207-519: Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald , she became a freelance writer , producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work
414-549: A limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state. The Everglades experiences a wide range of weather patterns, from frequent flooding in the wet season to drought in the dry season. Throughout the 20th century, the Everglades suffered significant loss of habitat and environmental degradation . Human habitation in the southern portion of the Florida peninsula dates to 15,000 years ago. Before European colonization,
621-488: A "dry season" (winter) which runs from November through April, and a "wet season" (summer) which runs from May through October. About 70% of the annual rainfall in south Florida occurs in the wet season – often as brief but intense tropical downpours. The dry season sees little rainfall and dew points and humidity are often quite low. The dry season can be severe at times, as wildfires and water restrictions are often in place. The annual range of temperatures in south Florida and
828-466: A King" was a second-place finalist in the O. Henry Award competition in 1928. During the 1930s, she was commissioned to write a pamphlet supporting a botanical garden called "An argument for the establishment of a tropical botanical garden in South Florida." Its success caused her to be in demand at garden clubs where she delivered speeches throughout the area, then to serve on the board to support
1035-782: A Quaker colony, and Douglas maintained he kept touches of his upbringing throughout his life, even after converting to Episcopalianism. Writer Jack Davis and neighbor Helen Muir suggest this Quaker influence was behind Douglas's use of "Friends" in naming the organizations Friends of the Everglades and Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Libraries. As a child, Douglas was very close with her mother after her parents' separation. She witnessed her mother's emotional unraveling that caused her to be institutionalized, and even long after her mother returned to live with her, she exhibited bizarre, childlike behaviors. Following her mother's death, her relocation to Miami, and her displeasure in working as
1242-444: A class on elocution , and joined the first suffrage club with six of her classmates. She was elected Class Orator but was unable to fulfill the office since she was already involved in other activities. During her senior year while visiting home, her mother showed her a lump on her breast. Marjory arranged the surgery to have it removed. After the graduation ceremony, her aunt informed her it had metastasized, and within months her mother
1449-706: A dubious honor. She told a friend she would have rather seen the Everglades restored than her name on a building. During her polite acceptance speech, she railed against Ronald Reagan and the then-Secretary of the Interior James Watt for their lackluster approach to environmental conservation. In 1986 the National Parks Conservation Association established the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award, which "honor(s) individuals who often must go to great lengths to advocate and fight for
1656-452: A floppy straw hat and gloves—she had an uncanny ability to get her point across. She was known for speaking in perfect, precise paragraphs, and was respected for her dedication and knowledge of her subjects; even her critics admitted her authority on the Everglades. Jeff Klinkenberg, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times who interviewed and wrote several stories about Douglas, wrote of her, "She had
1863-440: A friend of the Everglades is not necessarily to spend time wandering around out there ... It's too buggy, too wet, too generally inhospitable", she wrote. Instead, she understood that the health of the environment indicated the general well-being of humanity. Despite Douglas's demure appearance—she stood at 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m) and weighed 100 pounds (45 kg), and was always immaculately dressed in pearls,
2070-491: A hardwood hammock as larger trees overtake the slash pines. The understory shrubs in pine rocklands are the fire-resistant saw palmetto ( Serenoa repens ), cabbage palm ( Sabal palmetto ), and West Indian lilac ( Tetrazygia bicolor ). The most diverse group of plants in the pine community are the herbs, of which there are two dozen species. These plants contain tubers and other mechanisms that allow them to sprout quickly after being charred. Prior to urban development of
2277-410: A joint committee wearing our best hats. Talking to them was like talking to graven images . They never paid attention to us at all." Douglas was able to vote for the first time after she returned from Europe in 1920. Using her influence at The Miami Herald , Douglas wrote columns about poverty: You can have the most beautiful city in the world as appearance goes, the streets may be clean and shining,
SECTION 10
#17328919690032484-694: A joint five-year BA/MA program with Brandeis University 's International Business School, which allows qualified Wellesley students to receive a Masters of Arts degree from the school as well as a Bachelor of Arts at Wellesley. Wellesley College offers research collaborations and cross-registration programs with other Boston-area institutions, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Babson College , Olin College , and Brandeis University . Its most popular majors, based on 2023 graduates, were: The 2020 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report categorizes admission to Wellesley as "most selective". For
2691-406: A law banning convict leasing in large part due to her writing. "I think that's the single most important thing I was ever able to accomplish as a result of something I've written", she wrote in her autobiography. After quitting the newspaper in 1923, Douglas worked as a freelance writer. From 1920 to 1990, Douglas published 109 fiction articles and stories. One of her first stories was sold to
2898-407: A massive wetland ecosystem. Although the region appears flat, weathering of the limestone created slight valleys and plateaus in some areas. These plateaus rise and fall only a few inches, but on the subtle South Florida topography these small variations affect both the flow of water and the types of vegetation that can take hold. The underlying bedrock or limestone of the Everglades basin affects
3105-539: A narrow, deep channel characteristic of most rivers. The vertical gradient from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay is about 2 inches (5.1 cm) per mile, creating an almost 60-mile (97 km) wide expanse of river that travels about half a mile (0.8 km) a day. This slow movement of a broad, shallow river is known as sheetflow , and gives the Everglades its nickname, River of Grass. Water leaving Lake Okeechobee may require months or years to reach its final destination, Florida Bay. The sheetflow travels so slowly that water
3312-480: A new town, Wellesley. Wellesley College was a leading center for women's study in the sciences. Between 1875 and 1921, Wellesley employed more female scientists than any other U.S. institution of high education. After MIT , it was the second college in the United States to initiate laboratory science instruction for undergraduates. In early 1896, Sarah Frances Whiting , the first professor of physics and astronomy,
3519-533: A papier-mâché bust of her with Georgia O'Keeffe and Susan B. Anthony in an early episode of The Simpsons . She appears as a major supporting character in the 2014 point-and-click adventure A Golden Wake . Some of Douglas's stories were collected by University of Florida professor Kevin McCarthy in two edited collections: Nine Florida Stories in 1990 and A River In Flood in 1998. McCarthy wrote that he collected Douglas's short stories because most people in
3726-505: A part in the disappearance of pine forests in the area, as natural fires were put out and pine rocklands transitioned into hardwood hammocks. Prescribed fires occur in Everglades National Park in pine rocklands every three to seven years. Cypress swamps can be found throughout the Everglades, but the largest covers most of Collier County . The Big Cypress Swamp is located to the west of the sawgrass prairies and sloughs, and it
3933-462: A poem. "The Galley" was topical and went in any direction Douglas chose. She promoted responsible urban planning when Miami saw a population boom of 100,000 people in a decade. She wrote supporting women's suffrage, civil rights , and better sanitation while opposing Prohibition and foreign trade tariffs. Some of the stories she wrote spoke of the region's wealth as being in its "inevitable development", and she supplemented her income with $ 100
4140-426: A recreational reading room, offices, archives, a reserve reading room, added space for rare books and additional stacks. The building underwent renovations from 1956 to 1959, that doubled its size. From 1973 to 1975 a major addition was added to the right-hand side of the building. In 1974 the building was renamed for Margaret Antoinette Clapp , a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and member of the 1930 class who served as
4347-654: A rise in elevation along the eastern coast of Florida, called the Eastern Coastal Ridge, that was formed as waves compressed ooids into a single formation. Along the western border of the Big Cypress Swamp is the Immokolee Ridge (or Immokolee Rise), a slight rise of compressed sand that divides the runoff between the Caloosahatchee River and The Big Cypress. This slight rise in elevation on both sides of
SECTION 20
#17328919690034554-414: A short race while rolling their hoops. In the early 20th century, the winner was said to be the first in her class to marry; in the 1980s, the winner was said to become the class's first CEO; and since the 1990 Commencement speech by then- First Lady Barbara Bush , the winner has been said to be the first to achieve success, however she defines it. The Wellesley campus sits just before the halfway mark on
4761-563: A shuttle to the Babson College and Olin College campuses. It is also a member of a number of exchange programs with other small colleges, including opportunities for students to study a year at Amherst , Connecticut College , Dartmouth , Mount Holyoke , Smith , Trinity , Vassar , Wesleyan , and Wheaton . The college has approximately 180 student organizations, ranging from cultural and political organizations to community service, publications, campus radio , and club sports . WZLY
4968-468: A single grain of sand or shell fragment. The other facies, which underlies the eastern lower Everglades (in Miami-Dade County and part of Monroe County) consists of fossilized bryozoan organisms. The unique structure was some of the first material used in housing in early 20th-century South Florida. The composition of this sedimentary formation affects the hydrology, plant life, and wildlife above it:
5175-483: A society columnist, she chose suffrage and began to focus on writing about women in leadership positions. In 1917, she traveled with Mary Baird Bryan , William Jennings Bryan 's wife, and two other women to Tallahassee to speak in support of women's right to vote. Douglas was not impressed with the reception the group got from the Florida Legislature. She wrote about her experience later: "All four of us spoke to
5382-403: A soldier. However, she said she did not believe in extramarital sex and would not have dishonored her father by being promiscuous. She told Klinkenberg in 1992, frankly, that she had not had sex since her divorce, saying "I wasn't a wild woman". However, she was fond of saying she used the emotion and energy instead on her work. "People don't seem to realize that the energy that goes into sex, all
