Sunday, March 1, 2020

Women's History Month - Gene Stratton-Porter, Loree Griffen-Burns, and Moths

It's Women's History Month! Hurrah, an entire month to celebrate the accomplishments of women!

I'd like to start with a look at an author who was extremely popular in her day, so much so that she wrote five bestselling books, selling more than other authors of her time. Nine of her novels were made into movies.

Geneva (Gene) Stratton-Porter was also an influential naturalist and conservationist who fought to preserve the Limberlost of Indiana.  After the Swamp Act was passed in 1850 government-owned wetlands that were "worthless" in the eyes of the government were granted to anyone who drained them. These natural areas were given to settlers who logged, farmed and drilled the land. Stratton-Porter wrote and photographed these lands before they were "shorn, branded, and tamed."

You might know her best from her book, Girl of the Limberlost. It's already celebrated its 100th anniversary (2009) and was made into a movie. It's the story of a young girl named Elnora who collects moths in the marsh Stratton-Porter worked to preserve.



Stratton-Porter then worked on the perfect companion book - a photography book that captured the moths she had written about in the place she loved. It became Moths of the Limberlost



Dig around the shelves of your local library this spring for these two wonderful books.

A portion of Stratton-Porter's Loblolly Marsh is preserved today in Indiana. When a 24-hour biodiversity survey was carried out on the site volunteers recorded 545 species: two bees, 55 birds, 29 dragonflies and damselflies, 24 moths and butterflies, one fish, 25 fungi, 15 reptiles and amphibians, two insects, five mammals, 376 plants and 11 sciomyzid flies. Although those numbers seem respectable, the quantities of Stratton-Porter's beloved moths and butterflies were much lower than she had experienced. This species decline has, sadly, been felt all over America.

This leads me to another author and another book celebrating moths. Loree Griffen-Burns has written a book Stratton-Porter would surely have loved. You're Invited to a Moth Ball releases in April! The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs by Ellen Harasimowicz.



This spring pull out a copy of Girl of the Limberlost (or watch the movie) with your young readers, hold your own nighttime celebration with Loree Griffen-Burns' You're Invited to a Moth Ball and spend an evening celebrating these fabulous women and the moths they love! Perhaps it will inspire you to help in their preservation too.

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