia College herbarium was transferred there in 1899, and in 1912 Britton received appointment as honorary curator of mosses, a post which she held until her death. She helped found the Sullivant Moss Society in 1898. (It changed its name to the American Bryological Society in 1949.) Then in 1902, she founded the Wild Flower Preservation Society of America. Secretary and treasurer of the Wild Flower Preservation Society of America from 1902 until 1927. Also during that time, from 1916 to 1919, she was the president of the Sullivant Moss Society. During her career Britton published more than 340 scientific papers and had 15 species and 1 moss genus (Bryobrittonia) named for her. Elizabeth Britton died at home a in the Bronx following an apoplectic stroke; her husband Nathaniel survived her by four months.