The Mushrooms of Mary Banning: The Lost Work of a Woman in Science

A gorgeously illustrated edition of Fungi of Maryland, Mary Banning’s groundbreaking but long-overlooked scientific observations about mushrooms, in print for the first time

Mary Elizabeth Banning (1822–1903) was one of the first mycologists in North America, studying fungi at a time when women were not taken seriously by male-dominated scientific institutions. A natural storyteller and gifted botanical illustrator, she began a correspondence in 1878 with Charles H. Peck, a professional mycologist at the New York State Museum, and the two exchanged letters as well as specimens for more than a decade. Toward the end of her life, with her health failing and her money gone, Banning mailed her life’s work to Peck hoping he could help her publish it. Instead, a manuscript that should have become a canonical text in mycology was placed in a drawer at the museum, where it was lost to the world for nearly a century.

The Mushrooms of Mary Banning makes this magnificent work available for the first time, presenting full-color reproductions of all 175 stunning watercolor illustrations by Banning along with transcriptions of her richly detailed handwritten scientific descriptions. Banning was self-educated because women were mostly restricted from engaging in professional science. Here, she shares engaging accounts of her decades of pioneering fieldwork, providing a unique record of a brilliant naturalist doing what she loves despite the social conventions of her day.

Essential for mycologists and anyone interested in fungi, The Mushrooms of Mary Banning includes Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian’s incisive introduction, which sheds invaluable historical light on the challenges Banning faced as a woman doing research in a field reserved for men.