The University of North
Carolina Herbarium has found several dozen specimens of Pycnanthemum
that were annotated by Elizabeth Boomhour in the 1940's. As
more of the collection is catalogued and databased, no doubt
more specimens that she examined will be found.
Elizabeth Gregory Boomhour
was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on 13 July 1912 to Anna
Dennison Boomhour and J. Gregory Boomhour. She graduated with
an A. B. from Meredith College (Raleigh, North Carolina) in
1931.
In 1932 she earned an A.M.
from Cornell University (Ithaca, New York). The title of her
thesis was "A Study of plant distribution in eastern North
America from the standpoint of limited and general range."
She returned to Meredith
College as an instructor from 1933 to 1937, and again in 1939
to 1941.
She was a graduate assistant
in the Botany Department at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina)
from 1937-1938, then a graduate fellow at the same institution
from 1938 - 1939. She earned her Ph.D. from Duke University
in 1941, and her thesis was entitled "A taxonomic study
of the genus Pycnanthemum." It for this work that
she examined the Pycnanthemum specimens at NCU.
Dr. Boomhour married Thomas
Kerr in 1942, and continued to be a financial supporter of Meredith
College until her death in 2005.
