Juliet Rice Wichman

Juliet Rice Wichman (October 23, 1901 – November 5, 1987) was a Hawaiian conservationist, botanist, and author. Wichman worked to preserve Hawaiian culture, flora, and fauna through the creation of the Limahuli Garden and Preserve and through writings about ancient Hawaiian agriculture. She cofounded the Kauaʻi Museum and served as its first director when it opened in 1960.

Juliet Atwood Rice was born in Honolulu on October 23, 1901. Her parents were Charles Atwood Rice and Grace Ethel King. Charles was the son of William Hyde Rice, the last Governor of Kauai before the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Juliet grew up riding horses on Kauaʻi and learning Hawaiian lore from her grandfather.

She attended Miss Ransom's School in Piedmont, California, and studied at Vassar College.

Wichman had a strong interest in conserving the land of Kauai. In the early 1950s, when construction workers were looking for fill dirt for projects near Ke‘e, Wichman stood in front of a bulldozer to stop the destruction of a rock wall that was part of the foundation of the house of Lohiau.

In 1946, Wichman bought 1,000 acres on the north shore of Kauaʻi island. She began transforming a section of the land of Limahula Valley into a garden, removing the cattle that had grazed there for decades. She cleared land and worked to restore the terraces used to grow taro by Native Hawaiians. In 1967, Wichman donated thirteen acres of land to the National Tropical Botanical Garden to establish the Limahuli Garden and Preserve.

Wichman wrote several articles on gardening and on ancient Hawaiian agriculture, including Hawaiian planting traditions (1931). She collaborated with Dora Jane Isenberg Cole to write Early Kauai hospitality : a family cookbook of receipts, 1820-1920, published through the Kauai Museum Association in 1977. She was also the author of Amelia : a novel of mid-nineteenth century Hawaii (1979) and a children's book, Moki learns to fish (1981), teaching the Hawaiian words for the numbers one through ten.

She was active in many organizations, including serving as the chairman of the garden section of the Mokihana Club and chairman of the botanical section of the Kokee Natural History Museum. During World War II, Wichman co-founded the Hawaiian unit of the American Red Cross. Wichman was the chair of the committee that founded the Kauaʻi Museum and helped raise funds for the building to house it. When the museum opened in 1960, she served as its first director. She was also one of the original members of the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens Foundation, which successfully lobbied for the 1964 charter from Congress that established the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden (later known as the National Tropical Botanical Garden).

Wichman was married twice. Her first husband, Holbrook Goodale, was a pilot on Pan Am clipper flights; he died in an airplane crash on Oahu. She married her second husband, Frederick Warren Wichman, in 1927. She had three sons: Holbrook Wichman Goodale, Charles Rice Wichman, and Frederick Bruce Wichman. Their home in Wailua was named "Pihanakalani". Later they moved to Oregon, then Menlo Park, California.

She died at age 86 on November 5, 1987.

In 1981, Wichman was honored as one of the Living Treasures of Hawaii by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii.

Formerly known as the Hawaiian Heritage Gallery, the Juliet Rice Wichman Heritage Gallery is located within the Kauaʻi Museum and displays items that belonged to the island's monarchs. The Juliet Rice Wichman Botanical Research Center at the National Tropical Botanical Garden is the hub of the organization's scientific and conservation operations. The Limahuli Garden she established provides educational tours and protection for the native environment.