5589-705: A team for the first time in Wellesley history, with its first Varsity 8+ boat placing first and second Varsity 8+ boat placing second. This historic win marked the first time a team from Wellesley College won a national championship and the first time a women's college won the NCAA Rowing Championships. In 2022, Blue Crew won the NCAA Division III Rowing Championship as a team for a second time, with both its first Varsity 8+ and second Varsity 8+ boats placing second. In 2023, Blue Crew again won
5796-743: A tongue like a switchblade and the moral authority to embarrass bureaucrats and politicians and make things happen." Douglas was known for haughtily dismissing reporters who had not read her books and asked uninformed questions. She enjoyed drinking Scotch and sherry ; as friend and neighbor Helen Muir remembered her, "She would come up and have a sherry, and then I would walk her home, and then she'd walk me back, and we would have another sherry. What fun she was." Novelist Hervey Allen called Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Muir "the Stewart Avenue Gang". The two were fond of having sherry together and gossiping, but those moments were followed by serious talk of
6003-650: A trustee for twenty years. Both Madeleine Albright ('59), and Hillary Rodham Clinton ('69), have spoken about the formative impact their Wellesley experiences had on their careers. During her life, Secretary Albright returned annually to campus to lead the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs , a month-long pedagogical seminar where students learn more about global affairs through analysis and action. Additionally, three U.S. ambassadors ( Julieta Valls Noyes , Anne Patterson , and Michele Sison ) are Wellesley alumnae. Soong Mei-ling ,
6210-759: A variety of other fields, ranging from government and public service to the arts. They include the first woman to be named professor of clinical medicine Connie Guion , class of 1906; architect Ann Beha , class of 1972; author Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (author and publisher) class of 1914; astronomer Annie Jump Cannon , class of 1884; archaeologist Josephine Platner Shear , class of 1924; astronaut Pamela Melroy class of 1983; screenwriter Nora Ephron , class of 1962; composers Elizabeth Bell and Natalie Sleeth ; and professor and songwriter Katharine Lee Bates . Journalists Callie Crossley , Diane Sawyer , Cokie Roberts , Lynn Sherr , and Michele Caruso-Cabrera also graduated from Wellesley as did Amalya Lyle Kearse , Judge on
6417-601: A week from writing copy advertisements that praised the development of South Florida, something she would reconsider later in her life. In the early 1920s she wrote "Martin Tabert of North Dakota is Walking Florida Now", a ballad lamenting the death of a 22-year-old vagrant who was beaten to death in a labor camp . It was printed in The Miami Herald , and read aloud during a session of the Florida Legislature , which passed
Marjory Stoneman Douglas - Misplaced Pages Continue
6624-664: A wetter landscape; large animals became extinct in Florida, and the Paleo-Indians slowly adapted and became the Archaic peoples . They conformed to the environmental changes, and created many tools with the various resources available. During the Late Archaic period, the climate became wetter again, and approximately 3000 BCE the rise of water tables allowed an increase in population and cultural activity. Florida Indians developed into three distinct but similar cultures that were named for
6831-532: A year after her arrival in Miami, he left her the responsibility of the editorial page. She developed a rivalry with an editor at The Miami Metropolis whose greater familiarity with Miami history gave her cause to make fun of Douglas in writing. Her father scolded her to check her facts better. Douglas was given an assignment in 1916 to write a story on the first woman from Miami to join the US Naval Reserve . When
7038-422: A year, and major hurricanes about once every ten years. Between 1871 and 1981, 138 tropical cyclones struck directly over or close to the Everglades. Strong winds from these storms disperse plant seeds and replenish mangrove forests, coral reefs, and other ecosystems. Dramatic fluctuations in precipitation are characteristic of the South Florida climate. Droughts , floods , and tropical cyclones are part of
7245-432: Is $ 12,825 total for four years. In its 2021 rankings of national liberal arts colleges in the U.S., U.S. News & World Report ranked Wellesley tied for fourth best overall, first for women's colleges, 13th for "best value", tied at 11th for "best undergraduate teaching", and tied at 63rd for "top performers on social mobility". In 2020, Washington Monthly ranked Wellesley 13th among 218 liberal arts colleges in
7452-639: Is a member of the NCAA NCAA Division III and the Eastern Conference Athletic Conference (ECAC) and competes primarily as a member of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC). The Wellesley College Crew Team, affectionately known as "Blue Crew", was founded in 1970 and was the first women's intercollegiate rowing team in the country. In 2016, Blue Crew won the NCAA Division III Rowing Championship as
7659-567: Is a member of the Seven Sisters Colleges , an unofficial grouping of current and former women's colleges in the northeastern United States . Wellesley contains 60 departmental and interdepartmental majors spanning the liberal arts, as well as over 150 student clubs and organizations. Wellesley athletes compete in the NCAA Division III New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference . Its 500-acre (200 ha) campus
7866-409: Is adjacent to the privately owned Hunnewell Estates Historic District , the gardens of which can be viewed from the lake's edge on campus. The original master plan for Wellesley's campus landscape was developed by Olmsted, Arthur Shurcliff , and Ralph Adams Cram in 1921. This landscape-based concept represented a break from the architecturally-defined courtyard and quadrangle campus arrangement that
8073-412: Is available, including a sustainable living co-op, a feminist co-op, and a French language house located slightly off-campus. Wellesley offers housing for Davis Scholars as well, though not for their children or spouses, which is a point of frequent debate on campus. For more than 50 years, Wellesley has offered a cross-registration program with MIT . Students can participate in research at MIT through
8280-429: Is commonly called "The Big Cypress". The name refers to its area rather than the height or diameter of the trees; at its most conservative estimate, the swamp measures 1,200 square miles (3,100 km ), but the hydrologic boundary of The Big Cypress can be calculated at over 2,400 square miles (6,200 km ). Most of The Big Cypress sits atop a bedrock covered by a thinner layer of limestone. The limestone underneath
8487-403: Is fed by the extensive Kissimmee , Caloosahatchee , Miami , Myakka , and Peace Rivers in central Florida. The Kissimmee River is a broad floodplain that empties directly into Lake Okeechobee, which at 730 square miles (1,900 km ) with an average depth of 9 feet (2.7 m), is a vast but shallow lake. Soil deposits in the Everglades basin indicate that peat is deposited where the land
Marjory Stoneman Douglas - Misplaced Pages Continue
8694-443: Is flooded consistently throughout the year. Calcium deposits are left behind when flooding is shorter. The deposits occur in areas where water rises and falls depending on rainfall, as opposed to water being stored in the rock from one year to the next. Calcium deposits are present where more limestone is exposed. The area from Orlando to the tip of the Florida peninsula was at one point a single drainage unit. When rainfall exceeded
8901-616: Is less likely to erode the limestone to form solution holes —smaller versions of sinkholes that do not intersect with the water table. In this formation the beds are generally impermeable. Underneath the metropolitan areas of Palm Beach County is the Anastasia Formation, composed of shelly limestone, coquina , and sand representing a former mangrove or salt marsh. The Anastasia Formation is much more permeable and filled with pocks and solution holes. The Fort Thompson and Anastasia Formations, and Miami Limestone and (x), were formed during
9108-448: Is more calcitic in composition. Initial attempts at developing agriculture near Lake Okeechobee were successful, but the nutrients in the peat were rapidly removed. In a process called soil subsidence , oxidation of peat causes loss of volume. Bacteria decompose dead sawgrass slowly underwater without oxygen. When the water was drained in the 1920s and bacteria interacted with oxygen, an aerobic reaction occurred. Microorganisms degraded
9315-419: Is not only a classic of environmental literature, it also reads like a blueprint for what conservationists are hailing as the most extensive environmental restoration project ever undertaken anywhere in the world". The downside of the book's impact, according to one writer addressing restoration of the Everglades, is that her metaphor of a River of Grass is so predominant that the complex web of ecosystems within
9522-683: Is one of the largest gender -focused social science research-and-action organizations in the United States. Located on and nearby the Wellesley College campus, WCW was established when the Center for Research on Women (founded 1974) and the Stone Center for Development Services and Studies at Wellesley College (founded 1981) merged into a single organization in 1995. It is home to several prominent American feminist scholars, including Jean Kilbourne and Peggy McIntosh . The current executive director of
9729-422: Is the college's campus radio station. It is entirely student-run and plays on 91.5 FM in the town of Wellesley and some surrounding areas. Founded in 1942, it holds claim to be the oldest still-running women's college radio station in the country. Publications on campus include Counterpoint , the monthly journal of campus life; The Wellesley News , the campus newspaper; International Relations Council Journal,
9936-412: Is the largest of any liberal arts college. In late 2015, the college launched another campaign, with a goal of $ 500 million. Many notable alumnae including Madeleine Albright , Hillary Clinton , Diane Sawyer , Susan Wagner , and Cokie Roberts collaborated on the campaign video and launch festivities. As of Fall 2017, over $ 446 million has been raised. The Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW)
10143-569: Is typically stored from one wet season to the next in the porous limestone substrate. The ebb and flow of water has shaped the land and every ecosystem in South Florida throughout the Everglades' estimated 5,000 years of existence. The motion of water defines plant communities and how animals adapt to their habitats and food sources. The climate of South Florida is located across the broad transition zone between subtropical and tropical climates ( Koppen Aw , Am and Cfa). Like most regions with this climate type, there are two basic seasons –
10350-556: Is used by the college for a variety of religious and secular functions, like lectures and music concerts, and is also available for rental. The lower-level houses the Multifaith Center. In 1905 Andrew Carnegie donated $ 125,000 to build what is now known as Clapp Library, on the condition that the college match the amount for an endowment. The money was raised by 1907 and construction began June 5, 1909. In 1915 Carnegie gave another $ 95,446 towards an addition. This renovation added
10557-563: The Boston Marathon course, and students come out to cheer runners in what has become known as the "Scream Tunnel". Student have been cheering on runners since the first running of the marathon. In 1966 the school heard word that a woman was running in the race and turned out in numbers in cheer her on. Once women were officially allowed to register for the 1972 race, the campus cheer tradition became more popular. Wellesley's alumnae are represented among business executives and also work in
