Ada Hayden

"In the early days of spring, when the last snowbank melted away from the reddish brown grassland, lavender pasqueflowers lent a bluish cast to the rolling northern prairies. When our grandparents saw these flowers, they knew that winter had ended." --Ada Hayden

Country:USA
Lived:1884-1950
Education:

  • Bachelor of Science in Botany, Iowa State College, Ames, IA
  • Masters of Science in Botany, Washington University, St. Louis, IL
  • Ph.D. of Philosophy, Iowa State College (First woman Ph.D. at ISC)

 

A protector of Iowa's Prairies

Ada Hayden grew up in rural Iowa. She spent much of her childhood on her family farm outside of Ames. David and Christina Hayden set aside a tract of unplowed prairie on this farm for their daughter, Ada to explore. In this small remnant of Iowa's largest pre-settlement ecosystem Ada Hayden found her calling. Isely has called her "the matriarch of the Iowa preserve system" (with Tiffany, 1992), and Jan Lovell says of her "[She was] Like an attorney with a client unjustly facing death row, she argued her case through scholarly writings and public presentations--with particularly increasing frequency in the early 1940's (1987)." Dean Rossa, state ecologist says that Iowa's larger prairie preserves exist largely because of Hayden's work (Lovell, 1987). Ada Hayden was a woman of determination, and strong beliefs. She is an example of how one person can effect the world positively.

Hayden met Dr. Louis Pammel while still in high school. Pammel, Iowa State College Professor, conservationist, and the father of the Iowa park system, took an active interest in Hayden. He encouraged her to pursue her interests in botany, and the two became close friends. Hayden graduated with honors from Ames high School in 1904. Studying inder Pammel, she went on to what was then Iowa State College to earn a Bachelors degree in botany. A very active student, Hayden was a class officer, an honor student, a member of the literary society, and on the women's basketball team (Lovell, 1987). Washington University in St. Louis granted Hayden her Master of Science - Botany in 1910. Hayen went on to more graduate work at the University of Colorado and the University of Chicago, but it was in 1918 after returning to Iowa State College that Hayden become Doctor Hayden. Ada was the first women and fourth person to earn a Ph. D. from ISC. From 1910, when Pammel asked Hayden to teach at Iowa State College, to Pammel's death the two worked together (Lovell, 1987). Prior to Pammel's death most of Hayden's work was in collaboration with him. She was an accomplished artist and photographer, illustrating a number of Pammel's papers, as well as her own.

Hayden was an assistant professor at ISC from 1918 until her death. Her appointment as Research Assistant professor on the Agricultural Experiment Station took her to the lake region of Iowa in the summers after 1934. Between teaching and research Hayden still found time to be a member of many organizations. In her memoriam Martin states that Hayden was active in all the societies she became a member of, most notably those involving conservation. These include: Botanical Society of America, Ecologist's Union, Sigma Delta Epsilon, American Society of Range Management, Iowa Academy of Science, and others (1951). "Dr. Hayden was diversely talented and skilled...a knowledgeable floristic botanist and ecologist...an excellent photographer and an artist...She wrote poetry...outspokenly and emotionally dedicated to the prairie effort...her firmness of purpose, knowledge, and persistence were especially effective in a team effort. There, they more or less automatically rendered her a leader (Isely, 1989)."

The Iowa State College herbarium expanded as the foremost reference of Iowa plants as a direct result of Hayden's appointment as curator. Hayden's attention to detail, her hands-on building of the herbarium, and her active pursuit of new specimens were influential in the herbarium's growth. To honor Hayden's role as a pioneer preservationist, and her many contributions to the state, the herbaruim was renamed in her honor in 1988 (Isely, 1989). It is now the Ada Hayden Herbarium.

Throughtout her life Hayden's crusade was the preservation of Iowa's prairies. In her papers she stressed that the quest to save the prairies was an important one. Considerations involved in the management of prairie reserves (Hayden and Aikman, 1949) lists some of her reasons. The paper points out that the prairie preserves illustrate Iowa's historic pre-settlement flora and fauna. A preserve functions as a "reference specimen of vegetative structure" and an example of Iowa's native landscape. It also states the importance of reserves as field laboratories. In other works Hayden stresses the importance of having naitve prairie to aid in the study of the formation and loss of topsoil. Hayden was never far from the prairie. She often took her students to her family farm to study the very prairie tract that had caught her imagination as a child.

