Biographies of people who contributed plants to the
Putnam Museum Herbarium.

Plant collectors (alphabetical by surname).
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Stratton, Frederick E. (1847-1928)

At Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts) in April 1835, what became known as the Lyceum of Natural History was born as a replacement for its predecessor, the Linnean Society. The organization was initially a secretive order whose aim was "the study of the natural sciences and the prosecution of antiquarian researches", but the secrecy pledge was soon dropped and, over the ensuing years, the organization was transformed from something of a cloak-and-dagger scientific group of eight to a well-known and well-respected membership of 40 or 50. Members not only attended lectures, but engaged in local field trips as well as excursions to exotic locales like Greenland, Laborador, and the Amazon region. All of which led to the development of an extensive museum collection of animal, plant, geologic, and cultural artifacts at the college (Dumouchel 2000, Durfee 1860, Whipple et al. 1852).

Fast forward 36 years at Williams College and we come to the graduation of Frederick Eugene Stratton (1871) with an undergraduate degree that appears to have been earned in biology or botany. During the academic year Stratton was a member of the aforementioned Lyceum's expedition to British Honduras and Spanish Honduras - the present day Central American countries of Belize and Honduras (respectively). It seems Stratton was the designated botanist of the six-member excursion, that left Williamstown, Massachusetts on the 14th of November in 1870 and arrived in British Honduras on the 28th. Astride mules, on foot, and in boats, the expedition team studied and collected the flora and fauna of that Central American region. The expedition members, together and in separate teams, trekked from shores to summits, along rivers and on mountain ridges through an impressive portion of the two countries. Yet, a public record of plant specimens collected on the excursion is wanting. Be that as it may, on March 7, 1871 the group sailed from "the port of Balize" and arrived in New York City 12 days later (Myers & Myers 1871).

Later in 1871, Mr. Stratton started his professional career as a teacher and principal at Orange High School in Massachusetts. Then, as time progressed, he moved on to various other schools in the eastern U.S. until 1883, when he accepted a position as the high school principal in Davenport, Iowa. Principal Stratton earned the Ph.D. from Illinois Wesleyan University (in 1891) and he remained in Davenport through at least part of 1892, a nine-year period during which 326 students graduated from the high school (Downer 1910, Foster 2010, Labath 2012, NDSU 2011). Reports in the local newspapers of the 1880s and 1890s reveal that Frederick Stratton was often involved in various pedagogical conferences and activities at the local YMCA.

Stratton's name appeared only once in the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences (Foote-Sheldon 1890), no mention of his involvement in botany (beyond the implied remarks in the Williams Lyceum report) has been uncovered in the literature, and no plant specimens attributed to him are in the Putnam Museum herbarium (however, there appears to be a couple of his plant collections at the University of Massachusetts and at least one in the herbarium at the University of Montana). Even so, prior to leaving Davenport to assume control of Carleton College Academy in Northfield, Minnesota (Foster 2010, NDSU 2011), Mr. Stratton published "Principles in Botany" (Stratton 1891).

That text, "designed especially to accompany Gray's School and Field Book in Botany", is actually a list of several hundred questions "from several successive classes ... written upon the black-board day by day when the lesson was being prepared" (preface in Stratton 1891). So, it appears that Frederick Stratton taught high school botany using Gray's text and he published a series of inquiry questions intended to help students zero in on key points in Gray's publication. The existence of Stratton's study guide, illustrates his dedication to the field of botany and provides a bit of illumination regarding why Edith A. Ross (Davenport High School class of 1896), and seven other high school seniors, developed an interest in botany and contributed plant specimens presently found in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

Let's face it. Eight students out of 326 graduates (1884 through 1892) falls short of being a stupefying botanical cartel, but no pre-Stratton or post-Stratton Davenport High School graduates are represented in the herbarium. It seems likely that any student would need some degree of personal encouragement to pursue plant collecting. Since Frederick Stratton was a member of the high school staff and he obviously had an interest in plant science, it's not a stretch to conclude that he easily could have been the botany promoter, who led Edith Ross (class of 1886), John Randall (1886), Emma Peck (1887), Inez Rabell (1888), Anna Richter (1890), Edward Decker (1891), Naomi Melville (1891), and Edwin Farber (1892) into the field of plant collecting (Labath 2012).

.......

Downer, Harry E. 1910. History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa. Vol. 1. Chapter 18 - The Scott County Bar. S.J. Clarke Publishing. Chicago, Illinois. p. 938 of 1011.

Dumouchel, Renee C. 2000. History of science at Williams. Williams College. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Durfee, Calvin. 1860. A history of Williams College. A. Williams & Company. Boston, Massachusetts. 432 pp.

Foote-Sheldon, S.G. (recording sec'y). 1890. December 26, 1890. Regular Meeting. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 6(1889-1897):293.

Foster, Annie L. 2010. F. E. Stratton Family Papers. Yellowstone National Park Archives. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Gray, Asa. 1887. Gray's School and Field Book in Botany. Revised Ed. American Book Company. New York City, New York. 519 pp.

Illinois Wesleyan University. 2018. Finding aid for Illinois Wesleyan University’s Archives. Bloomington, Illinois. p. 76 of 341.

Labath, Cathy (coordinator). 2012. Scott County: Iowa School Records. IAGenWeb Project. Davenport High School Class Listings.

Myers, H.M. & P.V.N. Myers. 1871. Brief Record of an Expedition to Central America. in Life and nature under the tropics (revised edition). D. Appleton & Company. New York City, New York. pp. 325 - 351 of 358.

Myers, Tom. 2010. Frederick Eugene Stratton. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

NDSU. 2011. Frederick E. Stratton Family Papers. North Dakota State University Llibrary. Fargo, North Dakota.

NRHP (National Register of Historic Places). 2019. National Register of Historic Places Public Dataset. National Park Service. U.S. Dept. Interior. Washington, D.C.

Richardson, D.N. (ed.) 1883. High School Principal. The Davenport Democrat. September 28, 1883. page 1. column 3.

Stratton, Frederick E. 1891. Questions in Botany. Mossman & Volmer. Davenport, Iowa. 58 pp.

Whipple, A.B., J.A. Kilburn, Chas. C. Whitney, & John S. Barry. 1852. Catalogue of the Lyceum of Natural History of Williams College. Williams College Lyceum Nat. Hist. Williamstown, Massachusetts. 60 pp.