The University of North Carolina Herbarium has
catalogued to date about 20 vascular specimens collected by Mary Gwendolyn
Burton Caldwell, who signed all her specimens as “Gwen Burton.” Ms. Burton collected around Chapel Hill,
Orange County, North Carolina in 1939, and at the Highland Biological Station
in Macon County, North Carolina in 1940.
As NCU's collection continues to be catalogued, it is possible that
more specimens will be found. The
macrofungi in NCU’s holdings will be catalogued as part of the Macrofungal Collection
Consortium project; imaging and
databasing of commenced in October, 2012 at NCU. As of February, 2013 a half
dozen Boletus collected by Gwen
Burton have been found.
Mary Gwendolyn Burton
Caldwell
photo from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution 1
Mary Gwendolyn Burton was born on 22 May,
1917 in Monetta, Saluda County, South Carolina. Her father, DeWitt Talmadge Burton, was a
graduate of Orangeburg Academy, while her mother, Fawny Vester Howell, was a
graduate of Leesville College.2
“Gwen” graduated from Ridge Spring High School in 1934, then earned an
A.B. from Lander College in Greenwood, South Carolina in 1938.3
Ms. Burton arrived in Chapel Hill as a
graduate student in the Botany Department in 1938. “[She] thought the world of some of the UNC
professors who mentored her in the typically male-dominated field… They would
hike through the mountains and study the different plants and mushrooms and
fungi. I think for her it was an
idyllic period when she was in school back in the ‘30’s,” said her son.1 Gwendolyn Burton studied mycology with Dr. William
Chambers Coker and Dr. John
Nathaniel Couch, and
graduated with a Masters in 1940; the title of her thesis was “Oogenesis and
fertilization in Pythiopsis intermedia.”
Ms. Burton became a Research Associate in
the Department of Plant Pathology Athens at the University of Georgia in
1940. A frequent collaborator and
co-author at UGA was Julian Howell Miller (1890-1961).
In Athens, Ms. Burton met Harmon W.
Caldwell, Ph.D., President of the University of Georgia. They were married
in December 1944, and he continued to serve as UGA’s president until
1948. The Carolina Alumni Review
noted, “Mrs. Harmon W. Caldwell (MA ’40) may have conflicting loyalties next
September 27 when Carolina and Georgia play football in Chapel Hill… Dr.
Caldwell became President of Georgia in 1935, becoming at 36 years of age one
of the youngest university presidents in the country.”4 The Caldwells moved to Atlanta, Georgia and
Harmon Caldwell served as the chancellor of the Georgia University System
from 1949 until 1964. He died in 1977.1
Together they had two children,
Harmon W. Caldwell, Jr. and Edea M. Caldwell.
“She never let her subscriptions to
scientific journals lapse…she filled her garden with unusual plants.”1
Gwendolyn Burton Caldwell died of heart
failure at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta on 18 June, 2005. She is buried in the Caldwell-Burton Family
Cemetery in Mount Carmel, Meriwether County, Georgia.5
The University of Georgia offers the
Caldwell Plant Pathology Graduate Scholarship in honor of Gwendolyn Burton
Caldwell.
Publications:
Miller, J.H. and Gwendolyn Burton (1942) Georgia
Pyrenomycetes, III. Mycologia 34(1): 1-7.
Miller, Julian H. and M. Gwendolyn Burton
(1943) Studies
in some Venezuelan Ascomycetes collected by C.E. Chardon and A.A. Muller. Mycologia
35(1): 83-94.
Miller, Julian H. and M. Gwendolyn Burton
(1943) Study
of Bagnisiopsis species on the
Melastomataceae. Mycologia 35(3): 312-334.
Miller, Julian Howell, M. Gwendolyn Burton and
Troy Manning (1945) A statistical
study of the relations between flax fiber numbers and diameters and sizes of
stems. Journ. Agr. Res. 70: 269-281.
SOURCES:
1.
Crenshaw, Holly (2005) Obituary:
Gwendolyn Caldwell, 88, loved to learn. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Wednesday, 22 June 2005.
2.
Alumni
Record for Mary Gwendolyn Burton,
filed September 15, 1938, Alumni Office, South Building, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
3.
Alumni
Records, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
4.
The Alumni Review,
February 1947. 35(5): 180.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
5.
Find A Grave
Memorial #27667741. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=27667741
