Biographies of people who contributed plants to the
Putnam Museum Herbarium.
Collectors A - F

Other collectors (alphabetical by surname).
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A note about the reference citations and hyperlinks to the documents provided.
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Adams, Robert P. (1886-1944)

Robert Perry Adams was born July 29, 1886 in Solon, Iowa. He was the youngest of three children, two sons and a daughter, raised by John and Isabel Adams (Ancestry.com 2023, Bonnett 2007). earned the Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Iowa in 1908 (Sabin et al. 1913) and was pursuing the Master of Science degree from the same institution in 1927 under the guidance of Prof. Bohumil Shimek. The title of his graduate thesis was "Ecology of Iowa weeds" (University of Iowa 1927) and Robert reported some of his research findings in a paper on plant succession in Iowa County, Iowa (Adams 1929). Robert published a second paper, which focused on the ecology of various native and introduced grass species found in Iowa (Adams 1930).

Adams was an active farmer in Johnson County, Iowa near Solon and North Liberty. Robert's activism began in 1916, when he was elected president of the "Farmers Tax Payers League", whose purpose was to protect citizens from "laws which are unjust and which may tend to increase the burden of taxes" (Johnston 1916). A few years later Robert began publishing agriculture-related commentaries in the local newspaper. His "Comments by Adams" columns appeared in the Iowa City Press-Citizen during the 1920s and his "Farm Notes" was printed in the same newspaper during the 1930s and 1940s (Press-Citizen 2016).

Selma Suter and Robert Adams were married June 11, 1914 in Monticello, Iowa and they raised three sons and a daughter (Ancestry.com 2023). According to the 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Robert was farming 160 acres of land formerly owned by his father in the southeast corner of Big Grove Township in Johnson County, Iowa. The census of 1930 shows that family living in Iowa City, while Robert was a University of Iowa "research assistant" and completing graduate studies. Selma perished in 1932 and the 1940 Federal Census shows that Robert and his four children were living on a farm in Johnson County's Penn Township. Robert perished July 31, 1944 in Iowa City following a lengthy illness (Ancestry.com 2023, Anonymous 1944 Speidel 1932).

Three specimens collected by Robert P. Adams in 1929 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A few other specimens collected by Adams in the 1920s, which may be viewed via the SEINet database, are present at Iowa State University and Wartburg College.

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Adams, Robert P. 1929. Weed Succession on an Abandoned Roadway. Proc. Iowa Academy of Science. 36(1):213-219.

Adams, Robert P. 1930. Notes on Iowa Grasses Proc. Iowa Academy of Science. 37(1):91-94.

Ancestry.com. 2023. Robert Perry Adams. Garfield Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1944. Robert P. Adams, 58, Dies at Iowa City. The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. August 1, 1944. p. 4. column 5.

Bonnett, K.L. 2007. Robert P. Adams. Find a grave. Provo, Utah

Johnston, Elmer E. (proprietor) 1916. County farm'rs [sic] oppose bonding. Iowa City Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 5. column 3. June 13, 1916.

Press-Citizen. 2016. Robert P. Adams archival search. Iowa City Press-Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa.

Sabin, Edwin L., Randall Parrish, Emerson Hough, Mrs. James G. Berryhill, & Julia Rogers. (eds.) 1913. Those Who Came. The Iowa Alumnus. December 1913. 11(3):12.

Speidel, Merritt C. (president) 1932. Death takes Mrs. Adams. Iowa City Press-Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 2. column 3. June 2, 1932.

University of Iowa. 1927. Graduate Theses. University of Iowa Studies. Issue 20. First Series, Number 118. p. 76.

Adams, Vincent J. (1925 - 2009)

Vincent Adams, the son of Frank and Mary Adams, was born August 25, 1925 in Clinton, Iowa. After finishing high school, Vincent enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served aboard the USS Kenneth Whiting for three years during World War II. Following his honorable discharge in 1946, he enrolled at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1949. During the same year, Vincent and Milly Johnson were married in DeWitt, Iowa (Buttweiler 2009, Hall 1960, Leysen 1943 & 1949, Tecklenburg 1998).

Following his work at St. Ambrose, Mr. Adams completed two years of graduate study at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Then, the Adams family moved to North Platte, Nebraska, where Vincent was a member of the high school staff and taught science. Following three years in North Platte, the couple moved to Omaha and Vincent pursued a medical degree at Creighton University (Buttweiler 2009, Hall 1960, Tecklenburg 1998).

In 1960 Dr. Adams put his medical skills to use in Rockford, Iowa and there he remained for the rest of his life. During Dr. Adam's 38-year medical career, he and Mary raised four daughters and four sons (Buttweiler 2009, Reynolds 1998, Tecklenburg 1998).

One specimen of Valeriana edulis in the Putnam Museum herbarium was collected by Dr. Adams in 1948. Two additional specimens, also collected by Adams, are present in the St. Ambrose University herbarium and all three specimens were collected near DeWitt, Iowa. No other plants collected by him are known at this time.

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Buttweiler, Joe. (ed.) 2009. Dr. Vincent J. Adams. The Globe Gazette. Mason City, Iowa. June 9, 2009. p. A10. columns 2 & 3.

Hall, W. Earl. (ed.) 1960. Physician to start Rockwell practice. The Globe-Gazette. Mason City, Iowa. P. 24. column 7.

JFINK. 2016. Dr. Vincent John Adams. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1949. St. Ambrose to graduate 153 men in record class Sunday; Gillette to give speech at campus service. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. May 31, 1949. p. 7. columns 3 & 4.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1943. Dozen more for Navy. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. August 18, 1943. p. 13. columns 1 - 3.

Reynolds, Jane. (ed.) 1998. An openhouse to honor Dr. Vincent Adams. The Globe Gazette. Mason City, Iowa. May 13, 1998. p. 11. column 4.

Tecklenburg, Jeff. (ed.) 1998. Adamses celebrate 40th wedding anniversary. The Globe Gazette. Mason City, Iowa. August 15, 1989. p. 21. columns 4 & 5.

Ade, Ralph D. (1929-2005)

Ralph Ade (photograph here) was born in September of 1929 in Moline, Illinois. He graduated from Moline High School in 1947, then completed his undergraduate education in 1951 at St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa (O. Marquez, pers. comm., 2016). He earned the M.S. in microbiology and his medical degree from the University of Illinois. Dr. Ade completed his internship at Cook County Hospital in 1956 and was a resident in internal medicine at the same hospital from 1956 to 1959.

He continued his education at the Mayo Clinic, where he completed a fellowship in gastroenterology in 1960. Dr. Ade returned to Moline, Illinois, where he maintained a private practice from 1960 until his retirement in 1999 (Dispatch-Argus 2005, Trimble Funeral Home 2005).

Ralph was a member of the American Fern Society, the British Fern Society, and the Walnut Growers Association (Trimble Funeral Home 2005). Six specimens (two angiosperms and four ferns) in the Putnam Museum herbarium bear his name as either collector or co-collector.

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Dispatch-Argus. 2005. Obituary: Ralph Ade. QCOnline.com. Moline, Illinois.

Trimble Funeral Home. 2005. Obituary for Ralph Ade. Moline, Illinois.

Trimble Funeral Home. 2010. Dr. Ralph Duane Ade. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Adee, A.A. (1842-1924)

Alvey Augustus Adee was born on November 27, 1842 in Astoria, New York. His father died when Alvey was only two years old, but left a sizable inheritance that allowed the family to live comfortably. Alvey's early education was via private tutoring at home and he earned no college degree, save an honorary Master of Arts from Yale College in 1888. Though he earned no advanced degree, he lacked neither motivation nor intellectual ability. At the age of 24 (in 1867) he sailed to England in order to visit many of the great scientific venues there. He continued his venture on the European mainland, where he hiked the Alps, visited a number of the continent's prominent cities, and returned to the United States after an eight-month absence (Bridges 2001, Yale University 1888-1889).

Soon after returning to American soil, Adee became acquainted with Daniel E. Sickles, whom President Ulysses Grant had named to a diplomatic position as Minister to Spain. Adee was hired to serve as Sickles private secretary in Madrid and during the next year Adee performed his duties in such an industrious, reliable, and tactful manner that he was nominated to take on the diplomatic position of Secretary of Legation in Madrid, when the acting secretary, John Hay, resigned and returned to the United States. This was the start of what was to become Adee's 40-year career within the diplomatic corps and the U.S. Department of State. His long career and extensive list of accomplishments are well documented by Bridges (2001 & 2005) and Office of the Historian (2016).

Daniel Sickles' contribution to Alvey Adee's career is outlined above and an extended description of the "life and times of Dan Sickles" is not particularly germane to the rest of Adee's biography, but it is a captivating story worth summarizing just the same. Daniel Sickles was a former Civil War General who by all accounts was a contentious and philandering attorney, politician, and soldier. He was known for enjoying the company of prostitutes, while a New York State Assemblyman and a Representative for the state of New York in Washington, D.C. In 1853 he married the fifteen-year-old daughter of a personal friend, who was pregnant (the daughter, not the friend). In 1859 he confronted Francis Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key of Star-Spangled Banner fame) in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House in Washington, D.C. There, Sickles shot Key in the groin and in the chest, because Key was having an affair with his wife. In the subsequent trial Sickles' attorney entered a plea of "not guilty by reason of temporary insanity" and won his client's acquittal (Bridges 2001 & 2005, Civil War Trust 2014, MacLean 2009, Oates 2008).

Sickles was appointed to the rank of Brigadier General during the Civil War and though his personal bravery in battle was not questioned, his battle planning and decision-making skills were. At the Battle of Gettysburg he commanded part of the Third Corps, disobeyed orders from General George Meade, and positioned his troops in an incorrect location, that put his troops in harm's way. The violation led to a disaster for the Third Corps, the loss of many lives, and Sickles was shot in the leg. Sickles' damaged limb, which had to be amputated, was donated by him to the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C (see photo at Powell 2017) with a note that read, "With the Compliments of Major General D.E.S." . At some time in the late 1860s, Sickles' wife died, he was installed as the U.S. Minister to Spain (see paragraph above), and he began an affair with the deposed Queen Isabella II of Spain. Later in 1871, Sickles married the daughter of a Spanish Councillor of State, Senorita Carmina Creagh, which led to his resignation as minister to Spain and an extended residency in Europe until 1880 (Bridges 2001 & 2005, Civil War Trust 2014, MacLean 2009, Oates 2008). Now, let's return to Alvey Adee.

Adee's botanical work is something of a hodge-podge effort he fit in around his life-long work as a civil servant. Alvey's interest in bryophytes was expressed in his letter of 18 July 1865 to Judge George W. Clinton, where he wrote "... I have not made much progress in botany this year, though I have collected, pressed and counted nearly a hundred plants. ... I have enjoyed a very pleasant and instructive correspondence with Mr. Peck, thanks to your kind introduction to him. He has been untiring in his efforts to render me assistance in the cloudy paths of bryology. ... (Eckel 2005)". In addition, Peck's (1866) "List of mosses of the State of New-York" mentions Adee as a collector of two moss specimens from Staten Island.

Outside public service, Adee had a variety of interests: microscopy, photography, cycling, and diatoms. His contributions as a microscopist were mentioned in various issues of the Transactions of the American Microscopical Society and the American Monthly Microscopical Journal (e.g. Microscopical Society of Washington 1896). As a cyclist he was a member of the League of American Wheelman and known to spend many summer weeks touring Europe astride his bicycle (Neubert 2016, Reid 2013). Adee, an accomplished photographer, published pieces on photographic techniques in "The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times" (e.g. Adee 1890, 1892, 1893). He even tried his hand at a bit of short fiction (Adee 1870). Finally, his interest in diatoms was a meld of science, microscopy, and photography that brought him recognition in diatom circles for his collections (see below) and his high-quality micrographs (Burke 1940, Mann 1905 & 1917).

In the Putnam Museum herbarium A.A. Adee is represented by a single 1864 collection of Trifolium procumbens from Westchester County, NY. This collection is referenced in "Facts and observations touching the flora of the State of New York, collected, mainly, in 1865" (Anonymous 1866) with the following entry (see page 73).
     "10. Trifolium procumbens, L. PAINE'S Cat. p. 72. Sent to me, from the vicinity of New-York, in 1864, by A.A. Adee, Esq. ..."
A large number of diatom specimens collected by Adee are listed in the iDigBio database and nearly 700 additional specimens are returned when one searches under "Adee" in the Smithsonian diatom collection.

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Adee, Alvey A. 1870. The life-magnet. Putnam's Magazine. 6:152-162.

Adee, A. A. 1890. Concerning bromide prints. The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times. pp. 57-59 of 337.

Adee, A. A. 1892. Doubles. The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times. pp. 32-34 (and opposite p. 38) of 363.

Adee, A. A. 1893. A plea for accuracy and precision. The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times. pp. 202-204 of 393.

Anonymous (by one of the Regents). 1866. Facts and observations touching the flora of the State of New York, collected, mainly, in 1865. in Nineteenth annual report of the Regents of the University of the State of New York on the condition of the State Cabinet of Natural History and the historical and antiquarian collection annexed thereto. C. Wendell, printer. Albany, NY. [see p. 73].

Bridges, Peter. 2001. An appreciation of Alvey Adee. American Diplomacy. American Diplomacy Publishers. North Carolina.

Bridges, Peter. 2005. Three Great Civil Servants: William Hunter, Alvey Augustus Adee, and Wilbur J. Carr. A talk at the DACOR Bacon House, Washington, D.C.

Burke, Joseph F. 1940. The diatom collection at the New York Botanical Garden. Jrnl. New York Bot. Garden. 41:278-280.

Civil War Trust. 2014. Daniel E. Sickles: Major General. Civil War Trust. Washington, D.C.

Eckel, P. M. (ed.) 2005. The Correspondence of Charles Peck (1833-1917) and George William Clinton (1807-1885) - 1865. Part I.. Res Botanica. Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Mann, Albert. 1905. Diatoms, the jewels of the plant world. Sci. Amer. Supplement 1552:24868-24870.

Mann, Albert. 1917. Economic importance of diatoms. in Annual Rpt. Board of Reagents Smithsonian Inst. for 1916. pp. 377-386.

MacLean, Maggie. 2009. Teresa Sickles: Wife of Union General Daniel Sickles. Civil War Women.

Microscopical Society of Washington. 1896. Microscopical societies. The American monthly microscopical journal. 17:216 & 404.

Neubert, Michael. 2016. How photos and articles appeared across the nation. From Wheels to Bikes. WebLog. June 5, 2016.

Oates, Christopher Ryan. 2008. Daniel Sickles: An Unlikely Union General. America's Civil War Magazine

Office of the Historian. 2016. Alvey Augustus Adee (1842-1924). Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State.

Peck, Charles H. 1866. List of Mosses of the state of New-York. in Nineteenth annual report of the Regents of the University of the State of New York on the condition of the State Cabinet of Natural History and the historical and antiquarian collection annexed thereto. C. Wendell, printer. Albany, NY. [see pp. 51 & 60].

Powell, J. Mark. 2017. The Scoundrel Who Visited His Lost Leg. J. Mark Powell, author. Web Log. September 11, 2013.

Reid, Carlton. 2013. A cycle touring U.S. President kickstarted the paving of America. Roads Were Not Built For Cars. WebLog.

Yale University. 1888-1889. Honorary Degrees. Catalog of Yale University. Tuttle, Morehouse, and Taylor, Printers. New Haven, Connecticut. [see pp. 221].

Aiton, George B. (1856-1931)

George B. Aiton, the eldest of Reverend John and Mary Briggs' children, was born June 15, 1856 in Nicollet County, Minnesota (Aiton 2008, Ancestry.com 2023). He was the valedictorian of his 1881 University of Minnesota graduating class (Johnson 1908) and George served in several Minnesota school districts as either a teacher (Nicollet County, Zumbrota) or administrator (Owatonna, Austin, & Minneapolis).

George was the principal of schools in Owatonna from 1882 through 1884 and it appears that it was during that period that he met Mabel Niles. Mabel's parents, Sanford and Priscilla Niles, were long-time educators and Mabel was a teacher, so it's plausible that George and Mabel met through their school-related interests (Davidson 1886, Leonard 1910, McLain 1905, Murphy 1912). Regardless, the couple was married in June 1884. They honeymooned in Scotland and then continued on to Germany, where George planned to study at the University of Leipzig (Bruce 1914, Davidson 1884, The Tribune 1884). George and Mabel raised two children, Albert and Elizabeth (Ancestry.com 2023).

When the couple returned to the United States from Germany, George accepted a position as school superintendent in Austin, Minnesota. He stayed in Austin for just a year and then became a high school principal in Minneapolis. After seven years as a principal, George was appointed to the position of Minnesota Inspector of High Schools in 1893. Aiton's list of publications is not lengthy and each was intended for use by students (Aiton 1912a) or to improve education in general (Aiton 1897, 1901, 1912b). During his nearly 21-year tenure as Inspector, the number of high schools in Minnesota tripled and George was respected as a talented administrator and educator (Brainerd Dispatch Co. 1931, Bruce 1914, JSTOR 2013).

George Aiton's plant collecting occurred primarily from 1889 through 1900. The vast majority of his collections were from Minnesota, but in 1892 he was part of a botanical survey, directed by George Vasey, of the Clearwater River basin north of Moscow, Idaho (MacDougal 1892). Though he botanized a wide swath of localities in Minnesota, George had a particular fondness for the flora of Itasca State Park in the northern part of the state. George's natural history work in and around Itasca State Park was memorialized by naming the fire tower there "Aiton Heights" (JSTOR 2013).

Specimen data for just under 1300 of Aiton's plant collections can be retrieved from the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas and about 13% of those records came from Itasca State Park. Five of his specimens from Hennepin County, Minnesota are present in the Putnam Museum Herbarium and others may be reviewed via the iDigBio /or SEINet database.

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Aiton, Bruce. 2008. George Briggs Aiton. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Aiton, George B. 1897. The purpose of English in the high school. The School Review. 5(3):148-170.

Aiton, George B. 1901. The descriptive speller: For graded and ungraded schools. Ginn & Company. Boston, Massachusetts. 218 pp.

Aiton, George B. (ed.) 1912a. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Rand McNally & Co. Chicago, Illinois.

Aiton, George B. 1912b. The small high school of the Middle West: A Minnesota type. The School Review. 20(2):90-97.

Ancestry.com. 2023. George Briggs Aiton. Extended Thompson Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Brainerd Dispatch Co. 1931. George B. Aiton. The Brainerd Dispatch. Brainerd, Minnesota. p. 4. column 1. February 28, 1931.

Bruce, William C. (ed.). 1914. Mr. Aiton Retires. American School Board Journal. 48:58.

Davidson, C.H. (ed.) 1884. City and vicinity. Mower County Transcript. Austin, Minnesota. p. 3. column 3. June 18, 1884.

Davidson, C.H. (ed.) 1886. State teachers' institute. Mower County Transcript. Austin, Minnesota. p. 3. column 5. April 14, 1886.

Johnson, E.B. 1908. Dictionary of the University of Minnesota. Univ. of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 204 of 215.

JSTOR. 2013. Aiton, George Briggs (1856-1931). Global Plants.

Leonard, Joseph A. 1910. History of Olmsted County, Minnesota. Goodspeed Historical Association. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 91-92 of 674.

MacDougal, D.T. 1892. Recent botanical explorations in Idaho. Science 20:311-313.

McLain, J.S. (ed.) 1905. He did much for school system. The Minneapolis Journal. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 13. column 4. July 15, 1905.

Murphy, W.J. 1912. Sanford Niles' widow dies. Minneapolis Morning Tribune. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 7. column 4. February 16, 1912.

The Tribune. 1884. University notes. Minneapolis Sunday Tribune. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 10. column 5. September 21, 1884.

Albright, Clifton C. (1877 - 1946)

Clifton C. Albright, the middle of Francis and Ida Albright's three children, was born in Medina [see Shelby], New York on September 16, 1877 (FamilySearch 2021a, Gruwell 2009, Harper 1913). He was registered as an entering student at University of Missouri at Columbia in 1901 (Babb 1903) and earned his medical degree from that institution in 1905 (MacKay 1915, Nelson 1905). During his academic career in Columbia, Clifton met Ms. Lillie Beatrice Fey, a student at Stephens College (Anonymous 1944).

Following his graduation from medical school Dr. Albright resided to Augusta, Montana and, while practicing medicine there, he married the aforementioned Lillie B. Fey of Clemons, Montana on June 27, 1905 (FamilySearch 2021a&b, Harper 1913). In 1907 the Albright family moved to Anaconda, Montana, where Clifton continued his otolaryngology practice. They remained in Anaconda until 1918, when Dr. Albright shifted his medical office to Great Falls, Montana (Anonymous 1946, Harper 1913, Ridings 1912). According to a collection of newspaper accounts, Clifton and Lillie Albright were active in a variety of community, religious, and professional organizations (see Great Falls Tribune and Anaconda Standard).

Dr. Albright evidently maintained a serious interest in botany and entomology during his life. His substantial butterfly collection was donated to Montana State University following his death (Kohler 1980) and some of his specimens were cited in Scott et al. (2006). In July 1939 Dr. Albright collected a butterfly at Kings Hill, Montana that was eventually identified as a new subspecies and was named Albright's Tailed-Blue after him (Clench 1944). Twenty-nine of his insect specimens are listed in the iDigBio specimen database.

Penstemon albrightii A. Nels. was named in honor of C.C. Albright, because one of his collections was designated the type specimen for the plant (Nelson & MacBride 1918). Albright was also mentioned as the collector of record for Claytonia lanceolata Pursh var. flava (A.Nels.) C.L. Hitchc. by Shelly (1989). Some of his plant collections may be viewed using the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, the iDigBio, and/or the SEINet specimen database.

The Putnam Museum Herbarium holds 90-plus Albright plant specimens, originally donated to Marycrest College (Davenport, Iowa), that were collected in New York (for the most part) and bear collection dates from the 1890s. How his collections from New York came to find a home at Marycrest College in Davenport is a mystery yet to be explained.

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Anonymous. 1944. Mrs. Lillie Albright, 59, Dies at Stephens alumnae banquet. Great Falls Tribune. Great Falls, Montana. p. 1. columns 4 & 5. July 21, 1944.

Anonymous. 1946. Retired Falls surgeon dies in Los Angeles, burial here. Great Falls Tribune. Page 6. columns 1 & 2. April 8, 1946.

Babb, J.G. 1903. Register of students. in Biennial report of the Board of Curators. University of Missouri. p. 231.

Clench, Harry K. 1944. Two new subspecies of Everes comyntas Godart (Lepidoptera, Lyaeniae). Jrnl. New York Entomological Soc. 52(1):59-61.

FamilySearch. 2021a. Clifton Clarence Albright. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, UT.

FamilySearch. 2021b. Lillie Beatrice Fey. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, UT.

Gruwell, Sarah. 2009. Dr. Clifton Clarence Albright. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Harper, Franklin. (ed.). 1913. Who's who on the Pacific Coast. Harper Publ. Co. Los Angeles, California. page 11.

Kohler, Steve. 1980. Checklist of Montana butterflies (Rhopalocera). Jrnl. Lepidopterists' Soc. 34:1-19.

MacKay, Hugh. 1915. An alumni directory. University of Missouri. Columbia, Missouri. pp. 19 & 186.

Nelson, Aven & J. F. MacBride. 1918. Western plant studies: V. Botanical Gazette 65:58-70.

Nelson, William. (ed.) 1905. Three hundred graduated. The Kansas City Times. Kansas City, Missouri. p. 9. columns 1 & 2. June 8, 1905.

Ridings, Harry E. (ed.) 1912. Notes of the classes. The Missouri Alumnus 1(1):54.

Scott, James A., Michael S. Fisher, Norbert G. Kondla, Steve Kohler, Crispin S. Guppy, Stephen M. Spomer, and B. Chris Schmidt. 2006. Taxonomic studies and new taxa of North American butterflies. Papilio 12:1-73.

Shelly, J. Stephen. 1989. Status review of Claytonia lanceolata var. flava. U.S. Forest Service. Region 1. Beaverhead, Deerlodge, and Gallatin National Forests. Montana. Order number 43-0398-8-0347. 41 pp.

Allan, William (1837-1889)

William Allan (photo here) was born near Winchester, Virginia in November 1837 and attended private school in the area. Following graduation, he taught in the Winchester area to earn enough money for college tuition. Allan entered the University of Virginia in 1857, wrote his master's thesis entitled "Harmony of the Human Mind and the Material Universe", and earned his master's degree in applied arithmetic in 1860 (Carmichael 2005). He moved to Loudoun County where he was assistant to the principal of Bloomfield Academy when the Civil War began (Gunter et al. 2013, Lanie 2011, Macdonald 1889).

Allan enlisted in the Confederate Army at the beginning of the Civil War and subsequently served under Generals Stonewall Jackson, Richard S. Ewell, and Jubal Early. He remained in the Confederate Army during the entire conflict and was part of battles at Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Ultimately, he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel as ordnance officer with the Army of Northern Virginia (Gunter et al. 2013, Hooper 2014, Ropes 1889).

Allan, a gifted mathematician, worked as a bank teller and a director of the Valley Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad following the Civil War. In 1866 he was hired by General Robert E. Lee to serve as the chair of the applied mathematics department at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. During his eight-year tenure at Washington College, Mr. Allan published two books on engineering (Allan 1874 & 1893), three more texts discussing the Confederate Army (Allan 1880 & 1889, Hotchkiss & Allan 1867), and a tribute to John McDonogh, the founder of McDonogh School (Allan 1886). Colonel Allan left Washington College in November of 1873 to become the first principal of McDonogh School at its founding (Gunter et al. 2013, Hooper 2014, Macdonald 1889).

John McDonogh was a wealthy shipping agent and philanthropist, who stipulated in his will that money he left to the city of Baltimore was to be used for the establishment of a "farm school" for underprivileged boys. Eight hundred thirty-five acres of land was purchased in 1872 and McDonogh School was established in November of the following year (Allan & Johnson 1886, McDonogh School 2016). It was then that Colonel Allan left Washington College to become McDonogh School's principal. The school thrived under Allan's direction and Allan himself became active in a variety of organizations such as the Society of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States, the Southern Historical Society, and the Military History Society of Massachusetts. Allan was named a trustee of Washington and Lee University (as Washington College had become in 1871) following his resignation in 1873 and he served on the board of the Lee Memorial Association (Gunter et al. 2013, Macdonald 1889).

William Allan suffered from a kidney ailment (Bright's disease), which took his life in September of 1889. In an attempt to alleviate some of the discomfort of his ill-health, he spent some of the early months of 1889 away from Maryland in the relative warmth of Thomasville, Georgia. During his stay in Thomasville, Allan collected one specimen of Krigia virginica in April 1889, which became part of Edith A. Ross' personal herbarium and is now found in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Allan, William. 1874. The theory of arches. Van Nostrand Co. New York City, New York.

Allan, William. 1880. History of the campaign of Gen. T.J. (Stonewall) Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia : From November 4, 1861, to June 17, 1862. J.B. Lippincott and Co. Philadelphia, PA.

Allan, William. 1886. The Life and Work of John McDonogh. Trustees of McDonogh School Publ. Baltimore, Maryland. 105 pp.

Allan, William. 1889. The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862. Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. Boston and New York. 537 pp.

Allan, William. 1893. Strength of beams under transverse loads. Van Nostrand Co. New York City, New York.

Allan, William & John Johnson. 1886. Life and work of John McDonogh & Sketch of the McDonogh School. Press of I. Friedenwald. Baltimore, Maryland. 124 pp.

Carmichael, Peter S. 2005. The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion. Univ. North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. p. 270.

Gunter, Donald W. & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. 2013. William Allan (1837-1889). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hooper, Henry E. 2014. Witness Post: McDonogh School. WordPress blog.

Hotchkiss, Jedediah & William Allan. 1867. The battle-fields of Virginia. Chancellorsville; embracing the operations of the Army of northern Virginia, from the first battle of Fredericksburg to the death of Lieutenant-General Jackson. D. Van Nostrand. New York City, New York.

Lanie. 2011. William Allan. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Macdonald, R.W. (ed.) 1889. Death of Col. William Allan. The Week. 7(12):45-48.

McDonogh School. 2016. A brief history of McDonogh. McDonogh School. Owings Mills, Maryland.

Ropes, John C. 1889. Introduction. in Allan, William. The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862. Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. Boston and New York. 537 pp.

Allen, Dr. Timothy Field (1837-1902)

Timothy F. Allen, a son of David and Eliza Allen, was born in Westminster, Vermont in April of 1837 (Ancestry.com 2023). He completed his undergraduate degree at Amherst College in 1858 and three years later he earned his medical degree from the University of the City of New York. In 1862 Julia Bissell married Dr. Allen (Ancestry.com 2023) and Amherst College bestowed an honorary LL.D. upon Dr. Allen in 1885 (Ancestry.com 2023, Britton 1903, Burt 1898).

Dr. Allen began his tenure as an Assistant Surgeon of the United States Army in 1862 and returned to his private medical practice in New York in 1864. His ensuing career included positions as the chair of Chemistry in the New York Medical College for Women and professor of Anatomy, Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the New York Homoeopathic Medical College (Britton 1903, Burt 1898). Dr. Allen was celebrated for his post-war academic/medical commitment to homeopathy and the publication of works such as: "The Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica" (Allen 1874-1879), "Handbook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (Allen 1889), "Allen's Primer", "Ophthalmic Therapeutics" (Clarke & Arthur 1903).

Dr. Allen was not only a founder and an active member of the Torrey Botanical Club (founded in 1867, incorporated in 1872), but he curated and housed the Club's herbarium in his private residence (Moore 2020). Most of his plant collecting occurred in-and-around New York City, as well as in the vicinity of his summer residence in Connecticut. He cultivated a particular interest in algae while working with Daniel C. Eaton (professor of botany and herbarium curator at Yale University) and that led to a specialization in the study of the Characeae, a group of green algae found in fresh or brackish water. Allen published several works on the group, but perhaps his most significant was the two-volume work entitled "The Characeae of America" (Allen 1888a&b). In 1891 Dr. Allen, along with Nathaniel Britton, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and many others, comprised the group that incorporated the New York Botanical Garden (Britton 1903, 1915).

As a phycologist Allen exchanged specimens with collectors from around the world and his massive assemblage became an important part of the algal herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden (New York Botanical Garden 2003). He is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by 20 plant specimens, 19 of which are angiosperms.

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Allen, Timothy F. 1874-1879. The encyclopedia of pure materia medica: a record of the positive effects of drugs upon the healthy human organism. Vols. 1-10. Boericke & Tafel. New York City, New York.

Allen, Timothy F. 1888a. The Characeae of America. Part 1. New York City, New York.

Allen, Timothy F. 1888b. The Characeae of America. Part 2. New York City, New York.

Allen, Timothy F. 1889. A handbook of materia medica and homoeopathic therapeutics. F.E. Boericke. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1165 pp.

Ancestry.com. 2023. Timothy Field Allen. A Families Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Britton, N. L. 1903. Timothy Field Allen. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 30:173-177.

Britton, N. L. 1915. History of the New York Botanical Garden. 20th anniversary celebration of the New York Botanical Garden. 16 pp.

Burt, James E. 1898. Biography: Prof. Timothy Field Allen. The Chironian. 15:12.

Clarke, George W. & James Worrall Arthur. 1903. Timothy Field Allen, A.M., M.D., LL.D.. The Chironian. 20:97-100.

Moore, Gerry. 2020. 150 Years of the Torrey Botanical Society. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Society. 29:70-112.

New York Botanical Garden 2003. Type Specimen Catalog of Algae. The C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium. Bronx, New York.

Anderson, Merial Howe (1833-1913)

Merial Howe Anderson was born in December 1833 in Lunenburg, Vermont. She married Dr. Charles Lewis Anderson in 1854, two years after he had earned his medical degree from Indiana's Asbury University, and moved to St. Anthony Falls (now Minneapolis), Minnesota, where Dr. Anderson practiced medicine. The couple raised three children — Seddie and Caroline were born in Minnesota, while Charles was born in California (Ancestry.com 2023, Devlin & Judah 1913, Peterson 2010).

In 1862 a friend coaxed Dr. Anderson into exploring the west and he established a medical practice in Carson City, Nevada. His family joined him a year later, but they stayed in that location only until 1866, when they moved to the more family friendly climate of Santa Cruz, California (Blakely 2001, Harrison 1892, Steele 2014).

Dr. Anderson was an avid student of Santa Cruz's terrestrial flora (Anderson 1890) and he developed an interest in marine algae while in Santa Cruz (Anderson 1891 & 1894), so it's conceivable that Merial shared some of her spouse's enthusiasm for botany and marine algae (Blakely 2001). Charles C. Parry named three plants to honor Dr. Anderson (Jepson 1929) and botanized widely in California, including the Santa Cruz area (Parish 1909, White 1906). Add to that, the 13 specimens of marine algae in the Putnam Museum herbarium Parry collected from Santa Cruz (dated 1883) and credence is lent to the notion that Parry and the Andersons were acquainted. It follows that the specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium attributed to "Mrs. A." and "Mrs. Anderson" are likely those of Merial Howe Anderson.

Mrs. Anderson was a signatory of California's 1870 "Petition for women's suffrage" (State of California 1870), but beyond that acknowledgement no additional mention of her involvement in the suffrage movement or any other civic activity has been found.

Eleven specimens of marine algae and one pteridophyte collected by "Mrs. A." and "Mrs. Anderson" in the Santa Cruz, California area during the latter half of the 1800s are in the Putnam Herbarium. All of the specimens came to Putnam via Charles C. Parry, who spent a significant portion of his career botanizing southern California and northern Mexico in the late 1800s.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Merial Howe Anderson. Katherine Gibson Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anderson, C.L. 1890. Catalogue of flowering plants and ferns, of Santa Cruz County, California. Santa Cruz Surf Print. Santa Cruz, California. 13 pp.

Anderson, C.L. 1891. List of California marine algae, with notes. Zoe 2:217-225.

Anderson, C.L. 1894. Some new and some old algae, but recently recognized on the California coast. Zoe 4(4):358-362.

Blakely, Larry. 2001. Charles Lewis Anderson. WHO'S IN A NAME? People Commemorated in Eastern Sierra Plant Names. California Native Plant Soc.: Bristlecone Chapter.

Devlin, E.J. & H.R. Judah. 1913. Good friend of Santa Cruz is called. Santa Cruz News. Santa Cruz, California. p. 1. November 24, 1913.

Harrison, E.S. 1892. The History of Santa Cruz County, California. Pacific Press Publishing, Co. San Francisco. p. 304.

Jepson, Willis Linn. 1929. The botanical explorers of California - V. Madrono 1(15):214-216

Parish, S.B. 1909. Parry and Southern California botany. The Plant World 12:158-162.

Peterson, J&D. 2010. Merial Howe Anderson. Find a Grave. Provo, Utah.

State of California. 1870. Petition for women's suffrage. Appendix to journals of Senate and Assembly of the 18th session of the Legislature of the State of California. Vol. 2. Sacramento, California. 34 pp.

White, Charles A. 19606. Biographical Memoir of Charles Christopher Parry. The Annals of Iowa. 7:1413-430.

Anderson, William A. (1900-1949)

William Arthur Anderson, Jr. was born in Ballard County, Kentucky, January 25, 1900 to William and Melvena (Mellie) Anderson. William was the eldest and he had two brothers and a sister (Ancestry.com 2023). William (the younger) earned his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Kentucky (1923 and 1924, respectively). He then worked for the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, a period during which he met his future wife Ann Riddell. After about two years with the ag experiment station, Mr. Anderson took a position as a botany instructor at the University of Tennessee. He retained that position until he accepted a teaching fellowship at Harvard University two years later (Saylor 2006, Wylie 1949).

Dr. Anderson completed his dissertation on "Studies in the flora of Tennessee: Monocotyledoneae" (Harvard Univ. 1932) and he left Cambridge to join the University of Iowa in 1931. On campus in Iowa City he taught plant taxonomy, directed the programs of numerous graduate students, and curated the university's herbarium. In spite of the illness that ultimately ended his life, Professor Anderson oversaw the transferral of the herbarium's specimens from outdated wooden cases to modern, insect-resistant metal cabinets. Off campus he was a staff member at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory in Dickinson County, Iowa, where he taught courses and completed research on a prairie reconstruction project (Anonymous 1949, Lewis 2006, Wylie 1949).