SECTION 50
#173289196900310764-460: The Cretaceous Period , most of Florida remained a tropical sea floor of varying depths. The peninsula has been covered by seawater at least seven times since the bedrock formed. Fluctuating sea levels compressed numerous layers of calcium carbonate , sand, and shells. The resulting permeable limestone formations that developed between 25 million and 70 million years ago created
10971-547: The Fairchild Garden . She called the garden "one of the greatest achievements for the entire area". Douglas became involved with the Miami Theater , and wrote some one-act plays that were fashionable in the 1930s. One, "The Gallows Gate", was about an argument between a mother and father regarding the character of their son who is sentenced to hang. She got the idea from her father, who had witnessed hangings when he lived in
11178-547: The Floridan Aquifer , which serves as the main source of fresh water for the northern portion of Florida. However, this aquifer lies beneath thousands of feet of impermeable sedimentary rock from Lake Okeechobee to the southern tip of the peninsula. Five geologic formations form the surface of the southern portion of Florida: the Tamiami Formation , Caloosahatchee Formation , Anastasia Formation , Miami Limestone , and
11385-663: The Fort Thompson Formation . The Tamiami Formation is a compression of highly permeable light-colored fossiliferous sands and pockets of quartz , 150 feet (46 m) thick. It is named for the Tamiami Trail that follows the upper bedrock of the Big Cypress Swamp, and underlies the southern portion of the Everglades. Between the Tamiami Formation and Lake Okeechobee is the Caloosahatchee Formation, named for
11592-573: The NCAA Division III Rowing Championship as a team, with its first Varsity 8+ boat placing first and second Varsity 8+ boat placing second. Wellesley also fields club teams in archery, alpine & Nordic skiing, equestrian, ice hockey, rugby, sailing, squash, Ultimate Frisbee, and water polo. Squash was originally a varsity sport but was downgraded to a club sport status in 2017. From 1943 to 1946, Judy Atterbury won multiple national intercollegiate women's tennis championships in both singles (1943, 1946) and doubles (1943, 1944). Nadine Netter won
11799-485: The Pleistocene approximately 17,000 years ago, the runoff of water from Lake Okeechobee slowed and created the vast marshland that is now known as the Everglades. Slower runoff also created an accumulation of almost 18 feet (5.5 m) of peat in the area. The presence of such peat deposits, dated to about 5,000 years ago, is evidence that widespread flooding had occurred by then. The consistent Everglades flooding
12006-483: The Ramsar Convention designated the Everglades a Wetland Area of Global Importance. The construction of a large airport 6 miles (10 km) north of Everglades National Park was blocked when an environmental study found that it would severely damage the South Florida ecosystem. With heightened awareness and appreciation of the region, restoration began in the 1980s with the removal of a canal that had straightened
12213-689: The Sangamonian interglacial period. The geologic formations that have the most influence on the Everglades are the Miami Limestone and the Fort Thompson Formation. The Miami Limestone has two facies . The Miami Oolite facies, which underlies the Atlantic Coastal Ridge from southern Palm Beach County to southern Miami-Dade County, is made up of ooids : tiny formations of egg-shaped concentric shells and calcium carbonate, formed around
12420-740: The Seminole Tribe of Florida . People who kept more traditional ways had settlements along the Tamiami Trail and tended to speak the Mikasuki language . They later were federally recognized in 1962 as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida . As metropolitan areas in South Florida began to grow, the two groups were closely associated with the Everglades. They struggled to maintain privacy while serving as tourist attractions. They earned money by wrestling alligators and selling craftworks. As of 2008 ,
12627-686: The Tampa Bay Hotel . From there she and her parents embarked on a cruise from Tampa to Havana . Marjory's parents separated when she was six. Her father endured a series of failed entrepreneurial ventures and the instability caused her mother to move them abruptly to the Trefethen family house in Taunton, Massachusetts . She lived there with her mother, aunt, and grandparents, who did not get along well and consistently spoke ill of her father, to her dismay. Her mother, whom Marjory characterized as "high-strung",
SECTION 60
#173289196900312834-842: The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit , Sandra Lynch , United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and political scientist Jane Mansbridge , class of 1961. Rebecca Lancefield , a member of the National Academy of Sciences , graduated from Wellesley, as did Alice Ames Winter (B.A. 1886; M.A. 1889), president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs . Adaline Emerson Thompson , class of 1880, later served as
13041-408: The hydroperiod , or how long an area within the region stays flooded throughout the year. Longer hydroperiods are possible in areas that were submerged beneath seawater for longer periods of time, while the geology of Florida was forming. More water is held within the porous ooids and limestone than older types of rock that spent more time above sea level. A hydroperiod of ten months or more fosters
13248-668: The pulp fiction magazine Black Mask for $ 600 (equivalent to $ 10,730 in 2023). Forty of her stories were published in The Saturday Evening Post ; one, "Story of a Homely Woman", was reprinted in 1937 in the Post's best short stories compilation. Recurring settings in her fiction were South Florida, the Caribbean, and Europe during World War I. Her protagonists were often independent, quirky women or youthful underdogs who encountered social or natural injustices. The people and animals of
13455-433: The racially segregated part of Coconut Grove. They helped pass a law requiring all homes in Miami to have toilets and bathtubs. In the two years it took them to get the referendum passed, they worked to set up a loan operation for the black residents of Coconut Grove, who borrowed the money interest-free to pay for the plumbing work. Douglas noted that all of the money loaned was repaid. Stoneman Douglas became involved in
13662-508: The "Glades" has emerged as a distinct vernacular region of Florida. It comprises the interior areas and southernmost Gulf Coast of South Florida , largely corresponding to the Everglades itself. It is one of the most sparsely populated areas of the state. The geology of South Florida, together with a warm, wet, subtropical/tropical climate, provides conditions well-suited for a large marshland ecosystem. Layers of porous and permeable limestone create water-bearing rock and soil that affect
13869-430: The "New Dorms", referring to the east-side dormitories erected in the 1950s, and multiple "Branch Halls", including both a Spanish and French-speaking house. In total, Wellesley offers 17 different residence halls for students to live in. The most recent master plan for Wellesley College was completed in 1998 by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. According to the designers, this plan was intended to restore and recapture
14076-468: The 1990s were well aware of her as an environmentalist but did not know about her career as a freelance writer. "Probably no other person has been as important to the environmental well-being of Florida than this little lady from Coconut Grove", McCarthy wrote in the introduction to A River in Flood . Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of
14283-576: The 2023-2024 admissions cycle (enrolling Fall 2024), the college was test-optional and did not publish standardized testing statistics for the class of 2027 as of July 2024. The college is need-blind for domestic applicants. The college's admissions policy was updated in 2015 to allow trans women and non-binary people assigned female at birth to be considered for admittance. The first Wellesley transgender students enrolled in Fall 2017. Wellesley began its program for non-traditional students in 1971 when
14490-557: The Big Cypress contains quartz , which creates sandy soil that hosts a variety of vegetation different from what is found in other areas of the Everglades. The basin for The Big Cypress receives on average 55 inches (140 cm) of water in the wet season. Although The Big Cypress is the largest growth of cypress swamps in South Florida, cypress swamps can be found near the Atlantic Coastal Ridge and between Lake Okeechobee and
14697-505: The Class of 2023 (enrolling fall 2019), the middle 50% range of SAT scores was 680–750 for evidence-based reading and 680–780 for math, while the middle 50% range for the ACT composite score was 31–34 for enrolled first-year students. For the incoming class of 2028, Wellesley received a record number of applications, totaling over 8,900 applications, and 13% of applicants were offered admission. During
14904-609: The Continuing Education Program was launched. This program was renamed in 1991 for Elisabeth Kaiser Davis, a member of the Class of 1932. Wellesley allows applicants older than 24 who had begun but have not completed a bachelor's degree to apply to the Elizabeth Kaiser Davis Degree Program. Davis Scholars are fully integrated into the Wellesley community; they take the same classes as traditional students and can choose to live on campus. According to
15111-449: The Eastern Coastal Ridge receiving the majority of precipitation and the area surrounding Lake Okeechobee receiving about 48 inches (120 cm). Unlike any other wetland system on earth, the Everglades are sustained primarily by the atmosphere. Evapotranspiration – the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth's land surface to atmosphere – associated with thunderstorms, is
15318-619: The Eastern Women's College Tournament in 1962, and was the Eastern Intercollegiate Champion and New England Intercollegiate women's Tennis Championship winner in 1965. In both 2016 and 2023, Wellesley College's first Varsity 8+ boat became a national champion in its event at the NCAA Rowing Championships. Wellesley College Crew Team's head coach, Tessa Spillane, was voted the NCAA Division III Rowing Coach of
15525-477: The Eastern flatwoods, as well as in sawgrass marshes. Cypresses are deciduous conifers that are uniquely adapted to thrive in flooded conditions, with buttressed trunks and root projections that protrude out of the water, called "knees". Bald cypress trees grow in formations with the tallest and thickest trunks in the center, rooted in the deepest peat. As the peat thins out, cypresses grow smaller and thinner, giving
15732-417: The Everglades after declaring that "Conservation is now a dead word ... You can't conserve what you haven't got." Her criticism was directed at two entities she considered were doing the most damage to the Everglades. A coalition of sugarcane growers, named Big Sugar, she accused of polluting Lake Okeechobee by pumping water tainted with chemicals, human waste, and garbage back into the lake, which served as
15939-626: The Everglades and has been compared to Rachel Carson 's 1962 exposé of the harmful effects of DDT , Silent Spring ; both books are "groundbreaking calls to action that made citizens and politicians take notice". Its impact is still felt as it is claimed to be a major reason Florida receives so many tourists, and "remains the definitive reference on the plight of the Florida Everglades". It has gone through numerous editions, selling 500,000 copies since its original publication. The Christian Science Monitor wrote of it in 1997, "Today her book
