Catherine Cate Coblentz

Catherine Cate Coblentz (June 5, 1897 – May 30, 1951) was the wife of William Coblentz (1873 – 1962), an American scientist who was a pioneer in the field of infrared spectroscopy. Originally from Vermont, Catherine Cate worked during World War I at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., where she met her future husband. They were married on June 10, 1924.

Coblentz published a poem on Mars in "Popular Astronomy" magazine in 1924, the same year that her husband was measuring the temperature of Mars at the Lowell Observatory. Mrs. Coblentz later achieved success as a writer of children's books, and her "The Blue Cat of Castle Town" was a Newbery Honor book. Older copies of this work and some of her other books can still be found, and some are considered to be collector's items.

In 1930 Catherine Cate Coblentz received a B.A. degree from George Washington University.In honor of her later work, she was presented with a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award by her alma mater in 1945.

In the mid-to-late 1940s, Mrs. Coblentz was instrumental in raising money to buy the land on which the Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library was built on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. A set of windows, with illustrations based on her books, remain on display in the library.

Catherine Cate Coblentz, her husband, and an infant daughter are buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. (Section O).

Books

The dates of publication are approximate.

* "Animal Pioneers" (1936)
* "The Blue and Silver Necklace" (1937)
* "The Pan American Highway" (1942)
* "The Falcon of Eric the Red" ( 1942)
* "The Bells of Leyden" (1944)
* "The Amazon" (1944)
* "Sequoya" (1946)
* "Scatter, the Chipmunk" (1946)
* "Martin and Abraham Lincoln" (1947)
* "The Blue Cat of Castle Town" (1949)
* "Ah-yo-ka: Daughter of Sequoya" (1950)
* "The Beggars' Penny" (1954)

References and links

* http://www.vermonthistory.org/journal/72/vt721_207.pdf Article by Prof. Michael Stanton on some of Catherine Cate Coblentz's work
* http://www.dclibrary.org/branches/cpk/history.html History of the Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library
* http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/archives/almanac/recip.html Award from George Washington University
* "From the Life of a Researcher", 1951 autobiography of William Coblentz, published by the Philosophical Library (New York)
* "William Weber Coblentz" by William F. Meggers, 1967, in "Biographical Memoirs (National Academy of Sciences, USA)", volume 39, pp. 54 - 102, Columbia University Press (New York)