Eliza Rhuamah Scidmore 

 (1856-1928) 



Having spent much time in Japan at the turn of this century. Miss Sci- 

 dmore, along with David Fairchild, was among the first to suggest to 

 Mrs. Taft to plant Japanese cherry trees along the Potomac River. 



She was born in Madison, Wis., in 1856 and educated in boarding 

 schools. After attending Oberlin College from 1873 to 1874, she served a 

 newspaper apprenticeship in Washington, D.C., as a correspondent for 

 the New York Times and the St. Louis Globe- Democrat. After a news- 

 paper career which carried her to Alaska, she spent several years in Japan, 

 China, Java, the Philippines, and Europe. In 1910, because of her knowl- 

 edge of the East, David Fairchild, then in charge of the U.S. Department 

 of Agriculture plant explorers, recommended that she be appointed by the 

 Department as a "dollar - a - year collaborator." In this capacity, while 

 living in the Far East, she collected information on the plant industries of 

 China and Japan. 



In addition to her life in the Far East, she also was active in the 

 National Geographic Society as one of its earliest members, serving as 

 corresponding secretary, associate editor, foreign secretary, and as the 

 first female member on the Board of Managers. She also was a secretary 

 to the Oriental Congresses at Rome in 1897 and at Hamburg in 1902. 



Miss Scidmore wrote many articles on the Japanese cherry trees that 

 were published by magazines and newspapers. Her list of books includes: 

 "Alaska: Its Southern Coast and the Sitkan Archipelago" (1885); "West- 

 ward to the Far East" (1890); "From East to West" (1890); "Appleton's 

 Guidebook to Alaska and the Northwest Coast" (1893); " Java, the 

 Garden of the East" (1897); "Winter India" (1903); and "As the Hague 

 Ordains" (1907). 



Miss Scidmore died in Geneva, Switzerland, and at the request of the 

 Japanese government, her ashes were buried in Japan. 



Mrs William Howard (Helen Herron) Taft 

 (1861-1943) 



As the wife of the President of the United States, Mrs. William H. Taft 

 was very active in working to beautify what was considered in the early 

 20th century to be the undeveloped Potomac River area. 



Mrs. Taft was born and educated in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught 

 school for 2 years. She was a talented musician and served for many years 

 as President of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. She first came to 

 Washington, D.C., to live in 1891, when her husband was appointed 

 Solicitor General of the United States, and again in 1904 when Mr. Taft 

 became Secretary of War. She traveled with her husband to the Phi- 

 lippines, Japan, and other parts of the Orient and, while in Japan, devel- 



45 