16146-452: The Everglades as an ecosystem surrounding a river worthy of protection, inescapably connected to South Florida's people and cultures. She outlined its imminent disappearance in the last chapter, "The Eleventh Hour": Cattlemen's grass fires roared uncontrolled. Cane-field fires spread crackling and hissing in the saw grass in vast waves and pillars and billowing mountains of heavy, cream-colored, purple-shadowed smoke. Training planes flying over
16353-655: The Everglades creates a basin, and forces water that overflows Lake Okeechobee to creep toward the southwest. Under both the Miami Limestone formation and the Fort Thompson limestone lies the Biscayne Aquifer , a surface aquifer that serves as the Miami metropolitan area 's fresh water source. Rainfall and stored water in the Everglades replenish the Biscayne Aquifer directly. With the rise of sea levels that occurred during
16560-454: The Everglades has enhanced our Nation's respect for our precious environment, reminding all of us of nature's delicate balance. Grateful Americans honor the 'Grandmother of the Glades' by following her splendid example in safeguarding America's beauty and splendor for generations to come. Douglas donated her medal to Wellesley College. Most of the others she received she stored at her home. Douglas
16767-502: The Everglades in the 1920s, when she joined the board of the Everglades Tropical National Park Committee, a group led by Ernest F. Coe and dedicated to the idea of making a national park in the Everglades. By the 1960s, the Everglades were in imminent danger of disappearing forever because of gross mismanagement in the name of progress and real estate and agricultural development. Encouraged to get involved by
16974-436: The Everglades is oversimplified. David McCally wrote that despite Douglas's "appreciation of the complexity of the environmental system" she described, popular conception of the Everglades shared by people who have not read the book overshadows her detailed explanations. Women's suffrage was an early interest of Douglas, and although she tended to shy away from polemics in her early work at The Miami Herald , on her third day as
17181-637: The Everglades is rather small (less than 20 °F [11 °C]) – ranging from a monthly mean temperature of around 65 °F (18 °C) in January to 83 °F (28 °C) in July. High temperatures in the hot and wet season (summer) typically exceed 90 °F (32 °C) across inland south Florida (although coastal locations are cooled by winds from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean), while high temperatures in
17388-417: The Everglades is the sawgrass marsh. The iconic water and sawgrass combination in the shallow river 100 miles (160 km) long and 60 miles (97 km) wide that spans from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay is often referred to as the "true Everglades" or just "the Glades". Prior to the first drainage attempts in 1905, the sheetflow occupied nearly a third of the lower Florida peninsula. Sawgrass thrives in
17595-475: The Everglades served as subjects for some of her earliest writings. "Plumes", originally published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1930, was based on the murder of Guy Bradley , an Audubon Society game warden, by poachers . "Wings" was a nonfiction story, also first appearing in the Post in 1931, that addressed the slaughter of Everglades wading birds for their feathers. Her story "Peculiar Treasure of
17802-493: The Everglades system include the Shark River Slough flowing out to Florida Bay, Lostmans River Slough bordering The Big Cypress, and Taylor Slough in the eastern Everglades. Wet prairies are slightly elevated like sawgrass marshes, but with greater plant diversity. The surface is covered in water only three to seven months of the year, and the water is, on average, shallow at only 4 inches (10 cm) deep. When flooded,
18009-410: The Everglades watershed system. Evapotranspiration is responsible for approximately 70–90 percent of water entering undeveloped wetland regions in the Everglades. Precipitation during the wet season is primarily caused by air mass thunderstorms and the easterly flow out of the subtropical high (Bermuda High). Intense daytime heating of the ground causes the warm moist tropical air to rise, creating
18216-679: The Everglades, but rarely lived in them. Canoe trips to Cuba were also common. Estimated numbers of Calusa at the beginning of the Spanish occupation ranged from 4,000 to 7,000. The society declined in power and population; by 1697 their number was estimated to be about 1,000. In the early 18th century, the Calusa came under attack from the Yamasee to the north. They asked the Spanish for refuge in Cuba, where almost 200 died of illness. Soon they were relocated again to
18423-496: The Everglades. Much of the coast and the inner estuaries are built of mangroves; there is no border between the coastal marshes and the bay. Thus the marine ecosystems in Florida Bay are considered to be a part of the Everglades watershed and one of the ecosystems connected to and affected by the Everglades as a whole. More than 800 square miles (2,100 km ) of Florida Bay is protected by Everglades National Park , representing
18630-643: The Everglades. He infuriated Broward so much that when Stoneman won an election for circuit judge , Broward refused to validate the election, so Stoneman was referred to as "Judge" for the rest of his life without performing the duties of one. Douglas joined the newspaper's staff in 1915. She began as a society columnist writing about tea parties and society events, but news was so slow she later admitted to making up some of her stories: "Somebody would say, 'Who's that Mrs. T.Y. Washrag you've got in your column?' And I would say, 'Oh, you know, I don't think she's been here very long'". When her father went on vacation less than
18837-593: The Field of Women's Health at Harvard Medical School , as well as professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health . Johnson succeeded H. Kim Bottomly to become Wellesley's 14th President in July 2016. Wellesley's fund-raising campaign in 2005 set a record for liberal arts colleges with a total of $ 472.3 million, 18.1% more than the goal of $ 400 million. According to data compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education , Wellesley's campaign total
19044-789: The Florida Keys. Second in power and number to the Calusa in South Florida were the Tequesta . They occupied the southeastern portion of the lower peninsula in modern-day Dade and Broward counties. Like the Calusa, the Tequesta societies centered on the mouths of rivers. Their main village was probably on the Miami River or Little River. Spanish depictions of the Tequesta state that they were greatly feared by sailors, who suspected them of torturing and killing survivors of shipwrecks. With an increasing European presence in south Florida, Native Americans from
19251-408: The Glades dropped bombs or cigarette butts, and the fires exploded in the hearts of the drying hammocks and raced on before every wind leaving only blackness ... There was no water in the canals with which to fight [the fires] ... The sweet water the rock had held was gone or had shrunk far down into its strange holes and cleavages. The Everglades: River of Grass galvanized people to protect
19458-600: The Jewett Arts Center, designed by Paul Rudolph . The collections span from ancient art from around the world to contemporary art exhibitions, and admission is free to the general public. The current president of Wellesley College is Paula Johnson . Johnson previously founded the Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women's Hospital . She was the Grace A. Young Family Professor of Medicine in
19665-492: The Keys and other areas began increasing their trips to Cuba. Official permission for the immigration of Native Americans from the Florida Keys was granted by Cuban officials in 1704. Spanish priests attempted to set up missions in 1743, but noted that the Tequesta were under assault from a neighboring tribe. When only 30 members were left, they were removed to Havana. A British surveyor in 1770 described multiple deserted villages in
19872-598: The Kissimmee River. However, development and sustainability concerns have remained pertinent in the region. The deterioration of the Everglades, including poor water quality in Lake Okeechobee , was linked to the diminishing quality of life in South Florida's urban areas. In 2000 the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was approved by Congress to combat these problems, which at that time
20079-636: The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center in Crandon Park . Douglas co-founded the Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Libraries with her longtime friend Helen Muir, and served as its first president. Although Douglas grew up in an Episcopal household, she described herself as agnostic throughout her life, and forbade any religious ceremony at her memorial. Douglas tied her agnosticism to her unanswered prayers when her mother
20286-736: The National SEED Project, the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, Open Circle, the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, and Women's Review of Books. Wellesley's average class size is between 17 and 20 students, with a student-faculty ratio of 7:1. 60 departmental and interdepartmental majors are offered. Wellesley offers support to nontraditional aged students through the Elisabeth Kaiser Davis Degree Program, open to students over
20493-460: The River, is dedicated "To Massachusetts, with love." Douglas arrived in South Florida when fewer than 5,000 people lived in Miami and it was "no more than a glorified railroad terminal". Her father, Frank Stoneman, was the first publisher of the paper that later became The Miami Herald . Stoneman passionately opposed the governor of Florida, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward , and his attempts to drain
20700-541: The Seminole Tribe of Florida had five reservations, and the lands of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians were collectively considered a sixth reservation. The two tribes have each developed casino gaming on some of their properties to generate revenue for support, services and economic development. The military penetration of southern Florida offered the opportunity to map a poorly understood and largely unknown part of
20907-481: The Seminole in the Everglades numbered no more than 325. They made a living by hunting and trading with white settlers, and raised domesticated animals. The Seminole made their villages in hardwood hammocks or pinelands, had diets of hominy and coontie roots, fish, turtles, venison, and small game. Their villages were not large, due to the limited size of the hammocks. Between the end of the last Seminole War and 1930,
21114-548: The Seminole, and became known as the Black Seminoles . The groups acted as allies. In 1817, Andrew Jackson invaded Florida to hasten its annexation to the United States, in what became known as the First Seminole War . After Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, conflicts between settlers and the Seminole increased as the former tried to acquire lands. The Second Seminole War lasted from 1835 to 1842, and afterward,
21321-460: The South Florida region, pine rocklands covered approximately 161,660 acres (654.2 km ) in Miami-Dade County . Within Everglades National Park, 19,840 acres (80.3 km ) of pine forests are protected, but outside the park, 1,780 acres (7.2 km ) of pine communities remained as of 1990, averaging 12.1 acres (49,000 m ) in area. The misunderstanding of the role of fire also played
