Harriet Louise Keeler
(1846-1921, OC 1870) was an educator and naturalist. She graduated from Oberlin
College in 1870 with a B.A. from the college department. That same year Keeler
began teaching English in the Cleveland Public Schools. She was later appointed
the principal of Central High School. Keeler retired from the Cleveland Public
Schools in 1908 after working as a teacher and administrator for forty years. In
1912 she began working for the Cleveland Public Schools again as the first
female superintendent, a position she held from January until September. Keeler
firmly believed in women’s suffrage and served as the president of the Cuyahoga
County Suffrage Association. She was also a keen naturalist who conducted
nature studies across the United States and abroad. During her lifetime Keeler
wrote eleven books on plant life, English grammar, and writing techniques,
including a series of seven nature guides. Her first book, The Wildflowers of Early Spring, was published in 1894. Many of her
nature guides are still printed today. A section of land in the Brecksville
Reservation, part of the Cleveland Metroparks, is named in her honor. She was a
trustee of Oberlin College.
