Minnie Watson Kamm

Parasites, Herbs, and Glassware

Minnie Watson Kamm, courtesy of Detroit Free Press, August 1941

Honestly, Minnie Watson Kamm popped up on my screen seemingly out of nowhere when I was looking for information about another lost lady of garden writing, and I knew right away she should be the next author to profile in this series. (Thanks for stepping aside, Maude G. Peterson.)

I chose the subtitle of “parasites, herbs, and glassware” for this article because Minnie was a woman with many interests. Intrigued? Let’s begin as usual with a brief biography.

Her Biography

Mary (Minnie) Elizabeth Watson was born December 8, 1886 in Fostoria, Michigan to Samuel J. and Annie (Galliver) Watson. Per an article in the Detroit Free Press in August 1941:

“Minnie Watson Kamm was born in Fostoria, Mich. Father died when she was 16, and she took over his job as station agent, doing the work of express and telegraph agent and pushing things around baggage rooms. The family saved pennies to send Minnie and her two brothers to college at Olivet, where she struggled to support herself while learning physics and chemistry, later took a master of science degree in biology at the University of Illinois. Here she met and married Mr. Kamm, who was studying chemistry; she went on with her studies for a doctor’s degree.”

According to Prabook.com, Minnie was a member of American Microscopic Society, American Society of Parasitologists, American Fern Society, Michigan Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Sigma Xi. Her obituary noted she was active in many clubs, including the Nornae Study Club¹, the Illinae, the National Farm and Garden Club, and the Women’s City Club.

For her PhD in Zoology, which she earned in 1915, her dissertation was titled: “Studies on gregarines, including descriptions of twenty-one new species and a synopsis of the eugregarine records from the Myriapoda, Coleoptera and Orthoptera of the world.” Gregarines, as I found out when I looked it up, are parasites. If you want to know more, you can read her dissertation, nearly 300 pages long, on archive.org.

Minnie married Oliver Kamm in 1916, had two sons, and lived most of her adult life in Grosse Pointe and Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. In the 1940 census, her occupation was listed as “housewife.” I couldn’t find any records of her working in her chosen field of parasitology, though she may have done so at some point.

She died in November 1954.

Her Non-Gardening Books

In 1925, Little, Brown, & Co., published Minnie’s next book, The Pre-School Age. As noted in an article in the Brooklyn Eagle in 1925:

The pre-school age of the child is receiving particular attention these days and the wise mother does not wait until the kindergarten takes her little son or daughter under its wing before its occupations and interests are controlled and directed.

Minnie Watson Kamm has brought out a book entitled "The Pre-School Age," in which she sums up for the busy, but wide-awake mother the results of her own ideas as she has developed and put them into practice with her own family of children, The author believes that it is a matter of serious import to give the child all that his stage of development demands and to give it to him at exactly the right time. "I feel that it is better to present projects too early." she writes, "than too late; if the child is apathetic they can be removed and given a few months later with somewhat surprising results."

In other words, what she learned about raising her two sons, she put into a book!

The other non-gardening books she wrote are all about American glassware, another passion project which sadly seemed to have replaced her interest in herbs. She wrote eight books on the subject, and many were used as references for glass collectors. I found mentions of her books in articles written as late as 2000.

Her Gardening Book

Minnie loved gardening, too, and wrote Old Time Herbs for Northern Gardens, published by Little, Brown & Co. in 1938. A later edition was published by Dover in 1971. She wrote in the introduction:

“As the interest in rock-gardening wanes, the growing of herbs finds increasing and widespread favor. The present popularity of these old-fashioned plants is well-deserved, for they have much to offer the home gardener.”

(I had no idea that interest in rock gardening was waning in the 1930s.)

Minnie then described various herbs grouped by plant families and included drawings of many of the herbs.

Sample drawing from Old Time Herbs for Northern Gardens

She concluded her introduction with this observation:

“The present interest in these old-time plants may be only a transitory one, for very few will be revived as medicinals in this age of highly complex biological remedies; none will be revived as dyes for commercial use because all are fugitive; few will be revived as perfumes for modern tastes incline rather to sophisticated synthetic odors than to the simple wholesome vigorous leaf aromatics”

The book is available to read online on archive.org.

