In the summer of 1951, Juneau botanical artist, Claudia Juanita Dona Kelsey packed up her crow quill pens and her India ink and set off on a great adventure. Her assignment: Draw the wild edible plants of interior and arctic Alaska for the first botanical reference of its kind in the Territory. The pen and ink drawings [in this collection are Claudia’s] sketches for the original illustrations for [the publication, Wild Edible Plants of Alaska] …The originals have been lost.

When Wild Edible Plants of Alaska was published in 1953, it was intended for military pilots who might be shot down without food in the northern wilderness…The study was directed by Dr. Christine Heller, territorial Department of Health nutritionist. The book was written under contract with the U.S. Air Force, with support from the Alaska Cooperative Extension Service…

Claudia Kelsey and Christine Heller traveled to villages and fish camps of arctic Alaska by small plane, flat-bottomed whaling boat and umiak, often landing on isolated air strips and beaches in search of the wild plants which Alaska Natives had long ago wisely recognized as indispensable food and medicine. Claudia is a botanist as well as a botanical illustrator. She identified and collected the plants in the field and sketched on the spot, noting color and surroundings. She avoided wind or rain, (but not mosquitoes) by taking her specimens to a shelter and drawing them that day. She never drew from photographs. She often signed her drawings with her initials, CJDK. [Biographical notes were originally written by Bea Shepard?].

According to the program for her wake [see Master File], Claudia Kelsey was born August 8, 1912 and died December 6, 2007. She worked in Los Angeles with immigrant children prior to coming to Alaska in the 1940s. She helped establish the Eagle River Camp, Artists in the Schools program, and Sea Week in Juneau. Claudia and her friend and housemate, Bea Shepard, received the Juneau Chamber’s Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2007.