Associate Professor Anderson fell prey to intestinal cancer and perished in Iowa City on February 20, 1949. He was survived by his wife, Ann, and two children, Cornelia and Hugh (Ancestry.com 2023, Green 1949).

Twenty-three of W.A. Anderson's collections are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Other herbarium specimens attributed to W.A. Anderson may be viewed via the Harvard University and SEINet databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. William Arthur Anderson. Anderson Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anderson, William Arthur & Ann Riddell Anderson. 1927. Ferns of the Vicinity of Irvine, Kentucky. Amer. Fern Jrnl. 17:130-133.

Anonymous. 1949. W. A. Anderson Botanist, Dies. The Des Moines Register. Des Moines, Iowa. February 21, 1949. page 10.

Green, Edwin B. (ed.) 1949. Prof. W.A. Anderson, 49, of S.U.I. botany department, dies at home here Sunday. Iowa City Press-Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 9. columns 5-6. February 21, 1949.

Harvard University. 1932. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments. 1930-1931. Harvard University Archives. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. 29(2):112.

Horton, Diana. 2006. History of the University of Iowa herbarium: A legacy lost. Iowa's Fragile Flora.

Lewis, Deb. 2006. Timelines and People: IA timeline. Ada Hayden Herbarium. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Saylor, Ken. 2006. William Arthur Anderson. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Thorne, Robert F. 1951. Herbarium of the State University of Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 58(1):215-219.

Wylie, Robert B. 1949. In Memoriam - William A. Anderson; Norval Baker; Jacob Corwin Blumer; William Harold Davis; E. W. Lindstrom; W. H. McFarland; Thomas C. Stephens; Charles S. Trachsel; Emery Ernest Watson. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 56(1):45-60.

Atwater, Elizabeth Emerson (1812-1878)

Elizabeth E. Atwater (born: Norwich, Vermont - August 1812) completed her education at Troy Female Seminary in New York. She married Samuel T. Atwater who worked closely with Abraham Lincoln during his presidency and who was an executive in the insurance and railroad industries (Chicago Academy of Sciences 2021, Eckel 2003). The couple married in 1839, lived in Buffalo, New York until 1856, and then moved to Chicago. Samuel's business dealings required significant travel and Elizabeth accompanied him frequently (Butterfly∼Kisses 2011, Clemmer 1879).

Though Elizabeth was plagued by fragile health, she commonly used the trans-America trips with her husband to collect plants and other natural history specimens from across the United States (see chapter 5 in Clemmer 1879). Mrs. Atwater developed an association with the Buffalo, Chicago, and Maryland academies of science, to each of which she donated many specimens and historical artifacts (Eckel 2003). She was acknowledged as the collector of record in publications on the flora of various regions of the United States (e.g. Hall 1878, Wood 1876).

The destruction of many specimens she contributed to the Chicago Academy of Sciences in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 left Elizabeth in understandably low spirits. Even so, two years later, she traveled to California and enthusiastically investigated the flora of the places she visited. Among her collections was a moss specimen collected at the base of Yosemite Falls. It was originally named Bryum atwateriae, but subsequent investigations revealed it to be one of four species of the genus Imbribryum known from North America and it is now designated Imbribryum miniatum (Lesq.) J.R. Spence (Mohr 1874, Spence 2007). The moss was but one of over 2000 plant specimens Ms. Atwater preserved during the trip. Other collections made by Mrs. Atwater were donated to the Chicago Academy of Sciences by her husband following her death in 1878 (Eckel 2003, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum 2015, Phelps 1878).

Twenty-two plant specimens collected by Atwater east of the Mississippi River, which were part of a donation from the Clinton Herbarium in Buffalo, New York, are present in the Putnam Herbarium. Slightly over 100 additional specimens collected by Ms. Atwater may be examined via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases. Over 1500 specimens that comprise Ms. Atwater's personal herbarium are housed at the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

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Butterfly∼Kisses. 2011. Elizabeth Emerson Atwater. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Eckel, P. M. (ed.) 2003. The Correspondence of Elizabeth Atwater (1812-1878) and George William Clinton (1807-1885). Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri.

Chicago Academy of Sciences. 2021. Elizabeth Emerson Atwater Papers. Archives - Finding Aid. Natural History Collections and Archives. Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Chicago, Illinois.

Clemmer, Mary. 1879. Memorial sketch of Elizabeth Emerson Atwater: Written for her friends. The Courier Company. Buffalo, New York. 66 pp.

Hall, James. 1878. Additions to the state museum: botanical. in 29th Annual Rpt. New York State Museum Nat. Hist. Albany, New York. p. 21 of 357.

Mohr, Charles. 1874. Additions to the Bryology of the United States. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 5:34-35.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. 2015. Notable People: Elizabeth Emerson Atwater (1812 - 1878). Chicago Academy of Sciences. Chicago, Illinois.

Phelps, Almira L. 1878. Bryum atwateriae. Botanical Gazette 3(9):79-80.

Spence, John R. 2007. Nomenclatural changes in the Bryaceae (Bryopsida) for North America. II. Phytologia 89(1):110-114.

Wood, Alphonso. 1876.
American Botanist and Florist. A.S. Barnes & Company. New York City, New York. p. 200 of 448.

Austin, Coe Finch (1831-1880)

C.F. Austin, who had nine siblings, was born in June of 1831 (Finchville, New York) to James C. and Elizabeth Austin (Demarest 1918, Myers 2020). He spent his youth working on the family farm, and attended public school during the winter. His botanical interests began while living at home, where he developed a fondness for the cultivation of flowering plants and shade trees. In his early 20s, Austin enrolled at William Rankin's Classical School in New Jersey and there he furthered his interest in botany, apparently under the tutelage of Mrs. Rankin. Austin was somewhat smitten with microscopy, an interest that eventually led him to more-or-less abandon most other botanical pursuits in favor of the study mosses and lichens (Demarest 1918, Wilson & Fiske 1888).

In 1857 Austin taught school in Tappan, New York and then in 1858 he performed the same duties in Dennisville, New Jersey. While in Dennisville, Coe Austin began botanizing the wetlands of the area and he became acquainted with Charles F. Parker a curator at the Philadelphia Academy of Science. The two remained friends for many years and worked with a number of other botanists to summarize the flora of New Jersey (Demarest 1918, Martindale 1883).

In 1859 C. F. became acquainted with John Torrey, a relationship that led to Austin's appointment as curator of the herbarium at Columbia College (Lesquereux 1880, Wilson & Fiske 1888), where he remained until 1863. When he tired of Columbia, Austin started a one-man lecture circuit in northern New Jersey and he traveled from town to town riding in a pony-drawn wagon. He returned to teaching in Demarest, New Jersey during 1865 and 1866, where he spent afternoons botanizing the surrounding woodlands. Ultimately Austin finished his teaching career at the Englewood Institute (Charlton 1879) during the winter of 1871-1872 (Demarest 1918).

Though originally a generalist, Austin soon focused his research on lichens and bryophytes (Austin 1872b, 1876, 1879). His personal collections were primarily from the New York - New Jersey region, but his herbarium contained specimens from a far greater range. Austin maintained correspondence with a number of botanists during his life, from whom he received specimens from across North America (Britton 1910). Austin was among the early members of the Torrey Botanical Club (Leggett 1870) and he published several papers in the Bulletin of that organization, as well as in other journals (Google Scholar 2017, see list below). Perhaps his most noteworthy accomplishment was his 1870 publication Musci appalachiani, which originally listed 450 mosses "collected mostly in the eastern part of North America" (Austin 1870). One unique departure from his writings on mosses was his letter to the editor in Scientific American - "Freezing water in bottles" (Austin 1872a).

C.F. Austin is included here, because eight dicots collected by him in New York are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Hundreds of additional collections by C.F. Austin may be viewed via the iDigBio specimen database.

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Austin, C.F. 1870. Musci appalachiani: tickets of specimens of mosses collected mostly in the eastern part of North America. Typis Welch, Bigelow, et Sociorum. Closter, New Jersey. 92 pp.

Austin, C.F. 1872a. Freezing water in bottles. Sci. American 27:372.

Austin, C.F. 1872b. New hepaticae. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 3:9-18.

Austin, C.F. 1876. Some new musci. Bot. Bulletin 1:28-31.

Austin, C.F. 1879. Notes on hepaticology. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 6:301-306.

Britton, Elizabeth G. 1910. Coe Finch Austin. 1831-1880. The Bryologist. 13:1-4.

Charlton, John (ed.) 1879. Englewood Institute, Englewood, N.J. Rockland County Journal. Nyack, New York. Vol. 29. page 8. column 4. December 6, 1879.

Demarest, Sarah A. 1918. A sketch of the life of Coe Finch Austin. Memoirs Torrey Bot. Club 17:31-38

Leggett, William H. (ed.) 1870. The club. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 1(12):45.

Lesquereux, Leo. 1880. Coe F. Austin. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 7:38-39.

Martindale, Isaac. C. 1883. Obituary notice of Charles F. Parker. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 35: 260-265.

Myers, Dan. 2020. Coe Finch Austin. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Wilson, James Grant & John Fiske. (eds.) 1888. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 1. D. Appleton &. Co. New York City, New York. p. 120 of 768.

Austin, Edward Payson (1838-1902)

Edward P. Austin was born in Massachusetts in 1838 and died of Bright's Disease at this home in Popular Grove, Utah on July 9th, 1902, at the age of 64 (Chambers 1902, Anonymous 1902, Heath 1902). He "... attended the literary department of the University of Michigan 1857-1859 ... but he did not graduate. He was an assistant engineer with the Lake Survey from 1859 until he was discharged August 21, 1863, for leaving his post (on northern Lake Michigan) without authority. In 1859 he was assisting in the determination of the difference in longitude between Detroit and Fort Gratiot. In 1860 he was engaged in astronomical computations, observed meteorological data at Sanilac, and was in a party on Lake Huron determining latitude and longitude of points on the Canadian shore (Voss 1978)."

Following his work in Michigan, Austin was employed during the 1870s and 1880s by the Office of the Nautical Almanac in Washington, D.C., where he completed various astronomical calculations that were published in "The American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac" (Nautical Almanac Office 1855-, Pringle 1989). From May through September 1871, Mr. Austin was an astronomical assistant with the U.S. War Department Engineers, during which period he made latitude and longitude determinations for various locations in California, Nevada, and Utah (Austin 1871, Humphreys 1871, Wheeler 1874). In 1872 he was listed as an "Assistant in the Observatory at Harvard College (Anonymous 1872) and in 1874 he was part of Wiltse's land survey of the Nebraska-South Dakota Boundary (Austin 1875a&b, Curd 2009).

Mr. Austin's career as a mining engineer and assayer in the Salt Lake City region began in about 1882. He left the area for a time in the 1890s to be involved in zinc mining in Missouri (Heath 1890), likely in the southwestern portion of the state (Missouri Department of Natural Resources 2021). After a few years in Missouri, he returned to Utah and took up residence in Poplar Grove (Chambers 1902, Anonymous 1902, Heath 1902).

Though his original commitment in science was to botany, that interest eventually waned, and Austin became more dedicated to entomology. He was one of the founders of the Cambridge Entomological Club and he sold entomologists' supplies, sets of insect specimens, and plant specimens (Pringle 1989). In 1881 Austin traveled to Arizona and environs for business dealings and to do some insect prospecting (Dimmock et al. 1881).

Austin was listed as a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts in "The Naturalists' Directory" for 1877 and 1878, but no occupation was mentioned. From 1879 to 1883 his address was listed as Boston, Massachusetts and starting in 1880 he was categorized as an astronomer. The 1884 "Directory" listed E.P. Austin as an astronomer from "Boston, Mass. (or Salt Lake City, Utah)". From 1885 through 1898 Mr. Austin's listings in the "Directory" indicated that he was an assayer in Salt Lake City (Cassino 1877-1919). During the winter of 1891 he worked for botanist/geologist Marcus E. Jones in Utah and helped establish an ore assaying laboratory (Broaddus 1933). The last mention of E.P. Austin was in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1903, where he was mentioned as a "corporate member" residing in Somerville, Massachusetts (Allen 1903, Pringle 1989).

Austin's interest in entomology (beetles in particular) is illustrated by his report on the Coleoptera of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire (Austin 1874), his address to the Cambridge Entomological Society in 1879 (Austin 1879), and his listings in "The Naturalists' Directory" (Cassino 1877-1919). Some other publications authored by Austin are catalogued below and may be located via Google Scholar.

Twenty of Austin's herbarium specimens, most from the Great Lakes region, are housed in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A few other plant specimens collected by E.P. Austin in Wisconsin are present in the Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium and a few mammal specimens collected by him are present at the University of Michigan (see iDigBio database).

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Allen, Glover M. 1903. Report of the secretary and librarian. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 31:32-54.

Anonymous. 1872. College directory: Harvard College. Old and New. 6:115(3).

Anonymous. 1902. Old resident dead. The Salt Lake Herald. Salt Lake City, Utah. July 10, 1902. p. 8. column 2.

Austin, E.P. 1871. Appendix C: Report of Assistant. in Wheeler, Geo. M. (1872). Preliminary Report Concerning Explorations and Surveys, Principally in Nevada and Arizona. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 91 & 92 of 96.

Austin, E.P. 1874. Catalog of the Coleoptera of Mt. Washington, N.H.. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 16:265-276.

Austin, E.P. 1875a. On the occurrence of Cochineal in the Northern United States. Psyche. 1:30.

Austin, E.P. 1875b. Re-discovery of Cicindela limbata Say. Psyche. 1:33-34.

Austin, E.P. 1879. Geographical distribution of North American Coleoptera. Psyche. 2:217-223.

Austin, E.P. 1880. Supplement to the check list of the Coleoptera of America, north of Mexico. S.E. Cassino. Boston, Massachusetts. 67 pp.

Austin, E.P. 1882a. Collecting Stylopidae. Jrnl. Boston Zoo. Soc. 1:12-13.

Austin, E.P. 1882b. Notes on collecting certain Buprestidae. Jrnl. Boston Zoo. Soc. 1:45-46.

Broaddus, Mabel Jones. 1933. Marcus E. Jones, A.M. - biographical sketch. Contrib. Western Botany 18:152-157.

Cassino, Samuel E. (ed.) 1877-1919. The Naturalists' Directory. S.E. Cassino & Company. Boston, Massachusetts.

Chambers, F.W. (manager). 1902. Salt Lake Notes. The Standard. Ogden, Utah. July 11, 1902. page 8. column 3.

Curd, Rollin C. 2009. Shovels and plumb bobs. Backsights Magazine. Surveyors Historical Society.

Dimmock, G., B. Pickman Mann, Albert J. Cook, Clifford Chase Eaton, Joseph Duncan Putnam, Francis Huntington Snow. (eds.) 1881. Proceedings of societies: Cambridge Entomological Club. 3:278.

Heath, Perry S. (publ.) 1902. Death of E. P. Austin - Well-known engineer and assayer dies at sixty-four. Salt Lake Tribune. July 10, 1902. page 5. column 3.

Humphreys, A.A. 1871. Introduction. in Wheeler, Geo. M. (1872). Preliminary Report Concerning Explorations and Surveys, Principally in Nevada and Arizona. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 11 & 12 of 96.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources. 2021. Missouri lead mining history by county. Jefferson City, Missouri.

Nautical Almanac Office. 1855-. The American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. Bureau of Navigation. Washington, D.C.

Pringle, James S. 1989. Botanical exploration of the Canadian watershed of Lake Huron of the nineteenth century. Canadian Hort. History 2:4-88.

Voss, Edward G.  1978.  Botanical beachcombers and explorers: Pioneers of the 19th century in the upper Great Lakes.  Contrib. Univ. Mich. Herbarium.  Vol. 13. p. 47.

Wheeler, George M. 1874. Progress-Report upon the Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian in 1872. Engineer Dept. U.S. Army. Washington, D.C. pp. 8, 9,45, &46 of 56.

Austin, Oliver (1868 - 1889)

Oliver Austin (born James Oliver Austin (Ancestry.com 2020, Mansfield 1918)) was the son of Rebecca Merritt Austin and James Thomas Austin. The Austin family moved to the Black Hawk Creek area, Plumas County, California from Kansas (by way of New York City, Panama, & San Francisco) early in 1865 (Austin 1918, Hail 1919). The couple raised three children: Mary was born in Illinois during Rebecca's first marriage; Josephine (later: Mrs. Charles C. Bruce) and then Oliver were born in Plumas County, California (Austin 1918, Flesh To Bones 2018, Mansfield 1918).

The exact nature and timeline of Oliver's education is unclear, but in 1886 he completed a course of study at Woodman's Academy (aka Chico Academy (Sistrunk et al. 2016, Taylor 2009)) with an apparent emphasis in teacher education, that led to a teaching job in or around Greenville, California (Chalmers 1886a & b). In 1887 Oliver joined his parents in Modoc County and began teaching in Alturas (Hail 1887), a position he retained for at least two years (Hail 1888, Austin 1918).

In the fall of 1888 Oliver was stricken by a severe illness of unknown nature and he traveled to San Francisco from Modoc County for medical care. By March of 1889 his health had improved and Oliver's father, James, traveled to San Francisco to help his son return to Modoc County. During the return trip the pair passed through the Madeline Plains, but Oliver's health once again deteriorated, when they arrived at Van Loan's ranch near what is present-day Madeline (Hail 1889a). Van Loan's ranch would have been a common sense place to spend the night, because it was a stagecoach stop along a line that stretched from Susanville to Fort Bidwell (Fairfield 1916, Purdy 2019). From there they still had to travel at least another 60 miles north from Madeline along the Pit River and its tributaries to reach Alturas and ultimately Davis Creek — the location of the Austin family's homestead.

Oliver languished and remained at the Van Loan ranch until the third week of March. An abscess had developed on one of his hips and, though James had sought medical help for his son in Alturas, the physician postponed treatment until the abscess had progressed further (Hail 1889a). By the beginning of June 1889 Oliver had been transported and was being treated at Fort Bidwell (Hail 1889b). In July his condition was so dire that his step-sister, Mary Hail, visited him there, because he was not expected to survive (Hail 1889c). Still at Fort Bidwell, Oliver's condition was reported as critical in mid-September (Hail 1889d) — in October, after a year-long battle, Oliver Austin died at the age of 20 (21?) and his death notice appeared in the Greenville Bulletin on October 9, 1889 (Hail 1889e).

One specimen of Rhamnus californica present at BDI was collected by Oliver in 1883. A specimen of Eriogonum umbellatum collected by him in 1884 is recorded in The University and Jepson Herbaria and Ames (1908) listed a specimen of Habenaria saccata collected by Oliver Austin from Modoc county, California in 1885.

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Ames, Oakes. 1908. Orchidaceae: Illustrations and studies of the family Orchidaceae. Fascicle III. The Merrymount Press. Boston. p.99 of 288.

Ancestry.com. 2020. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, Utah.

Austin, Rebecca. 1918. Reminiscences. transcribed by Frank Morton Jones.

Chalmers, Watson. (ed.) 1886a. Closing exercises at the Chico Academy. Chico Enterprise. Chico, California. May 28, 1886. p. 1. column 5.

Chalmers, Watson. (ed.) 1886b. From Greenville Bulletin. Chico Enterprise. Chico, California. June 25, 1886. p. 4. column 2.

Fairfield, Asa Merrill. 1916. Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California. H.S. Crocker Co. San Francisco, California. pp. 441 & 468 of 507.

Flesh To Bones. 2018. Mary Alvie Leonard Hail. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Hail, F.G. (ed.) 1887. Things in general. Greenville Bulletin. Greenville, California. April 13, 1887. p. 3. column 1.

Hail, F.G. (ed.) 1888. General announcements. Plumas County Bulletin. Greenville, California. July 11, 1888. p. 3.

Hail, F.G. (ed.) 1889a. General announcements. Modoc Independent of March 21 in Plumas County Bulletin. Greenville, California. April 6, 1889. p. 3. column 3.

Hail, F.G. (ed.) 1889b. General announcements. Plumas County Bulletin. Greenville, California. June 5, 1889. p. 3. column 3. column 2.

Hail, F.G. (ed.) 1889c. General announcements. Plumas County Bulletin. Greenville, California. July 3, 1889. p. 3. column 1.

Hail, F.G. (ed.) 1889d. Things in general. Plumas County Bulletin. Greenville, California. September 18, 1889. p. 3. column 1.

Hail, F.G. (ed.) 1889e. General announcements. Plumas County Bulletin. Greenville, California. October 9, 1889. p. 3. column 2. in Purdy, Tim I. Greenville Bulletin. Greenville, California. Death/Obituary Index from 1880 through 1891.

Hail, M.A. 1919. Life sketch of Mrs. R. M. Austin. Plumas National-Bulletin. March 27, 1919.

Mansfield, George C. 1918. History of Butte County, California with Biographical Sketches: Charles C. Bruce. Historic Record Company. Los Angeles, California. pp. 1157-1158.

Purdy, Tim. 2019. The Madeline Hotel - A preview. Exploring Lassen County's Past. WebLog.

Sistrunk, Timothy, Chris Paintner, & Rodney Thompson. 2016. South Campus Neighborhood Project - Neighborhood History. California State University. Chico, California. 26 pp.

Taylor, Kate. 2009. Rev. James Monroe Woodman. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Austin, Rebecca Merritt (1832-1919)

Rebecca Merritt Smith was born in Cumberland County, Kentucky in 1832. The family of 10 moved to Missouri when Rebecca was 10 years old, but shortly thereafter her mother and two of her older sisters perished. For the next few years Rebecca was cared for and educated by various members of her extended family. In 1848 [age 14] Rebecca began attending public school in Putnam county, Illinois and eventually completed extensive classwork at the Granville Academy [Granville, Illinois].

Rebecca started her professional career teaching in various rural schools near Magnolia, Illinois. But after her marriage to Dr. Alva Leonard in 1852, the couple moved to Peoria, Illinois, where her husband established a medical practice. Dr. Leonard died in 1856 and Rebecca was financially decimated by the economic panic (see Kennedy 2001) that occurred during the same year (Austin 1918, Hail 1919).

Through the next couple of years, Rebecca taught school in Illinois to support herself and her daughter, Mary (Mansfield 1918). Later in 1859, she moved to Tennessee to live near some of her mother's relatives and she taught school for a year and half in Livingston. Unfortunately, Rebecca's abolitionist leanings did not coincide with the viewpoints of many of her slave owning kin. She took her daughter and judiciously left Tennessee for another teaching position in Kansas in 1860 (Austin 1918).

Two years after arriving in Kansas, Rebecca married James T. Austin, a farmer, in Prairie City. Rebecca's brothers encouraged the family to move to the gold fields of California. So, on December 25th of 1864 the family left Kansas via rail to New York City and from there they boarded the steamer North Star, which took them to Panama. After crossing the isthmus, another steam ship took the family north along the Pacific Coast to San Francisco, where they arrived in February 1865 (Austin 1918, Mansfield 1918).

After leaving San Francisco, James and Rebecca Austin reached the Black Hawk Creek area (Plumas County) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of northern California later in 1865. Her existence was a challenge as she cooked and did laundry for the miners, tended to medical needs of the local settlers (using skills she'd learned from her first husband), and cared for her family. They stayed in the Black Hawk Creek region for ten years, moving several times during the 1870s. The family ultimately settled in Modoc County, California near the California-Oregon state line in 1881, where they purchased 325 acres of land (Austin 1918, Mansfield 1918).

Rebecca had done some plant collecting in Illinois and Tennessee (Austin 1918), but in California Ms. Austin, even with three children under her care, became a dedicated collector of the local flora and an astute student of the natural history of the cobra lily (Darlingtonia californica), sundew (Drosera), snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea), and other native taxa. Family responsibilities and the need for income steered Austin into a specimens-for-profit venture. Her considerable botanical knowledge, coupled with her professional correspondence with prominent botanists like William Canby, Asa Gray, and John G. Lemmon, generated botanical respect and many customers for her successful plant collecting business (Warner 1995, Sanders 2009, University and Jepson Herbaria Archives 2010).

It is interesting to note that Rebecca's son, Oliver, also did some botanizing (described under his name) in California, as did her younger daughter, Josephine (Austin 1918). Josephine is the listed collector-of-record (as Mrs. C.C. Bruce) in a number of publications, such as Milliken (1904) and Eastwood (1903, 1905). Several hundred plant specimens collected in California list Mrs. C.C. Bruce as collector or co-collector in the iDigBio specimen database. It does not appear that Rebecca's elder daughter, Mary, was botanically inclined.

A four-volume bound herbarium assembled by Austin holding 141 of her California specimens (1873-1892) is present in Putnam Museum herbarium. Many additional plant records attributed to R. M. Austin may be accessed from the Consortium of California Herbaria specimen portal, the University and Jepson Herbaria Specimen Portal specimen portal, and the Smithsonian Institution.

[A more detailed sketch of the life of Rebecca M. Austin may be accessed here.]

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Austin, Rebecca. 1918. Reminiscences. transcribed by Frank Morton Jones.

Creese, Mary R.S. 1998. Ladies in the laboratory? American and British women in science, 1800-1900. Scarecrow Press. Lanham, Maryland. 452 pp. (see pp. 22-23).

Eastwood, Alice. 1903. New Species of Western Plants. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 30:483-502.

Eastwood, Alice. 1905. New Species of Western Plants. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 32:193-218.

Harvard Forest. Rebecca Merritt Smith Austin (1832-1919). Carnivorous Plant Research: Early 20th century. Harvard University. Petersham, Massachusetts.

Kennedy, Robert C. 2001. On This Day. The New York Times Company & Harper's Weekly.

Hail, Mary Alvie. 1919. Life sketch of Mrs. R. M. Austin. Plumas National-Bulletin. March 27, 1919.

Mansfield, George C. 1918. History of Butte County, California with Biographical Sketches: Charles C. Bruce. Historic Record Company. Los Angeles, California. pp. 1157-1158.

Milliken, Jessie. 1904. A review of Californian Polemoniaceae. Univ. California Publ. in Botany. 2:1-71.

Sanders, Dawn. 2009. Behind the curtain: Treat and Austin's contributions to Darwin's work on insectivorous plants and subsequent botanical studies. Academia.edu. San Francisco, California. pp. 215-229.

Taylor, Kate. 2010. Rebecca Merritt Smith Austin. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

University and Jepson Herbaria Archives. 2010. Austin, Rebecca Merritt (Mrs.) M. (1832-1919). University of California. Berkeley.

Warner, Nancy J. 1995. Taking to the Field: Women Naturalists in the Nineteenth-Century West. MS thesis. Utah State University. pp. 29-62.

Bailey, Liberty Hyde (1858-1954)

Liberty Hyde Bailey was born near South Haven, Michigan. His parents, Liberty Hyde Bailey Sr. and Sarah Harrison Bailey, were farmers and Liberty Jr.grew up working in the fruit orchards in the vicinity of Van Buren County. As a youth he became known as an accomplished tissue grafter and developed an interest in various other areas of botany and general natural history (Banks 1994, Engst 2004, Peterborough K. 2002).

Bailey became acquainted with Professor William J. Beal at Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) and in 1882 he earned a degree from Michigan Ag. College under Beal's guidance. In 1885, following a 2-year experience as an assistant to Asa Gray at Harvard University, Bailey began a Michigan Agricultural College professorship in horticulture. His work served to promote horticulture, from what some botanists considered to be a less important branch of the science, to a robust field of study (Banks 1994, Engst 2004).

In 1888 Bailey moved on to an academic position in horticulture at Cornell University. He went on to become Dean of the College of Agriculture at Cornell and remained in Ithaca, New York until 1913. During his years at Cornell, Bailey excelled as a teacher, author, administrator, researcher and public speaker (Banks 1994). His professional life included the authorship of hundreds of articles and innumerable speaking engagements with groups of lay people and professionals. His research interests spanned a wide swath of the plant kingdom and included studies of blackberries, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, gourds, hostas, palms, peaches, sedges and many other plants (Lawrence 1955, Seeley 1990).

Bailey's "retirement" in 1913 was really more of a professional course change. He traveled extensively (New Zealand, China, Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, and other countries) investigating palms and other plants. Liberty became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he was chosen the president of the Botanical Society of America, and published Hortus. For the rest of his life, Bailey seemed to be a tireless traveler, investigator, and author (Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum 2016). In 1935, when he turned 75, Prof. Bailey donated his 100,000+ specimen herbarium, the building in which it was stored, and his entire personal 3000+ volume library to Cornell University (Bailey Hortorium 2015, Engst 2004, Seeley 1990).

Liberty Hyde Bailey's interests and accomplishments are too voluminous to summarize fully here, but they have been enumerated in various publications by others. The interested reader is referred to the works listed below, the publications cited within them, and/or those enumerated in Google Scholar.

Five plant specimens collected by Bailey in 1889 were part of Edith A. Ross' personal herbarium are present in the Putnam Museum collection. Unfortunately, none of the Bailey specimens bear a collection location.

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Bailey Hortorium. 2015. Liberty H. Bailey, Jr.. Cornell University Library. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. Cornell University. Ithaca, New York.

Banks, Harlan P. 1994. Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858 - 1954): A biographical memoir. National Academy of Sciences. Washington, D.C. 32 pp.

Engst, Elaine (curator). 2004. Liberty Hyde Bailey: A man for all seasons. Cornell University Library. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. Cornell University. Ithaca, New York.

Lawrence, George H.M. 1955. Liberty Hyde Bailey, the Botanist. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 82:300-305.

Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum. 2016. About Bailey. South Haven, Michigan.

Peterborough K. 2002. Liberty Hyde Bailey. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Seeley, John G. 1990. Liberty Hyde Bailey - Father of American Horticulture. HortScience 25:1204-1210.

Baily, A. Lang (1927-1957)

A. Lang Baily, a 1944 graduate of Westtown School in Pennsylvania (Hubben 1957, Westtown School 2019), continued his education at Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana) with an M.S. in technical theater (Anonymous 1949). He took a position as assistant curator of birds at the Denver Museum of Natural History in about 1950 and earned another masters degree, this time in ornithology, from the University of Denver (Kilmer 1956). In Denver he met and married Kamilla Urban, a former anti-aircraft gunnery instructor during World War II and masters degree student at the University of Denver (Anonymous 2010, McNear 1965).

The Baily family left Denver, when Lang accepted the Curator of Exhibits position at the Davenport Public Museum in May 1953 (Anonymous 1953). After four years as curator, Baily became the museum's director, but ill health allowed him to hold the position for only a year, until June of 1957. Mr. Baily resigned from his museum post in June and perished in a Santa Fe, New Mexico hospital October 4, 1957 (Fulton 1957, Hodges 1958). He was survived by his wife, Kamilla (a social worker) and two children, Ruth and Albert (Hubben 1957, Polk 1955).

At the Davenport Public Museum, Baily made major contributions to the organizing, cataloging, and appraisal of specimens. He was responsible for developing and editing the Museum Quarterly, which was established to tell the public about collections present in the museum, current events taking place at the museum, and future plans for the museum (Baily 1956, Hodges 1958).

During his career in Colorado and Iowa, Lang Baily was an active birder, who led field trips, organized meetings, and published a variety of bird related articles (see references below). Lang was a member of the Iowa Ornithologists' Union (Pierce 1956), the Inland Bird-banding Association (Bergstrom 1956), and he served an important role in the Tri-City (Davenport, Iowa area) Christmas bird census. Following his death in Santa Fe, New Mexico and his cremains were buried at his favorite Colorado camping site (Hodges 1958, Hubben 1957).

Baily collected one specimen of a cultivated Prunus from Scott County, Iowa that is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A large number of bird specimens collected by Baily in Colorado may be viewed via the iDigBio specimen database.

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Anonymous. 1949. N. Silbiger to leave for Denver today. The Palladium-Item. Richmond, Indiana. June 12, 1949. p. 11. column 1.

Anonymous. 1953. Name curator of exhibits at public museum. Democrat and Times. Davenport, Iowa. May 3, 1953. page 15. column 3.

Anonymous. 1957. A. Lang Baily, Former Museum Director, Dies. The Daily Times. October 7, 1957. page 9. columns 3 & 4.

Anonymous. 2010. Kamilla U. Baily. Gazette-Times. Corvallis, Oregon. p. 4. column 1.

Baily, A. Lang. 1953. Eastern race of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in Colorado. The Condor 55:215-222

Baily, A. Lang. 1954. Indigo Bunting Nesting in Colorado. The Auk 71:330.

Baily, A. Lang. 1956. Foreward. Davenport Public Museum Quarterly. Vol. 1. No. 1.

Baily, A. Lang & Robert P. Fox. 1953. Notes on Warblers in Colorado. Wilson Bulletin 65:47.

Bailey, Alfred A., Robert J. Niedrach, & A. Lang Baily. 1953. The Red Crossbills of Colorado. Denver Museum of Natural History. Museum pictorial no. 9.

Bergstrom, E. Alexander. (ed.) 1956. Officers of the Inland Bird-banding Association. Bird-banding Back cover.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1957. Davenport mourns A. Lang Baily. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. October 10, 1957. p. 12. columns 1 & 2. .

Green, David. 2008. A. Lang Baily. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Hodges, James. 1958. A. Lang Baily. Iowa Bird Life 28:19.

Hubben, William. (ed.). 1957. Deaths: Baily. Friends Journal 3:716.

Kilmer, Forest. (ed.) Pity the poor robins. Morning Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. columns 1 - 3.

Knorr, Owen A. & A. Lang Baily. 1950. First breeding record of Black Swift, Nephoecetes n. borealis, in Colorado. The Auk 67:516.

McNear, Betty. 1965. Helping handicapped is ex-WAVE's job. Evening Journal. Wilmington, Delaware. January 16, 1965. p. 6. columns 6-8.

Pierce, Fred J. (ed.) 1956. Iowa represented at Denver AOU meeting. Iowa Bird Life 26:67.

Polk, R.L. 1955. Davenport City Directory. R.L. Polk Co. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. p. 16.

Westtown School. 2019. Westtown Remembers. Westtown School. West Chester, Pennsylvania. p. 84 of 170.

Barnes, William David (1867 - 1938)

William D. Barnes was born in Irwin, Pennsylvania in March of 1868 to John and Mary (Speer) Barnes. Shortly after his birth, the Barnes family moved to Blue Grass, Iowa and William attended the country school adjacent to his parent's farm (Ancestry.com 2015, Barnes 1950, The Bend Bulletin 1938). He completed his high school education at the Northwestern University Academy (Evanston, Illinois), then finished his undergraduate degree (A.B.) at Northwestern University in 1891, with a major in Greek and Latin. While at Northwestern, he became an accomplished baseball player for the college and even played for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox during summer vacations (Anonymous 1891a&b, Barnes 1950, Guldner 1950, Sawyer 1916).

William went on to complete some graduate work in Greek (1892-1893) and botany (1893-1894) at Northwestern University (Atwell 1903, Barnes 1950) and followed that with graduate studies at Harvard University (Wiggin 1892). Barnes was evidently preparing to engage in archeological research in Egypt, when both his father and brother fell ill and perished. William returned to Iowa to help his mother maintain the family farm (Baird & Brown 1905, Barnes 1950, Halligan 1896, Sawyer 1916).

William and his mother worked the Iowa farm, until about 1903, when they sold the parcel and moved to Walla Walla, Washington, which was apparently the home of his sister, Agnes George (Russel 1938, Barnes 1950). Barnes held a position at Whitman College where he taught Greek (Guldner 1950) and coached baseball (Statesman Publishing 1904a&b). In 1904 he moved to the vicinity of present-day Tumalo, Oregon with a fellow named C.W. Allen. Barnes homesteaded on a parcel along the Deschutes River and established the White Rock cattle ranch. His homestead was situated within an area that was formally designated as Deschutes County in December of 1916 and Barnes was appointed the first Deschutes county judge (in spite of the fact that he'd only completed one class in constitutional law, while a student (Guldner 1950)).

In July of 1918, he and Cornelia Wilson were married in Bend, Oregon (Barnes 1950, Guldner 1950, Sawyer 1938) and the couple had two children, William D. and Mary Jean (Russel 1938). Judge Barnes perished from influenza in February 1938 and was interred in the Mountain View Cemetery in Ashland, Oregon (Russel 1938, ProgBase 2011, Sawyer 1938).

