Her early education was in Europe but by 1895 she was back in the United States and working at Columbia University with Nathaniel Lord Britton, who with his wife Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, was the founding force behind the New York Botanical Garden. In January 1900, she became the first librarian of the newly founded Bronx institution's library, a post she held until September 1907.[7] While in New York, she was the author of over a dozen scientific papers (see bibliography).