Fanny D. (Fanny Dickerson) Bergen

Born in 1846 and active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Fanny Dickerson Bergen was an American folklorist, ethnobiologist, and author. She contributed essays and articles to periodicals including Popular Science Monthly, where she wrote a series on animal and plant lore, and she also published work on popular American plant names.

Her writing often sat at the meeting point of folklore and natural history. Instead of treating plants and animals only as scientific subjects, she paid attention to the stories, beliefs, and everyday language people attached to them, helping preserve traditions that might otherwise have been lost.

Bergen died in 1924. Today, she is remembered for the curious, wide-ranging spirit of her work and for showing how closely cultural history and the natural world can be linked.