11 Facts About Abigail Kimber

Abigail "Abby" Kimber was an American botanist, botanical collector, social reformer, abolitionist, and women's rights activist.

Abigail Kimber, nicknamed Abby, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1804 to parents Emmor and Susan Kimber.

Emmor and Susan Kimber ran a Quaking girls boarding school called Kimberton, considered one of the three most important boarding schools in southeastern rural Pennsylvania in the 1830s.

Kimberton was considered a unique school because the Kimbers were involved in reform movements of the time, and often involved their students, with Abigail even taking students to temperance meetings.

Abigail Kimber was an anti-slavery activist, taking an active role in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society as Recording Secretary, Vice President, and President at different periods throughout her involvement.

Abigail Kimber was on the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.

In June of 1840, Abigail Kimber attended the World Antislavery Convention in London, England.

Abigail Kimber achieved fame in the botanist community as a plant collector.

Abigail Kimber is noted as the second recorded donator of plant objects to the Delaware County Institute of Science.

Abigail Kimber was noted to collect both plants and minerals, which she forwarded to William Darlington, who went on to cite her collections in his 1837 and 1853 editions of his botanical index Flora Cestrica: An Attempt to Enumerate and Describe the Flowering and Filicoid Plants of Chester County, in the State of Pennsylvania.

Abigail Kimber died on March 22,1871, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 66 or 67 of unknown causes.