The Iowa Board of Conservation and the Iowa Fish and Game Commission in 1933 announced the Iowa twenty-five year conservation plan. This plan was the first to recommend the preservation of Iowa's prairies. It must have disheartened hayden, when ten years after its announcement the state had not yet purchased any prairie lands. A determined Hayden continued to fight for her cause. Hayden served as acting chair to the Conservation Commission of the Iowa Academy of Science continually promoting the acquisition of prairie land by the state. She made it her task to survey remnant prairies and recommend sights for preservation. Continually writing updates such as her paper A progress report on the preservation of prairie (Isely and Tiffany, 1992). In 1945 as a result of the work of Hayden and others with her same determination Iowa purchased its first virgin prairie preserve. This preserve was located in Howard county and was one recommended by Hayden for acquisition. Many other tracts listed by Hayden as in need for conservation are now part of the Iowa preserve system.

In the memoriam written by John Martin to Dr. Hayden for the Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science there is little mention of Hayden's contribution to prairie conservation. Perhaps this is because the state still had only two prairie preserves at the time of her death. The menoriam concentrates on Hayden's academic career, on her artist abilities, and on her ability to navigate a boat. It ends by stating that the State Conservation Committee named the Howard county prairie, the Ada Hayden Prairie, after her death. For many years Hayden was not recognized for her contributions. But as the long-lasting importance of Hayden's work is realized, Hayden the person is given more recognition. In addition to Ada Hayden Prairie and Ada Hayden Herbarium many papers have been written on Hayden in the last decade. In 1967 she received the Iowa Conservation Hall of Fame Award from the Iowa Chapter of the Wildlife Society (Isely, 1989). But by far the greatest tribute to this visionary of the conservation movement is the over 20 prairie preserves currently owned by the state.

Dr. Hayden in her speech to the Ames Women's club in 1946, asked club members to give a virgin prairie to Iowa for the state's centennial. She said, "Then there'll be a preserve for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren to enjoy--not as a picnic area--but as a cathedral, a monument to the past (Lovell, 1987)." As a student studying Iowa prairie in 1993, I read these words and realized my great-grandmother was born just 7 years after Ada Hayden. I am a part of the generation of people Dr. Ada Hayden worked so hard to preserve Iowa's native prairie for. If not for the work and dedication of Hayden and her colleages, I might not have had the opportunity to take the course this paper was written for, or to walk among the grasses as tall as I and dream what it would have been like to cross Iowa in a Conestoga wagon in settlement times. Four months ago I did not know the large role Hayden's work had played in my owm life. I did not even know that "Hayden" was a women. Today I commend and am grateful for her great foresight. It has been pointed out many times in class that the pre-settlement prairies seemed endless. Now it is endangered, but it is still present, thanks in large part to Ada Hayden. It will also be thanks to Hayden, when in some far off day in the 21st century, I take my grandchild to an open cathedral in Howard County, to tell her (or him, or them) what Iowa was like before it became farmland, and about the many people they have to thank that there is still a part of this past left for them to explore.

By Marcy M. Seavey
for Tallgrass Prairie Seminar 
with Dr. D. Smith .. Fall 1993
All rights reserved. Copy with permision only.
To obtain permision contact: seavey99@iscssun.uni.edu.
Literature Cited

  • Hayden A. and J. M. Aikmen. 1949. Considerations involved in the management of prairie reserves. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 56:133-142.
  • Isely, D. 1989. Ada Hayden: a tribute. Jour. Iowa Acad. Sci. 96(1):1-5.
  • Isely, D and L. Tiffany. 1992. Three botanists:bessey, Pammel, and Hayden Jour. Iowa Acad. Sci. 99(4):78-79.
  • Lovell, J. 1987. She fought to save Iowa's prairies. The Iowan 36(2):22-27, 56-57.

  • Martin J. 1951. Ada Hayden. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 58:53-55.

    Page maintained by Marcy and Ann
    Last modified December 30, 1997

I would like to thank Marcy M. Seavey for giving me 
permission to reprint  this  article in the Nature's Reading Room.
Helping to create an APPRECIATION ... AWARENESS and CONCERN
 for our environment through the POWER of education and photography.

 Thank you
 Gary D.Tonhouse

Nature's Reading Room Nature Photography by Gary D.Tonhouse Environmental Learning Center