According to his wife, for the dozen or so years prior to his move to Washington, William and Alonzo A. Miller rode bicycles throughout the Scott/Muscatine county region collecting representative plants of the region's flora (Barnes 1950). Those collecting forays are documented by 450-plus plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium and others available through the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases that bear William D. Barnes' name as collector or co-collector. Those collections led to Barnes' most significant botanical contribution, " The flora of Scott and Muscatine Counties", which he authored with F. Reppert and Alonzo A. Miller (Barnes et al. 1900). Barnes is also mentioned by E.J. Hill (1899) "Mr. William D. Barnes of Morgan Park, Illinois has placed in my hands specimens of an undetermined oak, collected by him at Big Rock, Scott county, Iowa, which proves to be Q. ellipsoidalis Hill. ... E.J. Hill, Chicago.".

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Ancestry.com. 2015. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1891a. Northwestern University Team. The Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. April 17, 1891. p. 5. column 6.

Anonymous. 1891b. Passed into history. The Daily Interocean. Chicago, Illinois. June 26, 1891. p. 1. column 2.

Atwell, Charles B. (ed.) 1903. Alumni record of the College of liberal arts. Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois). p. 214.

Baird, William R. & James T. Brown (eds.). 1905. Catalog of Beta Theta Pi. Seventh Edition. New York City, New York. pp. 411 & 717.

Barnes, Cornelia. 1950. Biography of William David Barnes. Pers. Comm. to L.F. Guldner. Putnam Museum and Science Center document archive.

Barnes, W.D., F. Reppert, and A.A. Miller. 1900. The flora of Scott and Muscatine Counties. Proc. Davenport Acad. Science 9:199 - 287.

Halligan, J.E. (ed.) 1896. Probate matter. Davenport Weekly Leader. Davenport, Iowa. July 24, 1896. Column 7. Page 5.

Guldner, L.F. 1950. Biography: W.D. Barnes. Putnam Museum and Science Center document archive.

Hill, E.J. 1899. Quercus ellipsoidalis in Iowa. Botanical Gazette. 28:215.

Russel, Walter (ed.) 1938. Judge W, Barnes, Formerly of Blue Grass, Dies in West. Muscatine Journal & News-Tribune. Muscatine, Iowa. February 14, 1938. page 3.

ProgBase. 2011. William David Barnes. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Sawyer, Robert W. (ed.) 1916. County officers appointed. The Bend Bulletin. Bend, Oregon. December 16, 1916. page 1. columns 1 & 2.

Sawyer, Robert W. (ed.) 1938. First judge of Deschutes dies. W.D. Barnes pioneer in midstate. The Bend Bulletin. Bend, Oregon. February 10, 1938. page 1. column 7.

Statesman Publishing. 1904a. Whitman and University of Washington will meet on the diamond field for battle. The Evening Statesman. Walla Walla, Washington. May 2, 1904. p. 5. column 2.

Statesman Publishing. 1904b. Whitman ball tossers. The Evening Statesman. Walla Walla, Washington. May 17, 1904. p. 5. column 4.

Wiggin, William H. 1892. The Harvard Index. Vol. 19. Harvard University. Alfred Mudge & Son, printers. Boston, Massachusetts. 61:1 & 87.

Bartsch, Paul (1871 - 1960)

Paul Bartsch was born (August 14, 1871) to Henry and Anna Bartsch in Tuntschendorf, Silesia, Germany now a part of Poland) and arrived with his family in the United States in the 1880s. They first settled in Missouri, but eventually took up permanent residence in the vicinity of Burlington, Iowa. Paul developed an interest in birds as a boy growing up in Germany and this interest in ornithology continued as he wandered the bottomlands along the Mississippi River near Burlington (Perry 2007, Rehder 1961, Rice n.d., Seidenschnur & Shetler 1965).

He earned his B.S. (1896), M.S. (1899), and Ph.D. (1905) from the University of Iowa (Illinois Natural History Survey 2015, Perry 2007). His master's thesis focused on the literature of the birds of Iowa (Bartsch 1899), but for his Ph.D. dissertation, Bartsch shifted gears and worked on a group of marine mollusks from the Pacific Coast of America (Bartsch 1905). During Paul's pursuit of his master's degree at the University of Iowa, William H. Dall, acting curator of mollusks at the Smithsonian Institute (U.S. National Museum), was in search of an assistant. He contacted his friend C. C. Nutting at the University of Iowa and Nutting recommended his student, Paul Bartsch, for the position. So began Bartsch's dual career as graduate student in Iowa and curator in Washington (Behle 1971, Rehder 1961).

Bartsch's early commitment was to the field of ornithology, a fact that is reflected in the nature of his early publications (Bartsch 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1903). However, at the Smithsonian Paul assisted Dall with his research and performed perfunctory curatorial duties in malacology. Though he maintained an interest in birds throughout his career, Bartsch decided that the study of mollusks provided greater research opportunities (Rehder 1961). During his career at the United States National Museum, Bartsch was named assistant curator (in 1905), and was promoted to curator (in 1914) of the Division of Mollusks. He continued his work at the Smithsonian Institution until his retirement in 1946 (Smithsonian Institution Archives 2016).

Paul Bartsch taught biological science and zoology at George Washington University from 1899 to 1945 and during much of the same period he was part of the Howard University medical school teaching staff (1899-1936). For over 30 years, in addition to his teaching responsibilities, Bartsch served as curator in the Smithsonian Institution's Division of Mollusks in the U.S. National Museum (Perry 2007). As part of his work for the Smithsonian, Bartsch was involved with oceanic explorations to the Philippines, Cuba, and the West Indies (Smithsonian Institution Archives 2016).

On October 16th, 1907 the Bureau of Fisheries steamer "Albatross" sailed from San Francisco harbor to Honolulu to Midway Island to Guam and arrived in Manilla, Philippines November 28, 1907. Bartsch spent nine months with the expedition as naturalist for the Smithsonian (though the entire Philippines Expedition lasted from 1907 through 1910) helping to investigate the natural history of the region in and around the Philippines. The result was the largest acquisition of fishes in the history of the Smithsonian Institution (estimated as at least 100,000), but the specimens were not relegated to fishes. The expedition harvested 1000s of specimens of mollusks, many birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates (Bartsch 1841, Smith & Williams 1999). Some of the specimens from the Philippines Expedition (as well as others from the Cuba and West Indies explorations) have been databased and are available online through the National Museum of Natural History.

Though much of Bartsch's research focused on the taxonomy and distribution of mollusks, his +/- 450 scholarly papers dealt with mollusks and birds. Many of those works may be accessed via the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Ockerbloom (2016), and Google Scholar. His lone botanical publication was a paleobotanical investigation for the U.S. Geological Survey (Bartsch 1896).

In 1895, while at the State University of Iowa, Bartsch collected plants throughout a large part of eastern Iowa. After leaving Iowa his collections were either from the Washington, D.C. area, where he lived, or from foreign locals like the Philippines, Guam, and various Caribbean Islands, which he visited while on exploratory ventures for the Smithsonian. Shortly after his death, Bartsch's widow (Dr. Elizabeth Parker Bartsch), donated his personal herbarium of approximately 5000 specimens to the Smithsonian Institution (Seidenschnur & Shetler 1965). Many of his collections, present in the herbarium of the National Museum of Natural History, may be viewed using the Smithsonian Institute's herbarium database and many others are available via the iDigBio specimen database. Only one plant, Boltonia latisquama Gray, collected by Bartsch in 1895 from Muscatine is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Bartsch, Paul. 1895. Birds extinct in Iowa and those becoming so. The Iowa Ornithologist 2:1-3.

Bartsch, Paul. 1896. Notes on the Cretaceous flora of Western Iowa. Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist. State University of Iowa 3(4):178-182.

Bartsch, Paul. 1897. A few notes on the Avifauna Columbiana. The Auk. 14:326.

Bartsch, Paul. 1898. Primitive nesting sites of the Cliff Swallow. The Osprey. 3(1):6.

Bartsch, Paul. 1899. The literature of Iowa birds; a complete record of the published writings on the birds of Iowa. Iowa Research Online: Theses and dissertations.

Bartsch, Paul. 1903. Notes on the herons of the District of Columbia. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 45(9):104-111.

Bartsch, Paul. 1905. A study in distribution based upon the family Pyramidellidae of the west coast of America. Ph.D. Dissertation. State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa.

Bartsch, Paul. 1912. A zoogeographic study based on the pyramidellid mollusks of the west coast of America. Proc. U.S. National Museum. 42:297-349.

Bartsch, P. 1922. A monograph of the American shipworms. U.S. Nat. Museum. Smithsonian Institution. Bull. No. 122. Washington, D.C. 51 pp.

Bartsch, P. 1941. Dr. Hugh M. Smith, Director of the Philippine Cruise of the "Albatross". Copeia. 1941(4):209-215.

Bartsch, P. 1947. Bartsch, Paul. "A monograph of the west Atlantic mollusks of the family Aclididae. Smithsonian Misc. Collections. Vol. 106. No. 20. Washington, D.C. 29 pp. + 6 plates.

Behle, William H. 1971. Obituary - Paul Bartsch. The Auk. 88(4):959-961.

Illinois Natural History Survey. 2015. Bartsch, Paul. Malacologists.

Ockerbloom, John Mark. (ed.). 2016. Online books by Paul Bartsch. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Perry, M. C., editor. 2007. Paul Bartsch. in The Washington Biologists' Field Club: Its members and its history (1900-2006). Washington Biologists' Field Club, Washington, D.C. pp. 77-78.

Rehder, Harald A. 1961. Paul Bartsch, 1871-1960. Jrnl. Conchology. 25(1):41-43.

Rice, Tom. n.d. Biography of P. Bartsch. Conchology, Inc.

Seidenschnur, C.E. & S.G. Shetler. 1965. The botanical activities of Paul Bartsch (1871-1960). Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington. 78:275-292.

Smith, A.G. 1960. Bartsch, Paul (1871 - 1960). Veliger 3:32-32.

Smith, David G. & Jeffrey T. Williams. 1999. The great Albatross Philippine Expedition and its fishes. Marine Fisheries Review. 61(40):31-41.

Smithsonian Institution Archives. 2016. Paul Bartsch Papers. Record Unit 7089. Bartsch, Paul (1871-1960). Washington, D.C.

Sterling, Keir B., Richard P. Harmond, George A. Cevasco, & Lorne F. Hammond (eds.). 1997. Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists. Greenwood Press. Westport, Connecticut. pp. 65-67 of 937.

Bass, Louis N. (1919 - 1986)

Louis N. Bass was born in March 1919 in Iola, Kansas, but his family moved to Fayette, Iowa when he was an infant. Louis earned his B.S. in biology at Upper Iowa University in 1940 and continued his studies at the University of Iowa in plant taxonomy. Louis wrote "The Labiatae of Iowa" for his Master of Science thesis in 1943. Bass then left Iowa City to complete his education in seed science at Iowa State University, where he studied the "Effects of light and other factors on germination of seed of Poa pratensis" and earned the Ph.D. in 1949 (Bass 1949, Roos 1993).

The National Seed Storage Laboratory (now part of the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation) was established in 1958 in Fort Collins, Colorado. The initial goal of the National Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL) was to develop state-of-the-art procedures to determine optimal water and temperature storage conditions needed to ensure long-term seed germplasm viability in agricultural crops important to the United States (NCGRP 2016). Dr. Bass began work at the National Seed Storage Laboratory when it opened and he became the facility's head in 1970.

During his tenure, the NSSL facility was completely reorganized, accessions increased dramatically, and seed storage regimes were updated to reflect the humidity, packaging, and temperature conditions that research projects had shown to be optimal for extended-term preservation of seed germplasm (Roos 1993). The International Board for Plant Genetic Resources was established in 1974 and it brought the need for plant germplasm conservation into focus. The NSSL was one of the world's earliest established genebanks and Bass served as a key figure in advising other institutions how to set up long-term seed storage facilities (Roos 1993, CTA 1992).

Many of the storage improvements made at the NSSL were based upon research completed by Dr. Bass. He authored or contributed to over 100 publications during his career, which varied from scholarly scientific articles, to chapters of books, to technical bulletins, and other articles focused on seed germination, longevity, and storage (Roos 1993, Google Scholar 2021).

Three dicots — Anemone patens var. wolfgangiana, Lycopus lucidus var. americanus, Stachys hispida — collected by Dr. Bass are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Bass, Louis N. 1943. The Labiatae of Iowa. M.S. University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 50:209-219.

Bass, Louis Nelson. 1949. Effects of light and other factors on germination of seed of Poa pratensis. Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 13534. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa. 121 pp.

CTA. 1992. IBPGR: International Board for Plant Genetic Resources. Spore 38. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Google Scholar. 2021. Louis N. Bass. Academic publication search engine. Mountain View, California.

Justice, Oren L. and Louis N. Bass. 1978. Principles and practices of seed storage. Ag. Handbook 506. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Washington, D.C. 289 pp.

NCGRP. 2016. History of NCGRP. National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Fort Collins, Colorado.

Roos, Eric E. 1993. Early history of NSSL and contributions of Edwin James and Louis N. Bass. Jrnl. of Seed Technology. 17:25-40.

Beal, Ernest O. (1928 - 1980)

Ernest O. Beal — one of three children born to Ruth and Oscar Beal (RLNT 2013) — was a native of Lancaster, Illinois, who earned his bachelor's degree at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Beal continued his education and completed his M.S. at the State University of Iowa (in 1952), followed by his Ph.D. at the same institution (Gaines 1980, RLNT 2013, WKU 2021, WKU Human Resources 1980), where his dissertation was a revision of Nuphar (Beal 1955, 1956).

Beal joined the botany department of North Carolina State College in 1954 (North Carolina State University 2013) and served in that department until 1968. He left North Carolina in 1968 to accept the position as head of the biology department at Western Kentucky University (1968 - 1978) in Bowling Green (WKU Human Resources 1980, WKU 2021, WKU Provost 1968). Dr. Beal also taught a course in aquatic flowering plants at the Lake Itasca Biology Session in Minnesota, during his tenure at North Carolina State and Western Kentucky Universities (Marshall 1966 & 1967, Miller & Beal 1972, Parmelee 1971).

Ernest Beal's research focused on aquatic/wetland plants, the environmental conditions under which they exist, and the taxonomy of Nuphar and Sagittaria (e.g. Beal & Southall 1977, Beal et al. 1982, Harrison & Beal 1964, Miller & Beal 1972). Three major publications he contributed were "Marsh and aquatic angiosperms of Iowa" (Beal & Monson 1954), "A Manual of Marsh and Aquatic Vascular Plants of North Carolina With Habitat Data" (Beal 1977), and "Aquatic and wetland plants of Kentucky" (Beal & Thieret 1986).

Prof. Beal is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by two sheets of Potamogeton foliosus Raf. Additional Beal specimens may be reviewed using the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Beal, Ernest O. & Paul H. Monson. 1954. Marsh and aquatic angiosperms of Iowa. State Univ. Iowa Studies Nat. Hist. 19: 1-95.

Beal, E. O. 1955. Taxonomic revision of the genus Nuphar Sm. Unpubl. Ph.D. dissertation. State Univ. Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa.

Beal, Ernest O. 1956. Taxonomic revision of the genus Nuphar Sm. of North America and Europe. Jrnl. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 72:317-346.

Beal, E.O. 1971. A new species of Ranunculus from North Carolina. Brittonia 23:266-268.

Beal, E.O. 1977. A Manual of Marsh and Aquatic Vascular Plants of North Carolina With Habitat Data. North Carolina Agric. Exp. Stat. Tech. Bull. 247:1-298.

Beal, E.O. & R.M. Southall. 1977. The taxonomic significance of experimental selection by vernalization in Nuphar (Nymphaeaceae). Syst. Bot. 2:49-60.

Beal, E.O., J.W. Wooten, & R.B. Kaul. 1982. Review of Sagittaria engelmanniana complex (Alismataceae) with environmental correlations. Syst. Bot. 7:417-432.

Beal, E.O. & J.W. Thieret. 1986. Aquatic and wetland plants of Kentucky. Sci. Tech. Series 5. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky. 314 pp.

Gaines, J. Ray. (ed.) 1980. Ernest O. Beal dies. Park City Daily News. Bowling Green, Kentucky. September 2, 1980. p. 1. columns 2 & 3.

Harrison, Dale E. & Ernest O. Beal. 1964. The Lemnaceae (Duckweeds) of North Carolina. Jrnl. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 80(1):12-18.

Marshall, William H. (director). 1966. Lake Itasca Biology Session. Univ. Minnesota Bulletin. Vol. 69. University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Marshall, William H. (director). 1967. Lake Itasca Biology Session. Univ. Minnesota Bulletin. Vol. 70. University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Miller, Marlyn & E.O. Beal. 1972. Scirpus validus and S. acutus: A Question of Distinctness. Jrnl. Minnesota Acad. Sci. 38(1):21-23.

Mitchell, Richard Sheppard & Ernest O. Beal. 1979. Magnoliaceae through Ceratophyllaceae of New York State. Univ. State of New York. State Education Dept. Albany, New York. 62 pp.

North Carolina State University. 2013. History of the herbarium. Dept. of Plant and Microbial Biology. Raleigh, North Carolina.

Parmelee, David F. 1971. Lake Itasca Biology Session. Univ. Minnesota Bull. Vol. 74. No. 1. Minneapolis, Minnesota.

RLNT. 2013. Ernest Oscar Beal. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

WKU. 2021. Ernest O. Beal & Ernest O. Beal Scholarship Fund. Western Kentucky University. Bowling Green, Kentucky.

WKU Human Resources. 1980. Ernest Beal (UA1D). WKU Archives Records. Paper 5172. Western Kentucky University. Bowling Green, Kentucky.

WKU Provost. 1968. Academic Newsletter. UA35/1. Vol. III. No. 1.

Beauchamp, William Martin (1830 - 1925)

William Martin Beauchamp was born to William and Mary Beauchamp in Coldenham, New York in March 1830 — he was the second of four children. The year after William's birth his father moved the family to Skaneateles and William's education began at Skaneateles Academy. He continued his education in Geneva, New York at the DeLancey Divinity School, from which he graduated in September of 1862. At that time, he was ordained as a deacon, followed by becoming an Episcopal minister in the following year (BArnold 2010, Beauchamp 1876a, Cutter 1912, North American Phenology Program 2016, Richardson 1863). Rev. Beauchamp earned his Doctor of Sacred Theology degree from Hobart College in 1886 (Beauchamp 1876a).

Reverend Beauchamp served as rector of Calvary Church in Northville, New York for three years (1863-1865). Then he moved to Baldwinsville, New York to become the rector of the Grace Church, where he remained until 1900 (Beauchamp 1908, North American Phenology Program 2016, Richardson 1863).

While in service at Grace Church, Rev. Beauchamp became interested in natural history and archaeology. He was an accomplished artist, who produced over 15,000 original drawings and sketches of important local relics and objects (e.g. Beauchamp 1901 & 1903), especially those associated with the local Onondaga people (Cutter 1912). Beauchamp also authored a number of works dealing with the archeology, history, and culture of the Onondaga (e.g. Beauchamp 1892, 1900, 1901, 1905, 1908; New York State Library 2009, Ockerbloom 2016) and natural history (Beauchamp 1886, 1902).

It's not clear whether Rev. Beauchamp encouraged her or not, but Mary Beauchamp (William's older sister) served as a teacher to the Onondaga through the Episcopal Church. Various entries in her personal scrapbook reveal that Mary was interested in architecture, botany, poetry, and fashion, as well as the Onondaga people. She was an accomplished writer of popular and religious materials, which she authored under her given name and several pseudonyms. Though she lived most of her life in the Finger Lakes region of Skaneateles, Mary was born in Burleigh, England and spent a part of her adult life living in that country as well (Diane LM 2010, Willard & Livermore 1893, Winship 2009).

Reverend Beauchamp seems to have had a good working knowledge of the natural history of the region surrounding Skaneateles and he mentioned dabbling in botany as he explored "Twenty-eight swamp" (Beauchamp 1876b), but it does not appear that he dedicated much time to the formal study of plant science — at least outside the field of ethnology (Beauchamp 1902). A handful of Beauchamp specimens may be viewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases. He is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by one specimen of Euphorbia collected in Skaneateles, New York. No plant specimens attributed to Rev. Beauchamp's sister, Mary, have been located.

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BArnold. 2010. Rev. William Martin Beauchamp. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Beauchamp, Rev. W.M. (ed.) 1876a. Sketch of the editor's life. in Notes of other days in Skaneateles, written for the Skaneateles democrat in 1876. Annual Volume of the Onondaga Historical Society. 1914. Dehler Press. Syracuse, New York.

Beauchamp, Rev. W.M. (ed.) 1876b. Notes of other days in Skaneateles, written for the Skaneateles democrat in 1876. Annual Volume of the Onondaga Historical Society. 1914. Dehler Press. Syracuse, New York.

Beauchamp, William M. 1886. Land and fresh water shells of Onondaga County, with a supplemental list of New York species. Gazette and Farmers' Journal Steam Print. Baldwinsville, New York. 12pp.

Beauchamp, W.M. 1892. The Iroquois trail, or Foot-prints of the Six nations, in customs, traditions, and history. Printed by H.C. Beauchamp. Fayetteville, New York. 153 pp.

Beauchamp, William M. 1900. Aboriginal occupation of New York. New York State Museum Bull. 32(7):1-187.

Beauchamp, William M. 1901. Wampum and shell articles used by the New York Indians. New York State Museum Bull. 8:319-343.

Beauchamp, W. M. 1902. Onondaga Plant Names. Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 15:91-103.

Beauchamp, W. M. 1903. Metallic ornaments of the New York Indians. Bull. New York State Museum. No. 73. Archeology 8. 120 pp. 37 plates.

Beauchamp, William M. 1905. A history of the New York Iroquois, now commonly called the Six Nations. New York State Museum Bull. 78:125-461.

Beauchamp, William M. 1908. Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga county, New York: from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908. S.J. Clark Publishing Company. New York & Chicago. 1000 pp.

Cutter, William Richard. (ed.) 1912. Genealogical and Family History of Western New York. Volume 3. Lewis Historical Publ. Co. New York City, New York. pp. 1054-1055 of 1517.

Diane LM. 2010. Mary Elizabeth Beauchamp. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

New York State Library. 2009. Native American language and culture preservation project. New York State Library. Manuscripts and Special Collections.

North American Bird Phenology Program. 2016. Reverend William Martin Beauchamp. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Laurel, Maryland.

Ockerbloom, John Mark. (ed.). 2016. Online books by William Martin Beauchamp. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Richardson, N.S. (ed.) 1863. Ecclesiastical register: summary of home intelligence. Amer. Quarterly Church Review. 15:146.

Willard, Frances, E. &. Mary A. Livermore. (eds.) 1893. A woman of the century : fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. Charles Wells Moulton. Buffalo, New York. 812 pp.

Winship, Kihm. 2009.
Mary Elizabeth Beauchamp. Skaneateles: The character and characters of a lakeside village. Weblog.

Bebb, Michael S. (1833 - 1895)

Please permit a short, but entertaining, tangential lead into the life of Michael S. Bebb that involves his grandfather, Edward Bebb. In late 1795 Edward left Wales to seek his fortune in the New World. He left behind a young woman, Margaret Roberts, to whom he was engaged, but with the intention of returning for her once he had established a home. Edward sailed aboard the "Maria" in October and stepped to shore in North America at Philadelphia in October. He made his way to Pittsburgh and then floated down the Ohio River to Fort Washington (present-day Cincinnati). Edward bought a piece of property and built a house near the confluence of Dry Fork Creek and the Whitewater River in southwestern Ohio. It was now 1801 (Bebb 2017, Deane 1896, Jordan 1954, Williams 1941).

Having established himself in America, Edward, decided he was secure enough to return to Wales and fetch his fiancée. Keeping in mind that communication between the frontier of southwestern Ohio and England was nearly nonexistent, it's not surprising that Mr. and Mrs. Roberts (parents of Margaret) had given up on Edward, since he hadn't returned for their daughter in six years! So, they married her off to a young clergyman and the newlyweds sailed for America in 1801 (Deane 1896, Williams 1941).

Unfortunately, on an earlier voyage the cargo hold of their vessel held a volume of copperas (FeSO4 - used in making ink and other pigments (Borrows 2006, Porter 1830)). Leftover copperas leached into the ship's water supply, which poisoned several passengers (including Margaret's new husband), all of whom died and were buried at sea. After the ship berthed in Philadelphia, Margaret went to her brother's home in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with the apparent intension of returning to Wales (Deane 1896, Williams 1941)

Oddly enough, Edward's path back to the Atlantic Coast, from where he intended to sail to Wales, went through Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Whether by fluke, intent, or divine providence, Edward stopped at the home of the George Roberts family, with whom he had sailed to America. That visit occurred only two days after Margaret Roberts (George's sister and Edward's "former" fiancé ) had arrived! Evidently the reunion was amicable, because Edward and Margaret were married February 2, 1802. It appears the couple walked 80 miles to Pittsburg and then floated down the Ohio River to the two-story log home Edward had built in the Paddy's Run valley of southwestern Ohio (Bebb 2017, Deane 1896, Williams 1941). There on 320 acres of Butler County land, the union begat William Bebb, and William became the father of the main subject here, Michael S. Bebb.

Michael S. Bebb was born December 23, 1833 to William Bebb and Sarah Shuck Bebb in Hamilton, Ohio on an estate dotted with vegetable, fruit, and horticultural gardens. Early in his life, Bebb showed an interest in plants and may have been influenced by his horticultural surroundings. But at the age of 16, Michael received a collection of botanical texts from his uncle, Evan Bebb, which included two volumes of a flora by John Torrey, and it was those plant related publications that most inspired his botanical pursuits (Deane 1896, Foreman 1943, Sargent 1895, The Dark Poet 2017, Youmans 1896).

When Michael was 17 (1850), his father purchased 5000 acres of land along the Rock River near Seward in Winnebago County, Illinois. After the family moved to Illinois, Michael and his brother-in-law drove a herd of 400 shorthorn cattle from Ohio to Illinois to help establish the estate. "Fountaindale", as the expanse was known to the family, with its prairie and oak grove flora was a botanical blessing that nurtured the young Bebb's interest in plants. He wrote, "Ah! That was lovely beyond description, and the perfect paradise for the out-of-doors botanist (Deane 1896)." In the ensuing years, Bebb worked the farm, studied the local flora, and attended the "Normal and English Department" of Beloit College (Beloit College 1852-1854, Deane 1896, Fernald 1941, Foreman 1943).

About 1856 Michael made the acquaintance of botanist and physician, George Vasey. A few weeks after their first meeting, Dr. Vasey sent a collection of grasses, rushes, and sedges that he'd identified to Bebb. To say that Michael was elated with the gesture is an understatement. He wrote, "I cannot tell how rich this made me. I spread the specimens out over the floor, over the chairs, over the piano. I gloated over them. Here were some of the very things from. 'Oneida Co., N. Y.,' mentioned in Dr. Torrey's Flora! What rare and valuable authentic material (Deane 1896)!" Vasey became not only a friend, but was another source of inspiration for Bebb's career as a botanist.

In May 1857, Michael Bebb married Catherine Hancock in Barre, Massachusetts and soon after the wedding the couple traveled to the Fountaindale estate. Evidently, while they were at the Illinois property, things followed a bizarre departure from the norm. According to a variety of accounts it seems that a group of partiers with the intent of toasting the newlyweds (or malcontents intent on causing problems for the father of the groom) arrived at Fountaindale. The cacophony generated by random gunfire, cheers, noisemakers, cowbells, and whatnot upset William (father of the groom), who emerged from his home with shotgun in hand. He ordered the revelers(?) to leave his property and fired one warning shot. Most, but not all, retreated. Undeterred, William Bebb fired a second time — one man was wounded, one man was dead, and the others decamped. After being brought up on charges of manslaughter, William Bebb was tried and acquitted (Geni 2021, Judson & McCluer 1857, Ray, Medill & Co. 1857).

Not long after the post-wedding ruckus, Michael and Catherine left Fountaindale, and lived in a variety of other Illinois locations. In addition to his family obligations, Bebb's interest in botany progressed and deepened. In 1859 Michael traveled east, where he met Asa Gray and attended the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Massachusetts. Shortly after the onset of the Civil War in 1861, Bebb took a position at the U.S. Pension Office in Washington, D.C. In Washington, he became acquainted with William Canby as well as a number of other prominent local botanists, he joined the Potomac-Side Naturalists' Club, and botanized the Washington area. All of which served to fuel Bebb's investigations of the genus Juncus (like Bog Rush pictured to the left) and his developing interest in Salix (like Sandbar Willow pictured to the right).

Catharine Bebb died in 1865 and Michael resigned from his Pension Office position in June 1866. In February 1867 he married Anna E. Carpenter and a few weeks later the Michael, his new wife, and his three young children moved back to the Fountaindale estate, which Michael had purchased from his father (Deane 1896, Foreman 1943, Ricker 1918, Sargent 1895).

The return to Fountaindale was something of a financial rollercoaster and by 1873, Bebb even considered selling the property. But his financial circumstances leveled out and, perhaps more importantly, throughout this period he had one important asset, his new wife, Anna. She showed not only the remarkable ability to care for a flock of nine children, but also displayed a great interest in Michael's botanical pursuits. In the early 1870s Bebb became seriously devoted to the Salicaceae and Anna was a great advocate for his work. By now Bebb's personal herbarium had increased to over 30,000 specimens including some 15,000 species (Deane 1896, Foreman 1943).

In 1879 the Bebbs moved from Fountaindale to Rockford, Illinois and sold the Winnebago County estate a few years later. Moving off the farm did nothing to diminish Bebb's studies of North American willows and he published many works on them and other topics (e.g. Bebb 1874, 1878, 1879, 1882, 1885, 1888, 1889, 1893, 1895). His health began to fail due to various pulmonary afflictions, but his herbarium grew to over 50,000 specimens. In the summer of 1895 Bebb published "Notes on some arborescent willows in North America" in Garden and Forest (Bebb 1895) and he was reexamining his herbarium in preparation for a monograph of the willows of the United States, when his health failed markedly, and he perished in December of 1895 (Deane 1896, Sargent 1895, The Dark Poet 2017).

Fifty-eight plant specimens that list Bebb as the collector or co-collector are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Additional Bebb specimens may be reviewed using the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Bebb, Malcolm. 2017. Emigration from Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire to the United States of America; 1795 and 1856/7. in Bebb family history. WebLog.

Bebb, M.S. 1874. A New Species of Willow from California, and Notes on Some Other North American Species. The Amer. Naturalist 8:202-203.

Bebb, M.S. 1878. Salicaceae. in Rothrock, J.T. Reports Upon the Botanical Collections Made in Portions of Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Vol. 6: Botany. pp. 240-242.

Bebb, M.S. 1879. Willows of California. Botany of California. 2:82-222.

Bebb, M.S. 1882. Recently Introduced Plants in and About Rockford, Ill. Bot. Gazette 7:68-70.

Bebb, M.S. 1885. Salix. in Coulter, John M. Manual of the Botany of the Rocky Mountain Region. pp. 334-339 of 453.

Bebb, M.S. 1888. White Mountain Willows. I. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 15:121-125.

Bebb, M.S. 1889. White Mountain Willows. II. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 16:39-42.

Bebb, M.S. 1893. Salix. in Coville, Frederick Vernon. Botany of the Death Valley Expedition. pp. 198-200 of 363.

Bebb, M.S. 1895. Notes on some arborescent willows of North America. I- V. Gard. & Forest 8:363, 372-373, 423, 473, 482-483.

Beloit College. 1852-1853. Catalogue of the officers and students of Beloit College. Journal Office Print. Beloit, Wisconsin. 1852 - p. 10. 1853 - p.9.

Borrows, Peter. 2006. Any old iron?. Education in chemistry. Royal Soc. Chemistry. United Kingdom.

Deane, Walter. 1896. Michael Schuck Bebb. Botanical Gazette. 21:53-66.

Fernald, Evelyn I. 1941. Michael S. Bebb, Illinois botanist and letter-writer. Trans. Ill. Acad. Sci. 34:12-16.

Foreman, Caroline Thomas. 1943. Robert Bebb. Chronicles of Oklahoma. 21(1):52-60.

Geni. 2021. About William Bebb, Governor. Geni.com. MyHeritage Company. Lehi, Utah.

Jordan, Phillip D. 1954. The governors of Ohio. The Ohio Historical Society. Columbus, Ohio. 196 pp.

Judson, C.K. & C.W. McCluer. 1857. Man shot in Winnebago Co. Freeport Daily Journal. Freeport, Illinois. May 25, 1857. p. 2. column 1.

Porter, Arthur L. 1830. The Chemistry of the Arts. Carey & Lea. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vol. 2. p. 528 of 803.

Ray, Medill & Co. 1857. Melancholy affair. Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. May 25, 1857. p. 2. column 3.

Ricker, P.L. 1918. A sketch of botanical activity in the District of Columbia and vicinity. Jrnl. Washington Acad. Sci. 8:487-498.

Sargent, C.S. (ed.) 1895. Obituary: Mr. M.S. Bebb. Gard. & Forest 8:510.

The Dark Poet. 2017. Michael Shuck Bebb. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Williams, Stephen R. 1941. The saga of Paddy's Run. Ohio Jrnl. of Science 41(4):313-327.

Youmans, William J. (ed.) 1896. Notes: Michael S. Bebb - obituary. Popular Sci. Monthly 88:510.

Bennett, James L. (1832 - 1904)

James Lawrence Bennett, the eldest child of Cornelius and Adaline Bennett, was born in April of 1832 in Providence, Rhode Island. He completed his public school education in the same area and intended to continue his studies at Brown University, but that goal never came to fruition and he was instead employed as a jeweler for many years (Ancestry.com 2022, Robinson 1904, Smith 1904, Smith Family 2014).

Lucia Dyer accepted James' proposal of marriage and the couple was married in April 1857. The following year their son, Charles Edwin, was born in April and in 1861 their daughter, Adeline Friend, was born in September (Ancestry.com 2022, findingthepast 2012, Smith Family 2014). Mr. Bennett served with the First Regiment of the Rhode Island Volunteers during the Civil War (Ancestry.com 2022).

Despite James' inability to further his education, he had a passionate interest in botany and was awarded an honorary B.A. from Brown University in 1891. He confined most of his plant collecting to Rhode Island, but also botanized some in New York, the District of Columbia, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire (Robinson 1904, Smith 1904). His botanical pursuits in Rhode Island led to the publication of "Plants of Rhode Island" (Bennett 1888, Bessey 1888), which enumerated over 2900 species of flowering plants and cryptogams in the state. Beyond his "Plants of Rhode Island" and a short work on Polygonatum (Bennett 1890), Mr. Bennett focused his efforts on herbarium work and eschewed publishing.

Though an amateur, Bennett was recognized for his botanical acumen and he was the acting curator of the Brown University herbarium during the 1890-1891 period. Subsequently, James was promoted to be the curator of Brown University's Herbarium and Museum of Economic Botany from 1891 through 1894. Mr. Bennett's collecting career allowed him to amass a personal herbarium of some 13,000 specimens, which he donated to the Brown University herbarium in 1880 (Brown University Herbarium 2015, Coulter 1880, Mitchell 1993, Robinson 1881, Smith 1904). In 1901 Annie Morrill Smith bought "a large part if indeed not all of Mr. Bennett's cryptogams" (Smith 1904). Mrs. Smith later donated her lichen and moss collection, including those she'd purchased from Bennett, to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (Reid 1987).

Just over 50 specimens collected by Bennett are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Additional plants collected by him may be viewed via the iDigBio specimen database and by searching the Consortium of North American Bryophyte Herbaria database.

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Ancestry.com. 2022. Jas L. Bennett. Sanborn Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bennett, James L. 1888. Plants of Rhode Island: being an enumeration of plants growing without cultivation in the State of Rhode Island. Providence Press. Providence, Rhode Island.

Bennett, James L. 1890. Botanical Notes. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 17:259-261.

Bessey, Charles E. (ed.) 1888. General Notes: Botany. The Amer. Naturalist. 22:1026-1027.

Brown University Herbarium. 2015. History. Providence, Rhode Island.

