Fernald Descendant Invited to Tour Fernald Hall

On April 22, 2009, the Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences (PSIS) at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst welcomed to Fernald Hall the great-great-granddaughter of Dr. Charles Henry Fernald, the Entomologist for whom the building was named.  Nancy Elisabeth Fernald, a local artist from Hadley MA, was invited for a visit to the 100 year old building where both her great-grandfather Henry and her great-great-grandfather Charles taught classes and did research in the field of Entomology.

Photographs of the Fernalds, the constuction of Fernald Hall, and the Nancy Fernald visit can be found HERE.

Nancy Fernald was invited for a guided tour of Fernald Hall by PSIS Department Head, Dr. Stephen Rich. Nancy says that when she saw the framed photographs of Charles and Henry Fernald hanging in the foyer, "I felt like Dorothy encountering my own Wizards of Oz!"

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst was originally called the Massachusetts College of Agriculture, or "Mass Aggie."   Both Charles Henry Fernald (1838-1921) and his son Henry Torsey Fernald (1866-1952) held prominent positions during the College's early history. Charles was hired as a Zoology Professor in 1886.  He was also an Entomologist in the Massachusetts Hatch Experiment Station, helping to fulfill the Land Grant Service Mission of the College.  He went on to become an acting President of the College in 1891-1892, and was the first Director of the Graduate School from 1908-1912.  He was married to Maria Elizabeth Smith Fernald, who was also an Entomologist. Charles and Maria's son, Henry Fernald, was hired by the College as an Entomology Professor in 1899. He was the first Department Head of Entomology from 1899-1930.  Like his father before him, he too became a Director of the College's Graduate School from 1927-1930. 

Henry Fernald oversaw the 1909-1910 construction of a new Entomology building, Fernald Hall, named after his father Charles.  Fernald Hall is still the home of the Entomology department, which merged with other academic units to form what is now known as the Department of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences (PSIS) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Vast collections of important insect species are preserved and maintained in Fernald Hall. The Fernald Cuckoo Bumblebee (Bombus fernaldae), a species of bumblebee which can still be found in the preserved insect collection, was named after Nancy Fernald's great-great-grandmother, Charles' wife Maria.

In 1925, students in the "Mass Aggie" Department of Entomology formed a service association called the Fernald Entomological Club, named in honor of their beloved Department Head, Dr. Henry T. Fernald. The mission of the Club was "to acquaint all those interested with the history of Entomology and the present day advances."  Over 84 years later, the club lives on, now as a Graduate Student organization called The Fernald Club, and its mission remains essentially the same. The Club is still in Fernald Hall, and its members are from the Entomology Graduate Program in the PSIS Department.  Current Fernald Club President, Jeremy Andersen, along with Department Head, Dr. Stephen Rich, had the privilege of showing Nancy Fernald some of the Fernald Club's ongoing educational exhibit projects like the "Insects in the Hallway" public display of preserved and live insects that grace Fernald Hall.

Nancy Fernald is a painter, art instructor, and owner of "Where Thou Art Farm and Studio " in Hadley MA.  She is originally from Delaware, and visited Amherst several times as a young child.  She can even recall an early childhood visit to Fernald Hall.  When she was seventeen, her family moved to Amherst for two years, and Nancy graduated from Amherst Regional High School.  While her family moved back to Delaware, Nancy attended Wellesley College, where she received a B.A as a Studio Arts major in 1976.  She also took Scientific Illustration courses at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.  After graduation, she lived in Dover, MA and worked as a freelance archeological and botanical illustrator, while continuing to paint and managing to raise three daughters.

Nancy honed her painting skills by studying at "Ingbretson Studio of Drawing and Painting" in Manchester NH from 1995-2000.  After 20 years as a successful artist in the Eastern part of the State, Nancy returned to her "roots" in Western Massachusetts. Her daughters, Emily and Lydia, were both in college when Nancy and her youngest daughter Adeline moved to Hadley in 2002.  Nancy started her own art studio in a barn that she renovated behind her 1826 Hadley farmhouse residence.

Nancy Fernald has numerous diaries, journals, articles, books, and memoirs written by her ancestors.  She has been able to trace her Fernald "roots" all the way back to 1630, when her ancestors sailed from England to Portsmouth NH.  Charles H. Fernald was born in Mt. Desert, Maine, and continued to vacation there with his family when school was not in session.  Nancy Fernald visited Fernald's Point in Mt. Desert on several occasions as a child too.  Nancy also has many family photographs dating back to the mid 1800's, and many letters written By Charles to his wife Maria while he was serving in the Navy on the U.S.S. Housatonic during the Civil War. 

Science and art have always gone hand and hand in the Fernald family.  Nancy says she "grew up in a home where the shelves contained books written by my male ancestors and the walls were covered with paintings by my female ancestors."    Nancy has an extensive collection of paintings by four generations of Fernald women.  Her great-great-grandmother, Maria Smith Fernald, was a painter, as well as an Entomologist.  About fifteen years ago, Nancy found a photograph dated 1865 and marked as "Nancy Fernald."  She discovered that this Nancy was one of Charles Fernald's five sisters, a fact previously unknown to her.  This sparked her interest in extensively researching the Fernald women, as well as the men.  She says of her quest that it has been "an interesting detective game."  Nancy is very much looking forward to a future visit to the archives at the UMass Amherst Library's Special Collections, where items of both Charles and Henry Fernald have been preserved, including correspondence between Charles and Maria Fernald.

Beside her tour of Fernald Hall, Nancy Fernald was invited as an honored guest for lunch by Dr. Stephen Rich, the Department Head of PSIS, and by Dr. Steven Goodwin, Dean of the College of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE) and the Director of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station.  As Department Head and Experiment Station Director, Drs. Rich and Goodwin hold appointments that were once those of the Fernald ancestors. Also attending were Fernald Club President Jeremy Andersen, John Stoffolano, longtime Professor of Entomology, and Rick Robar, Senior Associate Director of Development, NRE.

Nancy Fernald's life path followed the arts, as did many of her female ancestors, instead of the sciences like her male ancestors.  However, the blend of Fernald arts and sciences crossed again during her visit to Fernald Hall.  The Fernald Club sponsored a campus-wide photography contest in May, 2009. Charles, Maria, and son Henry Fernald would be very proud to know that their descendent, artist Nancy Fernald, graciously agreed to be one of the contest judges. She returned to Fernald Hall in June to be a Special Guest Judge among a panel of 5. The contest had over 200 entries, and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners were chosen. The 1st place insect-themed photo will be hung in the Fernald Hall Conference Room. On June 19, the Fernald Club and PSIS sponsored a party to announce the photo contest winners. At this occasion, Fernald Hall was graced not only by Charles Fernald's great-great-granddaughter Nancy, but also by his great-great-great-granddaughter Adeline, Nancy's daughter.

Photographs of the Fernalds, the constuction of Fernald Hall, and the Nancy Fernald visit can be found HERE.

For more information about the Shutter-Bug photo contest and to view the winning photos, please see related story HERE.

Note of interest:
Nancy Fernald's paintings will be featured in the Burnett Gallery of the Jones Library in Amherst, MA from November 1-30, 2009.