More Interesting Info

I found an article about Minnie in the Detroit Free Press. It was written in 1941, three years after her book on herbs was published, and described both Minnie and her family.

From the Detroit Free Press, 1941

And since you probably can’t read that on a phone, I quote:

“Three years ago, Mrs. Oliver Kamm had a complete herb garden behind her comfortable old house at 365 Lake Shore Drive, had just written "Old Time Herbs for Northern Gardens." Today she gives little attention to herbs, much to collecting old American glass, which is piled all over the house. Two inexpensive books by her are already on the market-"Two Hundred Pattern Glass Pitchers," the third is in the making. This doesn't mean Mrs. Kamm's interests are fickle; only that once a subject's mastered, she itches to get on to the next.

Mr. Kamm, a chemist at Parke Davis, collects Oriental rugs, most of them rolled and stacked, oil paintings and things in miniature. Both sons, Robert and George, are specializing in physics, make a hobby of rigging up home-made phonographs, which lie around the living room floor asking to be stepped on. All members of the family aid and abet each other in the hobby of the moment.

Everything Mrs. Kamm touches is done superlatively well — things that don't appeal to her she seldom attempts.

For instance, she hates cooking—would as soon open a can for dinner as sit down to an elaborate meal. But just turn her loose in the kitchen with crabapples and divine jelly will result. The family wouldn't have a chance to eat much of it though —she's so generous she'd give most of it away.

Minnie Watson Kamm was born in Fostoria, Mich. Father died when she was 16, and she took over his job as station agent, doing the work of express and telegraph agent and pushing things around baggage rooms. The family saved pennies to send Minnie and her two brothers to college at Olivet, where she struggled to support herself while learning physics and chemistry, later took a master of science degree in biology at the University of Illinois. Here she met and married Mr. Kamm, who was studying chemistry; she went on with her studies for a doctor's degree.

The Kamms came to Detroit in 1920, settled in Grosse Pointe. That house soon got too small to hold all the hobbies, and the Lake Shore property was bought.

Mrs. Kamm, in her garden, looks like a picture by an old Dutch master. Her gentle manners can't hide her astonishing knowledge of many subjects.

Her love of gardens is inherited from a great-grandfather, who, she says, was a famous gardener of Exeter, Devonshire. A great uncle, by the way, John Kirkham, was the first white man to penétrate Abyssinia, organized the country under its native ruler, was murdered and lies buried in Massawa.

She has strong principles on social affairs, champions the underdog, is always looking for someone who needs help, takes in all the stray cats of the neighborhood, gives away her flowers as soon as they bloom. She was one of the first women to write a book on child psychology, draws exquisite original designs for needlework, illustrates her own books with pen and ink drawings. ... Is very sensitive to her friends' moods—her own spirits go up or down accordingly: believes mental stimulation should be balanced by physical exertion, so she does her own washing.

She belongs to many clubs and lectures on international affairs.

Mrs. Kamm is so shy, this interview had to be postponed for a day. Brooding on it kept her awake all night and she was too tired to talk the next morning.”

What a fascinating person she was!

Final Thoughts and Questions

My main question is what else could Minnie have written about gardening and plants if she hadn’t fallen in love with glassware and written eight books about it?

And what happened to all of their collections? Glassware, oriental rugs, oil paintings, miniatures, phonographs? Not to mention the herb garden and other gardens Minnie tended?

I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface of the life of this interesting woman. What do you think of Minnie Watson Kamm?

Do you know of other women authors of gardening-related books that I should research as Lost Ladies of Garden Writing? Send them my way via a comment or email!

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I’ll return with the next Lost Lady of Garden Writing article in two weeks, on July 23. In the meantime, you can find me in several other places online: my website and blog, The Gardenangelists podcast, and my weekly newsletter, In the Garden With Carol.

1. I briefly tried to figure out what the Nornae Study Club was. I found out that it was once called the Nornae Delphian Club, but in 1926 they changed the name to Nornae Study Club. I think it was a women’s club devoted to literacy and knowledge. Each month they met and listened to a speaker. If you search on “nornae” you’ll find yourself learning a bit about Norse mythology, and norns, three sisters who represented past, present, and future.