Coulter, John M. (ed.) 1880. Brown University Herbarium. Botanical Gazette. 5:149-150.

findingthepast. 2012. Charles Edwin Bennett. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Mitchell, Martha. 1993. Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Brown University Library. Providence, Rhode Island.

Reid, Anna M.M. 1987. Pioneer New England Bryologists: a prosopography. Occasional papers of the Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany No. 19. pp. 7 & 8 of 71.

Robinson, B.L. 1904. James Lawrence Bennett. Rhodora 6:146-147.

Robinson, E.G. 1881. Herbaria. in Annual Report of the President to the Corporation of Brown University. Providence Press Company. Providence, Rhode Island. pp. 9-12.

Smith, A.M. 1904. James Lawrence Bennett, 1832-1904.. The Bryologist. 7:79.

Smith Family. 2014. James Lawrence Bennett. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Berlandier, Jean Louis (ca. 1805 - 1851)

Jean Louis Berlandier was born around 1805 near Fort de l'Ecluse, France. When he was very young, Berlandier moved to Geneva, Switzerland and apprenticed as a pharmacist. While there, Jean Louis distinguished himself as a particularly bright and motivated student of Latin and Greek, then by some happenstance he and Auguste-Pyrame DeCandolle became acquainted. Berlandier's academics so impressed DeCandolle, that the elder botanist invited him to become one of his students at the Academy of Geneva (Geiser 1933 & 1937, Gray Herbarium Library 2021, Hartmann 2010). Berlandier proved to be an exemplary student of botany and presented a paper on the fertilization of flowers in the Campanulaceae to the Philosophical Society of Geneva in 1825. The following year Jean Louis published a paper on gooseberries (Berlandier 1826), an abstract of it was included in volume three of DeCandolle's "Prodromus" (DeCandolle 1828). Berlandier's abilities and successes in Geneva laid the foundation for his future in the New World.

Lucas Alaman, Minister of Foreign Affairs and former DeCandolle student, had assembled a group to survey the border between Mexico (which at the time included present-day Texas) and the United States. At that time, the flora and fauna of Mexico were essentially unknown and, because Berlandier was recognized as eminently dependable and capable, DeCandolle convinced Alaman to include Berlandier as the expedition's botanist. So, in the latter part of 1826 the venture, with Berlandier as expedition botanist, left Europe and arrived at Panuco, Vera Cruz, in December. As luck would have it, the Mexican government had borrowed operating funds from a bank in London. That bank failed, Mexico's central government fell drastically short of funding, and the entire expeditionary detail was forced to remain in Mexico City until November of 1827 (Geiser 1933 & 1937, Gray Herbarium Library 1983 & 2021).

The group traveled north from Mexico City, successfully reached Laredo presidio in February of 1828, and then on the 2nd of March moved on to Bexar [modern-day San Antonio]. Six weeks later they left for Nacogdoches, which involved struggling through interminable rains, slogging over muddy rugged terrain, and combating incessant swarms of mosquitoes. By late May, many expedition members, including Berlandier, had been stricken with malaria and were too weak to continue. They were forced to return to Bexar, while the healthier contingent continued on to Nacogdoches. Berlandier and the infirmed cohort arrived in Bexar on June 20th and recuperated there until mid-July, when they left for Matamoros, Mexico. Traveling by way of Laredo and the Rio Grande River valley, they reached their destination August 20, 1828 (Geiser 1933 & 1937, Gray Herbarium Library 1983 & 2021).

Berlandier collected plants along the entire length of the expedition's path, but most extensively near Bexar, Goliad, Laredo, and Matamoros. In addition, he drew maps, wrote descriptions of many of the native tribes, made frequent ethnobotanical notes, sketched artifacts common to the native people, described and drew the animal species the commission encountered, and sketched prominent landscapes in the region (see Beinecke Digital Collections 2012 & Bennicoff 2014). Dreadful conditions (torrential rain, gale force winds, high humidity, nearly impassable roads, debilitating poor health) constantly challenged the expedition's progress and the naturalist's success. Yet, records show that Berlandier sent over 50,000 dried specimens to DeCandolle between April 1827 and July 1831. Remarkably, DeCandolle was displeased with the shipments he received and he was overtly critical of Berlandier. DeCandolle claimed the expedition had essentially failed in its goal, when in fact the opposite seems to have been the case. Regardless, the specimen disagreement was heated and led to the dissolution of the professional association between DeCandolle and Berlandier (Geiser 1933 & 1937, Gray Herbarium Library 1983 & 2021, Hartmann 2010).

Though pilloried by some critics, like DeCandolle and Asa Gray, Berlandier's remarkable scientific and ethnographic accomplishments were well documented in his "Journey to Mexico During the Years 1826 to 1834" (Berlandier 1980, Campbell 1983). Once free of his expeditionary obligations, Berlandier chose to stay in North America, and he ultimately settled in Matamoros in late summer of 1829. Jean Louis remained in Matamoros for the rest of his life and continued making botanical forays into parts of northern Mexico and southern Texas. He married, had children, and supported his family as a physician and pharmacist. Berlandier became known as a kind, caring, and influential citizen of Matamoros who, during the Mexican War was an interpreter and director of the hospitals in the community. Tragically in the summer of 1851 he drowned while trying to cross the San Fernando River near Matamoros (Bennicoff 2014, Geiser 1933 & 1937, Gray Herbarium Library 1983 & 2021, Hartmann 2010).

A single specimen of Commelina listing J. L. Berlandier as collector is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Two other Asa Gray specimens bearing the heading "Herbarium Berlandierianum Texano-Mexicanum" are also present in the Putnam collection. Though Berlandier's focus was on plants, he collected many other natural history specimens. Data for several hundred of Berlandier's collections (plant and animal) may be viewed via a variety of online databases such as: the Harvard Herbarium database, the Smithsonian, and iDigBio. A variety of manuscripts, sketches, and maps generated by Berlandier are available for viewing via Yale University's Beinecke Digital Collections website.

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Beinecke Digital Collections. 2012. Jean-Louis Berlandier (ca. 1805 - 1851). Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscript Library. Yale University. New Haven, Connecticut.

Bennicoff, Tad. 2014. Jean Louis Berlandier: The Path from Geneva to Mexico. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Washington, D.C.

Berlandier, J.L. 1826. Memoire sur la famille des Grossulariees. Mem. Soc. Phys. Hist. Nat. Geneve. 3(2):43-60.

Berlandier, J.L. 1969. The Indians of Texas in 1830. John C. Ewers, editor. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C. 209 pp.

Berlandier, J.L. 1980. Journey to Mexico During the Years 1826 to 1834. Translated by Sheila M. Ohlendorf, Josette M. Bigelow and Mary M. Standifer. Texas State Hist. Assn. Austin, Texas. 672 pp.

Campbell, T.N. 1983. Journey to Mexico during the Years 1826 to 1834: A Review. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 86:401-412.

DeCandolle, Auguste-Pyrame. 1828. Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis. Treuttel & Wuurtz. Strasbourg and London. Volume 3. pp 477-483.

Geiser, Samuel Wood. 1933. Naturalists of the frontier: XI. In defense of Jean Louis Berlandiera. Southwest Review. 18(4):431-459.

Geiser, Samuel Wood. 1937. Naturalists of the frontier. Southern Methodist University. Dallas. 341 pp. (see pp. 38 - 72).

Gray Herbarium Library. 1983. Papers of Jean Louis Berlandier, 1825-1855 . Archives. Harvard University Herbaria. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Gray Herbarium Library. 2021. Jean Louis Berlandier (1805(?)-1851) Papers. Harvard University Herbaria. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hartmann, Clinton P. 2010. Berlandier, Jean Louis. Handbook of Texas Online.

Kaye, James. 2010. Berlandier: A French Naturalist on the Texas Frontier. Trafford Publishing. 156 pp.

Lawson, Russell M. 2012. Frontier naturalist Jean Louis Berlandier and the exploration of northern Mexico and Texas. University of New Mexico Press. Albuquerque, New Mexico. 288 pp.

Library of the Gray Herbarium. 2021. Jean Louis Berlandier (1805(?)-1851) Papers. Harvard University Herbaria. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bessey, Charles E. (1845 - 1915)

Charles E. Bessey was born to Adnah Bessey and Margaret Ellenberger Bessey on the family farm in Wayne County, Ohio in May of 1845. His early education was at the hand of his father (a combination teacher and farmer), but life events caused Charles' higher education to be a sporadic affair (Leffler 2004, Pool 1915, Sharpe 1998).

In 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles volunteered for the Army, but his enlistment was denied, because of his age. In 1862 he turned 17 and had earned a teaching certificate, but rather than become an educator, he enrolled in a college preparation program at the Seville Academy (Seville, Ohio). That plan was derailed by his father's poor health, so Charles studied on his own and completed some classwork at the local school. Adnah died in 1863 and Charles returned to the Seville Academy, but he attended for only five weeks and then accepted a teaching position in Wadsworth, Ohio. The teaching position lasted only four months, so, once again, in March 1864, Charles returned to the Seville Academy to continue his college preparation. That stint at Seville lasted only two months, because of the institution's dissolution (Buescher & Melcher 2010, Pool 1915, Sharpe 1998). With the encouragement of his mother, the dispirited Charles Bessey continued teaching and attended the Canaan Academy (Wayne County, Ohio (Bowen 1910, Douglass 1878)) in the fall of 1864 and the spring of 1865 (Sharpe 1998).

Charles had evidently grown weary of the "fits and starts" to his education, so in 1865 he moved to Michigan and was employed as a surveyor and evaluator of standing timber populations in the central part of the Lower Peninsula. During that winter he earned a living teaching and, in the summer of 1866, Bessey enrolled in the civil engineering program at Michigan State University (Michigan Agricultural College at the time). He ultimately switched to the study of botany and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1869 (Pool 1915, Sharpe 1998) and an honorary Master of Science degree in 1872 from M.S.U. In addition, Bessey received an honorary Ph.D. (1879) from the University of Iowa and a LL.D. (1898) from Grinnell College (Iowa State University Library 2007, Sharpe 1998, Walsh 1971).

After earning his bachelor's degree, Bessey was awarded an assistantship in horticulture and was hired to care for the greenhouse at M.S.U. But Bessey remained in East Lansing for only a few months, because he was contacted and eventually hired to teach botany and horticulture at Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University). During his 15-year tenure, Bessey held several positions at the Iowa Agricultural College. He helped establish the botany department and served as the head of it. Bessey also established the department's herbarium, christened the Ada Hayden Herbarium in 1988 in honor of the University's first female Ph.D. conferee. In addition to his academic duties, Prof. Bessey served as the Vice President of the College and he was the college's Acting President in 1882 (Iowa State University Library 2007, Pool 1915, Sharpe 1998, Walsh 1971).

Beginning during his tenure at Iowa State, Bessey promoted two important concepts — one in agriculture and one in botany. Firstly, he was one of the founding members Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, whose basic tenet was the expanded inclusion of a more scientific approach to agriculture and ag education. Secondly, he embraced and promoted a vision of botany that went beyond plant collection, identification, and herbarium work. He was influenced by his work with Asa Gray and the concepts of Darwin, such that he wished to move part of botany beyond traditional taxonomy to plant systematics, which included the study of the evolution of plants, the relationships among them, and how other fields, such as pathology, physiology, and ecology, impacted changes that occurred (Overfield 1975, 1993).

In August of 1884, Bessey left Iowa State. He accepted a position as the chair of botany and horticulture at the University of Nebraska and became the first Dean of the Agriculture College. Though the entire University boasted only 373 students, when Bessey arrived, he soon had botany students traveling the state collecting Nebraska's flora. He was a proud, gifted, and effective teacher, who estimated he'd engaged some 4000 students in his classroom over his 45-year career. In addition to his teaching skills, Bessey displayed remarkable administrative talents and served as the Acting President of the University for six years, Dean of Deans for seven years, and he was appointed as Scientist of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture (Buescher & Melcher 2010, Iowa State University Library 2007, Nebraska History 2007, Pammel 1916, Pool 1915, Sharpe 1998, Walsh 1971).

One of Bessey's most notable ideas was the reforestation project he promoted in Nebraska's Sand Hills region (Bessey 1894). Dr. Bessey's intent was to generate a man-made forest that would eventually produce wood products to quell a predicted timber shortage in the U.S. brought on by massive fires, poorly controlled timber harvests, and increased demand for wood-based commodities. By October 1892 Bessey's experiment had successfully planted over 13,000 conifers on the Bruner Brothers' ranch in Holt County. It was sufficiently successful such that in 1902 Bessey and Gifford Pinchot (director of the U.S. Bureau of Forestry) convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to set aside two treeless tracts of Nebraska sandhills as "forest reserves".

Dr. Bessey's effort resulted in the establishment of the Nebraska National Forest, known today as the McKelvie National Forest. Since the National Forests' establishment, millions of trees have been planted, the Charles E. Bessey Tree Nursery has been founded, and one of the world's largest man-made forests has been created (Buescher & Melcher 2010, Iowa State University Library 2007, Nebraska History 2007, Nebraska Timeline 2008, Pool 1915, Ragsdale 2012, Sharpe 1998, That's Amazing 2016, U.S. Forest Service 2016, Vaughn 2016).

Outside the lecture hall and beyond his administrative activities, Bessey published extensively in a variety of plant related areas including evolution, floristics, nomenclature, pathology, phylogeny, and taxonomy. His publication list is too extensive to print here, but the interested reader is referred to the comprehensive inventory published by Pool (1915) and the publication summary available via Google Scholar.

Two specimens of Aster novae-angliae collected by C.E. Bessey in 1871 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Additional Bessey collections may be reviewed using the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Bessey, Charles E. 1894. The re-foresting of the Sand Hills. Ann. Report Nebr. State Board Agr. pp. 117-120.

Bowen, B.F. 1910. Canaan Township. in The History of Wayne County, Ohio. B.F. Bowen & Co. Indianapolis, Indiana. pp. 360-362 of 896.

Buescher, Matt & Andrew Melcher. 2010. Charles E. Bessey: The Man Behind the Building. Memory, Memorials, and History. Archives Univ. Nebraska. Lincoln, Nebraska.

Douglass, Ben. 1878. History of Wayne County, Ohio: from the days of the pioneers and first settlers to the present time. Robert Douglass, Publ. Indianapolis, Indiana. p. 775 of 887.

Iowa State University Library. 2007. People of Distinction: Charles Edwin Bessey. University Archives. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Leffler, Gerhardt. 2004. Dr. Charles Edwin Bessey. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Nebraska History. 2007. Notable Nebraskans. Nebraska State Historical Society. Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nebraska Timeline. 2008. Charles E. Bessey. Nebraska State Historical Society. Lincoln, Nebraska.

Overfield, Richard A. 1975. Charles E. Bessey: The impact of the "new" botany on American agriculture, 1880-1910. Technology and Culture. 16(2):162-181.

Overfield, Richard A. 1993. Science With Practice: Charles E. Bessey and the Maturing of American Botany. Iowa State Univ. Press. Ames, Iowa. 262 pp. in Barrow, Mark V. 1995. Review of "Science With Practice: Charles E. Bessey and the Maturing of American Botany". Journal of the History of Biology. 28(1):176-178.

Pammel, L. H. 1916. In memoriam: Dr. Charles Edwin Bessey. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 22:11-13.

Pool, Raymond J. 1915. A brief sketch of the life and work of Charles Edwin Bessey. Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 2:505-518.

Ragsdale, John. 2012. Tree Planting & Forestation in Nebraska: A Continuing Success. Prairie Fire. Lincoln, Nebraska.

Sharpe, Bruce E. 1998. Descendants of Charles Edwin Bessey. Martha's Vineyard Museum. Edgartown, Massachusetts.

That's Amazing. 2016. Meet Nature's Human Caretakers Charles Bessey Tree Nursery. That's Amazing. Season 1. Episode 3. (See section of video starting at 20 minute mark.)

U.S. Forest Service. 2016. Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands - History & Culture. Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest. Halsey, Nebraska.

Vaughn, Carson. 2016. A forest built by hand. Roads and Kingdoms.

Walsh, Thomas R. 1971. Charles E. Bessey and the Transformation of the Industrial College. Nebraska History 52:383-409.

Bicknell, Clarence (1842 - 1918)

Clarence Bicknell, the youngest of 13 children, was born in the Herne Hill district of London, England in 1842 to Elhanan Bicknell and Lucinda Sarah Bicknell. Elhanan was a wealthy vendor of refined sperm oil and an art patron/collector. Soon after his father's death in 1861, Clarence left Herne Hill and attended Trinity College (Cambridge, England), where he studied mathematics and earned his bachelor's degree in 1865 (Bicknell 1988, Hawkins 2010). At Trinity, Bicknell became a follower of the Church of England and he was ordained a deacon in 1866, then a priest in 1868. Following graduation Clarence devoted his life as a clergyman to helping people in the slums of south London. He served the poor in that capacity for 13 years, but eventually became disenchanted with the religion and is quoted as having written that he was "convinced that the churches do more harm than good & hinder human progress" (Bicknell 1988, Hawkins 2010).

After divorcing himself from strictly church-related activities, Bicknell took advantage of his personal wealth and visited many parts of the world - eventually settling in Bordighera, Italy on the Mediterranean Sea coast in 1878 (Hawkins 2010). It was there that Clarence's interest in botany came to the fore. The results of his many plant exploration forays (and his archaeological ones as well) are documented in his herbarium specimens, the thousands of watercolors he created, and written works published by Clarence and others (Avery 2013, 2014, & 2016, Bicknell 1988, Clarence Bicknell Association 2016).

His many exploratory fieldtrips led to the publication of "Flowering plants and ferns of the Riviera and Neighboring Mountains" (Bicknell 1885), which included 82 color illustrations (e.g. Allium and Anemone) and observations on 280 species. In the "Flora of Bordighera and San Remo" (published in 1896) Bicknell explained his motivation for writing the text thusly, "It would be difficult to find another region of equal size with a richer or more varied Flora, and after some ten years botanical expeditions I collected over 1700 species of vascular plants. ... I think it well, with increasing years and decreasing walking powers, no longer to delay the publication of a Catalogue of our plants, ..." (Bicknell 1896, introduction page VI).

His botanical pursuits and collecting forays to investigate the region's alpine flora led Bicknell to Mount Bégo in the Italian (now French) Alps. There he was introduced to and became a dedicated investigator of the petroglyphs engraved in the glacially polished sandstone of the area. Bicknell spent 12 summers prior to his death in 1918 documenting some 14,000 rock carvings (the majority from Val Fontanalba and Val Meraviglie) in a region that is part of present-day France's Mercantour National Park.

The photos, sketches, and rubbings he assembled led to his publication of "The Prehistoric Rock Engravings in the Italian Maritime Alps" in 1913 (Avery 2013, Bicknell 1913, Hawkins 2010, Smith 1987). Images and publications about these alpine petroglyphs that have followed Bicknell's work are presented by Rupestre.net and TRACCE Online Rock Art Bulletin.

Two of Clarence Bicknell's collections (one from Italy and one from France) are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium and a few additional Bicknell records from Europe are available via the iDigBio specimen database. Though Avery (2014) reported that about 100 of Bicknell's specimens were found in Fielding-Druce herbarium at Oxford University, Bicknell specimens do not appear in that institution's database. Even so, the Clarence Bicknell Association (2016) has documented the existence of "over 37,000 botanical drawings, rubbing of rock engravings, pressed flowers, albums, letters, photos and more creations" produced by Clarence Bicknell, which may be found in 35 different institutions in Europe and the United States.

"The Marvels of Clarence Bicknell" (Rémy, Bicknell, & Bicknell 2016) is a nice videographic presentation that documents Bicknell's life and the geographic region in which he lived and worked.

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Avery, Graham. 2013. Clarence Bicknell: botany. Clarence Bicknell Association. Home Farm Orchard, Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom.

Avery, Graham. 2014. Oxford Herbaria & Clarence Bicknell . Clarence Bicknell Association. Home Farm Orchard, Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom.

Avery, Graham. 2016. Clarence Bicknell's Botanical Exchanges. Clarence Bicknell Association. Home Farm Orchard, Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom.

Bicknell, Clarence. 1885. Flowering plants and ferns of the Riviera and neighbouring mountains. Trubner and Co. London.

Bicknell, Clarence. 1896. Flora of Bordighera and San Remo. Pietro Gibelli. Bordighera.

Bicknell, Clarence. 1913. A guide to the prehistoric rock engravings in the Italian Maritime Alps. Bordighera, Italy. Printed by G. Bessone.

Bicknell, Peter. 1988. Clarence Bicknell (1842-1918): Essentially Victorian. Clarence Bicknell Association. Home Farm Orchard, Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom.

Clarence Bicknell Association. 2016. Clarence Bicknell's 37,000 artefacts in 40 collections. Clarence Bicknell Association. Home Farm Orchard, Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom.

Druce, G. Claridge. (sec'y) 1918. Obituaries: Clarence Bicknell. Bot. Soc. and Exchange Club British Isles. 5:349.

Hawkins, Desmond. 2010. Bicknell, Clarence (1842-1918), archaeologist and botanist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/41049)

Masséglia Rémy, Marcus Bicknell, & Vanessa Bicknell. 2016. The Marvels of Clarence Bicknell. New Media Foundry Ltd. London, U.K.

Smith, Catherine Delano. 1987. Cartography in the prehistoric period in the Old World: Europe,the Middle East,and North Africa. in Harley, J.B. & David Woodward. Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, Illinois. 1:54-98

Bidwell, General John (1819 - 1900)

John Bidwell (born: August 5, 1819 near Ripley, New York) moved with his parents (Abraham and Clarissa Griggs Bidwell) to Pennsylvania in 1829 and then on to Ohio in 1831. Opportunities for an education were limited, so at the age of 17, John chose to walk 300 miles to Ashtabula, Ohio in order to attend Kingsville Academy. While at Kingsville he soon earned enough credit to become a teacher and was selected to be the school's principal at the age of 18.

He taught in Ohio for a couple of years, but in 1839 John "conceived a desire to see the great prairies of the West". He walked to Cincinnati, then traveled by steamboat down the Ohio River, thence northward on the Mississippi to the capital of Iowa Territory, Burlington. John settled on a parcel of available land north of Burlington along the Iowa River, but according to Bidwell, "After working awhile in putting up a log house — until all the people in the neighborhood became ill with fever and ague — I concluded to move on and strike out to the south and southwest into Missouri (Bidwell 1962)."

In June 1839 John arrived in Platte County, Missouri (near present-day Kansas City). By this time, he was broke and he took the first paying job available — a teaching position in a country school near Weston. As he had done in Iowa, John scrutinized unoccupied farmland and staked a claim to 160 acres of land with the aim of becoming a farmer (Benjamin 1907, Bidwell n.d. & 1962, Boggs 2002, Find a Grave 2002, James 1910, Online Archive of California 1999).

Bidwell worked his claim during the summer of 1840, but he eventually realized he was running short of supplies and he chose to travel to St. Louis via the Missouri River. The 600-mile journey downstream took only a couple of days, but on the return trip the river was low, the steamboat heavily laden, and the vessel often ran aground. Hence, upstream progress was slow and he was absent from his home for a month or more. John finally arrived back at his farm only to find that a reprobate had squatted on "his" land. John had worked the land and public opinion was on Bidwell's side, but legal statutes were not. Because he was under the age of 21 and because he had never actually taken up residence on the farm, Bidwell lost all rights to the property (Benjamin 1907, Bidwell n.d. & 1962, James 1910, Online Archive of California 1999).

Late in 1840, the twenty-something John Bidwell made the acquaintance of French fur trader, Antoine Roubidoux. Roubidoux's description of his recent visit to California "was in the superlative degree favorable, so much so that I resolved if possible to see that wonderful land," ... "Roubideaux described it [California] as one of perennial spring and boundless fertility ... (Bidwell 1890a)." Captivated, Bidwell resolved to seek his future there.

In May 1840 the people, the wagons, and the supplies of the "Western Emigration Society" had been assembled and they ready to head west, but "Our ignorance of the route was complete. We knew that California lay west, and that was the extent of our knowledge (Bidwell 1890a, 1962)". "... we were ready to start, but no one knew where to go, not even the captain. Finally a man came up, one of the last to arrive, and announced that a company of Catholic missionaries were on their way from St. Louis to the Flathead nation of Indians with an old Rocky Mountaineer [Thomas "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick] for a guide, and that if we would wait another day they would be up with us. At first we were independent, and thought we could not afford to wait for a slow missionary party. But when we found that no one knew which way to go, we sobered down and waited for them to come up; and it was well that we did, for otherwise probably not one of us would ever have reached California, because of our inexperience (Bidwell n.d. & 1962)."

So it happened on May 18th of 1841 Bidwell with 60-some members of the Bartleson party and a group of missionaries, left western Missouri near Westport as the first troop to travel over land to California. The wagon train made its way through northeastern Kansas and into Nebraska until they hit the Platte River. The troop headed west, skirting the Platte, until they reached its North Fork and followed that past Scott's Bluff to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. They eventually arrived Soda Springs, Idaho (a well-known landmark on the Oregon Trail) on about the 10th of August. In mid-August (though they had neither guide, nor map) Bidwell, Bartleson, and a few other members of the original group headed southward from Soda Springs along the Bear River towards the Great Salt Lake, while the others followed the Oregon Trail to the Pacific Coast in present-day Oregon (Bancroft 1886, Benjamin 1907, Bidwell n.d., 1890a & 1962, James 1910, Online Archive of California 1999).

The Bidwell-Bartleson party got to within about ten miles of the Great Salt Lake towards the end of August and turned westward. But soon water was in short supply and they ran out of buffalo meat, so the party turned northward in search of water and started butchering oxen for food. Antelope trails led them to adequate water, good grazing, and a place to rest themselves and their livestock. During the first two weeks of September the group traveled southwest across the Great Basin towards present day Nevada. The conditions became so bleak the people had to abandon their wagons and all belongings that could not be carried by them or their animals. They passed near Pilot Peak and Silver Zone Pass, skirted the Ruby Mountains, until they found the Mary River. and followed it to a location near present-day Elko. Food was often scarce and water was again in short supply, but the group continued onward following the Humboldt River to the Humboldt Sink (about 100 miles northwest of present day Reno, Nevada) (Bancroft 1886, Benjamin 1907, Bidwell n.d., 1890a & 1962).

On October 6th the party hired an Indian guide to "pilot" them to and through the mountains. The guide and his associates continued until October 15th when they "said they knew no further" and fled the camp under cover of darkness that night. By October 17th the group started through the mountains, sans guide, with greatly diminished provisions and they conjectured their hired "guide" had purposefully brought them to a nearly impassible trail, so that he and his people could claim articles the weary emigrants were forced to discard.

To confirm their suspicion on October 27th they broke camp and left one concealed man behind to see if their former guide "was among the Indians, who always rushed in as soon as we left our encampments to pick up such things as were left. The old gentleman was at the head of this band, and as HE HAD UNDOUBTEDLY LED US INTO THIS PLACE TO PERISH, his crime merited death - A RIFLE BALL LAID HIM DEAD IN HIS TRACKS". Three days later the weakened and malnourished westward bound Bidwell-Bartleson group was thrilled to be greeted by the view of a broad valley (that of the Stanislaus River) that marked the end of their struggle to cross the Sierra Nevada (Bidwell 1841). Regarding that two-week march (via the Antelope, Slinkard, Silver King, Disaster Creek, and Clark's Fork Valleys) Bidwell (1962) wrote, "We went on, traveling west as near as we could. When we killed our last ox we shot and ate crows or anything we could kill, and one man shot a wild-cat. We could eat anything." So, the first American party to cross the Sierra Nevadas into California, triumphed and ultimately reached the ranch of John Marsh near Mt. Diablo, California in November of 1841 (Bancroft 1886, Benjamin 1907, Bidwell 1962, Cleland 1915-1916, James 1910).

After recovering from the Sierra Nevada crossing, Bidwell left for Sutter's Fort at New Helvetia (present-day Sacramento), where he was hired by John Sutter (of gold rush fame). Bidwell's job was to dismantle Fort Ross (a Russian built fur trading facility, which Sutter bought in 1841) along the Pacific Coast west of New Helvetia and, once the job was completed (in February 1843), he returned to Sutter's Fort.

Bidwell next worked for Sutter at his Hock Farm on the Feather River and when James Marshall discovered gold in 1848, while supervising the construction of Sutter's sawmill on the American River, Bidwell found the precious metal at Bidwell Bar along the Feather River (now at the bottom of Lake Oroville, about 60 miles northwest of Sutter's Mill). But Bidwell wasn't particularly interested in mining, instead he chose to concentrate on agriculture and he bought part of Rancho New Salem in 1845. Later, Bidwell purchased Rancho Arroyo Chico, a 22,000-acre Mexican land grant, via two contracts (1849 and 1851), which brought his land holdings to about 33,000 acres (Benjamin 1907, Bidwell n.d. & 1890b, James 1910, Online Archive of California 1999).

Once fully settled, Bidwell devoted his time to grain agriculture and cattle ranching. His operation soon expanded to sheep and other plant crops, but he found winter wheat to be a reliable staple. By the late 1850s Bidwell and other Sacramento Valley farmers were selling surplus wheat in markets as far away as London, England. He was interested in grains other than wheat and gained considerable knowledge in developing fruit bearing orchards, table grapes, and vineyards. Many contributions made by John Bidwell to agriculture and his opinions about agriculture/agribusiness appear in the Transactions of the California Agricultural Society during the second half of the 1800s (Benjamin 1907, Bidwell 1860, Bidwell Mansion 2021, Bidwell Mansion Association 2021, Wheeler 1858).

Bidwell was elected to the California state senate in 1849 as a member of the democratic party. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, John helped form the Union Party and in 1863 he was appointed a brigadier general in the California state militia. The United States Army established Camp Bidwell at Rancho Arroyo Chico in 1863 and in June of the next year Bidwell was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Union Party. He continued to be politically active and became Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, argued in favor of prohibition, and helped move the California and Oregon Railroad bill into law. In 1867 Bidwell tried to become the Union Party's candidate for governor of California, but lost to the candidate backed by the partners of the Central Pacific Railway. His civic and political involvements continued until about 1892 (Benjamin 1907, James 1910, Online Archive of California 1999).

John's election to the House of Representatives took him to Washington, D.C. where, among other things, he served on the Committee on Agriculture. Bidwell's interest in agriculture led to his introduction to and work with the director of the U.S. Census, Joseph Kennedy, because Kennedy's office had recently published "Agriculture of the United States in 1860" (Kennedy 1864). Their working relationship evidently morphed into a friendship and John eventually was invited to the Kennedy home, where John met Mr. Kennedy's daughter, Annie.

Annie's life of comfort was a stark contrast to the many instances of stress, peril, and privation that defined Bidwell's path. John had struggled and fought to earn his position of power and wealth in California, whereas Annie's family moved to Washington, D.C., where she graduated from a finishing school, and was an engaged benefactor in the social causes, like the temperance movement and the prohibition of alcohol. (California State Parks 2021, JMC 2007, Mansfield 1918, Mathes 1989).

Irrespective of their differences in age and background, the pair cared for and were dedicated to each other. They married in 1868 and sailed from New York to San Francisco (via Panama), then traveled inland to make their home in Chico, California. They worked together not only to develop the Bidwell Ranch's grain, fruit, orchard, and livestock assets, but in various philanthropic efforts in the region.

Quite frankly it seems that the Bidwells were generous to a fault. Annie was particularly interested in religious societies, the temperance and suffrage movements (John was the Prohibition Party's U.S. presidential candidate in 1892), and aid for the Mechoopda Indian community. The Bidwells donated land, finances, and their services to the causes that interested them, such that for 18 years following Annie's death the Bidwell Estate remained in probate as land was sold to cover the costs of bequeathments (Bidwell Mansion Association 2021, JMC 2007, Mansfield 1918, Mathes 1989)

Apparently, the Bidwells had considerable interest in natural science, some of which was generated by their long-term friendship and correspondence with John Muir. The trio became first acquainted in the summer of 1877, when they joined Asa & Jane Gray and Sir Joseph Hooker on a botanical foray to Mt. Shasta. When the Grays and Hooker left, the Bidwells and Muir continued their trek and scaled Mt. Lassen. It's been mentioned that John Bidwell knew the scientific name of a wide variety of California's flowering plants, but Annie collected a greater number of plants from the vicinity of their Butter County ranch, after their 1877 botanical field trip (Gillis 1995, Hunt 1952, Muir 1877-1911, Sierra Club 2021, Weir 2017).

Two specimens collected by General John Bidwell, a Penstemon and a Thelesperma, are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Interestingly, it was Annie Bidwell (John's spouse) that Asa Gray honored by naming an owl's clover, Orthocarpus bidwelliae (Gray 1880). Likewise, Sereno Watson named Polygonum bidwelliae after Mrs. Bidwell, based upon her collection of the plant from 1878. Sixty specimens collected by Annie Bidwell may be accessed through the Consortium of California Herbaria's database. Additional specimens collected by John or Annie Bidwell may be reviewed using the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Bancroft, Hubert H. 1886. History of California 1840-1849. Volume 4. The History Publishers. San Francisco, California.

Benjamin, Marcus. 1907. John Bidwell, pioneer: A sketch of his career. Washington. 52 pp.

Bidwell, John. n.d. Echos of the past about California. Chico Advertiser. Chico, California. 91pp.

Bidwell, John. 1841. A journey to California. Published 1937. John Henry Nash printer. San Francisco, California. 47 pp.

Bidwell, John. 1860. Annual address to California State Agricultural Society. Trans. California State Ag. Soc. pp. 325-336.

Bidwell, John. 1890a. The first emigrant train to California. The Century Magazine. 41(1):106-130.

Bidwell, John. 1890b. Life in California before the gold discovery. The Century Magazine. 41(2):163-183.

Bidwell, John. 1962. Echoes of the past. Citadel Press. New York. 111 pp.

Bidwell Mansion. 2021. Agriculture contributions. Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park. Chico, California.

Bidwell Mansion Association. 2021. John Bidwell (1819–1900). Bidwell Mansion Association. Chico, California.

Boggs, Mike. 2002. John Bidwell. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

California State Parks. 2021. Bidwell Mansion: John & Annie. Bidwell Mansion State Historical Park. Chico, California.

Cleland, Robert G. 1915-1916. John Bidwell's arrival in California. Annual Publ. Hist. Soc. Southern Calif. 10(1/2):110-113.

Find a grave. 2002. John Bidwell. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Gillis, Michael J. 1995. John Muir & the Bidwells - The Forgotten Friendship . California Territorial Quarterly. Issue #21.

Gray, Asa. 1880. Botanical Contributions. Proc. Amer. Acad. Art & Sci. 15:51.

Hunt, Rockwell D. 1952. California mountain men of another breed. Hist. Soc. Southern California Qtrly. 4(3):213-228.

James, Wharton George. 1910. Heroes of California: the story of the founders of the Golden state as narrated by themselves or gleaned from other sources. Little, Brown, and Co. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 45-55 of 515.

JMC. 2007. Annie Ellicott Kennedy Bidwell. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Kennedy, Joseph C.G. 1864. Agriculture of the United States in 1860. Dept. of the Interior. Washington, D.C.

Mansfield, George C. 1918. History of Butte County, California. Historic Record Company. Los Angeles, California. pp. 418-428.

Mathes, Valerie Sherer. 1989. Annie E. K. Bidwell: Chico's Benefactress. California History. 68(1/2):14-25.

Muir, John. 1877-1911. John Muir correspondence. University of the Pacific. University libraries. Sacramento, California.

Online Archive of California. 1999. Guide to the John Bidwell Papers. Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University. Chico, California.

Sierra Club. 2021. John & Annie Bidwell. Sierra Club. The John Muir exhibit. Oakland, California.

Weir, Kim. 2017. Up The Road: The Bidwells and John Muir. North State Public Radio. Chico, California.

Wheeler, O.C. (sec'y) 1858. Report of visiting committee to examine farms, orchards, vineyards, nurseries, mines, mining, etc.: Chico. Trans. Calif. State Ag. Soc. pp. 221 & 222.

Blake, Reverend Joseph (1814 - 1888)

Joseph Blake (born: Otisfield, Maine - January 1814) a son of Dr. Silas and Sophia Blake went to high school at Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton, Maine. He went on to graduate from Bowdoin College in 1835, from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1840, and earned the D. D. degree from Bowdoin College in 1872. He became the pastor of the Congregational Church in Cumberland, Maine in 1841 (Boardman 1893, Maine Missionary Society 1887, URSUS 2016).

