Mary Albertson
American botanist and astronomer (1838 – 1914)
Mary A. Albertson (21 June 1838 – 19 August 1914), born Mary Ann Mitchell, was an American botanist and astronomer. From 1904 to 1914, she curated the Maria Mitchell memorial located on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Her work there covered both the nascent botany department and the astronomical observatory. In the botany department, she curated an herbarium of Nantucket plants, in memory of her cousin Mitchell's love of flowers. She died in 1914 on Nantucket Island.
Albertson's daughter Alice Owen Albertson was the author of the book Nantucket Wildflowers (G. P. Putnam's sons, 1921).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mary Albertson” is american botanist and astronomer (1838 – 1914). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mary, Albertson and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american botanist and astronomer (1838 – 1914)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16002393. VIAF identifies the subject as 53328372. The Library of Congress control number is n91054485. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1838, 1914, 1904 and 1921.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Mary Albertson”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Mary Albertson primary sources, Mary Albertson archive and Mary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mary Albertson”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Mary Albertson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.