A Tribute to Alice Eastwood 
7 
silk dress made as a present for her by the girls who worked but¬ 
tonholes in the ready-made department! 
By now Alice Eastwood knew that botany was her calling. 
Each visit to the mountains confirmed this conviction. Her bo¬ 
tanical library was increased by a graduation present of two books, 
“Flora of Colorado” and Gray’s Botany. And a summer job in 
1879 led to her first collection of botanical specimens. Through 
Jacob Scherrer she became shepherd to a flock of pre-schoolers 
whom she turned into little naturalists. They brought her rocks, 
insects, birds’ eggs, as well as wild flowers, and were good be¬ 
cause they were interested. During that summer she also learned 
to ride horseback, in preparation for field trips. 
The immediate necessity of earning a living caused her to ap¬ 
ply for a teacher’s j ob, and to start teaching eighth grade and high 
school Latin. She taught a variety of classes the next few years, 
including drawing. Often she corrected as many as two hundred 
compositions a week, in natural science, or history, or English, or 
American literature, as the case might be. The year she taught 
astronomy was distinguished by the transit of Venus. This she 
and her students observed through blackened glasses. She got 
them out at four in the morning to admire a magnificent comet, 
and took them on innumerable night expeditions. 
On a salary of $475 a year, Alice Eastwood had to skimp to 
finance the summers she lived for—summers in the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains. Her personal wants were few, and her sole extravagance 
the buying of botanical books. She made her own clothes. At first 
she rode side-saddle with a long, voluminous skirt, carrying a 
long, voluminous nightgown (disguised as a bustle) for over- 