Blake's field work in botany began, when he spent time teaching in Natchez, Mississippi (1836-1838). Subsequently during his life serving as a pastor in Cumberland, Maine, Blake made numerous field trips throughout the state collecting vascular plants, mosses, and lichens (e.g. Blake 1926a&b). Much of Blake's collecting occurred during summers spent in and around Harrison and Wells (Maine) and he often sent specimens to the Portland Society of Natural History in Portland, Maine (Karakehian 2015). In 1860 Blake became pastor of a church in Gilmanton, New Hampshire and there he remained for 18 years. During his life in Gilmanton, Blake collected in the immediate vicinity and throughout the White Mountains. His botanizing moved to the Andover, Massachusetts, when he relocated to that area in 1878 (Boardman 1893).

According to Ricker (1902), Reverend Blake was the first person to make an extensive study of the fungi of Maine. Most of Blake's fungi collections were made in Cumberland county and starting in 1856 Joseph corresponded with Rev. Moses A. Curtis, relying upon him for specimen identification. During the 1856-1861 period Blake sent Moses some 800 fungi for identification and a few more specimens during the ensuing years.

During his collecting career, Blake corresponded and exchanged plants with Asa Gray, William Canby, Michael S. Bebb, and many other prominent contemporary American botanists (Boardman 1893, Karakehian 2015). The bulk of his correspondence is housed at the Raymond H. Folger Library on the University of Maine's Orono campus (Blake & Goodale 1868, Sargent 1892). The 1868 publication of "Portland Catalogue Maine plants" (Sargent 1892) was a collaboration between Blake and Professor George L. Goodale (who is perhaps best known for having commissioned Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka to produce the Glass Flowers of Harvard).

Blake donated his herbarium specimens to the University of Maine (Boardman 1893, Bowdoin College 1875, URSUS 2016) and they may be accessed at University of Maine Herbaria. About 75 of Blake's specimens, primarily from Maine and New Hampshire, are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Blake, Joseph. 1926a. An excursion to Mount Katahdin. [published posthumously] Maine Naturalist 6:71-73.

Blake, Joseph. 1926b. A second excursion to Mount Katahdin. [published posthumously] Maine Naturalist 6:74-83.

Blake, Joseph. 1862. Cyperaceae, Graminae, etc. in Goodale, George L. A catalogue of the flowering plants of Maine. Proc. Portland Soc. Natural History 1:133-138.

Boardman, Samuel L. 1893. Biographical sketches of Maine writers on agriculture, with a catalog of their works. Augusta, Maine. pp. 26-27.

Bowdoin College. 1875. Bowdoin College Catalogue (1874-1875). Telegraph Printing Office. Brunswick, Maine. p. 42 of 47.

Karakehian, Jason. 2015. The mycological correspondence of Rev. Moses Ashley Curtis and Rev. Joseph Blake, 1856 - 1861. Les Mehrhoff Botanical Research Fund Report.

Karakehian, Jason. 2018. The mycological work of Rev. Joseph Blake of Maine and his collections of fungi in the NEBC Cryptogamic Herbarium. Rhodora 119(980):332-340.

Maine Missionary Society. 1887. General conference of the Congregational Churches in Maine. B. Thurston and Company. Portland, Maine. p. 147 of 186.

Ricker, Percy L. 1902. A preliminary list of Maine fungi. The University of Maine Studies. Vol. 3. Orono, Maine. 80 pp.

Sargent, Charles S. (ed.) 1892. Notes. Garden and Forest. 5:504.

Stevens, Neil E. 1934. Mycological Letters from M. A. Curtis 1856-1861. Mycologia 26:441-448.

URSUS. 2016. Blake, Joseph: correspondence 1837-1941. Univ. of Maine. Raymond H. Fogler Library. Special Collections Annex. Orono, Maine.

Wisconsin Historical Society. 2015. Photograph: Reverend Joseph Blake, Botanist. Increase A. Lapham papers, 1825-1930

Blount, Ralph E. (1865 - 1963)

Ralph E. Blount was an 1887 graduate of the University of Wisconsin (Loeb 1907, Vinje 1952) and he attended Harvard University divinity school from 1889 to 1891 (Harvard Alumni Association 1910). Mr. Blount taught for several years in Oregon, Wisconsin, where he met his future spouse, Anna Elsworth (Fitzpatrick 1963).

He taught at Waller High School (now Lincoln Park High School) and John Marshall High School in Chicago, Illinois and he was the author of educational publications that covered a variety of topics — physiology, health, geography, and debate. Blount was a member of the Illinois Academy of Science (active in the geography section) and a physiology instructor (Blount 1911, 1913, 1914, 1918, 1921, Blount & Jewell 1905, Tribune Company 1934).

Anna Ellsworth and Ralph Blount were married in June of 1893 — the couple had a daughter and two sons. Anna Blount earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin and her M.D. at Northwestern University Women's Medical School in 1892. In addition to her medical responsibilities, Dr. Blount was particularly interested in the field of eugenics ("the study of methods to improve the mental and physical characteristics of the human race by choosing who may become parents" (Oxford University Press 2017)) and women's health in general (Anonymous 1921, Blount 1917, 1818a&b, 1919).

Outside the medical field, Dr. Blount was active in the women's suffrage movement (Anonymous 1921, Harper 1922). Ralph and Anna Blount supported the humanitarian activities at Hull-House in Chicago (Jane Addams Papers Project 2021, Wikipedia 2021).

Ralph Blount is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Nasturtium officinale collected in Ogle County, Illinois.

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Anonymous. (eds.) 1921. Chicago social and club register. Crest Publishers. Chicago, Illinois. p. 22 of 178.

Blount, Anna E. 1917. Eugenics in relation to birth control. Birth Control Rev. 2(1):7 & 15.

Blount, Anna E. 1918a. Eugenics savior of our babies: Dr. Anna Blount proves that great defects are hereditary. The Juvenile Court Record 18:5-8.

Blount, Anna E. 1918b. Large families and human waste. Birth Control Rev. 2(8):3-4.

Blount, Anna E. 1919. Use and abuse of pituitrin. Illinois Med. Jrnl. 35:194-197.

Blount, Ralph E. 1911. Excursion on the Rock River in Illinois Between Rockford and Dixon. The geographic society of Chicago. Excursion Bulletin No. 2.

Blount, Ralph E. 1913. The origin of life. Scott, Foresman, and Company. Chicago. 25 pp.

Blount, Ralph E. 1914. Sex hygiene. Jrnl. of Education. 80(5):129-130

Blount, Ralph E. 1918. Autoscopy. The American Schoolmaster. 11:72-75.

Blount, Ralph E. 1921. The Chicago high school literary union. Quarterly Jrnl. Speech. 7:268-270.

Blount, Ralph E. and C. S. Jewell. 1905. Excursion through the rivers and harbors of Chicago. The geographic society of Chicago. Excursion Bulletin No. 1. Revised 1911.

Fitzpatrick, L.H. (ed.) 1963. Ralph E. Blount, Oldest UW alumnus, Age 98, Dies. Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 9. columns 1& 2. February 27, 1963.

Harvard Alumni Association. 1910. Harvard University Directory. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. p. 63.

Harper, Ida Husted. (ed.) 1922. History of Woman Suffrage. Vols. 5 & 6. National American Woman Suffrage Association. J.J. Little & Ives Co. New York City, New York.

Hove, Arthur. (ed.). 1963. Wisconsin alumnus: Necrology. Volume 64, Number 7, p. 35.

Jane Addams Papers Project. 2021. Hull-House Residents. Ramapo College of New Jersey. Mahwah, New Jersey.

Lester, Lu L., Ralph E. Blount, and Calvin L. Walton. 1907. Excursion through the rivers and harbors of Chicago. American Book Company. New York City, New York. 192 pp a& maps.

Loeb, Max (compiler). 1907. General catalogue of the officers and graduates of the University of Wisconsin. 1848-1907. University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin. page 108 of 658.

Oxford University Press. 2017. Oxford Learner's Dictionary. Oxford. United Kingdom.

Tribune Company. 1934. Debate schools at first session of new forum. Chicago Tribune. Crest Publishers. Chicago, Illinois. part 3. p. 3. column 8. February 18, 1934.

Vinje, Arthur M. (creator). 1952. University of Wisconsin Half Century Club. Vinje, Arthur M. - photographs and negatives. Wisconsin Historical Society. Madison, Wisconsin.

Wikipedia. 2021. Anna Blount. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Blytt, Axel G. (1843 - 1898)

Axel Gudbrand Blytt was born to Matthias and Ambrosia Blytt in Christiania (modern-day Oslo), Norway in 1843. His professional career began as curator of the Christiania Herbarium at the University of Oslo and he eventually earned a professorship in botany at the same institution. Axel, like his father, was interested in Norway's flora. Whereas Blytt the elder focused on documenting the country's flora, Axel was particularly interested in documenting the climatic factors that influenced the distribution of the members of the flora (Blytt 1886, Danielsen 2015-2016, Faegri 2009, JSTOR 2013, letemrip 2018, Natural History Museum 2012).

Blytt's "Essay on the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora during Alternating Rainy and Dry Periods" was controversial in that it linked the history of plant distributions in Scandinavia to climatic fluctuations that occurred following the Ice Age. His concept, which became known as the Blytt-Sernander theory, was based upon peat bog stratigraphy. In it he proposed that modern plant distributions were a function of alternating warm-dry and cool-wet periods in Scandinavian regions, as well as the substrates upon which the vegetation could grow (Eckel 2005, Ellingsen 2015, Faegri 2009, JSTOR 2013).

In addition to plant migration and climate theory, Blytt devoted much of his life to the completion of the Flora of Norway begun in 1861 by his father. He expanded the work to three volumes, but his unexpected death in 1898 prevented completion of the work. The flora was ultimately edited into its final form by Ove Dahl and published in 1906 (Blytt 1906, Eckel 2005, Coulter 1906).

Five dicots collected in Norway by Blytt are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium and they likely found their way to Davenport via exchange from the Clinton Herbarium at the Buffalo Museum of Science. Over 12,000 specimens collected by Axel and Mathias Blytt, housed in the herbaria in Norway and Sweden, may be viewed via the iDigBio database. In addition, hundreds of Blytt specimens may be accessed via the North American Lichen Herbaria database.

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Blytt, Axel. 1876. Essay on the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora during Alternating Rainy and Dry Periods. Alb. Cammermeyer. Christiana, Norway. 89 pp.

Blytt, Axel. 1886. On variations of the climate in the course of time. Nature 34:220-223 and 239-242. (July 8 and July 15).

Blytt, Axel. 1889. The probable cause of the displacement of beach-lines, an attempt to compute geological epochs. Christiania Videnskabe-Selakaba Forliandlioger. No. 1. Christiana, Norway. 92 pp.

Blytt, Axel. 1906. Haandbog i Norges Flora. Efter forfatterens dod afsluttet og udgivet ved OVE DAHL. pp. xi + 780. figs. 66I. Kristiania: Alb. Cammermeyers Forlag. (rough translation via Google Translate: Handbook of the Norwegian Flora. After the author's death completed and edited by Ove Dahl. pp. xi + 780. figs. 66i. Cammermeyer Publishing. Christiania, Norway.)

Coulter, John M. (ed.) 1906. Flora of Norway. Botanical Gazette. 41:451.

Danielsen, Dag Inge. 2015-2016. The Botanical Garden of Oslo: 200 years of Anglo-Norwegian Connections. Anglo-Norse Review. pp. 13-17.

Eckel, P. M. (ed.) 2005. Correspondence of Leo Lesquereux and G. W. Clinton. Res Botanica. Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Ellingsen, Gunnar. 2015. On climates and disciplines in Norway in the 1870s. Hist. Meteorology 7:39-48.

Faegri, Knut. 2009. Axel Blytt: botanist and geologist. Norwegian Biographical Encyclopedia.

JSTOR. 2013. Blytt, Axel Gudbrand (1843-1898). Global Plants.

letemrip. 2018. Axel Gudbrand Blytt. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Natural History Museum. 2012. 18th and 19th century lichen collectors in Norway. Natural History Museum. University of Oslo. Oslo, Norway.

Natural History Museum. 2017. Lichen herbarium. Natural History Museum. University of Oslo. Oslo, Norway.

Nordhagen, Rolf. 1943. Axel Blytt. En norsk og internasjonal forskerprofil. Blyttia 1:21-55. (This biography of Axel Blytt is in Norwegian.)

Schroder, N., L. Hojlund Pedersen, and R. Juel Bitsch. 2004. 10,000 Years of Climate Change and Human Impact on the Environment in the Area Surrounding Lejre. Jrnl. Transdisciplinary Environ. Studies. 3:1-27.

Boeck, Wilhelm (1808 - 1875)

In 1808 Carl Wilhelm Boeck was born in Kongsberg, Norway to Caesar Laesar and Anne Catharina Boeck. Caesar was a forester in the silver mining district surrounding Kongsberg, but Anne perished when her son was born, so Wilhelm was raised by his maternal grandmother. Wilhelm finished his early education at Christiania Cathedral School and the Møller Institute, both in Christiania (present-day Oslo). Early on, Wilhelm developed a deep-seated interest in plant science, which genuinely concerned his parents, as they blamed his lack of academic progress on his botanical focus. Their concerns were all for naught, as Wilhelm's academic career blossomed, he continued his education, completed his medical training in 1831, and practiced medicine in the Kongsberg area from 1833 through 1846 (Larson 1996, Nordhagen 1961, Walloe 2009b).

In 1846 he accepted a position at the Det Kongelige Frederiks Universitet in Christiania (The Royal Frederik's University, Oslo), and lectured on surgical techniques, dermatology, and syphilis. He became a full professor of medicine and remained at the university until 1869. During the 1840s, Dr. Boeck collaborated with fellow dermatologist, Daniel C. Danielssen, in research on the origins and treatment of leprosy — they considered the disease to be an inherited affliction caused by a blood abnormality. Based upon their research and the independent work of Boeck as he traveled through leprosy-stricken communities in Europe, the Boeck/Danielssen team published "Om Spedalskhed" (On Leprosy) in 1847 (International Leprosy Association. 2021, Larson 1996).

Following his retirement (about 1869), Boeck traveled to the United States to study the occurrence of leprosy among Norwegian immigrants. From 1874 until his death, Dr. Boeck worked in the dermatology center of Rikshospitalet (the national hospital) in Oslo, Norway (Larson 1996).

Wilhelm married Louise Heuch Barth from Kragerø, Norway and the couple had three children — Kristiane, Helga, and Axel. Axel became a mining engineer, but neither he nor his sisters apparently developed their father's enthusiasm for botany (Lieve 2104, Nordhagen 1961).

It's uncertain just how Wilhelm Boeck's interest in plants developed. He may have been influenced by his father's work as a forester. Perhaps he was impacted by his is elder step-brother, Christian P. B. Boeck — a physician and naturalist interested in paleontology, invertebrate biology, and botany (Walloe 2009a). Or it may have been his maternal grandmother, Christiane Sophie Peckel, who ran a pharmacy and maintained a large garden of medicinal plants she used in her business (Nordhagen 1961). Regardless of its origin, Wilhelm's interest in botany continued throughout his life, but was most prominent during his early professonal years.

In 1828 Boeck accompanied J. W. P. Hübener and Johann G. Kurr on a plant collecting trip to Dovrefjell (Walloe 2009b, Wörz 2007). Hübener and Kurr were German botanists in the employ of "Botanische Reiseverein" (Botanical Travel Association) based in Esslingen, Germany (just southeast of present-day Stuttgart). The "Botanische Reiseverein's" explicit mission was the procurement of herbarium specimens for the organization's stockholders and during its existence the "Botanische Reiseverein" is estimated to have acquired and distributed some 400,000 specimens (Wörz 2007). Boeck assisted Hübener and Kurr in 1828 and he continued to collect plants to some extent as he traveled Norway, and Europe in general, during the rest of his life (Walloe 2009b).

As of April 2021 about 600 vascular plant specimens in the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum's herbarium database list "Wilhelm Boeck, W. Boeck, or Boeck" as the collector or co-collector. Seven were collected in South Africa, twenty-three from the United States, and 120 do not list a collection location. The rest are of European origin. Boeck is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by an undated specimen of Diapensia lapponica from Dovre, Norway. Two hundred seventeen of Boeck's specimens in Oslo are from the Dovre region and about 70% of them were collected from 1825 through 1829.

Coe Finch Austin named the moss species, Sarcoscyphus Boeckii after Carl Wilhelm Boeck (Austin 1872, GBIF 2021). Some of Boeck's collections are cited in texts documenting the flora of Norway, such as Blytt (1870) and Blytt & Blytt (1876).

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Austin, Coe Finch. 1872. New Hipaticae. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 3(3):9-18.

Blytt, Axel. 1870. Christiania omegns phanerogamer og bregner med angivelse af deres udbredelse samt en indledning om vegetationens afhængighed af underlaget.. Trykt Hos Brogger & Christie. Christiana, Norway.

Blytt, Axel & N.M. Blytt. 1876. Norges flora, eller Beskrivelser over de i Norge vildtvoxende karplanter tilligemed angivelser af de geographiske forholde, under hvilke de forekomme. Trykt Hos A.W. Brogger. Christiana, Norway.

GBIF. 2021. Marsupella boeckii (Austin) Lindb. ex Kaal. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Copenhagen, Denmark.

International Leprosy Association. 2021. History of Leprosy - Norway. Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation. Tokyo, Japan.

Larson, Øivind. (ed.) 1996. Carl Wilhelm Boeck. Norges leger. Volume 1, pp. 376-380. Den norske laegeforening. Oslo, Norway. in Whonamedit? - A dictionary of medical eponyms.

Lieve. 2014. Carl Wilhelm Boeck. Geni. MyHeritage. Lehi, Utah.

Nordhagen, Rolf. 1961. Om professor dr. med. Wilhelm Boeck som botaniker. Et gammeh og er nyt plantefunn pi Dowefjell. Blyttia 19(4):137-147.

Walloe, Lars. 2009a. Christian Boeck. Norsk Biografisk Leksikon.

Walloe, Lars. 2009b. Wilhelm Boeck. Norsk Biografisk Leksikon.

Wörz, Arno. 2007. The "Botanische Reiseverein" - a 19th-century joint stock company for the collecting of herbarium specimens. Huntia 13(2):121-141.

Bogue, Ernest E. (1864 - 1907)

Ernest Everett Bogue was born in January of 1864 to Lois and James Bogue in Orwell, Ohio (Davison 2011). He completed his high school academics at the New Lyme Institute (for the Institute's history see Large (1924)) in Ashtabula County, Ohio in 1888 and then continued his education at Ohio State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 with emphases in horticulture and forestry. Bogue went on to complete a Master of Science degree in entomology and botany at O.S.U. in 1896 (Beal 1908 & 1915, Brown 1908, Stevens 1902). At Ohio State, Bogue was an active member in the Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Society (Bigelow 1892, Bogue 1893).

After completing his graduate work, Bogue accepted a position in the Oklahoma Territory as professor of botany and entomology at the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College [present-day Oklahoma State University], the same year the institution graduated its first six students (OSU 2021, Tyrl & Shryock 2013 ). By one person's account, Professor Bogue was "a wonderful person" who was beset with a facial disorder that caused him to "screw his face into the most grotesque shapes until the student body would nearly be convulsed with suppressed laughter (Dusch & Chapman 1951)." Regardless of his personal quirks and the distasteful reactions of the students, Ernest Bogue carved out a successful career in Stillwater at Oklahoma A & M.

During Prof. Bogue's tenure in Stillwater (1896 through 1900), he published three important texts on Oklahoma's flora: "Weeds of Oklahoma" (Bogue 1899), "Annotated catalog of the ferns and flowering plants of Oklahoma" (Bogue 1900a), and "Native Oklahoma Plants" (Bogue 1900c). But, prior to and during his stay in Oklahoma, Bogue also worked actively outside the bounds of native plant research.

Ernest authored several short horticultural pieces in Meehans' Monthly (e.g. Bogue 1895, 1898b, 1900b; Meehan 1891-1902) and he published on the recognition and treatment of insect pests important to the fruit grower's trade (Bogue 1897 & 1898a). He departed from Stillwater and pursued graduate work at Harvard University — Master of Arts degree earned in 1902 (Beal 1908 & 1915, Chase 1902-1903).

Later in 1902 Bogue was named head of the newly established Forestry Department at Michigan Agricultural College (Stevens 1902). Bogue's M.A.C. (today's Michigan State University) career was highlighted by work which encouraged farmers to implement proper woodlot establishment/management techniques and he was also devoted to the improvement of clear-cut areas in the state's northern regions. Perhaps more importantly, he established a state nursery, which provided low-cost saplings to farmers (Beal 1908 & 1915, Brown 1908, Henson 1941, Stevens 1902).

More than 30 specimens collected by Bogue in Ohio are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Many lichen collections made by Bogue may be viewed using the Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria database.

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Beal, W.J. 1908. Ernest Everett Bogue. Tenth report of the Michigan Academy of Science. 10:19.

Beal, W.J. 1915. History of the Michigan Agricultural College and biographical sketches of trustees and professors. Michigan Agricultural College. East Lansing, Michigan.

Bigelow, E.F. (ed.) 1892. The Observer. Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Society. 3:192 & 245.

Bogue, E. E. 1893. Linnaeus. The Observer. 4:379.

Bogue, Ernest E. 1895. Unusual vigorous growths. Meehans' Monthly. 5:6.

Bogue, Ernest E. 1897. Some injurious orchard insects. Oklahoma Agricultural Expt. Station. Bull. #26. Stillwater, Oklahoma. 23 pp.

Bogue, E. E. 1898a. The San Jose scale in Oklahoma. Oklahoma Agricultural Expt. Station. Bull. #34. Stillwater, Oklahoma. 8 pp.

Bogue, Ernest E. 1898b. True leaves in plants. Meehans' Monthly. 8:183-184.

Bogue, Ernest E. 1899. Weeds of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Agriculture Experiment Station Bulletin No. 41. Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Bogue, Ernest E. 1900a. Annotated catalog of the ferns and flowering plants of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Ag. Expt. Station. Bull. 45. Stillwater, Oklahoma. 48 pp.

Bogue, Ernest E. 1900b. The fruit of the Oleander. Meehans' Monthly. 10:68.

Bogue, Ernest E. 1900c. Native Oklahoma Plants. Oklahoma Agriculture Experiment Station. Bulletin No. 45. Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Brown, Addison M. (sec'y) 1908. Changes in faculty. Report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the state of Michigan. p. 29.

Chase, Steven. (sec'y) 1902-1903. Degrees out of course. Harvard Graduates Magazine. Harvard Graduates' Magazine Assn. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Vol. 11. p. 173 of 656.

Davison, Joel. 2011. Ernest E. Bogue. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Dusch, Willa Adams & Berlin Basil Chapman (ed.). 1951. The Sigma Literary Society 1893-1897. The Research Foundation. Oklahoma A. and M. College. Stillwater, Oklahoma. 37 pp.

Henson, Wanona Evelyn. 1941. Early botanists of Oklahoma. Master of Science thesis. Okla. Ag. & Mechanical College. Stillwater, Oklahoma. p. 17 of 40.

Large, Moina W. 1924. History of Ashtabula County, Ohio. Historical Publ. Co. 1132 pp.

Meehan, Thomas. (ed.) 1891-1902. Meehans' Monthly. Thomas Meehan & Sons. Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. see volumes 5, 6, 7, 9, 10.

OSU. 2021. Timeline: A history of Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma State University. Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Stevens, P.H. (ed.) 1902. New M.A.C. Teachers. The M.A.C. Record. 8:1.

Tyrl, Ronald J. & Paula A. Shryock. 2013. A cavalcade of field botanists in Oklahoma - Contributors to our knowledge of the flora of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Native Plant Record. 13:55-100.

Booth, Dr. Charles M. (1830 - 1906)

Charles M. Booth (photo here), the eldest of Ezra and Hannah Booth's six children, was born in October of 1830 in Middlebury, Vermont (TaxiCab 2014). The family moved to Rochester, New York in about 1842 and it was through the Rochester system that Charles completed his grammar school/high school education. Under the supervision of Dr. Edward M. Moore, Booth studied medicine and earned a medical degree in 1851 from the University of Woodstock (aka Vermont Medical College) in Woodstock, Vermont (Beckwith 1912, Dana 1889, Kelly & Burrage 1920).

In 1852, after having practiced medicine with Dr. Moore, Charles Booth and two friends sailed around Cape Horn to Valparaiso on the Pacific coast of Chile, with the intension of starting a quinine production business. Quinine, a bitter-tasting alkaloid extracted from the bark of various species of Cinchona, was the first effective treatment for people stricken with malaria (CDC 2016, Duran-Reynals 1946, WebMD 2021). Their reason for launching the venture seems clear, but it's curious that the trio decided to establish their facility in Valparaiso. Cinchona is not native to Chile (POWO 2021). Unfortunately, the start-up business, soon was shut down.

For whatever reason, the Chilean government outlawed the exportation of quinine, so Booth's business venture was crushed before it really got off to a good start. During the following ten years, Booth supported himself by setting up a medical practice, operating a pharmacy, running a book store, and working as a mining engineer. But the appeal of life in South America eventually wore off and he returned to Rochester, New York in 1861 (Beckwith 1912, Kelly & Burrage 1920).

Dr. Booth bought a parcel of land in Irondequoit, just north of Rochester and there he successfully developed a fruit orchard. In addition to his orchard of pears, apples, grapes and whatnot, Booth maintained an extensive garden of native and introduced plants (Beckwith 1912).

The origin of Booth's devout interest in botany is unknown, but he did study chemistry and botany (probably in the context of Materia Medica) with Dr. Chester Dewey during his days at Vermont Medical College. Regardless, Charles' plant science interests led him to become a charter member of the Botanical Section of the Rochester Academy of Science (Kelly & Burrage 1920). He botanized the Rochester area extensively, with a particular interest in the Irondequoit Bay region.

During much of his botanical career Dr. C.M. Booth was a generalist, but at times he focused on the algae, grasses, mosses and introduced weeds of the Rochester area (Beckwith et al. 1910, Beckwith 1912). By virtue of his extensive collections, Booth is repeatedly acknowledged in the "Plants of Monroe County" (Beckwith & Macauley 1896, Beckwith et al. 1910), "Notes on rare New York state plants" (Metcalf & Griscom 1917), "Gray's Lessons in Botany" (Gray 1872), and other publications (e.g. Dudley 1889).

Data for 50-plus specimens of Booth's can be viewed at the New York Botanical Garden's William and Lynda Steere Herbarium. One sheet of Myriophyllum verticillatum collected by Booth from Irondequoit Bay, New York is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Beckwith, Florence. 1912. Early botanists of Rochester and vicinity and the botanical section. Proc. Rochester Academy of Sci. 5:39-58.

Beckwith, Florence & Mary E. Macauley. 1896. Plants of Monroe County, New York and adjacent territory - supplementary list. Proc. Rochester Academy of Sci. Volume 3. 150 pp.

Beckwith, Florence, Mary E. Macauley, & Milton S. Baxter. 1910. Plants of Monroe County, New York and adjacent territory. Proc. Rochester Academy of Sci. 5:1-38.

CDC. 2016. The History of Malaria, an Ancient Disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Atlanta, Georgia.

Dana, Henry Swan. 1889. History of Woodstock, Vermont. Houghton, Mifflin, & Company. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 231-241 of 641.

Dudley, W. R. 1889. Another disease of the strawberry. Cornell Univ. Ag. Expt. Station. Bulletin 14:182-183.

Duran-Reynals, M.L. 1946. The fever bark tree; the pageant of quinine. Doubleday and Company. Garden City, New York. 275 pp.

Gray, Asa. 1872. Gray's Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology. Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, & Co. New York. p. 479 of 695.

Kelly, Howard A. & Walter L. Burrage. 1920. American Medical Biographies. The Norman, Remington Company. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 125 of 1319.

Metcalf, F.P. & L. Griscom. 1917. Part 1 & Part 2 Notes on rare New York state plants. Rhodora 19:28-37 & 48-55.

Mayo, Caswell A. (ed.) 1906. Died - Booth. American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record. 48:82.

POWO. 2021. Cinchona. Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens. Kew, United Kingdom.

TaxiCab. 2014. Charles Miller Booth. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

WebMD. 2021. Cinchona. WebMD, LLC. Atlanta, Georgia.

Boott, Francis M. B. (1792 - 1863)

Francis Boott was one of nine children born to Kirk Boott (an emigrant from England) and Mary Love (an emigrant from Scotland). Francis was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1792. He attended Boys Latin School in Boston and earned a bachelor's degree in 1810 from Harvard University and after graduation, Francis (still in his late teens) left Massachusetts for England, with the apparent goal of becoming a professional businessman. For some reason his career in commerce never flourished and Boott spent four years in Derby (Derbyshire), England primarily with family, family friends, and/or social acquaintances (Anonymous 1864a,b,c, 1865, &1902, Emmett 1987). Though his business acumen never developed, his scientific aspirations blossomed.

If plant enthusiasm can be inherited, then Francis Boott's successful botanical career comes as no surprise. Kirk Boott Sr. (Francis' grandfather) made a living as a professional gardener and greengrocer in Derby, England. Kirk Boott Jr. (Francis' father) emmigrated to the U.S. in 1783 and became a successful importer of English goods in Boston. He perished in 1817 and left his family (wife, four daughters, five sons) an estate of approximately $280,000 (about $5.6 million today). Though a merchant, Kirk Jr.'s bond to botany was strong.

Boott not only shunned turf by surrounding his family's home with a half-acre horticulture/vegetable garden, but a hothouse heated via a wood-fueled firebox was attached to the house. Kirk's passing did not bring about the demise of botany in the family. It seems that all but one of five sons developed an interest in plant science, though Francis became the preeminent family botanist.

Wright Boott (christened John Wright Boott) was interested in exploring New England and in his late teens (approximately 1806-1808) he ventured out of Boston over primitive roads by carriage to New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and into Quebec, Canada. In 1816 Francis coaxed Wright (his eldest brother) into joining him on a field trip to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, which encourage Wright to revisit the area in subsequent years. In 1829 Wright collected an undescribed orchid, now known as Alpine Rattlesnake Orchid that was given the scientific name Prenanthes boottii (DC.) D. Dietr. (de Candolle 1838, Dietrich 1847) in his honor. Wright became a well-known horticulturist and as a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, he often displayed plants from his living collection that were native to many parts of the world. But Wright was also a birder. John J. Audubon (1840 - 1844) credited ... "Wright Boott, Esq. of Boston" with finding the only known nesting site of the Snow Bunting in the United States "on a declivity of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, in the month of July 1831" (Anonymous 1902, Emmett 1987, Mattrick 2021, New England Historical Society 2021).

Francis also encouraged his younger brothers, James and William, to become more botanically involved. William began a program at Harvard University, but withdrew prior to graduating, because of health concerns — he also studied medicine in Paris and Dublin, but did not earn a degree. He did, however, become an accomplished botanist (see short biography below). Among other botanical pursuits, after Francis died, William completed efforts that complemented Francis' work on sedges (Gray 1887).

His botanical interest seems to have been piqued by Mrs. Lucy Hardcastle, a plant enthusiast who was to become his mother-in-law (Anonymous 1864c, Anonymous 1865, Gifford 1968, Gray 1864, Hardcastle 1830, Harvard University Herbaria 2002). (Interestingly, Ms. Hardcastle is reported to have been the first (of three?) illegitimate children fathered by Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (Darwin 1864, World Heritage Encyclopedia 2017).) It was at this time that aspiring-botanist Boott became acquainted with some of England's important botanists, such as Sir Joseph Banks, Robert Brown, Sir William Hooker, and Sir James Smith (Anonymous 1864a&c).

Boott returned to Boston in 1814 and began collecting the flora of New England. The summer of 1816 found him engaged in a botanical exploration of the White Mountains and other ranges in New England, which included explorations of Wachusett Mountain (Massachusetts), Mt. Monadnock (New Hampshire), Ascutney Mountain (Vermont), and Mt. Washington (New Hampshire) (Anonymous 1865, Gray 1864, Harvard University Herbaria 2002). "Boott Spur", just south of Mt. Washington, was named in honor of Dr. Boott (Gifford 1968).

Boott returned to England permanently in 1820, married Ms. Mary Hardcastle, and took up the study of medicine in London. Francis completed his medical training at the University of Edinburgh in 1824, following his presentation of a paper on hydrocephaly, and returned to London the following year. Dr. Boott lectured on botany at the Webb Street School of Medicine in London, practiced medicine until 1837 or 1838, and was something of a nonconformist in that he eschewed traditional medical garb for casual clothing. It was during this period that Dr. Boott published his only medical work, which dealt with the causes and treatments of malaria as well as other "fevers" (Boott 1833-1834). He then gradually moved away from medicine and dedicated more and more of his efforts to civic activities and natural science (Anonymous 1864b, Anonymous 1865, Gray 1864, Gifford 1968, Harvard University Herbaria 2002).

Boott declined an offered professorship at Harvard University in the 1830s and gradually turned his attentions to the study of the genus Carex. His first publication on the genus appeared in "Flora Boreali-Americana" (Hooker 1840), where Boott wrote on the Carices of British North America. Ultimately Dr. Boott published the three volume "Illustrations of the Genus Carex" (Boott 1858-1860). The fourth volume was published posthumously by his family (Anonymous 1865, Gray 1864, Harvard University Herbaria 2002).

Seven Cyperaceae specimens collected by Francis Boott are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A few additional specimens collected by Dr. Boott may be reviewed via the iDigBio specimen database.

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Anonymous. 1864a. Francis Boott - obituary. Proc. Linnean Soc. London. .

Anonymous. 1864b. Francis Boott, M.D.. The Medical Times and Gazette. 8:23-27.

Anonymous. 1864c. Francis Boott, M.D., V.P.L.S.. The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette. January 16, 1864. pp. 51-52.

Anonymous. 1865. Francis Boott, M.D. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 6:305-308.

Anonymous. 1902. Boott Family. in Welch Genealogy. pp. 61-66.

Audubon, J. James. (1840 - 1844). The birds of America. Vol. 3. New York City, New York. pp. 55-57 of 233.

Boase, George C. 1864. Boott, Francis. Wikisource: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 5.

Boott, Francis. 1833-1834. Memoir of the life and medical opinions of John Armstrong. To which is added an inquiry into the facts connected with those forms of fever attributed to malaria or marsh effluvium. Vols. 1&2. Baldwin and Cradock. London, England.

Boott, Francis. 1858-1860. Illustrations of the genus Carex. William Pamplin. London.

Burkhardt, Frederick (ed.) 2001. The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: Volume 12. 1864. Cambridge Univ. Press. Cambridge, UK. p. 556.

Darwin, Erasmus. 1864. Letter to Joseph Dalton Hooker [10 and 12 January 1864]. Darwin correspondence project. Univ. of Cambridge. Cambridge, United Kingdom.

de Candolle, Augustin Pyramus. 1838. Nabalus. inProdromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. 7(1):241–242.

Dietrich, David Nathaniel Friedrich. 1847. Prenanthes. in Synopsis Plantarum. 4:1309.

Emmett, Alan. 1987. Kirk Boott and the Greening of Boston, 1783-1845. Arnoldia. 47(4):24-34.

Gifford, George E. 1968. Sedges and a spur. Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin. 42(3):22-25.

Gray, Asa. 1864. Francis Boott, M.D. . The American Journal of Science and Arts. pp. 288-292.

Hardcastle, Lucy. 1830. An introduction to the elements of the Linnaean system of botany: for young persons. Thomas Richardson and Hurst, Chance, and Company. London. 154 pp.

Harvard University Herbaria. 2002. Francis Boott (1792-1863) papers. Library of the Gray Herbarium Archives.

Hooker, William Jackson. 1840. Flora boreali-americana or the botany of the northern parts of British America. H.G. Bohn, London. Volume 2. pp. 207-233.

New England Historical Society. 2021. Boston’s J. Wright Boott – A Tale of Orchids and Insanity. New England Historical Society. Stonington, Maine.

Mattrick, Chris. 2021. Alpine Rattlesnake Root (Prenanthes boottii, synonym: Known as Nabalus boottii D.C.). U.S. Forest. White Mountain National Forest. Campton, New Hampshire.