21528-469: The Sun , in 1952. She wrote four novels, and several nonfiction books on regional topics including Florida birdwatching and David Fairchild , a biologist who imagined a botanical park in Miami. Her autobiography, Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Voice of the River , was written with John Rothchild in 1987. She had been working on a book about W. H. Hudson for years, traveling to Argentina and England several times. It
21735-499: The U.S. based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. In addition, Forbes ' 2019 "America's Top Colleges" ranked the institution 44th among 650 U.S. colleges, service academies and universities. Wellesley College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education . Approximately 98% of students live on campus. Some cooperative housing
21942-512: The U.S. state of Florida , comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm . The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River , which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee . Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles (97 km) wide and over 100 miles (160 km) long, flowing southward across
22149-624: The US forcibly removed about 3,000 Seminole and 800 Black Seminole to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), west of the Mississippi River. Many others died in the war. Conflict broke out again in the Third Seminole War from 1855 to 1859, when a few hundred Seminole fought off US forces from the swamps of the Everglades. The US finally decided to leave them alone, as they could not dislodge them even after this protracted and expensive warfare. By 1913,
22356-683: The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). In recent years, cross-registration opportunities have expanded to include nearby Babson College , Brandeis University , and Olin College of Engineering . To facilitate cross-registration, the Wellesley College Senate bus connects Wellesley to the Harvard University and MIT campuses in Cambridge, Massachusetts ; additionally, the college also operates
22563-611: The Wellesley Centers for Women is Layli Maparyan. Since 1974, the Wellesley Centers for Women has produced over 200 scholarly articles and over 100 books. The Wellesley Centers for Women has five key areas of research: education, economic security, mental health, youth and adolescent development, and gender-based violence. WCW is also home to long-standing and highly successful action programs that engage in curriculum development and training, professional development, evaluation, field building, and theory building. Those programs include
22770-439: The Wellesley web site, Davis Scholars' "diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives enrich the lives of the whole student body." For the 2024–2025 school year, Wellesley's annual tuition was $ 92,060 per year, the first tuition cost for a Boston-area school (along with Boston University ) to exceed $ 90,000 annually. In 2020–2021, the average annual aid offer was over $ 56,000. The maximum loan level for other students on aid
22977-447: The West and was unnerved by the creaking sound of the rope bearing the weight of the hanging body. The play won a state competition, and eventually $ 500 in a national competition after it was written into three acts. With William W. Muir, husband of reporter Helen Muir , she authored "Storm Warnings", a play loosely based on the life of mobster Al Capone . Some of Capone's henchmen showed up at
23184-482: The Year in 2010–11, 2015–16, and 2021–22. Additionally, Wellesley College Crew Team's coaching staff received the 2015–16 and 2021–22 CRCA NCAA Division III National Coaching Staff of the Year awards. Hoop rolling is an annual tradition at the college that dates to 1895. Each upperclasswoman has a wooden hoop, often passed down to her from her "big sister". Before graduation, the seniors, wearing their graduation robes, run
23391-472: The afternoon thundershowers typical of tropical climates. 2:00 pm is the mean time of daily thundershowers across South Florida and the Everglades. Late in the wet season (August and September), precipitation levels reach their highest levels as tropical depressions and lows add to daily rainfall. Occasionally, tropical lows can become severe tropical cyclones and cause significant damage when they make landfall across south Florida. Tropical storms average one
23598-541: The age of 24. The program allows women who, for various reasons, were unable to start or complete a bachelor's degree at a younger age to attend Wellesley. Wellesley offers dual degree programs with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Olin College of Engineering , enabling students to receive a Bachelor of Science at those schools in addition to a Bachelor of Arts at Wellesley. Wellesley also has
23805-474: The airport project, and increased membership of Friends of the Everglades to 3,000 within three years. She ran the public information operation full-time from her home and encountered hostility from the jetport's developers and backers, who called her a "damn butterfly chaser". President Richard Nixon , however, scrapped funding for the project due to the efforts of many Everglades watchdog groups. Douglas continued her activism and focused her efforts on restoring
24012-657: The algae formations and microscopic plankton. Female sea turtles return annually to nest on the shore, and manatees spend the winter months in the warmer water of the bay. Sea grasses also serve to stabilize the sea beds and protect shorelines from erosion by absorbing energy from waves. Humans arrived in the Florida peninsula approximately 15,000 years ago. Paleo-Indians came to Florida probably following large game that included giant sloths , saber-toothed cats , and spectacled bears . They found an arid landscape that supported plants and animals adapted for desert conditions. However, 6,500 years ago, climate changes brought
24219-506: The area "River Glades". The name "Everglades" first appeared on a map in 1823, although it was also spelled as "Ever Glades" as late as 1851. The Seminole call it Pahokee , meaning "Grassy Water". The region was labeled " Pa-hai-okee " on a U.S. military map from 1839, although it had earlier been called "Ever Glades" throughout the Second Seminole War . A 2007 survey by geographers Ary J. Lamme and Raymond K. Oldakowski found that
24426-436: The assistant editor at The Miami Herald , in the 1920s, she suffered the first of three nervous breakdowns . Douglas suggested she had what she referred to as "blank periods" before and during her marriage, but they were brief. She connected these lapses to her mother's insanity. She eventually quit the newspaper, but after her father's death in 1941 she suffered a third and final breakdown, when her neighbors found her roaming
24633-523: The avenues broad and tree lined, the public buildings dignified, adequate and well kept ... but if you have a weak or inadequate health department, or a public opinion lax on the subject, all the splendors of your city will have not value. In 1948 Douglas served on the Coconut Grove Slum Clearance Committee, with a friend of hers named Elizabeth Virrick, who was horrified to learn that no running water or sewers were connected to
24840-400: The beginning of the 20th century, described Wellesley's landscape as "not merely beautiful, but with a marked individual character not represented so far as I know on the ground of any other college in the country". He also wrote: "I must admit that the exceedingly intricate and complex topography and the peculiarly scattered arrangement of most of the buildings somewhat baffled me". The campus
25047-517: The bodies of water near where they were located: Okeechobee , Caloosahatchee , and Glades . From the Glades peoples, two major nations emerged in the area: the Calusa and the Tequesta . The Calusa was the largest and most powerful nation in South Florida. It controlled fifty villages located on Florida's west coast, around Lake Okeechobee, and on the Florida Keys . Most Calusa villages were located at
25254-675: The building is the Galen L. Stone Tower, housing a 32-bell carillon , which is routinely played between classes by members of the Guild of Carillonneurs. Houghton Chapel was dedicated in 1899 in the center of the college campus. The architectural firm of Heins & LaFarge designed Houghton of gray stone in the classic Latin cross floor plan. The exterior walls are pierced by stained glass windows. Window designers include Tiffany ; John La Farge ; Reynolds, Francis & Rohnstock ; and Jeffrey Gibson . The chapel can seat up to 750 people. Houghton
25461-587: The calcitic composition of the marl. Sloughs , or free-flowing channels of water, develop in between sawgrass prairies. Sloughs are about 3 feet (0.91 m) deeper than sawgrass marshes, and may stay flooded for at least 11 months out of the year and sometimes multiple years in a row. Aquatic animals such as turtles, alligators, snakes, and fish thrive in sloughs; they usually feed on aquatic invertebrates. Submerged and floating plants grow here, such as bladderwort ( Utricularia ), waterlily ( Nymphaeaceae ), and spatterdock ( Nuphar lutea ). Major sloughs in
25668-469: The capacity of Lake Okeechobee and the Kissimmee River floodplain, it spilled over and flowed in a southwestern direction to empty into Florida Bay . Prior to urban and agricultural development in Florida, the Everglades began at the southern edge of Lake Okeechobee and flowed for approximately 100 miles (160 km), emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The limestone shelf is wide and slightly angled instead of having
25875-458: The climate, weather, and hydrology of South Florida. The properties of the rock underneath the Everglades can be explained by the geologic history of the state. The crust underneath Florida was at one point part of the African region of the supercontinent Gondwana . About 300 million years ago, North America merged with Africa, connecting Florida with North America. Volcanic activity centered on
26082-401: The college consisted of one very large building, College Hall, which was approximately 150 metres (490 ft) in length and five stories in height. It was completed in 1875. The architect was Hammatt Billings . College Hall was both an academic building and a residential building. On March 17, 1914, it was destroyed by fire, the precise cause of which was never officially established. The fire
26289-575: The college was the Wellesley Female Seminary ; its renaming to Wellesley College was approved by the Massachusetts legislature on March 7, 1873. Wellesley first opened its doors to students on September 8, 1875. At the time of its founding, Wellesley College's campus was actually situated in Needham ; however, in 1880 residents of West Needham voted to secede and in 1881 the area was chartered as
26496-457: The country. An 1840 expedition into the Everglades offered the first printed account for the general public to read about the Everglades. The anonymous writer described the terrain the party was crossing: Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts . Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary , it
26703-672: The drainage of a suburb in Dade County named East Everglades. After the county approved building permits in the Everglades, the land flooded as it had for centuries. When homeowners demanded the Army Corps of Engineers drain their neighborhoods, she was the only opposing voice. At the hearing in 1983, she was booed, jeered, and shouted at by the audience of residents. "Can't you boo any louder than that?" she chided, eventually making them laugh. "Look. I'm an old lady. I've been here since eight o'clock. It's now eleven. I've got all night, and I'm used to
26910-401: The dry season the fire may be fed by organic peat and burn deeply, destroying root systems. Fires are confined by existing water and rainfall. It takes approximately 225 years for one foot (.30 m) of peat to develop, but in some locations the peat is less dense than it should be for the 5,000 years of the Everglades' existence. Scientists indicate fire as the cause; it is also cited as
