Mexía, Ynés, 1870-1938

Biographical History

Ynés Enriquetta Julietta Mexía (1870-1938) was born on May 24, 1870, in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. She lived in Texas, Philadelphia, and Mexico City before she moved to San Francisco in 1908, where she became involved in local social work. Mexía spent much of her career as an independent researcher working for academic institutions such as Stanford University and the University of California. She attended the University of California intermittently as a special student from 1921 through 1938, though she did not earn a degree. There, she developed an enthusiasm for botany. In 1925, Mexía began a series of expeditions to remote locations in South and Central America and Alaska. She financed her expeditions through the sale of collected specimens. Mexía collected over 150,000 specimens and more than 500 species of plants. Many of the plants that she found were named in her honor. She died on July 12, 1938, in Berkeley, California.

Source

• Library of Congress. NACO. Control Number: no 97023190
• Mexia, Ynes Enriquetta Julietta (1870-1938). JSTOR Plant Science. Retrieved March 2012 from http://plants.jstor.org/person/bm000033443
• Sterling, K. B., Harmond, R. P., Cevasco, G. A., & Hammond, L. F. (1997). Biographical dictionary of American and Canadian naturalists and environmentalists. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=BdFuHC3DhwAC&lpg=PA529&ots=XYQcMFnvdT&dq=mexia%2C%20ynes&pg=PA530#v=onepage&q=mexia,%20ynes&f=false

Birth Date

1870

Death Date

1938

Topic

• Botany
• Social workers

Form/Genre

Personal name

Occupation

• Botanists
• Social workers