Edith Marion Patch (27 July 1876 - 28 September 1954) was an American[1] entomologist and writer. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, she received a degree from the University of Minnesota in 1901 and originally embarked on a career as an English teacher before receiving the opportunity to organize the entomology department at the University of Maine. She became the head of the entomology department in 1904, despite misgivings from several male colleagues about having a female department head, and she remained in this post until her 1937 retirement.[2] Edith Patch is recognized as the first truly successful professional woman entomologist in the United States. Patch subsequently earned her master's degree from the university in 1910 and later received a Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1911. During her career, she was recognized as an expert in the study of aphids and published Food Plant Catalogue of the Aphids in 1938. She was elected president of the American Nature Study Society and in 1930 became the first female president of the Entomological Society of America. Patch's residence in Old Town, Maine, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. After acquiring her PhD, Patch embarked on writing books and magazine articles on natural history for children, designed to stimulate their interest and enthusiasm for the natural world. They were published at first by the Pine Cone Publishing Company in Orono, which seems to have been her own enterprise. In 1913, Patch published Dame Bug and her Babies, a collection of 18 stories about insect mothers and their young. This invoked a passion in Patch to continue to educate young minds about nature through her writings. An additional publishing, Little Gateways to Science, told the story of 12 birds and the unpropitious effects human activity can have on the natural world.[1] Later, after her reputation as a natural history writer for children was established, she was taken on by the better known Macmillan Publishers. With them she produced the "Holiday Series", on the wildlife and plants found in various habitats, the "Neighbor Series", with information on wild animals in their natural settings, and the "Science Readers" for schools, covering scientific topics for children up to eighth grade
