Abigail Kimber (1804 – 22 March 1871) was an American botanist, botanical collector, social reformer, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist.

[3] The school survived only 32 years, from 1818 until Emmor Kimber's death in 1850, but during its time it came to specialize in training pupils to become teachers.

"[5] Throughout her life, Kimber continued to take part in the abolitionist movement and promote the rights of women.

“Thou knowest I am not a Delegate, I do not speak with authority in this matter, but if there is a conciliatory spirit in the Committee I should be glad indeed if it would display itself, not in the courtesy of gentlemen, but in the honest purpose of becoming men, who have unwittingly done deep wrong to a large proportion of the Abolitionists of the United States”.Kimber taught chemistry and botany at the Kimberton Boarding School for Girls, teaching pupils such as Graceanna Lewis, who would later go on to become a natural history teacher herself.

Kimber was noted to collect both plants and minerals, which she forwarded to William Darlington, who went on to cite her collections in his 1837 and 1853 editions of his botanical index Flora Cestrica: An Attempt to Enumerate and Describe the Flowering and Filicoid Plants of Chester County, in the State of Pennsylvania.