World Heritage Encyclopedia. 2017. Erasmus Darwin. World Heritage Encyclopedia. Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing.

Boott, William (1805 - 1887)

William Boott, born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1805, was the youngest sibling of Francis M.B. Boott the caricologist (see biography above). His education began at the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and he attended Harvard University, but ill health forced him to withdraw prior to earning a degree (Gray 1887). William was a lifelong bachelor (Anonymous 1902).

It seems that good judgement was not always a hallmark of William's life. He was not particularly money conscious, as he frittered much of his inheritance (see Francis Boott biography above) away traveling in Europe — though he did invest some capital in himself to study medicine in Paris and Dublin, but did not earn the M.D. (Gray 1887). William stood trial in 1834 for his role in a pistol duel between Robert C. Hooper and Joseph S. Jones. The aggrieved, Mr. Hooper, was a businessman who claimed to have been offended by statements made by Mr. Jones and demanded restitution in the form of an apology or a duel (New England Historical Society 2021, Woodman 1845). William's legal entanglement came about because he acted as Mr. Hooper's "second" — an individual charged with either resolving the disagreement between parties peacefully or overseeing an honorably executed duel, if peaceful resolution is not possible (see Wikipedia Duel). Though a duel took place, the prosecutor was unable to convince the jury that William Boott had committed any crime and they found him not guilty (Woodman 1845).

Early on, William Boott became an accomplished linguist, but apparently was persuaded to enter the field of botany by his brother Francis (Gifford 1968). William published one paper in the Botanical Gazette in 1884, "Notes on Cyperaceae". He also contributed the report on the Carex in Rothrock's "Reports Upon the Botanical Collections Made in Portions of Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona" (Boott 1878) and he wrote the Carex revision in the "Botany of California" (Boott 1880).

In addition to his work on the Cyperaceae, William Boott studied the native flora of Massachusetts in general and Isoetes and the Poaceae specifically (Gray 1887, Robinson 1906). Boott's shield fern, Dryopteris boottii, was named for William (Emmett 1987, Gifford 1968, Tuckerman 1843, Underwood 1900).

Only eight of William Boott's specimens are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. But hundreds of W. Boott plant collections may be reviewed at the Harvard University Herbaria database and/or the iDigBio specimen database.

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Anonymous. 1902. Boott Family. in Welch Genealogy. pp. 61-66.

Boott, William. 1884. Notes on Cyperaceae. Bot. Gazette. 9:85-94.

Boott, William. 1878. Carex. in Rothrock, J.T. Reports Upon the Botanical Collections Made in Portions of Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Vol. 6: Botany. pp. 276-281.

Boott, William. 1880. Carex. in Watson, Sereno. Botany of California. Volume 2. pp. 224-253. John Wilson & Son. University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Emmett, Alan. 1987. Kirk Boott and the Greening of Boston, 1783-1845. Arnoldia. 47(4):24-34.

Gifford, George E. 1968. Sedges and a spur. Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin. 42(3):22-25.

Gray, Asa. 1887. Botanical necrology: William Boott. American Journal of Science. 135:262.

New England Historical Society. 2021. Boston’s J. Wright Boott – A Tale of Orchids and Insanity. New England Historical Society. Stonington, Maine.

Robinson, B. L. (footnote) 1906. Species and variations in biotian asters. Burgess, Edward S. (author). Memoirs Torrey Bot. Club. 13:78.

Tuckerman, Edward. 1843. Descriptions of several new plants of New England. Magazine of Hort., Botany, and all useful discoveries and improvements in rural affairs. 9:142-145.

Underwood, Lucien Marcus. 1900. Our native ferns and their allies. Henry Holt & Company. New York City, New York. p. 114 of 158.

Woodman, Horatio (ed.) 1845. Commonwealth v. William Boott in Reports of Criminal Cases: Tried in the Municipal Court of the City of Boston before Peter Oxenbridge Thacher. Judge of that court from 1823 - 1843. Charles C. Little & James Brown. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 390-400.

Brandegee, Townshend Stith (1843 - 1925) and Brandegee, Mary Katharine (1844 – 1920)

Townshend Stith Brandegee (the eldest of eleven children), was born in February of 1843 in Berlin, Connecticut to Elishama Brandegee and Ann Florence Stith Brandegee. He showed an interest in natural history while working on the family farm and as he attended school. During the Civil War he enlisted in the Union Army and served with the First Regiment of the Connecticut Artillery for two years. Townshend enrolled in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University and in 1870 he earned a degree in civil engineering. While at Yale, Brandegee's interest in botany was strengthened, due to his studies with botany professor, herbarium curator, and pteridologist, Daniel Cady Eaton (Carter 2009, Goode 1883, Menninger 2014b, University and Jepson Herbaria Archive 2010).

Brandegee's engineering degree landed him a position as county surveyor and city engineer in Canon City, Colorado. In addition to his official duties, Brandegee botanized the Colorado countryside, assembled a personal herbarium, and enlisted the aid of John H. Redfield (Philadelphia Academy of Sciences) and Asa Gray (Harvard University) for specimen identification (Goode 1883, University and Jepson Herbaria Archive 2010). In fact, Brandegee's collections were widely cited in Porter and Coulter's "Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado" (1874).

Ferdinand Hayden led several geographic/geologic expeditions through various parts of the American west following the Civil War. On the recommendation of Asa Gray, T.S. Brandegee, served as assistant topographer and botanical collector on Hayden's exploration of Colorado and Utah in 1875 (Gray 1877, McPherson & Nee 2016). That foray led to Brandegee's publication of "The flora of southwestern Colorado" (Brandegee 1876) and he subsequently held a number of surveying and botanical positions. He was hired as "botanist of the party" and was in "charge of all the collecting of plants, grasses, forestry specimens, soils, etc. (see p. 93 in Goode 1883)" for the Northern Transcontinental Survey of 1883 (see Gannett 1883).

The winter of 1886-1887 found Townshend collecting timber samples for a project sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, which brought him to California and the islands off the Santa Barbara coast. He was so struck by the interesting flora of the area that he essentially abandoned his engineering career and dedicated himself to botany full-time (Carter 2009, Goode 1883, University and Jepson Herbaria Archive 2010).

Mary Katharine Lane Curran Brandegee was the second of ten children in the family of Marshall and Mary Layne. Mary Katharine was born in Tennessee, but the family subsequently spent a few years in northwestern Missouri (where Marshall ran a grain mill), they called Salt Lake City home for part of a year, lived in Carson City, Nevada for a time, and in about 1853 the Lanes settled on a farm near Folsom, California. Her early education was likely cursory at best, yet she made a living as a teacher. In 1866 Ms. Layne married Hugh Curran, a peace officer in Folsom, but Hugh turned out to be a poor mate choice. He spent too much time in a state of inebriation and Mary Katharine left him. Even so, she continued to share her teaching salary with Hugh, until his death in 1874. Apparently Folsom offered too few opportunities for Mary Katharine, so she moved to San Francisco in 1875 (Creese 1998, James et al. 1971).

Mary Katharine Curran enrolled in medical school in 1875 and earned her M.D. in 1878 from the University of California Medical School, but after graduation the interplay of five things determined her future. Dr. Curran had difficulty establishing a successful medical practice in San Francisco, she harbored a life-long interest in natural science, medical school helped her develop a serious interest in the Materia Medica (much of which was botanical), the California Academy of Science welcomed the participation of women, and the Academy's herbarium was in serious need of curatorial help.

Dr. Curran began studying the plants of the San Francisco region with botanist and entomologist Dr. Hans Herman Behr. Dr. Behr taught at the San Francisco College of Pharmacy and was a member of the California Academy of Science. Through him Mary Katharine became acquainted with other members of the Academy. She began working in the Academy's herbarium and by 1879 Dr. Curran became a bona fide member of the society. In 1883 she accepted the position as Curator of Botany and the following year she established the Bulletin of the California Academy of Sciences (Carter 2009, Creese 1998, Goode 1883, James et al. 1971, Rosenthal 2006). [Dr. Mary Kate Curran Brandegee was an interesting character in her own right and much has been published about her life. In addition to the preceding biographical snippet, far more entertaining and thorough narratives have been written by Carter (2009 & 2010), Crosswhite & Crosswhite (1985), Jones 1929, JSTOR (2013), and others.]

Sometime around the 1886-1887 period, Townshend Brandegee made his way to the herbarium of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, where he met the aforementioned Mary Katharine Curran. Apparently, each was smitten with the other and two unions ensued - one personal and the other botanical. They were married in late May of 1889 (both in their 40s) and honeymooned by botanizing the 500 miles from San Diego to San Francisco on foot.

The Brandegees and five other botanists founded the California Botanical Club in March 1891 in order "to promote the study of plants, especially those found on the Pacific Coast of North America ..." They established the Zoe Publishing Company, which produced Volume 1, Number 1 of "Zoe: A Biological Journal" in March 1890. For the subscription price of $2.00 per year the journal brought the reader "the results of scientific thought and investigation, and for the review of contemporaneous scientific literature, especially of that relating to the west coast of America (Brandegee 1891, Creese 1998, Ewan 1987, Vaslit 1890, Vaslit et al. 1890 - 1906.).

During subsequent years Townsend, in collaboration with his wife and on his own, completed botanical forays into Mexico, Baja California, and around the American southwest. Their explorations allowed the Brandegees to become experts on the floras of Mexico, Baja California, and the southwestern United States (Carter 2009, Goode 1883, Rosenthal 2006, University and Jepson Herbaria Archive 2010).

Notably, in the 1890s the Brandegees befriended Carl A. Purpus, who emigrated to the New World from Germany and supported himself by selling cacti, fruits, and herbarium specimens primarily of species from Mexico and the American southwest. Because of their strengthened interest in the Mexican flora and in order to make their botanical investigations in Mexico more convenient, in 1894 they moved to San Diego, where they built a home and a herbarium (Carter 2009, Goode 1883, Stafleu & Mennega 1995, University and Jepson Herbaria Archive 2010). For many years Purpus collected in Mexico and sent specimens to the Brandegees. Townshend documented Purpus' collections in the 12-volume Plantae Mexicanae Purpusianae (Brandegee 1909-1924). Both Brandegees were accomplished and well-respected botanists whose publications are too numerous to list here, but many examples may be found in Ockerbloom (2016), Setchell (1912-1922), and Vaslit et al. (1890-1906).

Two specimens, one of Sarcobatus vermiculatus and another of Plantago patagonica, collected in the 1870s by T.S. Brandegee at Cañon City, Colorado are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Thousands of collections by the Brandegees may be perused via the iDigBio or SEINet specimen databases. It's interesting to note that among the 5200 Brandegee specimens listed in the SEINet database, only a handful list both Katharine and Townshend as co-collectors.

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Brandegee, T.S. 1876. The flora of southwestern Colorado. Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. Washington, D.C. pp. 227-248.

Brandegee, T.S. (ed.) 1891. California Botanical Club. Zoe 2(1):93-96.

Brandegee, T.S. 1909-1924. Plantae Mexicanae Purpusianae. I-XII. Univ. Cal. Publ. Bot. Berkeley, California.

Carter, Nancy C. 2009. The Brandegees: Leading Botanists in San Diego. Jrnl. San Diego History. 55:191-216.

Carter, Nancy C. 2010. Mary Katharine Layne Curran Brandegee. California Garden. Vol. 101. No. 6.

Creese, Mary R.S. 1998. Women in the laboratory? The Scarecrow Press. Lanham, Maryland. pp. 23-24 of 452.

Crosswhite, F.S. & C.D. Crosswhite. 1985. The plant collecting Brandegees, with emphasis on Katharine Brandegee as a liberated woman scientist of early California. Desert Plants 7:128-139, 158-162.

Eisen, Gustav. 1897. Explorations in the Cape Region of Baja California . Jrnl. American Geographical Soc. of New York. 29:271-280.

Ewan, Joseph. 1987. Roots of the California Botanical Society. Madrono 34(1):1-17.

Gannett, Henry. 1883. Northern Transcontinental Survey. in A Manual of Topographic Methods. U.S. Geological Survey. Washington, D.C.

Goode, Richard U. 1883. The Goode Diary: a personal journal of the Northern Transcontinental Survey. W.S. Dawson Co. Virginia Beach, VA.

Gray, Asa. 1877. Contributions to the botany of North America. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts &. Sci. 12:51-84.

James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, & Paul S. Boyer. (eds.) Notable American women. 1607-1950. A biographical dictionary. Belknap Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp. 228 & 229.

Jones, Marcus E. 1929. The Brandegees. Contrib. Western Bot. 15:15-18.

JSTOR. 2013. Brandegee, Mary Katharine (1844-1920). Global Plants.

McPherson, Robert S. & Susan Rhoades Nee. 2016. Mapping the Four Corners: Narrating the Hayden Survey of 1875. Univ. Oklahoma Press. Norman, Oklahoma. pp.

Menninger, David. 2014a. Mary Katharine Layne Brandegee . Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Menninger, David. 2014b. Townshend Stith Brandegee. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Ockerbloom, John Mark. (ed.). 2016. Online books by Townshend and Katharine Brandegee. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Porter, Thomas C. & John M. Coulter. 1874. Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado. U.S. Geological & Geographical Survey of the Territories. Misc. Publ. 4. Washington, D.C. 180 pp.

Rosenthal, Sue. 2006. Pioneering Women Naturalists of the Bay Area. Bay Nature. Bay Nature Institute. Berkeley, California.

Setchell, William A., ed. 1912 - 1922. University of California publications in botany. Volumes 5 - 7. Univ. California Press. Berkeley, CA.

Stafleu, Frans A. & Erik A. Mennega. 1995. Taxonomic literature. Supplement III: Br-Ca. pp. 9-12 of 550. Koeltz Scientific Books. Konigstein, Germany.

University and Jepson Herbaria Archive. 2010. Brandegee, Townshend Stith (1843-1925). Univ. of California, Berkeley.

Vaslit, Frank H. (ed.) 1890. Zoe. 1(1):i. Zoe Publishing Company.

Vaslit, Frank H., et al. (eds.) 1890 - 1906. Zoe. Volumes 1-5. Zoe Publishing Company. San Francisco, California.

Buchanan, Robert E. (1883 - 1973)

Robert Earle Buchanan was born to John and Josephine Buchanan in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but grew up and attended school northwest of there in Eagle Grove. Buchanan became something of a botanist in high school and even assembled his own herbarium. So, it's no surprise that he sought out botany professor Louis H. Pammel, when he enrolled at Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) in 1900. Buchanan worked as Pammel's lab assistant, and the pair developed a close mentor-student relationship, which led to their collaboration on a number of botanical projects and Buchanan's B.S. in 1904 and his M.S. degree in 1906 (Cowan 1992, Laed 2012, Singleton 1999).

Pammel was noted for harboring a wide variety of interests, including plant pathology and bacteriology, fittingly Buchanan's career took a turn in that direction. Robert left Ames in 1907 to study and teach at the University of Chicago, from where he earned his doctorate in 1908 (Cowan 1992, Singleton 1999).

Buchanan returned to Iowa State College to become the first head of the Bacteriology Department in 1910. During his career Buchanan investigated and wrote about a variety of topics, including nitrogen fixation (Buchanan 1909), general bacteriology (Buchanan & Buchanan 1914, Buchanan & Buchanan 1951), nomenclature (Buchanan 1915), university politics (Buchanan 1915), and others (see Cowan 1992 & Singleton 1999 for a partial list). As an administrator, he served as the first dean of Industrial Science for two years (1914-1916), the first Dean of the Graduate College starting in 1919, and the Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station for (1933-1948). Upon his official retirement in 1948 Buchanan joined the ranks of other 'Professors Emeritus' and he maintained an office in the bacteriology department until his death (Archives: Iowa State University 2009, Cowan 1992, Singleton 1999).

Robert Buchanan's interest in the nomenclature of bacteria is particularly noteworthy. In 1930 Buchanan attended the first International Congress of Microbiology in Paris, where he helped establish the Nomenclature Committee. The second International Congress set up a committee to draft a code of bacteriological nomenclature and Professor Buchanan, its chair, favored a bacteriological code that paralleled the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature. After extensive debate and revision, the new Code was approved and published in 1948, but Buchanan continued to improve those guidelines until the 9th Congress, where he resigned from his position as chair of the Judicial Commission and was made a Life Member of the Nomenclature Committee (Cowan 1992).

A single specimen of Potentilla anserina collected by Pammel and Buchanan near Eagle Grove, Iowa in 1904 is the only sheet bearing Robert E. Buchanan's name in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Nearly 100 additional specimens bearing Buchanan's name as collector or co-collector may be reviewed using the iDigBio or SEINet specimen database.

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Archives: Iowa State University. 2009. Robert Earle Buchanan papers. Special Collections Department: Iowa State University Library.

Buchanan, R. Earle. 1903. A contribution to our knowledge of the development of Prunus americana. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 11:77-92.

Buchanan, Robert E. 1909. Nitrogen fixation by Azotobacter. Bot. Gazette 47:475-476.

Buchanan, Robert E. 1910. Manascus purpureus in silage. Mycologia 10:99-106.

Buchanan, R.E. 1915. Nomenclature of the Coccaceae. Jrnl. Infectious Diseases. 17:528-541.

Buchanan, Robert E. 1942. What university professors and administrators owe to each other. Bull. Amer. Assn. Univ. Professors 28:395-403.

Buchanan, Estelle D. & Robert Earle Buchanan. 1914. Household Bacteriology - for students in domestic science. The MacMillan Company. New York. 536 pp.

Buchanan, Robert E. & Estelle D. Buchanan. 1951. Bacteriology. The MacMillan Company. New York. 678 pp.

Cowan, S.T. 1992. Memorial to Professor R. E. Buchanan. International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria: Bacteriological Code, 1990 Revision. 72:329-339.

Laed. 2012. Robert Earle Buchanan. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Singleton, Rivers. 1999. Robert Earle Buchanan: An Unappreciated Scientist. Yale Jrnl. of Biology and Medicine. 72:329-339.

Bumstead, Freeman J. (1826 - 1879)

Freeman J. Bumstead, born April 21, 1826 in Boston, Massachusetts, was a son of Josiah and Lucy Bumstead. He completed his early education at the Chauncy Hall day school, Boston High School, and the Boston Latin School. After high school, Bumstead earned an undergraduate degree from Williams College in 1847. Following graduation he accepted a teaching position in Roxbury, Massachusetts and spent his free time studying medicine at the Tremont Street Medical School in Boston. He enrolled in the Harvard Medical School in 1849 and graduated in 1851 (Atkinson 1878, Cushing 1895, Leggett 1879, Peters 1880, Saratoga 2012, Wilson & Fiske 1888).

In 1852 Dr. Bumstead settled in New York City, where he was a surgeon, who originally specialized in maladies of the eyes and ears. Within a few years, however, he devoted himself to the treatment of genitourinary disorders and venereal diseases (Atkinson 1878, Cushing 1895, Peters 1880, Wilson & Fiske 1888), which led to the publication of "The pathology and treatment of venereal diseases" (Bumstead & Taylor 1879), the "Atlas of venereal diseases" (Cullier & Bumstead 1868), and other papers of a similar ilk Google Scholar.

During its existence (1871-1874), at a location in what is present-day Manhattan, Dr. Bumstead was a physician at Strangers' Hospital. The "hospital" was "intended for the succor and restoration of the deserving sick poor" (Richmond 1872), but in reality it served as not only a treatment hospital, but as a rehabilitation center and a support home for recovering addicts (Atkinson 1878, Cornwell 1871, Young & Meyers 2013).

Bumstead also worked on Blackwell's Island (aka Welfare Island, Hog Island, Damnation Island, Roosevelt Island), which was home to a prison, a poorhouse, a lunatic asylum, and various other facilities, which were used to warehouse 19th century New York City's indigent, ill, insane and criminal populations (Braithwaite 2019, Cutler 2018). Several hospitals were built on the island and Dr. Bumstead was on staff at Charity Hospital. It was a 1200 patient facility, where he treated patients with venereal diseases (Atkinson 1878, McCabe 1872).

In addition to his medical pursuits F.J. Bumstead was an avid student of natural history, botany and, in particular, ornithology. He apparently, was a skilled, meticulous taxidermist and Freeman donated a number of bird specimens to the Natural History Society of Boston (Anonymous 1858, Bouve 1880, Peters 1880, Putnam 1866). Following his death, Freeman's widow donated many of his mounted birds and mammals to the American Museum of Natural History (Allen 1889). He was among the core of naturalists that formed the Torrey Botanical Club and regularly botanized the New York City area (Burgess 1900, Leggett 1879, & see collectors listed in Leggett 1870-1874, Moore 2020).

In about 1871 Dr. Bumstead sailed with his family to Europe. During their two or three year European hiatus, Freeman studied under botanists Ernst Hugo Pfitzer in Heidelberg, Germany and Joseph Anton Böhm (spelled "Boehm" in Leggett 1879) in Vienna, Austria. Bumstead's goal was to learn the botanists' "methods of investigating the anatomy and physiology of vegetable life". Though it appears he hoped to pursue botanical work in that realm upon his return to the United States, life interfered with his plan. Demands from his medical practice and his growing family shunted those botanical aspirations to the side (Leggett 1879).

According to Peters' (1880) account, despite the course change from his studies in Europe, Freeman J. Bumstead became an enthusiastic and knowledgeable field botanist, yet little has been written about his botanical efforts. The complete extent of his personal herbarium is unknown, but he contributed many of his plant collections to the Williams College herbarium and those data (156 records) may be viewed on the Williams College herbarium website. An additional 150 or so plant collections by Dr. Bumstead may be viewed via the iDigBio and SEINet databases. Eight specimens collected by Bumstead in the 1860s are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

.......

Allen, J.A. 1889. List of donations: mammals & birds. Annual report of the trustees and list of members. The American Museum of Natural History. Central Park, New York City, NY. pp. 15,46, & 47.

Atkinson, William B. (ed.) 1878. Bumstead, Freeman J. Henry R. Lea. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 16 of 835.

Anonymous. 1858. Donations to the museum. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 6:359.

Bouve, Thomas T. 1880. Historical sketch of the Boston Society of Natural History. in Anniversary memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History. Publ. by the society. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 63.

Braithwaite, Kate. 2019. If walls had words… a brief history of the Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum. WebLog.

Bumstead, Freeman J. 1870. The treatment of syphilis by repeated inoculations of matter derived from venereal vores: so-called syphilization. Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 60:17-36.

Bumstead, Freeman J. & Robert W. Taylor. 1879. The pathology and treatment of venereal diseases. The Physicians and Surgeons of the United States. Charles Robson. Philadelphia, PA. p.16.

Burgess, Edward S. 1900. The work of the Torrey Botanical Club. 27(10):552-558.

Cornwell, Charles M. 1871. The Strangers' Hospital, Avenue D and Tenth Street, New York. Steam Book and Job Printer. New York City, New York. 5 pp.

Cullier, M.A. & Freeman J. Bumstead. 1868. Atlas of venereal diseases. Henry C. Lea. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 328 pp.

Cushing, Thomas. 1895. Historical sketch of Chauncy Hall school. Press of David Clapp & Son. Boston, Massachusetts. 216 pp.

Cutler, Jacqueline. 2018. Inside the 'living grave' that was 'Damnation Island' — aka Roosevelt Island. New York Daily News. New York City, New York.

Leggett, William H. (ed.) 1870 - 1874. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. Vols. 1-5. January 1870 - December 1874.

Leggett, William H. (ed.) 1879. Freeman J. Bumstead, M.D. LL.D. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 6:368.

McCabe, James D. 1872a. Lights and Shadows of New York Life. National Publishing Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 556 pp.

McCabe, James D. 1872b. Lights and Shadows of New York Life. National Publishing Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 556 pp. Published 2006 online by the "Gutenberg Project".

Moore, Gerry. 2020. 150 Years of the Torrey Botanical Society. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Society. 29:70-112.

Peters, George A. 1880. In memory of Freeman J. Bumstead, M.D., LL.D. New York Academy of Medicine. G.P. Putnam's Sons, printers. New York.

Putnam, F.W. 1866. The Naturalists' Directory. Part II. North America and the West Indies. The Essex Institute. Salem, Massachusetts. pp. 26, 73, & 4 (in appendix).

Richmond, John Francis. 1872. New York and Its Institutions, 1609-1871. E.B. Treat. New York City, New York. pp. 417-418 of 608.

Saratoga. 2012. Dr. Freeman Josiah Bumstead. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Young, Greg & Tom Meyers. 2013. The Strangers Hospital: Your special home on Avenue D, brought to you by Boss Tweed’s plumber king.

Williams College Biology Department. 2006. Herbarium Collection List. Williams College. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Wilson, Grant James & John Fiske. 1888. Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Volume 1. D. Appleton & Co. New York. p. 448 of 768.

Calkins, William Wirt (1842 - 1914)

William W. Calkins (one of nine children — photo here) was born in LaSalle County (Farm Ridge township), Illinois in 1842 to Annis and John Calkins. William spent his youth on the family farm and attended school during the winter months, completing at least part of his education at Farm Ridge Seminary (in the vicinity of present day Mathiessen State Park), when Renaldo Williams was the school's director (Calkins 1902, Fink 1915, Inter-State Publishing 1886, Skaer 1878a).

His fascination with fossils and geology began as a child when he assembled a collection of rocks and fossils from LaSalle County. Then in 1859 he published a series of articles on the geology of LaSalle County in the Ottawa Free Trader. Calkins began a teaching career in Ottawa, Illinois with the intention of continuing his education at Yale College, but the Civil War altered his intentions. In August 1862 Calkins left his residence in Deer Park, Illinois, resigned from his teaching position in Ottawa, and enlisted in the Union Army (Calkins 1895, Cummings 2016, Fink 1915, McCormick 2013, Skaer 1878a).

First Sergeant Calkins and the entire 104th Regiment of the Illinois Infantry were surrounded and captured by Confederate forces during the Battle of Hartsville, Tennessee in December of 1862. Calkins and his fellow prisoners were held until April 1863, when the 104th was "exchanged" for Confederate soldiers and they (the 104th) were paroled to Camp Douglas (Chicago, Illinois). Following his release from confinement, he returned to active duty (Calkins 1895, McCormick 2013).

At the Battle of Chickamauga (September 1863), where the Union and Confederate armies suffered over 30,000 casualties, Calkins was wounded in the leg, once again captured, and incarcerated. This time he was imprisoned at Libby Prison near Richmond, Virginia and there he remained for just over seven months. After Libby Prison, Calkins was transferred and held captive at three other sites.

On the 28th of November 1864, while being held at the Columbia, South Carolina prison camp (Camp Sorghum), Calkins and a group of compatriots escaped and fled to the Congaree River. With considerable help from slaves, who were willing to provide food and shelter to the escaped Yankees, Calkins and his group successfully floated over 200 miles down the Congaree and Santee Rivers on a stolen cargo raft to the Atlantic Ocean, where they were picked up by a U.S. Navy ship on December 8th near Georgetown, South Carolina. Approximately three months later, having partially regaining his health, Calkins returned to active duty, but the war was nearing its end and he was mustered out June 6, 1865. A compelling description of his escape from imprisonment and flight to freedom is provided in Calkins (1895 (pp. 433, 519-539) & 1880).

Following the war William W. Calkins returned to Illinois to fully recuperate from his war related injuries and to reintegrate himself in the community. By August 1865, Calkins had thrown his hat in the ring to become the LaSalle County treasurer (Osman & Hapeman 1865) and in February 1866 the trio of William Calkins, Dr. John Paul and Dr. A.E. Gibbs met with the intension of forming a geological society. Ultimately they found 19 other like-minded men and the Ottawa Academy of Natural Sciences was born with W.W. Calkins being selected as the Academy's first secretary (Inter-State Publishing 1886, Osman & Hapeman 1866). Calkins dabbled in real estate sales of single-family homes (Calkins 1869), but his primary occupation was lumber sales. By May of 1867 William had opened a new lumber yard in Ottawa selling "Gang sawed Lumber" from "Lumber Mills at Muskegon, Michigan" (Osman & Hapeman 1867) and William maintained the business until the latter half of 1869, when he sold out and joined his brother's lumber company in Michigan (Osman & Hapeman 1869).

The Calkins lumber business in Chicago was a venture owned (in part) by William's brother, John Wesley Calkins. In 1866 John W. Calkins bought into a lumber firm with George R. Roberts and Martin B. Hull to form Roberts, Calkins, & Hull. Their business office was at the corner of Harrison & Wells in Chicago, but lumber was brought to the city from their mill in Muskegon, Michigan. In December 1868 Mr. Hull bought out Calkins' interest in the company (Andreas 1886, Hotchkiss 1894). John joined George H.N. Cushman (another former resident of Ottawa, Illinois) forming Cushman, Calkins, & Company with a sawmill in Manistee, Michigan, that, after only a few months of ownership, was destroyed by fire on October 17th of the same year (Cramer et al. 1869, Illinois Supreme Court 1889, Osman & Hapeman 1871). After rebuilding, Cushman, Calkins, & Company continued to operate the mill and a dry-goods store in Manistee, even though it was again destroyed (or at least suffered heavy damage) by the fire of October 8, 1871. The business continued until it was sold in 1877 (Inter-Ocean Publishing 1877, Page 1882, Wentworth 1871). It was the preceding Chicago-based lumber milieu that William became gainfully employed in 1869 and joined the Lumbermen's Exchange of Chicago through at least 1883 (Goodspeed Publishing 1893, Moses & Kirkland 1895).

As a private citizen, William Wirt Calkins, distinguished himself as an historian and a student of natural history. Mr. Calkins was elected as a corresponding member of the Davenport Academy of Sciences in 1878 (Haupt 1878). He documented the accomplishments of the 104th Regiment "as part of the Grand Armies of the Union, by detailing minutely your movements, campaigns and battles ... (Calkins 1895)" and a brief summary of his familial descent reaching back to 1600 from Hugh Calkin in Chepstaw, Wales (Calkins 1902). He wrote in detail about the members of the Calkins Family who in a military capacity from the establishment of the original 13 Colonies through the Spanish-American War (Calkins 1903). But the bulk of W.W. Calkins' publications dealt with natural history.

As a naturalist, William completed studies of lichens (Calkins 1886b & 1896), fungi (Calkins 1886a), mollusks (Calkins 1874, 1878a&b), and flowering plants (Calkins 1896 & 1910, McCormick 2013). Some projects were investigations of the flora and/or fauna of Illinois and others were inquiries into the natural history of the area around his winter home in Florida (Wilson 1883). A far more exhaustive list of Calkins' research interests and publications are enumerated among the references cited by Fink (1915), McCormick (2013), and Skaer (1878b). In 1877 William donated some of his collections (geological, sea shell, coral, and plant specimens) to the Davenport Academy of Sciences (Richardson & Richardson 1877).

Calkins' botanical pursuits led to the assembly of his personal herbarium which, along with the herbarium of W.W. Johnson, contributed to Williams' (1877) catalogue of plants of La Salle County, Illinois. Nearly 260 of Calkins' herbarium specimens from a dozen U.S. states may be found at the Putnam Museum herbarium. Hundreds of additional specimens may be scanned via the iDigBio specimen database.

.......

Andreas, A.T. 1886. History of Chicago from the earliest period to the present time - From the fire of 1871 until 1885. The A.T. Andreas Co. Chicago, Illinois. Vol. 3. p. 369 of 876.

Calkins, William W. 1869. Rare Chance! To buy a home. The Ottawa Free Trader. Ottawa, Illinois. p. 5. column 3. February 13, 1869.

Calkins, William W. 1874. The land & fresh water shells of La Salle County, Ills. Proc. Ottawa Acad. Nat. Sci. 48 pp.

Calkins, William W. 1878a. Some notes of personal investigation among the shell mounds of Florida.. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 2:225-229.

Calkins, William W. 1878b. Catalogue of the marine shells of Florida, with notes and descriptions of several new species. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 2:232-252.

Calkins, William W. 1880. Mr. W.W. Calkins, of Chicago, tells how he escaped from a Rebel prison. The Daily Inter-Ocean. p. 13. columns 1&2. Chicago, Illinois. December 18, 1880.

Calkins, William W. 1886a. Notes on Florida fungi. No. 1. The Journal of Mycology. 2:6-7. 1886

Calkins, William W. 1886b. Catalogue of Lichens Collected in Florida in 1885: With Notes. The Journal of Mycology. 2(10):112-114.

Calkins, William W. 1895. The history of the one hundred and fourth regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Donohue & Henneberry. Chicago, IL. pp. 433-434 & 519-539.

Calkins, William Wirt. 1896. The lichen-flora of Chicago and vicinity. Chicago Acad. Sci. Geol. & Nat. Hist. Surv. Bulletin 1. 51 pp.

Calkins, William Wirt. 1902. Calkins Genealogy. William Wirt Calkins. 147 South California Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. 2 pp. Posted on Ancestry.com from Chicago's Newberry Library.

Calkins, William Wirt. 1903. The Calkins Memorial Military Roster. M.A. Donohue & Company. Chicago, Illinois. 204 pp.

Calkins, William Wirt. 1910. Mosses of Cook County, Illinois. The Bryologist 13:107-111.

Cramer, Aikins, & Cramer. 1869. Destructive fire in Manistee. Semi-Weekly Wisconsin. p 4. column 7. October 23, 1869.

Cummings, Kevin S. 2016. Malacologists: William Wirt Calkins. Ill. Nat. Hist. Survey. Champaign, Illinois.

Fink, B. 1915. William Wirt Calkins, Amateur Mycologist . Mycologia. 7:57-60.

Goodspeed Publishing. 1891. Industrial Chicago: The Building Interests. Goodspeed Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 344, 364, 370.

Haupt, J.G. (sec'y) 1878. January 25, 1878 - Regular Meeting. Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci. 2:205.

Hotchkiss, George W. 1894. Industrial Chicago: The Lumber Interests. Vol. 6. Goodspeed Publishing Company. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 244 & 352, 357-358 of 580.

Illinois Supreme Court. 1889. Winslow v. Leland, 128 Ill. 304 (1889). Caselaw Access Project. Harvard Law School. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Inter-Ocean Publishing. 1877. Manistee. The Daily Inter-Ocean. p. 5. column 3. December 5, 1877. Chicago, Illinois.

Inter-State Publishing. 1886. History of La Salle County, Illinois. Volume 2. Inter-State Publishing Co. Chicago, Illinois. p. 233 & 548 of 769.

McCormick, Carol Ann. 2013. Collectors of the UNC herbarium: William Wirt Calkins. University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Moses, John & Joseph Kirkland (eds.). 1895. History of Chicago, Illinois. Munsell & Company. Chicago, Illinois. p. 383 of 785.

Osman & Hapeman. 1865. Candidates. The Ottawa Free Trader. Ottawa, Illinois. p. 2. column 1. August 19, 1865.

Osman & Hapeman. 1866. The Ottawa Academy of Natural Sciences. The Ottawa Free Trader. Ottawa, Illinois. p. 3. column 3. March 10, 1866.

Osman & Hapeman. 1867. Lumber! Lumber! The Ottawa Free Trader. Ottawa, Illinois. p. 1. column 3. May 11, 1867.

Osman & Hapeman. 1869. Business change. The Ottawa Free Trader. Ottawa, Illinois. p. 1. column 3. September 25, 1869.

Osman & Hapeman. 1871. Fires in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The Ottawa Free Trader. Ottawa, Illinois. p. 4. column 3. October 21, 1871.

Page, H.R. 1882. History of Manistee County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. H.R. Page & Co. Chicago, Illinois. 88 pp.

Richardson, D.N. & J.J. Richardson. (eds.) 1877. Acdemy of Sciences. Daily Iowa State Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 1. column 3. December 29. 1877.

Skaer, H. 1878a. Our Engraving (W.W. Calkins Biography). The Valley Naturalist, Saint Louis, Missouri. 1(7):1.

Skaer, H. 1878b. The Valley Naturalist Volumes 1- 11. Saint Louis, Missouri.

Wentworth, Z.C. 1871. Fires in Michigan. Racine County Argus. Racine, Wisconsin. p. 3. column 5. October 12, 1871.

Williams, R. 1877. Catalogue of the phaenogamia of flowering plants of La Salle County. in Baldwin, Elmer. History of La Salle County, Illinois. p. 487.

