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Title: VERA K. CHARLES, EARLY MYCOLOGIST AT THE USDA

Author
item Rossman, Amy

Submitted to: Pioneering Women in Plant Pathology
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/23/2004
Publication Date: 1/14/2008
Citation: Rossman, A.Y. 2008. Vera K. Charles, EARLY MYCOLOGIST AT THE USDA. In: Ristaino,J.,editor. Pioneering Women in Plant Pathology. St.Paul, MN: American Phytopathology Society Press. p. 41-46

Interpretive Summary: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) employed three women mycologists in the early decades of the twentieth century including Vera K. Charles who joined the staff in 1903. She spent the next forty years studying the diverse fungi that were submitted for identification by the scientific public. Vera Charles was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1877, and received her Bachelor of Arts in mycology from Cornell University in 1902. She authored the most well-known publication dealing with fungi issued by the USDA in the first half of the 20th century, a pamphlet originally entitled 'Mushrooms and other common fungi.' Charles identified the fungi present on the first load of Japanese cherry trees that resulted in their destruction followed by a diplomatic communication and a new, 'clean' shipment of trees. Charles documented the transmission of ringworm from pets to humans by cross inoculation from human to cat and cat to cat. During the last half of her career, Charles became the recognized specialist in the fungi that parasitize insects. Her research established the basis for the use of fungal parasites as biological control agents of insects. She is remembered for research on a wide range of fungi including the thousands of specimens that are now part of the U.S. National Fungus Collections.

Technical Abstract: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) employed three women mycologists in the early decades of the twentieth century including Vera K. Charles who joined the staff in 1903. She spent the next forty years studying the diverse fungi that were submitted for identification by the scientific public. Vera Charles was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1877, and received her Bachelor of Arts in mycology from Cornell University in 1902. She authored the most well-known publication dealing with fungi issued by the USDA in the first half of the 20th century, a pamphlet originally entitled 'Mushrooms and other common fungi.' Charles identified the fungi present on the first load of Japanese cherry trees that resulted in their destruction followed by a diplomatic communication and a new, 'clean' shipment of trees. Charles documented the transmission of ringworm from pets to humans by cross inoculation from human to cat and cat to cat. During the last half of her career, Charles became the recognized specialist in the fungi that parasitize insects. Her research established the basis for the use of fungal parasites as biological control agents of insects. She is remembered for research on a wide range of fungi including the thousands of specimens that are now part of the U.S. National Fungus Collections.