27117-630: The dry season. Alligator holes are integral to the survival of aquatic invertebrates, turtles, fish, small mammals, and birds during extended drought periods. The alligators then feed upon some of the animals that come to the hole. Small islands of trees growing on land raised between 1 foot (0.30 m) and 3 feet (0.91 m) above sloughs and prairies are called tropical hardwood hammocks . They may range from one (4,000 m ) to ten acres (40,000 m ) in area, and appear in freshwater sloughs, sawgrass prairies, or pineland. Hammocks are slightly elevated on limestone plateaus risen several inches above
27324-653: The dry winter season average from 70 to 79 °F (21 to 26 °C). Frost and freeze are rare across south Florida and the Everglades; annually coastal cities like Miami and Naples report zero days with frost, although a few times each decade low temperatures may fall between 30 and 40 °F (−1 and 4 °C) across South Florida. The plant hardiness zones are 10a north with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 30 to 35 °F (−1 to +2 °C), and 10b south with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 35 to 40 °F (2 to 4 °C). Annual rainfall averages approximately 62 inches (160 cm), with
27531-463: The eastern side of Florida covered the prevalent sedimentary rock with igneous rock . Continental rifting began to separate North America from Gondwana about 180 million years ago. When Florida was part of Africa, it was initially above water, but during the cooler Jurassic Period , the Florida Platform became a shallow marine environment in which sedimentary rocks were deposited. Through
27738-463: The eighth college president from 1949 to 1966. The Davis Museum, opened in 1993, was the first building in North America designed by Pritzker Prize -winning architect Rafael Moneo , whose notion of the museum as a "treasury" or "treasure chamber" informs its design. The Davis is at the heart of the arts on the Wellesley campus adjacent to the academic quad and is connected by an enclosed bridge to
27945-559: The emotion that surrounds it, can be well employed in other ways", she wrote in her autobiography. Douglas began accruing honors in her early days writing for The Miami Herald . In the 1980s, the awards became more prestigious, and her reactions to them mixed. The Florida Department of Natural Resources (now the Florida Department of Environmental Protection ) named its headquarters in Tallahassee after her in 1980, which she considered
28152-695: The environment for our children and our grandchildren." Douglas also served as a charter member of the first American Civil Liberties Union chapter organized in the South in the 1950s. She lent her support to the Equal Rights Amendment , speaking to the legislature in Tallahassee urging them to ratify it. In the 1980s Douglas lent her support to the Florida Rural Legal Services, a group that worked to protect migrant farm workers who were centered on Belle Glade , and who were primarily employed by
28359-464: The family finances and gaining a maturity imposed upon her by circumstance. Marjory left for college in 1908, despite grave misgivings about her mother's mental state. Her aunt and grandmother shared her concerns, but recognized that she needed to leave in order to begin her own life. She was a straight-A student at Wellesley College , graduating with a BA in English in 1912. She found particular success in
28566-519: The farthest-reaching roots, trapping sediments that help build coastlines after and between storms. All three types of trees absorb the energy of waves and storm surges . Everglades mangroves also serve as nurseries for crustaceans and fish, and rookeries for birds. The region supports Tortugas pink shrimp ( Farfantepenaeus duorarum ) and stone crab ( Menippe mercenaria ) industries; between 80 and 90 percent of commercially harvested crustacean species in Florida's salt waters are born or spend time near
28773-426: The frequency of fire help to create, maintain, or replace the ecosystems in the Everglades. Water is the dominant force in the Everglades, shaping the land, vegetation, and animal life in South Florida. Starting at the last glacial maximum , 21,000 years ago, continental ice sheets retreated and sea levels rose. This submerged portions of the Florida peninsula and caused the water table to rise. Fresh water saturated
28980-481: The fresh water flowing from Lake Okeechobee a river of grass. The Everglades: River of Grass was published in 1947 and sold out of its first printing in a month. The book's first line, "There are no other Everglades in the world", has been called the "most famous passage ever written about the Everglades", and the line once welcomed visitors to the Everglades National Park website. Douglas characterized
29187-508: The fresh water source for the Miami metropolitan area . She compared Florida sugarcane agriculture to sugarcane grown in the West Indies , which, she claimed, was more environmentally sound, had a longer harvest cycle less harmful to soil nutrients, and was less expensive for consumers due to the higher sugar content. Besides Big Sugar, Douglas spoke about the damage the Army Corps of Engineers
29394-466: The future of libraries, and the role of women in South Florida. They were confidants, and often shared their work with one another. Douglas never learned to drive and never owned a car. Her house also had no air conditioning , electric stove, or dishwasher. She was attached to several men after her divorce, counting one of them as the reason she enlisted in the Red Cross, as he had already gone to France as
29601-426: The growth of sawgrass, whereas a shorter hydroperiod of six months or less promotes beds of periphyton , a growth of algae and other microscopic organisms. There are only two types of soil in the Everglades, peat and marl . Where there are longer hydroperiods, peat builds up over hundreds or thousands of years due to many generations of decaying plant matter. Where periphyton grows, the soil develops into marl, which
29808-447: The hammocks very difficult for people to penetrate, though small mammals, reptiles and amphibians find these islands an ideal habitat. Water in sloughs flows around the islands, creating moats . Although some ecosystems are maintained and promoted by fire, hammocks may take decades or centuries to recover. The moats around the hammocks protect the trees. The trees are limited in height by weather factors such as frost, lightning, and wind;
30015-434: The heat," she told them. Later, she wrote, "They're all good souls—they just shouldn't be out there." Dade County commissioners eventually decided not to drain. Florida Governor Lawton Chiles explained her impact, saying, "Marjory was the first voice to really wake a lot of us up to what we were doing to our quality of life. She was not just a pioneer of the environmental movement, she was a prophet, calling out to us to save
30222-552: The history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas." Marjory Stoneman was born on April 7, 1890, in Minneapolis, Minnesota , the only child of concert violinist Florence Lillian Trefethen (1859-1912) and Frank Bryant Stoneman (1857–1941). One of her earliest memories was her father reading to her The Song of Hiawatha , at which she burst into sobs upon hearing that
30429-602: The internationally oriented campus publication; The Wellesley Review , the literary magazine; and W.Collective , the fashion and lifestyle magazine. Wellesley fields 13 varsity sports teams – basketball, crew, cross country, fencing, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and volleyball. Wellesley does not have a mascot in the traditional sense – its sports teams are referred to both individually and collectively as "the Blue" (the school colors are royal blue and white). Wellesley
30636-446: The key mechanism by which water leaves the region. During a year unaffected by drought, the rate may reach 40 inches (100 cm) a year. When droughts take place, the rate may peak at over 50 inches (130 cm), and exceed the amount of rainfall. As water leaves an area through evaporation from groundwater or from plant matter, activated primarily by solar energy, it is then moved by wind patterns to other areas that border or flow into
30843-500: The largest body of water in the park boundaries. There are approximately 100 keys in Florida Bay, many of which are mangrove forests. The fresh water coming into Florida Bay from the Everglades creates perfect conditions for vast beds of turtle grass and algae formations that are the foundation for animal life in the bay. Sea turtles and manatees eat the grass, while invertebrate animals, such as worms, clams and other mollusks eat
31050-404: The leaders of environmental groups, in 1969—at the age of 79—Douglas founded Friends of the Everglades to protest the construction of a jetport in the Big Cypress portion of the Everglades. She justified her involvement saying, "It is a woman's business to be interested in the environment. It's an extended form of housekeeping." She toured the state giving "hundreds of ringing denunciations" of
31257-425: The limestone that underlies the Everglades, eroding some of it away, and created springs and sinkholes . The abundance of fresh water allowed new vegetation to take root, and formed convective thunderstorms over the land through evaporation. As rain continued to fall, the slightly acidic rainwater dissolved the limestone. As limestone wore away, the groundwater came into contact with the land surface and created
31464-769: The loss of the Central College Hall in 1914, the college adopted a master plan in 1921 and expanded into several new buildings. The campus hosted a Naval Reserve Officer Training program during the Second World War , and the College President Mildred McAfee took a leave of absence to lead the Women's Reserve of the U.S. Navy. She received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945. Wellesley College began to significantly revise its curriculum after
31671-513: The majority of trees in hammocks grow no higher than 55 feet (17 m). Some of the driest land in the Everglades is pineland (also called pine rockland) ecosystem, located in the highest part of the Everglades with little to no hydroperiod. Some floors, however, may have flooded solution holes or puddles for a few months at a time. The most significant feature of the pineland is the single species of South Florida slash pine ( Pinus elliottii ). Pineland communities require fire to maintain them, and
31878-526: The marl can support a variety of water plants. Solution holes , or deep pits where the limestone has worn away, may remain flooded even when the prairies are dry, and they support aquatic invertebrates such as crayfish and snails, and larval amphibians which feed young wading birds. These regions tend to border between sloughs and sawgrass marshes. Alligators have created a niche in wet prairies. With their claws and snouts they dig at low spots and create ponds free of vegetation that remain submerged throughout
32085-521: The marriage quickly failed when it became apparent he was a con artist. The true extent of his duplicity Marjory did not entirely reveal, despite her honesty in all other matters. Douglas was married to Marjory while already married to another woman. While he spent six months in jail for passing a bad check , she remained faithful to him. His scheme to scam her absent father out of money worked in Marjory's favor when it attracted Frank Stoneman's attention. Marjory's uncle persuaded her to move to Miami and end
