Mary Griffith Biography

Mary Griffith (1772–1846) was an American writer, horticulturist and scientist. Born Mary Corre, she married John Griffith, a wealthy New York City merchant who died in 1815. After the death of her husband she purchased an estate ("Charlieshope") in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. There she performed experiments in horticulture, natural history, economic entomology, the earth sciences, epidemiology, and optics and vision, publishing her results in scientific and literary journals and newspapers. She also published several novels and stories including Camperdown, or News from Our Neighborhood (1836) which included Three Hundred Years Hence, the first known utopian novel by an American woman. Griffith died in Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York in 1846.