Journal Number 91
June 2004

CLOSE RELATIONS

Spiranthes gracilis

Spiranthes gracilis drawn by Blanche Ames Ames, from Correll DS.
Native orchids of North America north of Mexico. Chronica Botanica, Waltham, 1950.

Blanche Ames Ames (1878-1969) painted oil paintings of prominent men and women,
illustrations of orchids for her husband's scholarly works, and drew political cartoons.

She is known for her drawings of orchids, which she produced over 50 years.

The Ames' cumulative work was published in the seven-volume Orchidaciae: Illustrations
and Studies of the Family Orchidaciae.

She was an outspoken feminist who lobbied hard for suffrage and for women's right to birth
control. During World War I, she invented a method of trapping the propellers of enemy
airplanes using strings held by balloons. At age 80 she wrote her father's biography, outraged
at John F Kennedy's treatment of him in his Profiles.