Clements, Edith S. (Edith Schwartz)

Frederic Edward Clements, a leading botanist of the early twentieth century, was born 16 September 1874 in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Ephraim George and Mary Angeline (Scoggin) Clements. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Nebraska in 1894, followed by an M.A. two years later and a Ph.D. in 1898. Dr. Clements served on the faculty of the University of Nebraska’s Department of Botany from the time he was appointed laboratory assistant in 1894 until he advanced to full professor by 1907.

In 1899 Dr. Clements married Edith Schwartz, the daughter of New York businessman George Schwartz and Emma Young Schwartz. Edith and Frederic met at the University of Nebraska, where Edith was a teaching fellow in German, and Frederic was a botany professor. Under his influence, Edith herself began studying botany, receiving a Ph.D. in 1906 and becoming the first woman granted a doctor’s degree from the University of Nebraska. The couple then began a lifelong partnership traveling the country and collecting ecological research together.

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