Cora Belle Keith was born on August 31, 1859. She attended Iowa Agricultural College (Iowa State University) starting in 1874 and received her B.S. in 1877. She married Thomas A. Pierce on August 31, 1882, and became a homemaker in Vinton, Iowa. In 1883, she gave birth to a daughter, Cora A. Pierce. Cora Belle Keith Pierce died less than two years later on February 19, 1885.

This collection (1875) contains one volume of botanical specimens collected by Cora Belle Keith Pierce. Pierce collected the sixty-three plant samples on or near the Iowa Agricultural College (Iowa State University) campus from April through September 1875 as a requirement for her sophomore year botany classes. Many of the samples are labeled with each plant's order, genus, species, habitat, and date collected. Some items are left unidentified. Several samples, including mosses and some flowering specimens, are pressed between thin pieces of cardboard and were not inserted into the book.