Josephine Tilden

Josephine Elizabeth Tilden (March 24, 1869 – May 15, 1957) was an American expert on algae. She was the first woman scientist employed by the University of Minnesota. Tilden established a research station in British Columbia which lasted only until 1906. Tilden traveled widely and particularly around the Pacific Ocean to collect unusual samples of flora. Tilden also created an important collection of algae which she took from the university and kept in her house for further study after she retired.

Conway MacMillan sitting by Josephine Tilden with colleagues on the Gull Lake Expedition in 1893

Josephine Tilden's 1897 diagram of Algal Stalactites

Tilden was born in Davenport, Iowa and grew up in Minneapolis. She showed an early interest in plants and she had published a paper on the local botany before she began her association with the University of Minnesota. In 1895, she earned a bachelor's degree followed by a masters the following year from the university. In 1897 she wrote a paper on algal stalactites, a phenomenon that she had discovered near a geyser in Yellowstone Park.

The Seaside Station

She became an instructor at her alma mater, where she took a peculiar interest in algology, becoming the first woman scientist on the staff. Her superiors at the university were concerned, but they agreed to fund this interest in return for her promise to commit to the subject for at least five years. In fact, Tilden gave a commitment that would last until she died. Her first trip to the Pacific was a journey to Vancouver Island. On many of these journeys she was accompanied by her mother.

Tilden was the leading force of the establishment of the Minnesota Seaside Station in Canada. She discovered an untouched area of land in British Columbia which had a good environment for observing and collecting algae. The land owner gave her the area for free, and she chose four acres that were ideal to create an algae research station. The area was known as Botanical Beach in what is now Juan de Fuca Provincial Park in British Columbia. Tilden used her own funds to build the research station. In 1902 Conway MacMillan published a long description of the new station claiming a benefit of its location in that all the students had to take an important journey across North America to get there. Tilden became an assistant Professor in 1903; she was the first female scientist employed by the University of Minnesota. Tilden in turn offered this land and the buildings that were on it to her university. Despite the entreaties of Professor Conway MacMillan and herself the university refused to take responsibility for land in a different country. MacMillan resigned over this issue.

The Minnesota Seaside Station was replaced by the more local Lake Itasca Forestry and Biological Station in 1909. The following year, and despite not having a doctorate, Tilden was made a full professor of the University of Minnesota. She also published the Algae of Minnesota in 1910 which covered "The Myxophyceae of North America and adjacent regions including Central America, Greenland, Bermuda, the West Indies and Hawaii". An academic review of her book by George Francis Atkinson noted that the work was gathered together in one place, but it welcomed a second volume that might make a "thorough and critical study of this material, comparing it with type material" then it will be a "valuable contribution to American Algology".

Tilden traveled widely especially around the Pacific Ocean to gather dried plants. She organized a trip around the world for ten students whose sole purpose was to gather algae and other samples. Tilden charged the students to accompany her and even obtained loans and grants to fund the travel. The trip caused Tilden to gain a reputation for a lack of integrity. She never obtained formal permission for the trip and although she directed unbudgeted items to the university, one of the loans she undertook was never repaid. It is said that on her return she was asked "to retire".

She retired in 1937 having gathered an important collection of algae. The Chair of the department, Professor Rosenthal, who had a vendetta running with Tilden, made sure that she could not borrow any samples from the university's herbarium. But Tilden outwitted him. She appealed to the university's board who granted her request that she should be allowed to take her collection with her. The collection was installed on one floor of her new home in Florida and she used this to publish further research.

In 1935, she published The Algae and Their Life Relations, which was the first scientific work by an American scientist to describe the characteristics of marine and freshwater flora.

The standard author abbreviation Tilden is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.

Tilden died in Florida in 1957.

Tildenia is a genus of moth in the family Gelechiidae that was named by C.C. Kossinskaja in 1926 to honor Tilden. Her collection of plants was left to a friend but he offered it to Minnesota University. There is a small museum about her. One of her biographers summarized his account with the title "Algae of Acrimony".