In our April 2024 bulletin, we featured an article about Grace Hall Griswold, a faculty member and entomologist from Cornell University. In response to that article that was also shared on our website, we received the following correspondence:
I was extremely excited to see the article on your website about “Grace Hall Griswold, An Early Woman of Science” because I have been working on a biography of Dr. Griswold! This is part of my sabbatical project on early female pioneers in entomology. I spent the fall semester at Cornell working in the archives to learn more about Dr. Griswold, and found some interesting things. For example, attached is a picture of Dr. Griswold doing field work. I would be happy to share my information with you when I have had a chance to process everything. This work will ultimately be published, though not for a bit of time [I’m currently working at the Natural History Museum in London researching a British female entomologist named Maud Haviland. Ultimately, she and Dr. Griswold will be the two cornerstones of my publication].
In my research at Cornell, one thing caught my attention that I’ve been trying to figure out how to follow up on. One of the articles I read mentioned that she had left a biographical manuscript among her possessions when she died. I would dearly love to track down that manuscript if it still exists. To the best I can determine, it was not left to Cornell. Could you possibly help with information on it?
Grace Griswold has been on my mind a long time – ever since I was an entomology graduate student at Cornell, where I got my PhD in 2001. She was a department legend even 50+ years after her death.
Thanks very much for your great article! I have deep respect for Dr. Griswold and what she accomplished.
Regards,
Kelley J. Tilmon, Ph.D.
Professor, State Extension Specialist: Field Crop Entomology
Department of Entomology, Ohio State University
If you have any information that could help Kelley, please send us an email at contact@griswoldfamily.org.