Pioneer Information
Born in Rollinsford, New Hampshire, Roberts graduated from Smith College in 1905, earning an bachelor’s degree. She continued her education at the University of Chicago, where she received a master’s degree in 1911 and a Ph.D in plant physiology in 1915. Upon graduation she taught botany at Mount Holyoke College until 1917, when she began serving as an extension worker for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In 1919 she became an associate professor of botany at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and a year later was promoted to professor and department chair. In 1920, Roberts established on-campus a four-acre ecological garden dedicated to native plants. Named, the Dutchess County Outdoor Ecological Garden, it was developed over the next three decades by Roberts with the assistance of students and faculty, including landscape architect Elsa Rehmann. The space grew to incorporate seven acres and was planted with more than 600 different species found throughout the county, including trees, shrubs, vines, and mosses. With Rehman, Roberts wrote a series of articles for House Beautiful, which were collected in American Plants for American Gardens. The book, published in 1929 (republished 1996), was among the first to promote the use of native plants in landscape design.
Throughout Roberts’ tenure as department chair, she consulted national organizations regarding plant conservation. After retiring from Vassar in 1949, she consulted with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s department of food technology. Roberts was a member of the Botanical Society of America, the American Forestry Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She died in Salem, Massachusetts, at the age of 95 and is buried in Rollinsford, New Hampshire.