Wilson, John L. 1883. A Chicagoan in Florida. The Chicago Tribune. p. 20. column 6. March 4, 1883. Chicago, Illinois.

Calverley, Stephen H. (1802 - 1879)

To the best of my knowledge, no complete biographical sketch of Stephen H. Calverley exists, but snippets of his life and accomplishments are scattered about in various publications. Mr. Calverley was born in England and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1844 (National Archives 1844). The 1860 census of Brooklyn, New York (Family Search 2017, U.S. Federal Census 1860) lists a 58-year-old Stephen Calverley (hence the projected birth year of 1802) living in Brooklyn, New York with Charity (60 years of age and presumably his spouse), William (age 29, a son?), and Margret (age 21, a daughter?). He perished in his Trenton, New York home on Saturday, September 27, 1879 following a prolonged illness (Anonymous 1879 a&b, Lastowicka 2006).

Calverley was apparently a smooth shaven, bespectacled man who spoke with a prominent London accent and assembled a herbarium of considerable size (~ 9000 specimens (Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences 1894)). He and Reverend George Hulst helped found the Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Sciences, whose herbarium was eventually combined with others to form the original Brooklyn Botanic Garden herbarium in 1914 (Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2015). Though his plant collections were cited in the work of various authors like Lamont (2007) and Matthews et al. (2009), Stephen Calverley is most often mentioned in the literature in connection with his contributions to entomology. He was one of the "elected Correspondents" chosen by the Entomological Society of Philadelphia in 1861 and his collections were often cited in the organization's proceedings (Cresson 1861).

Calverley assembled a large insect collection and an extensive library of entomology texts. The diversity of his collection was bolstered by his employment in New York with Moses Taylor and Company as a weighmaster (person who verifies the weight of commercial loads of goods), which kept him in contact with shipments that arrived from ports around the globe. Calverley maintained contact with sailors working aboard the shipping vessels and obtained from them insect specimens native to many exotic regions of the world (Graef 1914, Knaus 1928).

Augustus R. Grote commemorated Calverley's contributions to entomology in naming Papilio calverleyi nov. sp. (Grote 1861-1863) and Deilephila calverleyi nov. sp. (Grote 1865) in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia. "In 1890 the late William Calverley presented to the Institute the entire collection of Lepidoptera made by his father, Stephen Calverley, during the years 1832-1872. The collection contains the type Papilio calverly [sic], is in a good state of preservation and is carefully labeled. Catalogues accompanying the collection give the location, time of collection and the habitat of most of the insects. In the collection a few species also of Coleoptera are found (Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences 1909)."

"John W. Weidemeyer and Stephen Calverley of Brooklyn in 1863 began to issue a series of colored plates of North American Sphingidae ..." (Heppner 1998). William H. Edwards met the two amateur collectors and the three formed a partnership that resulted in the completion of the plates illustrating American hawkmoths. Evidently the trio intended to complete a monograph of the Sphingidae, but there is no evidence that the manuscript was ever started. The illustrations went unpublished until 1903, when 14 copies were printed (Grote 1888, Heppner 1998; Weidemeyer et al. 1903).

Whether botanical or entomological, Stephen Calverley was a dedicated collector, who shared his expertise and specimens with a variety of naturalists (Graef 1914, Grote 1878, Grote & Robinson 1865, Knaus 1928). A few of Calverley's plant collections may be accessed via the Brooklyn Botanic Garden specimen database (Herbarium 2017). Twenty-nine of Stephen Calverley's plant specimens are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

.......

Anonymous. 1879a. Died: Calverley. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 3. column 2. October 2, 1879.

Anonymous. 1879b. Personal: Stephen Calverley obituary. Utica Morning Herald and Daily Gazette. column 5. September 29, 1879.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden. 2015. Herbarium. Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. 1894. The sixth year-book of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Published by the Institute. Brooklyn, New York. see pp. 115 & 257.

Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. 1909. The twenty-first year-book of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Published by the Institute. Brooklyn, New York. see p. 123.

Cresson, Ezra T. (corresponding sec'y) 1861. Proposals and Elections. Proc. Entomological Soc. Phila. 1:45 & 74.

Family Search. 2017. United States Census, 1860. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Graef, Edward L. 1914. Some early Brooklyn entomologists. Bull. Brooklyn Entomological Soc. 9:47-56.

Grote, Aug. R. 1861-1863. Additions to the catalogue of U.S. Lepidoptera. Proc. Entomological Soc. Phila. 1:441.

Grote, Aug. R. 1865. Notes on Cuban Sphingadae. Proc. Entomological Soc. Phila. 5:56.

Grote, Aug. R. 1878. On Euproserpinus phaeton. The Canadian Entomologist. 10:94-97.

Grote, Aug. R. 1888. Correspondence. The Canadian Entomologist. 20:80.

Grote, Aug R. & Coleman T. Robinson. 1865. A Synonymical Catalogue of North American Sphingidae, with notes and descriptions. Proc. Entomological Soc. Philadelphia. 5:149-193.

Heppner, John B. 1998. Hawk Moths and W. H. Edwards: Illustrations of North American Lepidoptera, Sphingidae. Holarctic Lepidoptera 5:35-38.

Herbarium. 2017. Specimen database. Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Brooklyn, New York.

Lamont, Eric. 2007. One hundred fifty years of change in the orchid flora of Brooklyn and Queens, New York. Trans. Linnean Soc. New York 10:123-132.

Lastowicka, Bea. 2006. Stephen Calverley. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Knaus, W. 1928. Letter from a pioneer Kansas entomologist. Jrnl. Kansas Entomological Soc. 1(1):19-23.

Mathews, Katherine G., Niall Dunne, Emily York, & Lena Struwe. 2009. A phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Bartonia (Gentianaceae: Gentianeae), based on molecular and morphological evidence. Syst. Bot. 34:162-172.

National Archives. 1844. Index to Petitions for Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906 National Archives and Records Administration. Washington, DC. NAI Number: 5700802. Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009. Record Group Number: RG 21. Marine Court. New York City. Volume 22. p. 676. Available via Ancestry.com.

U.S. Federal Census. 1860. Brooklyn Ward 11 District 3, Kings, New York. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Weidemeyer, J.W., S. Calverley, and W.H. Edwards. 1903. Illustrations of North American Lepidoptera, Sphingidae . The American Entomological Society. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Cameron, John E. (1867 - 1922)

John Edwin Cameron (birth date: April 25, 1867) was one of five children born to Margaret A. and William T. Cameron. John was the family's second child, all of whom were born in Ohio, but by 1880 the family had moved to a farm in Wyoming Township, Iowa (United States Federal Census 1880). Most of John's life prior to reaching the age of majority is, at least for now, an unknown. However, in August of 1906 Harriet Clearman (B.Ph. & M.S. - 1900 & 1904, respectively from the University of Iowa), and John Cameron were married in Oxford Township, Johnson County, Iowa and the couple raised two children — Cornelia and William (Ancestry.com 2021, Carrell 1922, Robbins 1911, Saylor 2008).

Though information about his early education is yet to be uncovered, John's college education seems to have begun at Lenox College (Hopkinton, Iowa). After earning his degree or perhaps degrees (Faulkes 1898b, Hull 1915) from Lenox, Cameron prepared for the teaching profession at Iowa State Normal School in Cedar Falls, Iowa — from which he graduated in 1894 [degree: "M. Didac." = Master of Didactics (NEA 1913 & 1914, State Normal School 1894)]. Apparently his attendance at the normal school was intermittent as he accepted a principalship at the school in Onslow, Iowa in 1892 (Treimer 1892). John followed up his normal school education by earning a B.Sc. in the biological sciences from the University of Iowa in 1895 (Magee 1894a&b, NEA 1913 & 1914, Robbins 1911, Smith 1922, Stinson 1894 & 1895). [How exactly John finished a degree at the normal school in '84 and then completed a bachelor's degree from a different institution in '95 is unclear.] It was then that John Cameron truly settled in to his career in education.

Just as John's academic career is hard to piece together seamlessly, his early teaching career is tough to reconstruct, but it certainly is a wonderful lesson in geographic diversification. It appears that John's aforementioned assignment in Onslow, Iowa continued in some form or fashion until (?) his academic endeavour at the University of Iowa. Following his one-year stint at the University, John spent the 1895-96 academic year (and perhaps longer?) as the principal at the high school (student population: 38) in Carson, Iowa (Francis 1897). From western Iowa, John headed back to the eastern part of the state.

In January 1898 Mr. Cameron accepted a position as a science teacher at Cedar Rapids High School (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), which he coupled with public presentations on topics in natural science (such as ornithology) to groups of educators (Faulkes 1898a&b & 1907, Meyers 1905). Then in 1906 Cameron landed a job at Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri (Mantle 1906). In Missouri, Cameron had more than a passing interest in ornithology as he participated in the Audubon Society's winter bird count and led birding trips for students (Nelson 1909 a&b). Though he seems to have had a true appreciation for fowl, John evidently considered English sparrows to be expendable pests, as he harvested them with a shotgun and made them provisions for his table (Nelson 1914 a&b). Mr. Cameron left Central High School in 1910.

The next stop on his career journey was at Northwest Missouri Normal School (Maryville, Missouri), where his annual salary, at least during his first year, was set at $1600.00 (about $45,000/year in today's money (Friedman 2021)) to teach physics and agriculture (Lawlor 1911, M'Farland 1910, Wray 1910a). During his stay in Maryville, Prof. Cameron's successes in a variety of ag related projects, like seed viability, seed selection, crop judging, animal husbandry, insect pests, etc. were often publicized in the local newspapers. Apparently his ag related accomplishments were so well received and publicized, that delegates from other states sought his counsel (Hull 1912). In Maryville, Cameron continued to participate in ornithological pursuits too (Wray 1910d), presented travel logs to the community (Wray 1910b), and was active in Chautauqua activities (Wray 1910c).

In August of 1915 John tendered his resignation in order to accept a position — which included a considerable bump in salary — in agriculture education at the State University of Iowa and a science teaching position in the Iowa City school district (Hull 1915, Johnston 1916a). Soon after returning to Iowa, Mr. Cameron was successfully leading talks and demonstrations on seed corn storage, testing, and germination (Johnston 1916b). In addition to the ag education he was promoting at the high school and community level, John also incorporated the study of ornithology in his high school classroom (Johnston 1916c). During the five or so years preceding Cameron's death in April of 1922, the mention of his name in the Iowa City Press-Citizen diminished. Occasionally his name appeared with regard to crop or livestock sales and in March & April of 1919 (Johnston 1919 a&b) John was reported to have purchased 80 acres of farmland is West Lucas Township, Johnson County, Iowa (Sec. 17, T79N, R6W - about here)

Beyond his commitments to secondary education and agriculture, John Cameron chose a diverse life pursuit. He became a well-known and popular lecturer on the Chautauqua circuit (Parlette 1909), where he used his own photographs (lantern slides) in engaging presentations on a variety of topics including birds, botany, insects, agriculture, and the natural history of Yellowstone National Park (Carrell 1922, Redpath Chautauqua Records 1900-1909, Wray 1910b). As a botanist, Cameron had at least a passing interest in ferns and mosses, as evidenced by his collections cited in "A preliminary list of the mosses of Iowa" (Savage 1899) and "Iowa Pteridophyta in the herbarium of the State University of Iowa" (Shimek 1899). He authored "Forest trees of Delaware County" and he was well acquainted with the utility of a herbarium (Cameron 1897 & 1903). He even joined a paleontological excursion in Wyoming.

Prof. William C. Knight (University of Wyoming) led a 40-day geology/paleontology field trip in the state of Wyoming that began July 20, 1899 and was described in detail by Schuchert (1899 a&b). As part of that field trip, "Mr. J. E. Cameron of Coe College, Iowa, acted as botanist to the expedition, and went home laden with a collection of the rare and beautiful flowers which strew the prairies and deck the mountain sides" (Van Norman 1899). Three things are worth mentioning here. One, though Cameron was listed as the "Referee for botany" (Schuchert 1899a, p. 10), no plant collections made by Cameron from Wyoming have been recorded in either the iDigBio or SEINet plant database and none are present in the Drexler Herbarium at Coe College. Two, in reality, John Cameron was not a member of the Coe College staff, instead he was teaching at Cedar Rapids High School at the time (Faulkes 1899). Three, Faulkes (1899) also listed "Profs. Stookey of Coe college [sic]" as a member of the excursion. That person was likely Steven W. Stookey (Marrs pers. comm.), but he was not mentioned in any of the field trip publications.

Even so, the Coe College contingent is mentioned at least thrice in Schuchert's field trip summaries. He quoted a field trip related poem attributed to "H. Vincent, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Ia." (Schuchert 1899 a&b). The second mention is "Aug 22 - 99 Tuesday Camp XV & XVI. ... In the afternoon I go with Cameron collecting plants first over the higher dryer [sic] ground and then along the small streams. Worked late pressing plants (Schuchert 1899a, pp. 91 & 92)." Thirdly, according to Schuchert (1899a, pp. 96 & 97), "Near this camp is a little log school house the second one we have met on this trip. It is presided over by Miss J.J. Holway an interesting young lady. Cornell and Cameron photograph her and the class consisting of three girls and one boy." Regrettably, Knight (1900) mentioned neither Coe College nor botany is his well-written description of the fossil bed field trip for National Geographic Magazine.

Judging from the specimens in the iDigBio and SEINet databases, Cameron's plant collecting activities began in 1894. But the number of specimens attributed to him are few in number, until the summer of 1898, when Thomas E. Savage, Francis E. Lenocker, and Cameron trekked through Washington and Oregon on a plant collecting excursion (Fuller 1898). The purpose of the field trip is yet to be uncovered, but the trio collected about 190 species of plants during June, July, and August. Only two J.E. Cameron specimens (Achillea millefolium & Rosa blanda collected in Iowa) are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium, but as mentioned above additional specimens collected by him may be perused using the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. John Edwin Cameron. Lorri Strawser Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Cameron, John E. 1897. Forest trees of Delaware County. Iowa Geological Survey. 8:193-199.

Cameron, John E. 1903. The value of making an herbarium. School Science. 3:87-90.

Carrell, Dale E. (ed.) 1922. John E. Cameron. Iowa City Press-Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. page 2. column 1. April 3, 1922.

Francis, David R. 1897. Statistics of secondary schools. Report of the Secretary of the Interior. Vol. 5. Part 2. Message and Documents to the 54th Congress. Washington, D.C. pp. 1640 & 1641.

Faulkes, F.W. 1898a. Teacher is added. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. p. 7. column 1. January 4, 1898.

Faulkes, F.W. 1898b. Personal and Local. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. p. 2. column 5. January 10, 1898.

Faulkes, F.W. 1899. Make a rich strike: Fossil hunters from Cedar Rapids are strictly in it. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. p. 8. column 2. August 4, 1899.

Faulkes, F.W. 1907. Program for teachers' meeting at Centerville. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. p. 10. column 5. February 19, 1907.

Friedman, Morgan. 2021. Inflation Calculator. The Inflation Calculator.

Fuller, M.L. (ed.) 1898. Alumni News. The Normal Eyte. 7(36):12. Iowa State Normal School. Cedar Falls, Iowa. June 18, 1898.

Hull, J.F. (ed.) 1912. Louisiana asks help of Prof. J.E. Cameron. The Maryville Tribune. Maryville, Missouri. p. 2. column 4. March 21, 1912.

Hull, J.F. (ed.) 1915. Prof. John E. Cameron back to alma mater. The Maryville Tribune. Maryville, Missouri. p. 1. column 4. August 9, 1915.

Johnston, Elmer E. (prop.) 1916a. Large crowd hears Cameron. The Iowa City Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 2. column 1. February 26, 1916.

Johnston, Elmer E. (prop.) 1916b. Some corn tests unusually poor. The Iowa City Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 6. column 5. March 1, 1916.

Johnston, Elmer E. (prop.) 1916c. Bird study at high school. The Iowa City Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 3. columns 6&7. March 11, 1916.

Johnston, Elmer E. (prop.) 1919a. Real Estate Transfers. Iowa City Daily Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 2. column 5. March 29, 1919.

Johnston, Elmer E. (prop.) 1919b. Real Estate Transfers. The Iowa City Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 7. column 6. April 21, 1916.

Knight, Wilbur C. 1900. The Wyoming fossil fields expedition of 1899. National Geographic Magazine. 11(12):449-465

Lawlor, M. (ed.) 1911. Doubled the yield. The Catholic Tribune. St. Joseph, Missouri. p. 2. columns 1 & 2. December 16, 1911.

M'Farland, Daniel. (ed.) 1910. Regents in the annual meeting: Faculty to be selected for next year. The Maryville Republican. Maryville, Missouri. p. 1. column 4. May 24, 1910.

Magee, C.C. (ed.) 1894a. Alumni. The Normal Eyte. 3(28):221. Iowa State Normal School. Cedar Falls, Iowa. April 14, 1894.

Magee, C.C. (ed.) 1894b. Alumni. The Normal Eyte. 3(29):231. Iowa State Normal School. Cedar Falls, Iowa. April 21, 1894.

Mantle, Jess. 1906. Alumni Department. The Normal Eyte. 17(7):106. Iowa State Normal School. Cedar Falls, Iowa. October 24, 1906.

Meyers, P.W. 1905. Teachers in August. The Denison Review. Denison, Iowa. p. 1. columns 1 & 2. July 19, 1905.

Marrs, Robert. (pers. comm.) Professor Emeritus. Coe College. Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

NEA. 1913. Yearbook and list of active members. National Education Assoc. Ann Arbor, Michigan. p. 228 of 375.

NEA. 1914. Yearbook and list of active members. National Education Assoc. Ann Arbor, Michigan. p. 208 of 375.

Nelson, William R. (ed.) 1909a. How a bird census is taken. Kansas City Star. Kansas City, Missouri. p. 4. column 2. December 26, 1909.

Nelson, William R. (ed.) 1909b. Studying nature at first hand. How Kansas City school children "go gunning" with opera glasses for birds of the forest. Kansas City Star. Kansas City, Missouri. p. 17. columns 1 & 2. April 25, 1909.

Nelson, William R. (ed.) 1914a. One way to solve the H. C. of L. Kansas City Star. Kansas City, Missouri. p. 14. column 6. June 25, 1914.

Nelson, William R. (ed.) 1914b. Missouri Notes. Kansas City Star. Kansas City, Missouri. p. 14. column 3. August 3, 1914.

Parlette, Ralph (ed.). 1909. Chautauqua promotional announcement. The Lyceumite & Talent. Vol. 3. No. 5, p. 54 & No. 6, p. 28.

Redpath Chautauqua Records. 1900-1909. Cameron, John E.: lecturer on nature study. Special Collections Dept. The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.

Robbins, E.C. 1911. Alumni Register Number 1847-1911. The Iowa Alumnus. Alumni Bureau of Information. Iowa City, Iowa. pp. 30 & 33 of 271.

Savage, T.E. 1899. A preliminary list of the mosses of Iowa. Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist. State Univ. of Iowa. Volume 5 5:154-164.

Saylor, Ken. 2008. John Edwin Cameron. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Schuchert, Charles. 1899a. Trip to Wyoming. Field notes of author. pp. 55, 91-92, 96-97.

Schuchert, Charles. 1899b. The fossil field's expedition to Wyoming. Science. 10(255):725-728. (November 17, 1899)

Shimek, B. 1899. Iowa Pteridophyta in the herbarium of the State University of Iowa. Jrnl. Ia. Acad. Sci. 6:145-170, 214-215.

Smith, Grace Partridge (ed.). 1922. Alumni Notes. The Iowa Alumnus 19:306.

State Normal School. 1894. Catalog of State Normal School. Gazette Book and Job Printing House. Cedar Falls, Iowa. pp. 14-16.

Stinson, C.E. (ed.) 1894. Alumni. The Normal Eyte. 4(6):87. Iowa State Normal School. Cedar Falls, Iowa. October 20, 1894.

Stinson, C.E. (ed.) 1895. Alumni. The Normal Eyte. 4(24):328. Iowa State Normal School. Cedar Falls, Iowa. March 16, 1895.

Treimer, Carl. (ed.) 1892. Local and personal. The Normal Eyte. 2(12):94. Iowa State Normal School. Cedar Falls, Iowa. November 29, 1892.

United States Federal Census. 1880. Wyoming Township, Jones County, Iowa.. in Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Van Norman, Louis E. 1899. Fossil hunting in the Rockies. The Independent. 51:2684-2686.

Wray, Curtis. (publ.) 1910a. President Taylor was elected for two years. The Weekly Tribune. Maryville, Missouri. p. 6. columns 1&2. May 26, 1910.

Wray, Curtis. (publ.) 1910b. A trip through Yellowstone Park. The Weekly Tribune. Maryville, Missouri. p. 7. column 2. June 23, 1910.

Wray, Curtis. (publ.) 1910c. Platform manager at Ohio Chautauqua. The Weekly Tribune. Maryville, Missouri. p. 3. column 3. August 18, 1910.

Wray, Curtis. (publ.) 1910d. The bird census was taken Christmas Day. The Weekly Tribune. Maryville, Missouri. p. 4. column 6. December 29, 1910.

Campbell, John Roy (18XX-19XX)

It appears the John Roy Campbell lived part of his life in Blockton, Iowa — a claim that is based upon a single quote in Pammel (1911). Beyond that, this author has been unable to uncover any additional information that can be tied with certainty to the John Roy Campbell discussed in the following three paragraphs.

John Roy Campbell earned his B.S. degree from Iowa State University in 1909 and was an assistant in the botany department. John started a graduate program there in Ames during the same year (Allen 1909, Campbell & Schaeffer 1909, Storms 1910). In 1911 Mr. Campbell worked as a botany instructor at Iowa State University and he earned his M.S. degree in botany (Campbell 1911, Stanton 1911).

During his time at Iowa State University, Mr. Campbell contributed to L.H. Pammel's text on poisonous plants (Pammel 1911). Campbell also completed research that was described in Pammel & King’s seed investigations (Pammel & King 1910).

J.R. Campbell is included among these biographies, because 18 of his plant collections are part of the Putnam Museum herbarium. Fifteen of those were collected in Story County, Iowa and the other three were from Woodbury County, Iowa. All of the specimens were collected in 1909 and they may be viewed online via the SEINet specimen database.

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Allen, E.W. (ed.) 1909. Notes – Iowa College and Station. Experiment Station Record. Vol. 21. p. 693.

Campbell, John Roy. 1911. A study of some weed seeds together with a key for their identification. M.S. Thesis. Iowa State College.

Campbell, John Roy & Lloyd Lawrence Schaeffer. 1909. A Study of the Fruit Bud Formation of the Strawberry. Bachelor’s degree thesis. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Pammel, L.H. 1911. A manual of poisonous plants. The Torch Press. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. p. 379 of 977.

Pammel, L.H. & Charlotte M. King. 1910. Results of seed investigations for 1908 and 1909. Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Bulletin 115. pp. 159, 166, 169 of 177.

Storms, Albert B. 1910. Department of Botany & List of Students. Bulletin of the Iowa State College of Agriculture & Mechanic Arts. Ames, Iowa. Volume 8. pp. 285, 337.

Stanton, E.W. 1911. Instructors & Graduate Students. Bulletin of the Iowa State College of Agriculture & Mechanic Arts. Ames, Iowa. Volume 9. pp. 18 & 368.

Canby, William M. (1831 - 1904)

William Marriott Canby was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Marriott and Eliza Canby; he had two younger sisters, Anna & Martha (Ancestry.com 2021, Morrison 2014). Educated privately and at Westown School, it seems that, though he traveled extensively, Canby spent his entire life residing within 50 or 100 miles of Philadelphia — much of it in or near Wilmington, Delaware.

In the 1850s Canby embraced gainful employment as a farmer in the vicinity of Coatesville, Pennsylvania and it was there in Chester County that he began developing not only his employment history, but his commitment to the world of botany. When not busy with plant and animal husbandry, Canby collected plants in Chester County and other scattered locations in New England (iDigBio 2021,Rusby 1904, SEINet 2021). Though he enjoyed the out-of-doors, apparently life on the farm lost its appeal, so William abandoned his agrarian lifestyle in 1866 and moved to Wilmington, Delaware.

After his move to Wilmington, Canby met Ms. Edith Dillon Mathews (1835 - 1892). Edith was a native of Zanesville, Ohio and how exactly she and William became acquainted has not been uncovered. That's of little concern, because evidently each found the other compatible and the pair were married June 15, 1870 in Zanesville, Ohio. That union produced three children — William Marriott Canby Jr. (1871-1937), Henry Mathews Canby (1874-1928), William Shipley Canby (1875-1892) (Ancestry.com 2021).

William M. Canby thrived in Wilmington and became an accomplished businessman, who enjoyed successful ventures in the banking (Wilmington Savings Fund Trust & Union National Bank (Jenkins & Atkinson 1870, JSTOR 2013)), insurance (Delaware Fire Insurance Company (JSTOR 2013, Johnson 1880)), and railroad (Delaware Western Railroad (Every Evening Publishing Company 1877, Johnson 1877)) industries. All were successes that allowed him to be a significant patron of organizations/charities that benefited the public.

Among his philanthropic engagements were the Wilmington Institute (predecessor of the Wilmington Public Library (Jenkins & Atkinson 1869)), Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Croasdale & Cameron 1872), Associated Charities (News Publishing Company 1885 & 1886), Wilmington Park Commission, Wilmington Natural History Society, and others acknowledged in various newspapers. Equally important, his financial prosperity also allowed Mr. Canby to travel widely and pursue his commitment to botany (Harshberger 1899, JSTOR 2013, Rose 1904, Rusby 1904).

Canby's botanical interests varied from the general (the floras of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and western states (Britton 1892, O'Byrne 1878, Rose 1904)) to the specific (studies of insectivorous plants (Canby 1868 & 1874)). Online database records show Canby's earliest plant collections occurred from a variety of locations in the Northeast. Then in the spring of 1858 he traveled to the Jacksonville region of Florida in what appears to be his first long-distance botanical foray (iDigBio 2021,Rusby 1904, SEINet 2021). In 1882 and 1883 he was a botanist with the Northern Transcontinental Survey, which investigated the natural resources along the route of the Northern Pacific Railway through part of Montana. Canby botanized the part of Montana that extends from Helena north and west to Flathead Lake and then northeast to Cut Bank Pass near present-day East Glacier Park (Blankinship 1904, Rose 1904). In the late summer of 1897 Canby traveled with John Muir and Charles Sprague Sargent to Alaska (Bade 1924) and in September of 1898, the same trio took a fieldtrip to Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina (Moore 2006).

Though Canby published only sparingly (see Rose 1904), he was fascinated with carnivorous plants, specifically the Venus flytrap (Dionaea) and pitcher plants in the genus Darlingtonia (Elder 1997). His considerable knowledge of them led to professional correspondence with Charles Darwin in England and Rebecca M. Austin in California (Britton 1892, JSTOR 2013). During his botanical career Canby amassed a herbarium of approximately 45,000 specimens - about two-thirds of them went to the New York College of Pharmacy and the other third he donated to the Natural History Society of Delaware (Britton 1892, Rose 1904). Among the accepted plant binomials that bear his name are: Angelica canbyi, Lobelia canbyi, Paxistima canbyi, Poa canbyi, and Quercus canbyi (Tropicos 2017).

Mr. Canby amassed a personal herbarium during his career that exceeded 30,000 specimens and it's hard to say when he began collecting plants. Dates listed with some online specimens are obviously erroneous, but it seems reasonable to assume his earliest specimens date to the 1840s. Regardless, 16 of Canby's specimens are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium and thousands of additional Canby records may be viewed at the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. William Marriott Canby Sr. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Bade, William Frederic. 1924.
The Life and Letters of John Muir. John Muir Exhibit. Sierra Club.

Blankinship, J. W. 1904. A century of botanical exploration in Montana, 1805-1905. Montana Agricultural College Science Studies. 1:3-31.

Britton, N.L. (ed.) 1892. The Canby Herbarium. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 19:336-339.

Canby, Wm. M. 1868. Notes on Dionaea muscipula Ellis. Gardener's Monthly 10:229-232.

Canby, Wm. M. 1874. Darlingtonia californica, an insectivorous plant. Proc. Amer. Assoc. Advan. Sci. 23:64-72.

Croasdale & Cameron. (Prop.) 1872. Humane People. Every Evening. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 4. column 2. December 30, 1872.

Elder, Christina L. 1997. Reproductive biology of Darlingtonia californica. Humboldt State University. Master of Arts thesis. 75 pp.

Every Evening Publishing Company. 1877. New railroad company. Every Evening and Commercial. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 3. columns 4 & 5. May 31, 1877.

Harshberger, John W. 1899. The botanists of Philadelphia and their work. T.C. Davis & Son. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 278-283.

Jenkins, Howard M. & Wilmer Atkinson. (eds.) 1869. Institute election. The Delaware Tribune. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 3. column 5. February 4, 1869.

Jenkins, Howard M. & Wilmer Atkinson. (eds.) 1870. The banks: Election of officers. The Delaware Tribune. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 2. column 2. January 13, 1870.

Johnson, C.P. (ed.) 1877. D.W. Railroad. The Daily Gazette. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 3. column 6. July 18, 1877.

Johnson, C.P. (ed.) 1880. The Superior Court: The libel suit takes another full day. The Daily Gazette. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 1. column 2. November 30, 1880.

JSTOR. 2013. Canby, William Marriott (1831-1904). Global Plants.

Moore, Molly (ed.). 2006. John Muir's visit to Grandfather Mountain. Appalachian Voices. Boone, North Carolina.

Morrison, Richard. 2014. William Marriott Canby Sr. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

News Publishing Company. 1885. Relieving the poor: System of the Associated Charities. The Morning News. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 1. column 3. January 6, 1885.

News Publishing Company. 1886. Associated Charities: Work done during the past year, The incoming officers. The Morning News. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 1. column 3. October 21, 1886.

O'Byrne, George (ed.) 1878. A Wilmingtonian honored. The Morning Herald. Wilmington, Delaware. p. 1. column 5. August 5, 1878.

Rose, J. N. 1904. William M. Canby. Botanical Gazette. 37:385-388.

Rusby, H.H. 1904. William Marriott Canby. Torreya. 4:52-56.

Tropicos. 2017. Name search: advanced search. Missouri Botanical Garden. Saint Louis, Missouri.

Carpenter, Dr. William M. (1811 - 1848)

In 1773 William Marbury Carpenter's forebears settled in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana and he was born there in June of 1811 (parents: James Carpenter and Ann Marbury Carpenter). Carpenter's early education was supervised by private tutors. Perhaps more important than his early formal education was the fact that Oakley Plantation, the short-term home of John James Audubon, was also located in West Feliciana Parish. Though their interactions must have been brief, Audubon's influence helped Carpenter develop an early interest in birds, botany, rocks, and taxidermy.

Carpenter's education continued at College of Louisiana's Mathews Academy and after graduation, he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But, a severe heart condition forced him to resign his military appointment and he returned to Louisiana. In 1835 Carpenter was among the first graduates from the Medical College of Louisiana (now Tulane University). Then in April 1837 he accepted a position as professor in the Natural Science department at College of Louisiana (present-day Centenary College) in Jackson, Louisiana, where he taught botany, geology, and other subjects (Cocks 1914, Conrad 1988, Jones 2013, Morgan 2008, Zombie finder 2013).

Carpenter returned to the Medical College of Louisiana in New Orleans in 1842 as professor of "Materia Medica" and concurrently joined the medical practice of Dr. Warren Stone at the Canal Street Infirmary (Jones 2013, Lumsden et al. 1847). Though a practicing physician, Carpenter was an accomplished botanist, geologist, and paleontologist (Carpenter 1838, 1839a&b, 1846a), so much so that he was recommended to serve as advisor and guide to British geologist Sir Charles Lyell. They made two trips together in 1846 — one downstream of New Orleans to the mouth of the Mississippi River at Balize, Louisiana and the other upstream of New Orleans to Browne's White Cliffs just west of Port Hudson, Louisiana. Carpenter's efforts were so beneficial that Lyell wrote his (Carpenter's) "knowledge of botany and geology as well as his amiable manners, made him a most useful and agreeable companion" (Cocks 1914, Lyell 1847 & 1849, McInnis 1979).

In addition to occasionally publishing in Silliman's Journal (a.k.a. American Journal of Science and Arts) on various topics (Carpenter 1838, 1839a&b, 1844, 1846a&b), and attending to his duties as a practicing physician, Dr. Carpenter served as an editor of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. Carpenter, Josiah Hale, and John L. Riddell were serious students of Louisiana's flora and each of them contributed to a "Plants of Louisiana" manuscript that Riddell submitted to the Smithsonian Institution in 1851. Though the Smithsonian rejected the manuscript, Riddell published an abbreviated version of it entitled "Catalogus florae ludovicianae" in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal in 1852 (Cocks 1914, Riddell 1852).

Fellow botanists and physicians, John L. Riddell and John Torrey published tributes to Dr. Carpenter by naming plants after him. Riddell named a groundcherry, Physalis carpenterii (= Calliphysalis carpenteri), in recognition of Carpenter's achievements (Riddell 1853, Whitson 2012 a&b) and Torrey (1853) dedicated Carpenteria californica to William M. Carpenter. "This genus is named in memory of my excellent departed friend, the late Professor of Louisiana, who for many years laboriously and successfully investigated the Botany of his native State, but who was suddenly arrested in his career, while preparing an account of his researches."

Though Carpenter assembled a herbarium, apparently most of his specimens became decrepit and were destroyed or lost (Bradburn & Darwin 1993, Cocks 1914). Though fewer than 100 appear to have survived, they are present in various herbaria that may be accessed via the iDigBio and/or SEINet specimen databases. Three of Carpenter's specimens from Louisiana — Crotonopsis linearis Michx., Microstylis ophioglossoides Nutt. (= Malaxis unifolia Michx.), Vicia micrantha Nutt. — are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Bradburn, Anne S. and Steven P. Darwin. 1993. Type specimens of vascular plants at Tulane University, with a brief history of the Tulane Herbarium. Tulane Studies in Zoology and Botany 29:73-95.

Carpenter, William M. 1838. Interesting fossils found in Louisiana. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. and Arts 34:201-203.

Carpenter, William M. 1839a. Miscellaneous notices in Opelousas, Attakapas, &c. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. and Arts 35:344-346.

Carpenter, William 1839b. Account of the Bituminization of Wood in the human era. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. and Arts 36:118-124.

Carpenter, William M. 1844. Sketches from the History of Yellow Fever; Showing its origin, Together with facts and circumstances disproving its domestic origin, Demonstrating its transmissibility. J. B. Steel. New Orleans, Louisiana. 130pp.

Carpenter, William M. 1846a. Remarks on some Fossil Bones recently brought to New Orleans from Tennessee and from Texas. 2nd series. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. and Arts 2:244-250.

Carpenter, William M. 1846b. Description of a peculiar arrangement of muscles in the glass snake, (Ophisaurus). 2nd series. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. and Arts 2:89-95.

Cocks, Reginald S. 1914. William M. Carpenter, A Pioneer Scientist of Louisiana. Tulane Graduates' Magazine. 3: 122-127.

Conrad, Glenn R. ed. 1988. Dictionary of Louisiana biography. Louisiana Historical Association. Lafayette, Louisiana. 1132 pp.

Jones, William D. 2013. Tulane University's Antebellum Ancestral Institutions and Slavery. Honors Thesis. Bachelor of Arts. Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. 71 pp.

Lumsden, F.A., Geo. Wilkins Kendall, A.M. Holbrook, & A.C. Bullitt. 1847. Canal Street Infirmary or Maison de Sante. The Daily Picayune. New Orleans, Louisiana. p. 1. column 5. August 24, 1847.

Lyell, Charles. 1847. On the delta and alluvial deposits of the Mississippi, and other points in the geology of North America, observed in the years 1845, 1846. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. and Arts 3:34-39.

Lyell, Charles. 1849. A second visit to the United States of North America. Vol. II. John Murray. London, England. 382 pp.

McInnis, Martha (chair) 1979. Bartram Heritage: A study of the life of William Bartram. The Bartram Trail Conference. Montgomery, Alabama. p. 194.

Morgan, Lee. 2008. Centenary College of Louisiana, 1825-2000: The biography of an American Academy. Centenary College of Louisiana Press. Shreveport, LA. pp. 14, 15, & 27 of 376.

