Ethel Grace Stiffler
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Ethel Grace Stiffler | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ethel Grace Stiffler, photographed by Julian P. Scott | |
| Born | September 8, 1899 Parkton, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | February 9, 1995 (age 95) Tucson, Arizona, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Botanist, college professor |
| Spouse | Edwin Francis Carpenter |
Ethel Grace Stiffler Carpenter (September 8, 1899 – February 9, 1995) was an American botanist and college instructor; she studied the desert plants of the American Southwest. She is best known today for her personal writings and photographs, documenting life in Tucson in the 1920s and 1930s.
Stiffler was born in Parkton, Maryland, the daughter of Jacob Clemm Stiffler and Bertha Cross Stiffler. Her father owned a general store and was the town's postmaster.[1] She graduated from Goucher College with a bachelor's degree in 1922, and earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1924.[2][3] She held a graduate fellowship in botany at Cornell University in 1927 and 1928.[4]
Career
Stiffler taught botany at the University of Arizona from 1925 to 1927. She taught at Wilson College in Pennsylvania and American University in Washington, D.C., for a few years, then returned to Tucson in 1933.[5] She could not return to university teaching after marriage, but was active in campus life as a faculty wife, and in the Town and Gown Club.[6][7]