The Comstocks of Cornell: John Henry Comstock and Anna Botsford Comstock

Anna Botsford Comstock (18541930) was an American artist, educator, conservationist, and a leader of the nature study movement. In 1895, she was appointed to the New York State Committee for the Promotion of Agriculture. In this position, she planned and implemented an experimental course of nature study for the public schools. Beginning in 1897, she taught nature study at Cornell University until her retirement as Professor in 1922. Comstock edited the Nature-Study Review from 1917 to 1923 and both wrote and illustrated several books, including Ways of the Six-Footed (1903), How to Keep Bees (1905), The Handbook of Nature Study (1911), The Pet Book (1914), and Trees at Leisure (1916). In 1923, the League of Women Voters chose Anna Botsford Comstock as one of the twelve greatest living American women to have “contributed most in their respective fields for the betterment of the world.” In 1988, she was inducted into the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Hall of Fame.