At some point during his career as a Harvard/Radcliffe Professor, Goodale taught avid Botany student Mary Lee Ware - born to the Elizabeth Cabot Lee (from then on Elizabeth C. Ware) and Dr. Charles Eliot Ware; a twist of fate that would turn critical later. After 1879, Goodale served as the first director of Harvard's Botanical Museum, but filling it was a slight problem for, at that time, Harvard was the global center of botanical study. As such, Goodale wanted the best, but the only used method was showcasing pressed and carefully labeled specimens — a methodology that offered a twofold problem: being pressed, the specimens were two-dimensional and tended to lose their color.
During his tenure as a Harvard/Radcliffe professor, Goodale instructed Mary Lee Ware, an avid Botany student born to Elizabeth Cabot Lee (Elizabeth C. Ware) and Dr. Charles Eliot Ware; this was a fortunate twist that would later prove significant. After 1879, Goodale became the first director of Harvard's Botanical Museum but encountered difficulties in staffing it due to Harvard being the global hub for botanical studies at the time. Seeking top talent, he opted to display pressed and carefully labeled specimens — a method with two major issues: their two-dimensional nature made them lose color.