32292-557: The marriage. In the fall of 1915, Marjory Stoneman Douglas left New England to be reunited with her father, whom she had not seen since her parents' separation. Shortly before that, her father had married Lillius ("Lilla") Eleanor Shine, a great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson (her grandfather was Francis W. Eppes ). Marjory later wrote that Shine "remained my first and best friend all my life in Florida." After moving to Florida in 1915, Marjory rarely returned to Massachusetts, but she retained affection for it; her 1987 memoir Voice of
32499-510: The most popular children's publication of the day, St. Nicholas Magazine —also the first publisher of 20th-century writers F. Scott Fitzgerald , Rachel Carson , and William Faulkner —with a puzzle titled "Double Beheadings and Double Curtailings". In 1907, she was awarded a prize by the Boston Herald for "An Early Morning Paddle", a story about a boy who watches a sunrise from a canoe. As her mother's mental health deteriorated, Marjory took on more responsibilities, eventually managing some of
32706-420: The mouths of rivers or on key islands. The Calusa were hunter-gatherers who lived on small game, fish, turtles, alligators, shellfish, and various plants. Most of their tools were made of bone or teeth, although sharpened reeds were also effective for hunting or war. Calusa weapons consisted of bows and arrows, atlatls , and spears. Canoes were used for transportation, and South Florida tribes often canoed through
32913-558: The natural water system in the Everglades. The Everglades are a complex system of interdependent ecosystems. Marjory Stoneman Douglas described the area as a "River of Grass" in 1947, though that metaphor represents only a portion of the system. The area recognized as the Everglades, prior to drainage, was a web of marshes and prairies 4,000 square miles (10,000 km ) in size. Borders between ecosystems are subtle or imperceptible. These systems shift, grow and shrink, die, or reappear within years or decades. Geologic factors, climate, and
33120-414: The neighborhood one night screaming. She realized she had a " father complex ", explaining it by saying, "Having been brought up without him all those years, and then coming back and finding him so sympathetic had a powerful effect". Regardless of her dedication to the preservation of the Everglades, Douglas admitted the time she spent actually there was sporadic, driving there for occasional picnics. "To be
33327-449: The nickname "Grande Dame of the Everglades" as well as the hostility of agricultural and business interests looking to benefit from land development in Florida. She received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom , and was inducted into several halls of fame. Douglas lived to 108, working until nearly the end of her life for Everglades restoration. Upon her death, an obituary in The Independent in London stated, "In
33534-459: The ocean. Mangrove trees are well adapted to the transitional zone of brackish water where fresh and salt water meet. The estuarine ecosystem of the Ten Thousand Islands , which is comprised almost completely of mangrove forests, covers almost 200,000 acres (810 km ). In the wet season fresh water pours out into Florida Bay, and sawgrass begins to grow closer to the coastline. In the dry season, and particularly in extended periods of drought,
33741-425: The original landscape character of the campus that had been partially lost as the campus evolved through the 20th century. In 2011, Wellesley was listed by Travel+Leisure magazine as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States. Wellesley is home to Green Hall, completed in 1931, the only building bearing the name of famed miser Hetty Green ; the building was funded by her children. Part of
33948-443: The peat into carbon dioxide and water. Some of the peat was burned by settlers to clear the land. Some homes built in the areas of early farms had to have their foundations moved to stilts as the peat deteriorated; other areas lost approximately 8 feet (2.4 m) of soil depth. Fire is an important element in the natural maintenance of the Everglades. The majority of fires are caused by lightning strikes from thunderstorms during
34155-480: The people lived in relative isolation from the majority culture. The construction of the Tamiami Trail , beginning in 1928 and spanning the region from Tampa to Miami, altered their ways of life. Some began to work in local farms, ranches, and souvenir stands. Some of the people who interacted more with European Americans began to move to reservations in the 1940s. These were their bases for reorganizing their government and they became federally recognized in 1957 as
34362-415: The protection of the National Park System ". Despite blindness and diminished hearing, Douglas continued to be active into her second century, and was honored with a visit from Queen Elizabeth II , to whom Douglas gave a signed copy of The Everglades: River of Grass in 1991. Instead of gifts and celebrations, Douglas asked that trees be planted on her birthday, resulting in over 100,000 planted trees across
34569-410: The reason for the black color of Everglades muck. Layers of charcoal have been detected in the peat in portions of the Everglades that indicate the region endured severe fires for years at a time, although this trend seems to have abated since the last occurrence in 940 BC . Several ecosystems are present in the Everglades, and boundaries between them are subtle or absent. The primary feature of
34776-434: The region was dominated by the native Calusa and Tequesta tribes. With Spanish colonization, both tribes declined gradually during the following two centuries. The Seminole , formed from mostly Creek people who had been warring to the North, assimilated other peoples and created a new culture after being forced from northern Florida into the Everglades during the Seminole Wars of the early 19th century. After adapting to
34983-403: The region where the Tequesta lived. Common descriptions of Native Americans in Florida by 1820 used only the term "Seminoles". Following the demise of the Calusa and Tequesta, Native Americans in southern Florida were referred to as "Spanish Indians" in the 1740s, probably due to their friendlier relations with Spain. The Creek invaded the Florida peninsula; they conquered and assimilated what
35190-624: The region, they were able to resist removal by the United States Army. Migrants to the region who wanted to develop plantations first proposed draining the Everglades in 1848, but no work of this type was attempted until 1882. Canals were constructed throughout the first half of the 20th century, and spurred the South Florida economy, prompting land development. In 1947, Congress formed the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project , which built 1,400 miles (2,300 km) of canals, levees , and water control devices. The Miami metropolitan area grew substantially at this time and Everglades water
35397-434: The river over it. Much less permeable, this formation is highly calcitic and is composed of sandy shell marl, clay, and sand. Water underneath the Caloosahatchee Formation is typically very mineralized. Both the Tamiami and Caloosahatchee Formations developed during the Pliocene Epoch . Surrounding the southern part of Lake Okeechobee is the Fort Thompson Formation, made of dense, hard limestone, shells, and sand. Rain water
35604-410: The rock is especially porous and stores water during the dry season in the Everglades, and its chemical composition determines the vegetation prevalent in the region. The Miami Oolite facies also acts to impede flow of water from the Everglades to the ocean between Fort Lauderdale and Coot Bay (near Cape Sable ). The metropolitan areas of Miami , Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach are located on
35811-667: The salt water creeps inland into the coastal prairie, an ecosystem that buffers the freshwater marshes by absorbing sea water. Mangrove trees begin to grow in fresh water ecosystems when the salt water goes far enough inland. There are three species of trees that are considered mangroves: red ( Rhizophora mangle ), black ( Avicennia germinans ), and white ( Laguncularia racemosa ), although all are from different families. All grow in oxygen-poor soil, can survive drastic water level changes, and are tolerant of salt, brackish, and fresh water. All three mangrove species are integral to coastline protection during severe storms. Red mangroves have
36018-550: The shrinking Everglades. However, in application, the project instead diverted more water away from the Everglades, changed water schedules to meet sugarcane farmers' irrigation needs, and flat-out refused to release water to Everglades National Park, until much of the land was unrecognizable. "What a liar I turned out to be!" remarked Douglas, then suggested the motivation behind all the digging and diversion in saying, "Their mommies obviously never let them play with mud pies, so now they take it out on us by playing with cement". Douglas
36225-572: The slowly moving water, but may die in unusually deep floods if oxygen is unable to reach its roots. It is particularly vulnerable immediately after a fire. The hydroperiod for the marsh is at least nine months, and can last longer. Where sawgrass grows densely, few animals or other plants live, although alligators choose these locations for nesting. Where there is more room, periphyton grows. Periphyton supports larval insects and amphibians, which in turn are consumed as food by birds, fish, and reptiles. It also absorbs calcium from water, which adds to
36432-459: The small forest the appearance of a dome from the outside. They also grow in strands, slightly elevated on a ridge of limestone bordered on either side by sloughs. Other hardwood trees can be found in cypress domes, such as red maple , swamp bay , and pop ash . If cypresses are removed, the hardwoods take over, and the ecosystem is recategorized as a mixed swamp forest. Eventually the water from Lake Okeechobee and The Big Cypress makes its way to
36639-427: The sobering effect of a one-room schoolmarm's. The tone itself seemed to tame the rowdiest of the local stone crabbers, plus the developers, and the lawyers on both sides. I wonder if it didn't also intimidate the mosquitoes ... The request for a Corps of Engineers permit was eventually turned down. This was no surprise to those of us who'd heard her speak. Douglas was not well received by some audiences. She opposed
36846-511: The state and a bald cypress on the lawn of the governor's mansion. The South Florida Water Management District began removing exotic plants that had taken hold in the Everglades when Douglas turned 102. In 1993, when she was 103, President Bill Clinton awarded Douglas the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the highest civilian honor granted by the United States of America. The citation for the medal read, Marjory Stoneman Douglas personifies passionate commitment. Her crusade to preserve and restore
37053-439: The sugarcane industry. She wrote to Governor Bob Graham in 1985 to encourage him to assess the conditions the migrant workers endured. The same year, Douglas approached the Dade County School Board and insisted that the Biscayne Nature Center, which had been housed in hot dog stands, needed a building of its own. The center received a portable building until 1991 when the Florida Department of Education endowed $ 1.8 million for
37260-420: The surrounding peat, or they may grow on land that has been unharmed by deep peat fires. Hardwood hammocks exhibit a mixture of subtropical and hardwood trees, such as Southern live oak ( Quercus virginiana ), gumbo limbo ( Bursera simaruba ), royal palm ( Roystonea ), and bustic ( Dipholis salicifolia ) that grow in very dense clumps. Near the base, sharp saw palmettos ( Serenoa repens ) flourish, making
37467-476: The theater, "add[ing] an extra tingle for the audience that night", though no actual problems arose. Douglas wrote the foreword to the Work Projects Administration 's guide to Miami and environs, published in 1941 as part of the Federal Writers' Project 's American Guide Series . Douglas served as the book review editor of The Miami Herald from 1942 to 1949, and as editor for the University of Miami Press from 1960 to 1963. She released her first novel, Road to
