# Researcher Spotlight - Ruth Holden and Kono Yasui June 05, 2025 [ Mitchell Bryan ](/people/mitchell-bryan) [ Carolyn Thornton ](/people/carolyn-thornton) Scientific collections serve as important tools for research and education, but they can also be sources of great inspiration. Those who study and manage these collections are often shaped by them; professional careers and entire life paths can start with a simple interest that blooms into a deep commitment to understanding. This is especially true of two women, Ruth Holden (1890-1917) and Kono Yasui (保井 コノ, 1880-1971), who found their inspiration in a collection of coal, lignite, and fossil wood at the Harvard University Herbaria over 100 years ago. The Herbaria are home to the E. C. Jeffrey Coal Collection, assembled by its namesake Edward Charles Jeffrey (1866-1952). Jeffrey was a professor of plant morphology at Harvard from 1907 to 1933 and studied coal extensively. He published a number of papers and books on the subject, including *Coal and Civilization*(1925). Aside from collecting on his own, Jeffrey received hundreds of samples of coal, lignite, and fossilized wood from sources around the world. These he used for his own study as well as for instruction, often recruiting students to utilize his collection for their theses and dissertations. ![portrait of Ruth Holden next to specimen 66374 Xenoxylon latiporosum](/sites/g/files/omnuum6796/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-06/Holden-66374-Xenoxylon-latiporosum.jpg?itok=4w4M4gLX) (L) portrait of Ruth Holden (1890-1917), (R) Specimen HUPB 66374 *Xenoxylon latiporosum* (Cramer) GothanOne such student, Ruth Holden, worked with Jeffrey as an undergraduate at Radcliffe College. She studied paleobotany and developed a keen interest in fossil wood, and would frequently travel to collect fossils in her free time. After graduating in 1910 and earning her master’s degree the following year, Holden “devoted herself more especially to the anatomical study of recent and fossil Conifers.” Her thesis, *Reduction and Reversion in the North American Salicales*, earned her the Caroline I. Wilby Prize, awarded for the best original work amongst all Radcliffe College students. In order to further her research, Holden went to England as a Harvard Traveling Fellow and worked with A. C. Seward, professor of botany at Cambridge University. There she continued to make analyses of fossil wood, usually from specimens she had collected herself from Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick in Canada, and several other pieces off the coasts of England. Holden became a postgraduate student at Newnham College and later a fellow of the same, but was soon diverted from her studies by the onset of World War I. Ruth Holden was not inclined to be idle in the face of global calamity and almost immediately enlisted in a British medical unit destined for Russia. She learned Russian, helped manage a hospital, cared for refugees, and all the while continued her investigations of fossil wood. Holden gained access to the fossil collection of the local university in Kazan and even managed to complete studies she had started while still in Cambridge, England. Tragically, her humanitarian and scientific work were both cut short in 1917. After contracting typhoid fever and meningitis, Ruth Holden died in Moscow at 27 years old. A. C. Seward said of her, “though Miss Holden was a student of exceptional originality and promise she was much more than that—a chivalrous and noble woman whom it was a privilege to count a friend.” Ruth Holden, in the six years between her graduation and her death, notably published 13 scientific papers on fossil wood, including one posthumous work. ![portrait Kono Yasui next to specimen 53313 Sequoia hondoensis](/sites/g/files/omnuum6796/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-06/Yasui-53313-Sequoia-hondoensis.jpg?itok=lHTOZ2iX) (L) portrait of Kono Yasui (1880-1971), (R) Specimen: HUPB 53313 *Sequoia hondoensis* YasuiMuch like Ruth Holden, Kono Yasui’s scientific career was influenced by Jeffrey’s collection, although the circumstances that brought her to it were far different. Yasui was born in Japan to a family who supported her education and greatly encouraged her scientific curiosity. She graduated from the Women’s Higher Normal School (now Ochanomizu University) in 1902 and taught there until she enrolled in a new government-sponsored graduate program in 1905. Yasui was the sole student majoring in science, focusing on zoology and botany, and wrote two notable papers: “On the Weber’s Organ in Carp” (1905) and “On the life history of *Salvia natans*” (1911). These were the first papers published by a woman in *Zoological Science* and by a Japanese woman in the *Annals of Botany*, respectively. Despite her ability, Yasui faced significant challenges in the next stage of her academic career. Her peers at Tokyo University Kiichi Mitake and Fujii Kenjirō endorsed her to the Ministry of Education to pursue research in Germany, but the Ministry “was reluctant to grant her permission to study abroad, saying, ‘Women studying science will not be of much use.’” They eventually granted her request, but imposed several limits including that Yasui list home economics alongside science as her area of study and even implied that she should never marry and continue to research indefinitely. Following her time in Germany, Yasui traveled to Harvard in 1914 where she enrolled at Radcliffe College and studied coal under Jeffrey. While there, Yasui learned Jeffrey’s method for creating thin section slides of coal, which involved softening the material in a series of chemical washes and slicing it using a sliding microtome. Upon returning home, and with knowledge of this new sectioning technique, she embarked on a decade-long study of Japanese coal. One biography notes, “She would collect coal from all over Japan, riding on her scooter to the depths of coal mine shafts, and…\[she\] clarified the structural changes in coal plants depending on the degree of carbonization.” Yasui’s research culminated with “On the Structure of Japanese Lignite, Brown Coal, and Bituminous Coal” (1927). This became her dissertation and earned her the first doctoral degree awarded to a woman in Japanese history. Serving then as a professor and research associate, Yasui taught and conducted cytological and genetic research until her retirement in 1952. By the end of her career, she had published nearly 100 scientific papers, founded the journal *Cytologia*, and saw women’s education in Japan reach new heights. Kono Yasui passed away in 1971 at the age of 91. Although Ruth Holden and Kono Yasui never met, their stories are bound by a common scientific interest and the collection that inspired their work. Today, the E. C. Jeffrey Coal Collection contains specimens studied and collected by both women, many of which are described in their published works “Contributions to the Anatomy of Mesozoic Conifers No. 1” (Holden, 1913) and “A Japanese Fossil Sequoia” (Yasui, 1917). Curatorial assistants Mitchell Bryan and Carolyn Thornton are making an inventory of the collection, which includes creating a digital record of the specimens and rehousing them using archival materials. By better preserving the collection, future generations of scientists can build upon Holden and Yasui’s work. **References** Holden, Ruth (1913). Contributions to the Anatomy of Mesozoic Conifers. No. I. Jurassic Coniferous Woods from Yorkshire. *Annals of Botany 27*(107), 533-545. Kono Yasui. Wikipedia. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kono\_Yasui](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kono_Yasui) Ruth Holden. Wikipedia. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth\_Holden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Holden) Kono Yasui (1880-1971). Ochanomizu University Library. [https://www.lib.ocha.ac.jp/06/yasui\_kono.html](https://www.lib.ocha.ac.jp/06/yasui_kono.html) Seward, A. C. (1917). Obituary: Ruth Holden (1890-1917). *The New Phytologist, 16*(5), 154-156. Yasui, Kono (1917). A fossil wood of sequoia from the Tertiary of Japan. *Annals of Botany 31*, 101-106. Yasui, Kono (1928). Studies on the Structure of Lignite, Brown Coal, and Bituminous Coal in Japan. *Journal of the Faculty of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo, Section III Botany, 1*(4), 381-468. Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)