Gertrude Simmons Burlingham papers

Gertrude Burlingham (1872-1952) was a mycologist and specialist in the genera Lactarius and Russula. She was born in Mexico, NY 21 April 1872 and received her B.S. (1898) from Syracuse University and Ph.D. (1908) from Columbia University after graduate studies in mycology, plant physiology, and the taxonomy of the Agaricaceae. In 1906 she began studies of Lactarius in Windham County, Vermont and initiated correspondence and specimen exchange with Charles H. Peck of the NY State. During this time she also pursued studies at the NYBG.

Dr. Burlingham was a biology teacher in Binghamton, New York (1898-1905) and at the Eastern District High School in Brooklyn from 1909 to her retirement in 1934. She pursued a parallel, unpaid career as a mycologist, making significant contributions to the field. In 1908 she published her doctoral thesis, A Study of the Lactariae of the United States in the Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club. From 1914 she made Vermont a second home where she collected substantial numbers of Lactarius and Russula specimens that became part of the Gertrude S. Burlingham Collection of the NYBG cryptogamic herbarium.

Dr. Burlingham used the genus name “Lactaria” (cf. “Lactarius” used here) in conformance with the "American Code" of botanical nomenclature promulgated by Nathaniel Lord Britton. "Lactaria" was retained due to its chronological priority, though "Lactarius" remained a legitimate homonym. In surveying the genus she conducted fieldwork on the Pacific coast, in Sweden with Lars Romell, and in Denmark with Jakob Lange. During her career she published 19 scientific papers and described several new species of Lactarius and Russula. She remained actively involved in mycology after her retirement in Florida where she died in 1952.