[1] She showed an early interest in plants and she had published a paper on the local botany[2] before she began her association with the University of Minnesota.

[6] In 1900, traveling by canoe, she discovered a largely uninhabited stretch of coastline in British Columbia with an abundance of algae and tidal pools.

The land owner gave her the area for free, and she chose four acres that were ideal to create an algae research station.

[8] In 1902 Conway MacMillan published a long description of the new station claiming a benefit of its location was students had to take an important journey across North America to get there.

[5] Up to 30 professors and students journeyed to the station by train every summer to study geology, algology, zoology, taxonomy, and lichenology, with world-renowned scientists participating in the lecture series.

Letters from student Alice Misz to her mother during the summer of 1906 make it clear that her six-week stay at the station was the most unforgettable experience of her life.

[1] Although the station was shut down in 1907, Tilden's enthusiasm was not dampened, and she went on to lead research expeditions to the South Pacific, and continued collecting and writing long after her retirement.

During 1909 and 1910 Tilden undertook a trip to the South Pacific accompanied by a fellow Professor of Botany Ethel Winifred B.

[11] Later Tilden went on to organize a trip around the world for ten students whose sole purpose was to gather algae and other samples.

The Chair of the department, Professor Rosenthal, who had a vendetta running with Tilden, made sure that she could not borrow any samples from the university's herbarium.

[1] In 1935, she published The Algae and Their Life Relations, which was the first scientific work by an American scientist to describe the characteristics of marine and freshwater flora.

[3] After her death, the University of Minnesota's Botany Department acquired many of the algae specimens she had been keeping in her Florida home by collaborating with Joseph Wachter, whom she had given the rights to in her will.