Mary Agnes Chase (1869–1963) was an American botanist who specialized in agrostology, the study of grasses. Although lacking formal education past elementary school, Chase was able to rise through the ranks as a botanist at the United States Department of Agriculture, beginning as an illustrator under the tutelage of Albert Spear Hitchcock, and eventually becoming a senior botanist, overseeing the USDA's Systematic Agrostology department. Chase conducted fieldwork abroad in Europe and South America and published several books, including the First Book of Grasses: The Structure of Grasses Explained for Beginners, which was later translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Additionally, Chase was recognized for her work as an agrostologist with numerous awards, including a Certificate of Merit issued by the Botanical Society of America in 1956. Chase was also an active suffragist and took part in demonstrations organized by the Silent Sentinels, a group established by members of the National Woman's Party. Although Chase's participation in this movement was not always well received by her peers in the scientific community, she nevertheless remained committed to the cause of women's suffrage.
Life and early career
Mary Agnes Meara was born in 1869, in rural Iroquois County, Illinois but moved to Chicago several years later following the lynching of her father (an Irish railway worker named Martin John Meara), at which point the family changed their last name to Merrill. Mary Agnes was the third of six children and, upon moving to Chicago, was raised by her mother, Mary Brannick Meara, and maternal grandmother. Although Chase attended school as a child, her formal education ended after she completed elementary school. On January 21, 1888, she married William Ingraham Chase. He was the grandson of Bishop Philander Chase, who became the guardian of his brother’s son, Salmon P. Chase, former Governor of Ohio, US Senator, US Secretary of the Treasury and 6th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Her husband died a year after their marriage.
She was working as a proofreader for Inter-Ocean Newspaper and taking botany courses offered by the University of Chicago when she was hired by E.J. Hill to do illustrations for his publications. Through her collaboration with Hill, Chase's illustrations became visible to a wider audience, including Charles Frederick Millspaugh, who hired her to do illustrations for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. In 1903, Chase began working as an illustrator in the Division of Agrostology at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and spent her first two years there in the Division of Forage Plants. Beginning in 1905 Chase worked under the instruction of Albert Spear Hitchcock who, after observing Chase's skill as an illustrator, came to regard her as his collaborator instead of his mentee.
In 1910 and 1915 Chase and Hitchcock coauthored two works on North American species of grasses from the genus Panicum, and in 1917 they released Grasses of the West Indies, which drew heavily on Chase's fieldwork in Puerto Rico four years earlier. In 1911, Hitchcock participated in the biological survey of the Panama Canal zone, a trip sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. After Hitchcock returned from this expedition he requested that the remaining $54 of his grant be given to Chase to help fund her own fieldwork. This request was denied by a Smithsonian official who responded, "I doubt the advisability of engaging the services of a woman for the purpose [of the expedition]."
Chase and the Women's Suffrage Movement
While “Chase's power within her institution was at times undermined by her own political activities,” she believed it was essential to address gender discrimination if it was negatively impacting a woman's ability to achieve success both socially and professionally. Chase was forced to disregard the potential damage that her support for women's rights could have on her career as a respected agrostologist in order to succeed as a legitimate advocate for the cause.