On April 8, 2015, ten women met at the home of Charmaine Lewis to discuss the book The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is the story of Alma Whittaker a woman who was lucky enough to be born in the 1800s to the wealthiest man in Philadelphia. Her father, Henry, is a British transplant of low birth and high ambition who made a fortune in botanical pharmaceuticals. Alma grows up roaming the greenhouses and woodlands of the family estate. She loved admiring the workings of all plant life and that fascination lead to a long career as one of the great taxonomists of her time. The book takes the reader from Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Holland and along the way the reader meets and gets to know some very fascinating people and cultures.