37674-405: The tree had to give its life in order to provide Hiawatha the wood for a canoe. She was an early and voracious reader. Her first book was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , which she kept well into adulthood until "some fiend in human form must have borrowed it and not brought it back". She visited Florida when she was four, and her most vivid memory of the trip was picking an orange from a tree at
37881-415: The trees have several adaptations that simultaneously promote and resist fire. The sandy floor of the pine forest is covered with dry pine needles that are highly flammable. South Florida slash pines are insulated by their bark to protect them from heat. Fire eliminates competing vegetation on the forest floor , and opens pine cones to germinate seeds. A period without significant fire can turn pineland into
38088-563: The war and through the late 1960s; in 1968, the college began its exchange programs between other colleges in the area such as MIT. In 2013 the faculty adopted an open-access policy to make its scholarship publicly accessible online. The school has admitted transgender, non-binary, and genderqueer students since adopting an inclusive admissions policy in 2015. The 500-acre (200 ha) campus overlooks Lake Waban and includes evergreen, deciduous woodlands and open meadows. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. , Boston's preeminent landscape architect at
38295-429: The wet season. Their effects are largely superficial, and serve to foster specific plant growth: sawgrass will burn above water, but the roots are preserved underneath. Fire in the sawgrass marshes serves to keep out larger bushes and trees, and releases nutrients from decaying plant matter more efficiently than decomposition . Whereas in the wet season, dead plant matter and the tips of grasses and trees are burned, in
38502-948: The wife of former President Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China , graduated from Wellesley. Other notable Wellesley graduates who have received the college's Alumnae Achievement Award include: Anna Medora Baetjer , class of 1920, public health expert, physiologist, toxicologist; Marian Burros '54, journalist, food writer; Sally Carrighar , class of 1922, writer, naturalist; Elyse Cherry '75, an entrepreneur, financial, and social equity activist; Suzanne Ciani '68, electronic music composer, recording artist; Phyllis Curtin '43, opera singer; Jocelyn Gill '38, astronomer; Marjory Stoneman Douglas , class of 1912, environmental activist, author; Persis Drell '77, particle physicist; Nora Ephron '62, writer and director; Helen Hays '53, ornithologist; Dorothea Jameson '42, psychologist; Jean Kilbourne '64, media educator; Judith Martin '59, (pen name Miss Manners ) author; Nergis Mavalvala '90,
38709-401: The woman did not show up for the interview, Douglas herself joined the Navy as a Yeoman (F) first class. It did not suit her; she disliked rising early and her superiors did not appreciate her correcting their grammar, so she requested a discharge and joined the American Red Cross , which stationed her in Paris. She witnessed the tumultuous celebrations on the Rue de Rivoli when the Armistice
38916-558: Was among the first U.S. scientists to conduct experiments in X-rays . The first president of Wellesley was Ada Howard . There have been thirteen more presidents in its history: Alice Freeman Palmer , Helen Almira Shafer , Julia Irvine , Caroline Hazard , Ellen Fitz Pendleton , Mildred H. McAfee , Margaret Clapp , Ruth M. Adams, Barbara W. Newell , Nannerl O. Keohane (later the president of Duke University from 1993 to 2004), Diana Chapman Walsh , H. Kim Bottomly , and current president Paula Johnson . The original architecture of
39123-402: Was committed to a mental sanitarium in Providence several times. Her parents' separation and the contentiousness of her mother's family caused her to suffer from night terrors . She credited her tenuous upbringing with making her "a skeptic and a dissenter" for the rest of her life. As a youth, Marjory found solace in reading, and eventually, she began to write. At sixteen she contributed to
39330-414: Was considered the most expensive and comprehensive environmental restoration attempt in history; however, implementation faced political complications. The first written record of the Everglades was on Spanish maps made by cartographers who had not seen the land. They named the unknown area between the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida Laguna del Espíritu Santo ("Lake of the Holy Spirit"). The area
39537-414: Was dead. The family left the funeral arrangements up to Marjory. After drifting with college friends through a few jobs to which she did not feel well-suited, Marjory Stoneman met Kenneth Douglas in 1914. She was so impressed with his manners and surprised at the attention he showed her that she married him within three months. He portrayed himself as a newspaper editor, and was 30 years her senior, but
39744-420: Was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and houses the Davis Museum and a botanic garden . Wellesley was founded by Pauline and Henry Fowle Durant , believers in educational opportunity for women, who intended that the college should prepare women for "...great conflicts, for vast reforms in social life". Its charter was signed on March 17, 1870, by Massachusetts Governor William Claflin . The original name of
39951-425: Was diverted to cities. Portions of the Everglades were transformed into farmland, where the primary crop was sugarcane . Approximately 50 percent of the original Everglades has been developed as agricultural or urban areas. Following this period of rapid development and environmental degradation, the ecosystem began to receive notable attention from conservation groups in the 1970s. Internationally, UNESCO and
40158-443: Was doing to the Everglades by diverting the natural flow of water. The Corps was responsible for constructing more than 1,400 miles (2,300 km) of canals to divert water away from the Everglades after 1947. When the Central & South Florida Project (C&SF), run by former members of the Corps of Engineers, was proposed to assist the Everglades, Douglas initially gave it her approval, as it promised to deliver much-needed water to
40365-557: Was dying. However, she credited the motivation for her support of women's suffrage to her Quaker paternal grandparents whose dedication to the abolition of slavery she admired, and proudly claimed Levi Coffin , an organizer of the Underground Railroad , was her great-great-uncle. She wrote that his wife was a friend of Harriet Beecher Stowe , and had provided Stowe with the story of Eliza in Uncle Tom's Cabin fleeing slavery because Douglas's great-great-aunt took care of Eliza and her infant after their escape. Frank Stoneman grew up in
40572-406: Was featured on maps for decades without having been explored. Writer James Grant Forbes stated in 1811, "The Indians represent [the Southern points] as impenetrable; and the [British] surveyors, wreckers, and coasters, had not the means of exploring beyond the borders of the sea coast, and the mouths of rivers". British surveyor John Gerard de Brahm , who mapped the coast of Florida in 1773, called
40779-399: Was first noticed by students who lived on the fourth floor near the zoology laboratory. It has been suggested that an electrical or chemical accident in this laboratory—specifically, an electrical incubator used in the breeding of beetles—triggered the fire. A group of residence halls known as the Tower Court complex is located on top of the hill where the old College Hall once stood. After
40986-414: Was giving a speech addressing the harmful practices of the Army Corps of Engineers when the colonel in attendance dropped his pen on the floor. As he was stooping to pick it up, Douglas stopped her speech and said to him, "Colonel! You can crawl under that table and hide, but you can't get away from me!" In 1973, Douglas attended a meeting addressing conservation of the Everglades in Everglades City , and
41193-443: Was incomplete when she died in 1998. Early in the 1940s, Douglas was approached by a publisher to contribute to the Rivers of America Series by writing about the Miami River . Unimpressed with it, she called the Miami River about "an inch long”, but in researching it she became more interested in the Everglades and persuaded the publisher to allow her to write about the Everglades instead. She spent five years researching what little
41400-431: Was known about the ecology and history of the Everglades and South Florida. Douglas spent time with geologist Garald Parker , who discovered that South Florida's sole freshwater source was the Biscayne Aquifer , and it was filled by the Everglades. Parker confirmed the name of the book that has since become the nickname for the Everglades when Douglas, trying to capture the Everglades' essence, asked if she could safely call
41607-492: Was left of pre-Columbian societies into the Creek Confederacy. They were joined by remnant Indian groups and formed the Seminole, a new tribe, by ethnogenesis . The Seminole originally settled in the northern portion of the territory. In addition, free blacks and fugitive slaves made their way to Florida, where Spain had promised slaves freedom and arms if they converted to Catholicism and pledged loyalty to Spain. These African Americans gradually created communities near those of
41814-409: Was observed by John Rothchild: Mrs. Douglas was half the size of her fellow speakers and she wore huge dark glasses, which along with the huge floppy hat made her look like Scarlett O'Hara as played by Igor Stravinsky . When she spoke, everybody stopped slapping mosquitoes and more or less came to order. She reminded us all of our responsibility to nature and I don't remember what else. Her voice had
42021-423: Was outspoken and politically conscious of the women's suffrage and civil rights movements. She was called upon to take a central role in the protection of the Everglades when she was 79 years old. For the remaining 29 years of her life she was "a relentless reporter and fearless crusader" for the natural preservation and restoration of South Florida . Her tireless efforts earned her several variations of
42228-429: Was posthumously inducted into the National Wildlife Federation Hall of Fame in 1999, and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2000. Upon hearing that she was to be inducted, she questioned, "Why should they have a Women's Hall of Fame, as I heard they wanted to put me in the other day? Why not a Citizens' Hall of Fame?" Douglas was included in a tribute to pioneering women when television character Lisa Simpson made
42435-420: Was signed and cared for war refugees ; seeing them displaced and in a state of shock, she wrote, "helped me understand the plight of refugees in Miami sixty years later". After the war, Douglas served as assistant editor at The Miami Herald . She gained some renown for her daily column, "The Galley", becoming something of a local celebrity. She amassed a devoted readership and attempted to begin each column with
42642-402: Was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson 's influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes. As a young woman, Douglas
42849-420: Was typical of American campuses at the time. The 720-acre (2.9 km ) site's glaciated topography, a series of meadows, and native plant communities shaped the original layout of the campus, resulting in a campus architecture that is integrated into its landscape. The campus offers multiple housing options, including Tower Court, which was built after College Hall burnt down, the Quad (Quint, including Munger),
#2997