Riddell, J. L. 1852. Catalogus florae ludovicianae. New Orleans Medical & Surgical Jrnl. 8:743-764.

Riddell, J. L. 1853. Botanical contributions: New and hitherto unpublished plants of the South West. New Orleans Medical & Surgical Jrnl. 9:609-61

Torrey, John. 1853. Plantae Fremontianae. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 6(2):12–13.

Whitson, Maggie. 2012a. Calliphysalis (Solanceae): A new genus from the Southeastern USA. Rhodora 114(958):133-147.

Whitson, Maggie. 2012b. Correction. Rhodora 114(959):330.

Zombie finder. 2013. William Marbury Carpenter. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Carver, George Washington (1864 - 1943)

George Washington Carver was born in 1864 near Diamond, Missouri. He was one of several children born to slaves Giles, who died around the time of George's birth in a log-hauling accident, and Mary. Mary was purchased by Moses and Susan Carver in 1855 (bill of sale here) and to make matters worse, they were stolen when George was an infant.

In George's words, "My mother and myself were Ku Klucked and sold in Arkansas. I was nearly dead with the whooping cough, frail and sick. Mr. Carver sent a horse, valued at $300, to purchase us back. Every effort was made to find my mother, but to no avail. Destiny so fixed it that I should know neither father nor mother (National Park Service 2020a)." George never fully regained good health from the whooping cough and, because of his weakened condition, he was ill-suited for the rigors of field work, so his assignments usually involved household chores and gardening duties. In this case, frailty was a blessing; it allowed George to investigate the countryside and his interest in nature (especially plants) blossomed (a car 2009, Biography.com 2016, Federer 2017, Find a grave 2001, History.com staff 2009, National Park Service 2020a, Nussbaum 2016).

After the abolition of slavery, "Uncle" Moses and "Aunt" Sue Carver raised George and his older brother, James, as their own sons (photos of Moses, George, and James here). Sue taught George to read and write, but most schools remained closed to Black students. Ultimately George walked the eight or ten miles south to Neosho, where he lived with Andrew and Mariah Watkins and attended the Lincoln School for Black children. At about age 13 he moved about 65 miles northwest to Fort Scott, Kansas, because according to George, "The schools for colored children in Kansas were better than the ones in Missouri (National Park Service 2020 a&b)."

Carver studied art, English, history, mathematics, and science at Fort Scott Colored School and supported himself during his stay (September 1878 through March 1879) by working as a cook and housekeeper. Violence and racism drove Carver away from Fort Scott in March of 1879, when he witnessed the lynching and then burning of a Black man by an angry crowd (NPS 2020 b& n.d.).

George made his way to Olathe, Kansas, where he met former slaves Ben and Lucy Seymour. George helped Mrs. Seymour with her laundry business, worked in a barbershop, and continued his education, but then in 1880 he moved with the Seymours to Minneapolis, Kansas.

Carver was no less industrious in Minneapolis than he'd been elsewhere. The young man worked at a local dry-goods store, started his own successful laundry business, made a home for himself out of a converted chicken coop, read books lent to him by the town's physician, and joined the local Presbyterian Church. On top of that George studied under Miss Helen Eacker at Minneapolis High School and earned a high school diploma in 1885 (Biography.com editors 2016, Kansas Historical Society 2016, Nussbaum 2016, Wilson & Taylor 2020).

Right after graduation, George applied for admission to Highland College, a small Presbyterian school in Highland, Kansas. He was accepted for the fall semester, so he spent the summer working and learning shorthand and typing in Kansas City. George arrived on campus on September 20, 1885, introduced himself to Reverend Duncan Brown — the same person who had granted his admission to the college — and was promptly told by Rev. Brown, "There has been a mistake. You didn't tell me you were a Negro. Highland College does not take Negroes (Robbins 2021, Wilson & Taylor 2020)."

George, in part, coped with his feelings of shock and disillusionment by hiring on at the Beeler family's fruit farm a bit south of Highland. About the same time, one of the Beeler's sons, Frank, homesteaded on a parcel of land some 280 miles southwest of Highland in Ness County. There he opened a general store at a trail crossing and the town of Beelerville (now just Beeler) was born. (See Eden Township here.) For reasons unknown, George W. Carver decided to join Frank Beeler and in November of 1886 Carver filed a claim on a 160 acre parcel a mile and a half south of Beelerville.

George built himself a sod house, planted 100s of trees, and experimented with a variety of crops. He tried his hand at the field of art and took lessons from Clara Duncan, a black woman who had taught at Talladega College in Alabama before doing missionary work with the African Methodist Episcopal church. George played the accordion for local dances, was an active member of the Beeler Literary Society, and made a little extra money working at a nearby ranch (Burton & Black 1887a&b, Moorhead 1888a&b, Rettig 1977, Robbins 2021, Wilson & Taylor 2020). All in all, it seems that young Mr. Carver left a lasting impression on the folks in and around Beeler as illustrated by a comment from one of his Caucasian neighbors, "When I was in the presence of that young man Carver, as a white man, of the supposed dominant race, I was humiliated by my own inadequacy of knowledge, compared to his" (McMurry 1981).

But evidently neither his farm, nor the odd jobs were big moneymakers and in 1888 he drew a $300.00 mortgage on the property with a bank in Ness City, Kansas and left for Iowa (Rettig 1977, Robbins 2021, Wilson & Taylor 2020). Somehow Carver’s feet led him to Winterset, Iowa in 1889, where he accepted the head cook position at the St. Nicholas Hotel and later, as he had done before, opened a laundry. Through his church attendance, George was befriended by Dr. John Milholland and his wife Helen, a white couple who recognized his potential and suggested he consider enrolling at Simpson College in Indianola (McMurry 1981, Toogood 1973, Wilson & Taylor 2020).

George's studies in art and piano at Simpson began in 1890 and he found that in no small measure the college was a good fit, because the Methodist school welcomed all ethnic groups — one Black student and three Asians were already students there (McMurry 1981, National Park Service n.d., Simpson College 2016, Wilson & Taylor 2020). In life sometimes serendipity, in addition to talent and hard work, plays a role in a person's future and that seems to have been the case for G.W. Carver at Simpson College.

His art teacher, Miss Etta May Budd, critiqued George's paintings and needlework, but she also became aware of his skills in plant breeding and grafting. Though she became confident of his skill as an artist, Ms. Budd was less certain of his ability to make a living as such. And, it so happened that a horticulture professor at Iowa State Agricultural College, Joseph L. Budd, was her father. Recognizing his talents in and enjoyment of plant science, she encouraged George to pursue a career in botany at Ames as a pathway to better employment.

Simpson College and G.W. Carver were compatible — he reflected on his time in Indianola, "They made me believe I was a real human being." — but he remained there for only a year. It's not clear to what degree (if any) Prof. J.L. Budd aided in the decision, but in 1891 George Washington Carver transferred to Iowa State Agricultural College and became the first Black enrollee in the college's history. Though he was at times defamed and disparaged, Carver also found support and success in Ames. The talented and dedicated Carver earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural science (1894), a master's degree in 1896 (Blackwelder 1998, Jones 2016, McMurry 1981, Nussbaum 2016, Wilson & Taylor 2020), and he was involved in far more than academics.

George was active in debating and agricultural societies, the Young Men's Christian Association, a literary group (Welch Eclectic Society), and the Student Army Training Corps (which was associated with the Department of Military Science and Tactics). He was the Iowa State football team's first trainer and even his artistic abilities were honored, when one of his paintings was chosen to represent Iowa at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (Iowa Public Television 2016, McMurry 1981, Robbins 2021, Toogood 1973, Wilson & Taylor 2020). Carver became Iowa State's first Black faculty member and attributed much of his success to IAC botany Professor Louis H. Pammel. Later in his life, while at the Tuskegee Institute, Carver wrote to Pammel, "I certainly consider it an honor to have been a pupil of yours, and as I have said to you a few times and to others many times, you influenced my life possibly more than anyone else" (Blackwelder 1998, Hersey 2011).

Carver's goal was to earn the Ph.D. at Iowa State, but in 1896 he received a letter from Booker T. Washington, which in part stated "I cannot offer you money, position or fame. ... I offer you in their place work - hard, hard work - the challenge of bringing people from degradation, poverty and waste to full manhood" (Guttag 2014, Iowa Public Television 2016). Carver chose to forgo the notoriety, stability, and income that were possible with a doctorate and an academic post at Iowa State College. Instead he accepted the position in Alabama and became a professor and Director of Agriculture at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.

Regarding his departure from Ames, Carver once said "My train left the golden wheat fields and the tall green corn of Iowa for the acres of cotton, nothing but cotton, ... Not much evidence of scientific farming anywhere. Everything looked hungry: the land, the cotton, the cattle, and the people" (Kaufman 2019). At Tuskegee, Carver was asked to teach and innovate. From an education perspective Carver focused on the children of ex-slaves in order to divert their efforts from the production of cotton to other crops like peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes (Iowa Public Television 2016, Simpson College 2016, Tuskegee University 2016).

Soon after he arrived at Tuskegee, George instituted a program of practical learning by traveling from farm to farm in a buggy loaded with tools and other crop production materials to give hands-on practical demonstrations. This go-to-the-people method was improved, when the "Jesup Agricultural Wagon" came into being. It was reported that by 1906 the Jesup Wagon Mobile Classroom taught 2000 people per month. The classroom on wheels was fitted with butter molds, churns, cultivators, planters, plows, fertilizers, seeds, and demonstration materials (Kaufman 2019, Zabawa 2012). At each stop three basic tenets were promoted: "If what you're doing isn't working, change!" ... "If you can't afford it, make it!" ... "Here's how it's done!"

Much of George W. Carver's work centered around his goal to end the southern farmers' dependence on cotton, to improve soil quality, and to promote crop rotation. But he found that if he was going to promote the production of peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes, he also needed to find uses for them.

More than 300 products ranging from foods to cosmetics and medicines to beverages, all derived from peanuts, resulted from Carver's research. For the sweet potato alone, his work uncovered over 100 uses. He promoted practical farming methods like crop rotation and the use of organic fertilizers in a manner that was effective and easy to understand. His success brought him fame and his lectures were attended by large crowds, but he never enjoyed a great deal of fortune. In the end, he donated his entire life savings — $60,000 — to the foundation he established. George Washington Carver served his students and the Tuskegee Institute for 47 years and, with the help of his guidance, it became a leading facility in the field of crop science (Guttag 2014, Iowa Public Television 2016, Jones 2016, Tuskegee University 2016).

The life, times, and accomplishments of George Washington Carver — his legacy — are aptly detailed in works cited below like Hersey (2011), McMurry (1981), Toogood (1973), Wilson & Taylor (2020), the National Park Service (2020b) video report, the George Washington Carver National Monument website, and others too numerous to list.

George Washington Carver's legacy was perhaps best summarized during the Congressional Hearings establishing George Washington Carver National Monument: "Occasionally there moves across the stage of time a historic figure, a creative teacher, a profound thinker, a humble servant, or an inspiring teacher. George Washington Carver was all of these. ... The monument we fashion, the memorial we create only indicate to the world that there once was a man named George Washington Carver, whose life was a source of inspiration to all men, a pillar of hope to his race, a fountain of service to his fellows, a tower of devotion to his God; and that this man achieved a worthy and enduring stature in the memories of men (Seventy-eighth Congress 1943)."

Mr. Carver is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Aristida basiramea collected in 1896 from Ames, Iowa. Hundreds of additional collections by G.W. Carver from Alabama, Iowa, and Wisconsin may be examined via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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a car. 2009. James Carver - Brother of George Washington Carver. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Biography.com (eds.) 2016. George Washington Carver - Botanist, Chemist, Scientist, Inventor. A&E Television Networks.

Blackwelder, Murray. 1998. Iowa State celebrates legacy of its first African American student, faculty member -- George Washington Carver. News Service. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Burton, Geo. L. & Philo C. Black. (eds.) 1887a. Correspondence: Beeler. Ness City Times. Ness City, Kansas. p. 1. columns 3&4. December 15, 1887.

Burton, Geo. L. & Philo C. Black. (eds.) 1887b. Beeler Buglings. Ness City Times. Ness City, Kansas. p. 1. column 3. December 22, 1887.

Find a grave. 2001. George Washington Carver. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Guttag, Eric. 2014. Legacy of Dr. George Washington Carver. IPWatchdog.

Federer, William J. 2017. American Minute. Amerisearch, Inc. Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Hersey, Mark D. 2011. My work is that of conservation: An environmental biography of George Washington Carver. University of Georgia Press. Athens, Georgia. pp. 24-48 of 306.

History.com staff. 2009. George Washington Carver. History.com. A+E Networks.

Iowa Public Television. 2016. George Washington Carver. Iowa Pathways: Iowa History Resources for Students and Teachers. Iowa Public Television. Johnston, Iowa.

Jones, Meg. 2016. Specimens in State Herbarium linked back to George Washington Carver. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Kansas Historical Society. 2016. George Washington Carver. Kansapedia. Topeka, Kansas.

Kaufman, Rachel. 2019. In search of George Washington Carver's true legacy. Smithsonian Magazine. February 21, 2019.

McMurry, Linda O. 1981. George Washington Carver: Scientist and Symbol. Oxford University Press. Oxford, United Kingdom. pp. 26 - 27.

Moorhead, S.L. (ed.) 1888a. Beeler Buglings. Ness City Times. Ness City, Kansas. p. 4. column 2. February 16, 1888.

Moorhead, S.L. (ed.) 1888b. Beeler Buglings. Ness City Times. Ness City, Kansas. p. 4. column 3. March 1, 1888.

National Park Service. n.d. Discovering George Washington Carver - A Man of Character. George Washington Carver National Monument. Diamond, Missouri.

National Park Service. 2020a. Struggle and Triumph: The Legacy of George Washington Carver. George Washington Carver National Monument. Diamond, Missouri.

National Park Service. 2020b. Free To Learn: African American Schools in Fort Scott. Fort Scott National Historic Site. Fort Scott, Kansas.

Nussbaum, Greg. 2016. George Washington Carver biography for kids. mrnussbaum.com.

Rettig, Robert B. 1977. George Washington Carver Homestead site. U.S. Dept. of Interior. National Park Service. Washington, D.C.

Robbins, Peggy. 2021. About George Washington Carver: A Tour of His Life. George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center. Austin, Texas.

Seventy-eighth Congress. 1943. George Washington Carver National Monument, Missouri. Joint hearing before the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys - United States Senate and the Committee on Public Lands - House of Representatives. Washington, D.C. p. 40 of 63.

Simpson College. 2016. George Washington Carver. Dunn Library. Archives & Special Collections. Simpson College. Indianola, Iowa.

Toogood, Anna Coxe. 1973. George Washington Carver: Historic resource study and administrative history. Dept. of the Interior. National Park Service. Diamond, Missouri. 106 pp.

Tuskegee University. 2016. Legacy of Dr. George Washington Carver. Legacy of Fame. Tuskegee University. Tuskegee, Alabama.

Wilson, Ron & Kay Ann Taylor. 2020. The quest for education: Racism, paradox, and interest convergence in the life of George Washington Carver. Educational Considerations. Vol. 45. No. 2. Art. 5. 10 pp.

Zabawa, Robert. 2012. Tuskegee Institute Movable School. Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University Outreach. Auburn, Alabama.

Cavanagh, Lucy M. (1871 - 1936)

Only seven years after Iowa gained statehood, Iowa Conference Seminary opened its doors as a coeducational institution in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Matthew Cavanagh and Mary Fellows (Mary's photo here) earned their bachelor's degrees from the seminary in 1857, but did not receive their diplomas until 1858, when Iowa Conference Seminary officially became Cornell College. They were the only members of Cornell College's Class of 1858 and in September of the same year the couple married and established a home in Iowa City, Iowa. Mary and Matthew Cavanagh raised five children: Amy, Julia, Carrie, James, and Lucy. Lucy Mary Cavanagh was the youngest of the family's children, born July 17, 1871 (McGaffey 1904, Rexroat n.d., SLGMSD 2008, Springer 1899).

Lucy graduated from Iowa City High School and continued her education at the State University of Iowa with Ellen Dubal and Hattie Clearman (two women with whom she collected plants). Ms. Cavanagh earned the Bachelor of Science degree in 1896 (State University of Iowa 1905) and taught in the Iowa City public school system, both prior to and for a number of years after completing her university studies (Converse et al. 1893, Paris 1937, Pelzer 1916, SLGMSD 2008, Speidel 1936, Springer 1899, State University of Iowa 1905).

No record has been located of Ms. Dubal's graduation from the University of Iowa. However, she did teach in the Iowa City system, though her specific role is not clear (Converse et al. 1893, Mercer & Mercer 1899 b&c, State University of Iowa 1894 & 1895). Harriet "Hattie" Clearman earned both a Bachelor's (1900) and Master's Degree (1904) from the University of Iowa (Robbins 1911). According to the 1900 Federal Census (Ancestry.com. 2021), Hattie taught physical geography and bookkeeping in Iowa City (Mercer & Mercer 1899a & 1901c) for a period of time. In 1906 she married fellow educator and naturalist John E. Cameron and the couple moved to Kansas City.

In 1902 Ms. Cavanagh became the herbarium assistant at the University of Iowa (Paris 1937, Speidel 1936) and was subsequently named assistant curator in 1911. Also in 1902, Lucy and her friend Hattie Clearman became members of the Iowa Academy of Sciences (Leonard 1902 & 1903). Cavanagh served as an assistant to Bohumil Shimek in plant taxonomy at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory (Alumni Bureau 1911-1912) and continued her herbarium work at the University of Iowa until her death in 1936 (Lewis 2006, Paris 1937). Ms. Cavanagh was a bryologist and, though she did some collecting in Idaho and Montana with Harriet Clearman, her botanical interests focused on the mosses of Iowa (Cavanagh 1919, 1921, 1929, 1929-1931). She was a member of the Sullivant Moss Society and the Iowa Academy of Science (Paris 1937).

Specimens listing Ms. Cavanagh as collector or co-collector, including a number of bryophytes she collected in Idaho and Montana with Hattie M. Clearman during the summer of 1901, may be perused via the iDigBio specimen database. Hattie's brief accounts of their field trip, "Idyls of Idaho" and "Grizzly and Gulch" were published in the Iowa City newspaper (Mercer & Mercer 1901 a&b) and the two plant collectors were back in Iowa City by August 31st (Mercer & Mercer 1901d). In the earlier of the two articles (Mercer & Mercer 1901 a), Hattie stated "... the scientific party with which the representatives of the University of Iowa are associated, left Pocatello on June 21 ...", but no information about the other members or goals of the excursion has been uncovered.

In another paper Ms. Clearman described the lava flows, caves, sand dunes, and vegetation of southern Idaho and implied that she spent parts of 1899 and 1900 investigating that region (Clearman 1903). Again, no additional information about that apparent field investigation has been located. Then in 1901 (July 5 through September 12) a hydrological and geological investigation of the Snake River Desert region of Idaho was completed by the U.S. Geological Survey (Russell 1902). Was there a connection among Cavanagh and Clearman's work in 1901, Clearman's paper from 1903, and the efforts of the U.S. Geological Survey? Evidence is absent, but as the axiom goes "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".

In addition to the Cavanagh/Clearman collections a number of additional plant specimens from the state of Iowa that indicate Ms. Cavanagh partnered with Ellen Dubal are listed in the SEINet and iDigBio databases. Only three specimens bearing Ms. Cavanagh's name — Castilleja sessiliflora, Euphorbia corollata, Orobanche uniflora — are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium and all were collected in Iowa.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Harriet M. "Hattie" Clearman. Lorri Strawser Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Alumni Bureau. 1911-1912. The summer session. State University of Iowa. The Iowa Alumnus. 9:188.

Cavanagh, Lucy M. 1919. The mosses of Iowa, an exological and taxonomic study. University of Iowa: schedule of dissertations. 7:1928.

Cavanagh, Lucy M. 1921. Notes on the Genus Catharinaea in Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 28(1):223-224.

Cavanagh, Lucy M. 1929. Mosses new to Iowa. The Bryologist. 32:112-113

Cavanagh, Lucy M. 1929-1931.
Notes on Iowa's mosses. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. Volumes 36, 37, 39.

Clearman, Harriet M. 1903. A geological situation in the lava flow, with reference to the vegetation. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science. 11(1):5-68.

Converse, Willard L., Willie A. Lomas, & Arthur S. Hamilton. (eds.) 1893. The Hawkeye - Junior annual of the Class of '94. State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. pp. 26-29 of 190.

Lewis, D. 2006. Ada Hayden Herbarium: history. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

Leonard, A.G. 1902. Report of the Secretary. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 10(1):17-21. .

Leonard, A.G. 1903. Iowa Academy of Sciences. Science. Series 2. 17:671-672.

McGaffey, George W. 1904. Genealogy of the McGaffey Family The Opinion Press. Bradford, Vermont. pp. 119 & 120 of 145.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1899a. The convention: Fifth annual convention of the South-Eastern Iowa Teacher's Association now in session. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 5. column 3 & 4. April 7, 1899.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1899b. Interest increases: The opening meeting demonstrates that the teachers are here for work. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. April 7, 1899.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1899c. Teachers named. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 5. column 4. April 19, 1899.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1901a. Idyls of Idaho: Miss Hattie Clearman writes entertainingly about far western jaunt. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. July 5, 1901.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1901b. Grizzly and Gulch: Miss Hattie Clearman tells of life in the very Far West. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 4. columns 5 & 6. August 9, 1901.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1901c. Will open Sept. 9: City schools will begin fall work one week later than plannned. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 4. column 3. August 15, 1901.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1901d. News. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 8. column 1. September 2, 1901.

Paris, Clark D. 1937. Lucy M. Cavanagh. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 44:23-24

Pelzer, Louis (ed.) 1916. The president's reception and class reunions. The Iowa Alumnus. 13(9):9&23.

Rexroat, Dee Ann. n.d. Pioneering women: The top moments in women’s history at Cornell College. Cornell College. Mt. Vernon, Iowa.

Robbins, E.C. 1911. Alumni Register Number 1847-1911. The Iowa Alumnus. Alumni Bureau of Information. Iowa City, Iowa. pp. 30 & 33 of 271.

Russell, Isreal C. 1902. Geology and water resources of the Snake River plains of Idaho. Bull 199. U.S. Geological Survey. Dept. of the Interior. Washington, D.C. 192 pp.

SLGMSD. 2008. Lucy Mary Cavanagh. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Speidel, Merritt C. (publ.) 1936. Miss Lucy M. Cavanagh, 65, Lifelong resident, passes. April 13, 1936. Iowa City Press-Citizen. p. 2 column 6.

Springer, Jno. (ed.) 1899. Family reunion. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 4. column 5. September 12, 1899.

State University of Iowa. 1894 & 1895. Collegiate department. Catalogue of the State University of Iowa. 1893-1894 & 1894-1894. p. 141 (1894 catalogue). p. 154 (1895 catalogue).

State University of Iowa. 1905. The graduate college faculty. Calendar of the State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. pp. 25, 76, 234.

Chadbourne, Paul A. (1823 - 1883)

Paul Ansel Chadbourne, the eldest child of Isaiah Chadbourne and Pandora Dennett, was born in North Berwick, Maine (October 1823). Little was recorded of his father, but his mother died when Paul was 13 and he went to live with the neighboring Quaker family of Isaiah Frye. From Frye the young Chadbourne learned the skills necessary for farming and carpentry, but in 1839 he moved about 10 miles southeast to Great Falls, New Hampshire. There he lived with and worked for Mark Noble. Paul learned the wholesale pharmaceuticals trade from Mr. Noble, wrote for the local newspaper, and attended school, but after three years with the Noble family (in the 1840s), Chadbourne decided to continue his education at the Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter, New Hampshire). In 1844 he enrolled at Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts) as a sophomore and graduated in 1848 (Barker 1904, Chadbourne 1984, Cunningham 1883, Perry 1904).

Chadbourne then graduated from the Theological Institute of Connecticut (renamed Hartford Theological Seminary, after the school was moved to Hartford) in 1865 (Hallock et al. 1881, Hartford Seminary 2021, Walker 1909). Chadbourne earned his M.D. from the Berkshire Medical College in 1859, the L.L.D. from Amherst College in 1868, and the D.D. from same institution in 1872 (Barker 1904, Chadbourne 1984, Hallock et al. 1881).

After graduating from the theological school, Chadbourne held teaching and administrative positions in public and private schools in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. When Williams College offered him a position as professor of botany in 1853, he accepted and eventually became the chair of chemistry and natural history. For seven years he spent half the year in his position at Williams College and the second half in the same position at Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine), but he enjoyed success at several other institutions as well.

Over the years, he also held positions at the Medical School of Maine (at Bowdoin), the Berkshire Medical College for three years, and he was a chemistry lecturer at Mount Holyoke Seminary for thirteen years (Barker 1904, Chadbourne 1984, Hallock et al. 1881). His career as an administrator included serving as president of Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts) in 1866 and again from 1882 to 1883 (UMassAmherst 2017), the University of Wisconsin from 1867 through 1870 (University of Wisconsin 2017), and Williams College from 1872 to 1881 (Barker 1904, Chadbourne 1984, O'Grady 2017, Perry 1904).

Though Chadbourne helped Williams College make great strides in terms of broadening the curriculum, increasing student enrollment, and improving facilities, his general demeanor was often perceived as offensive. One student's description was, "He was a good instructor and could make a student think. But he was arbitrary, dictatorial, unjust, without any notion of fairness" (O'Grady 2017). Regardless, Dr. Chadbourne's activities with the Williams College Lyceum of Natural History brought his name to the Putnam Museum herbarium.

The Lyceum was established in 1835 by Professor Albert Hopkins and a group of undergraduates, with the intended purpose of " the study of the natural sciences, and the prosecution of antiquarian researches". Chadbourne led three Williams College Lyceum expeditions: 1855 - to Newfoundland, 1857 - to Florida, 1860 - to Labrador and Greenland (Barker 1904, Chadbourne 1984, Marston 2006, Perry 1904, Williams College 2021).

Though Dr. Chadbourne did not publish extensively, he did express his thoughts on a variety of topics. One publication addresses college faculty feuds, one is a retrospective of past friendships, and the others are missives dealing with topics in natural history. All five are cited below.

Regarding plants in the Putnam Museum herbarium, none can be directly credited to Paul Chadbourne. However, one specimen is attributed to the Williams College field trip to Greenland in 1860 and that excursion was led by Dr. Paul Chadbourne, hence the following paragraph.

One specimen of Juncus trifidus L. in the Putnam Museum herbarium collected by "a party of Williams College students" in 1860 came from Godtland, Greenland and is likely a collection made in association with the Lyceum trip of the same year. A number of additional voucher specimens from the trip of 1860 may be reviewed via the Williams College herbarium (Williams College Biology Department 2006). (Note: The specimen label at Putnam lists the collection location as "Godtland, Greenland", however many collections of William P. Alcott from the 1860 excursion to Greenland (Williams College Biology Department 2006) list "Godthaab, Greenland" as a collection location and "Godtland" was not mentioned. Since Godthaad was the capital of what was called "South Greenland" at the time of the field trip, it's likely the Williams College collections are from there and that the spelling "Godtland" is an errant transcription of original collection notes.)

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Barker, James M. 1904. Memoir of Paul Ansel Chadbourne. Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc. 18:448-453.

Chadbourne, Kitty A. (ed.) 1984. Chadbourne History. Chadbourne family association newsletter. The Pied Cow. 1:4.

Chadbourne, Paul A. 1860. Lectures on Natural History: Its Relations to Intellect, Taste, Wealth, and Religion. A.S. Barnes and Burr. New York. 160 pp.

Chadbourne, Paul A. 1868. War in colleges. The College Courant 3(10):147-148.

Chadbourne, Paul A. 1871. Lectures on Natural Theology or Nature and the Bible. G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 320 pp.

Chadbourne, Paul A. 1877. The hope of the righteous: discourses at the funerals of Albert Hopkins, Nahum Gale, and N.H. Griffin. G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York.

Chadbourne, Paul A. 1883. Instinct: its office in the animal kingdom, and its relation to the higher powers in man. G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York.

Cunningham, Frank H. 1883. Familiar sketches of the Phillips Exeter Academy and surroundings. James R. Osgood & Co. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 181-184 of 360.

Hallock, L.H., Wm. Thompson, & S. Hine. 1881. Historical catalogue of the Theological Institute of Connecticut. Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Company. Hartford, Connecticut. pp. 61-62 of 141.

Marston, Allison. 2006. Lyceum of Natural History. Williams College: Archives and Special Collections. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Hartford Seminary. 2021. Our History. Hartford, Connecticut.

O'Grady, Elizabeth. 2017. Dr. Paul Ansel Chadbourne (1823-1883). Williams College: Archives and Special Collections. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Perry, Arthur L. 1904. Williamstown and Williams College: A History. Norwood Press. Norwood, Massachusetts. pp. 651-654 of 847.

University of Wisconsin. 2017. Chadbourne, Paul A. (Paul Ansel), 1823-1883. UW archives and records management. University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin.

UMassAmherst. 2017. Paul Ansel Chadbourne (President: 1867-1870). Special collections and university archives. University of Massachusetts. Amherst, Massachusetts.

Walker, Williston. 1909. Hartford Seminary in Teaching. in Gillet, Arthur Lincoln, Waldo Selden Pratt, & Austin Bradley Bassett (eds.). The Hartford Seminary Record. Vol. 19. Hartford Seminary Press. Hartford, Connecticut. pp. 206-211 of 333.

Williams College. 2021. Captain Charles Everett Ranlett (1816-1917) Papers, 1860-1897. MC-79. Williams College Archives & Special Collections. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Williams College Biology Department. 2006. Herbarium Collection List. Williams College. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Chapin, William W. (1836 - 1865)

William Wilberforce Chapin was born in Somers, Connecticut in December 1836. He enrolled at Williams College and, owing to his interest in in the natural sciences, was a member of the college's Lyceum of Natural History expedition to Labrador and Greenland led by Prof. Paul Chadbourne in 1860 (Brown 2004, Marston 2006, Southworth & Kamsler 2015). The twelve-week field trip sought to visit northern Labrador, Greenland, and Iceland aboard the schooner Nautilus, in order "to obtain specimens of Northern animals, plants, shells, &c., to enrich the Cabinet of the Society" (Mills 1860). Some observations about Greenland made during that venture were reported by Alcott (1860, 1861).

Following graduation from Williams College in 1860, Chapin attended Andover Theological Seminary. During a break at Andover, William traveled to visit his sister, Charlotte, at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, where he was introduced to Miss Katherine Isabel "Bella" Hayes. Bella's goal was to teach botany at Mt. Holyoke, but her mother's failing health crippled that plan and Bella returned to Derry, New Hampshire to care for her mother. Evidently the two- or three-hour carriage ride from Andover to Derry was not an obstacle-too-great for the smitten couple.

Bella and William continued to meet and correspond until his graduation and ordination in 1863. The pair overcame the challenges of a long-distance romance and two days after ordination William W. Chapin and Katherine Isabel Hayes were married. In January 1864 the couple moved to Pimpulwandi, India (about 80 miles east of Mumbai) to begin a 10-year missionary assignment, but the venture was plagued from nearly the start.

They learned that Bella was pregnant, but the pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Then, in another tragic turn, William fell ill with diphtheria and died on March 22nd of 1865, but Bella, now a 19-year-old widow, chose to remain in India and taught at a girl's school until September 1865 (Anonymous 1865, Southworth 2013, Southworth & Kamsler 2015, Women History Blog 2021).

Bella returned to the United States, but her family was gone (both parents died during the Civil War period). Faced with few opportunities, Bella decided to jumpstart her career by accepting position at Dr. James Jackson’s Water Cure Hospital in Danville, New York, where she was trained as a hydropathologist. By happenstance she met Samuel J. Barrows, another employee and a romance flourished.

The couple moved to New York City, were married in 1867, and then relocated to Washington, D.C., where Samuel was hired as the personal secretary to Secretary of State William Seward. After only a year of marriage, Samuel was incapacitated by typhoid fever and became bedridden, but Bella was able to assume Samuel's duties for Secretary Seward (Southworth & Kamsler 2015, Wikipedia 2021, Women History Blog 2021).

Though Bella's adult life began as a series of trials and tribulations, her string of successes is long and her grand story of achievement is covered more thoroughly and elegantly by other authors. In this space, suffice it to say that she earned her medical degree from Elizabeth Blackwell's Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and then studied ophthalmology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Upon returning to the U.S., Dr. Barrows started her own ophthalmology practice, taught the subject at Howard University, became an activist involved in prison reform, was a leading voice in social reform, and achieved great things in a number of arenas. Reading more about her achievements is well worth the effort (Southworth 2013, Southworth & Kamsler 2015, Wikipedia 2021, Women History Blog 2021).

William W. Chapin is noted here, because one Putnam Museum herbarium specimen of Andromeda polifolia L. from Caribou Island, Labrador, Canada bears his name as collector. It is an artifact from the Williams College Lyceum's expedition of 1860. A number of additional voucher specimens from the trip of 1860 may be reviewed via the Williams College herbarium (Williams College Biology Department 2006).

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Alcott, W.P. 1860. The physical geography of southern Greenland. The Univ. Quarterly 2:304-309.

Alcott, William P. 1861. Observations on Greenland, No. II. The Univ. Quarterly 3:76-84.

Anonymous. 1865. Rev. William W. Chapin. The missionary herald of the American Board. 61:195-197.

Brown, S. Kennick. 2004. Captain Charles Everett Ranlett (1816-1917) Papers, 1860-1897. Williams College Archives and Special Collections. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Marston, Allison. 2006. Lyceum of Natural History. Williams College: Archives and Special Collections. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Mills, George F. 1860. News article: Williams College. The Univ. Quarterly 2:174-176.

Southworth, Kristen Leigh. 2013. Isabel Chapin Barrows: Love and Tragedy in the 19th Century. The Burke Library Blog. Columbia University. New York City, New York.

Southworth, Kristen Leigh & Brigette C. Kamsler. 2015. William Wilberforce Chapin Papers, 1860-1865. Burke Library: Union Theological Seminary. New York City, New York.

Wikipedia. 2021. Isabel Barrows. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Williams College Biology Department. 2006. Herbarium Collection List. Williams College. Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Women History Blog. 2021. Bella Chapin Barrows. History of American Women. Weblog.

Chapman, Alvin (Alvan) W. (1809 - 1899)

Alvin Wentworth Chapman, the youngest of Paul and Ruth Pomeroy Chapman's five children, was born in September of 1809 in Southampton, Massachusetts. His education began in the local public schools and culminated when he graduated from Amherst College in 1830. In May of 1831 he took a teaching position on Whitemarsh Island near Savannah, Georgia and two years later he accepted the principalship at Washington Academy in Wilkes County, Georgia. During his tenure at Washington Academy, Chapman studied medicine under Dr. Albert Reese (1833 until 1835). He earned no bona fide medical degree, but did receive an honorary M.D. from Louisville Medical Institute in 1846 (Cox 2010, Fletcher & Young 1927, Hume 1943, Kelly 1914, Kimball et al. 1921, Knowlton 1899, Trelease 1899).

In the winter of 1835 Chapman moved to Quincy, Florida, where he began his medical practice. Alvin then moved on to Marianna (Florida) in 1837 and became acquainted with Mrs. Mary Ann Hancock, a native of New Bern, North Carolina and her daughter. Exactly how a woman from coastal North Carolina met a gentleman in Florida's panhandle is not at all clear, but the meeting resulted in their wedding 22 years prior to the Civil War (1839). Eight years later (1847), the Chapman family settled in Apalachicola on Florida's panhandle coast, where Alvin continued practicing medicine for over 50 years (Hume 1943, Knowlton 1899, Kimball et al. 1921, Mohr 1899).

A most captivating part of Chapman's life occurred during the Civil War period. Apalachicola sits at the mouth of the river of the same name. The city and the Apalachicola River, coupled with its tributaries the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, were important at the outset of the Civil War, because they were critical shipping routes for the region's lumber and cotton industries. During the Civil War one goal of the Union Forces was to blockade coastal ports, like Apalachicola, in an effort to cut off the movement of anything that would benefit the Confederacy’s war effort. The Union Navy closed the port at Apalachicola in June 1861 and, though Confederate forces occupied much of the countryside around Apalachicola, the Union blockade of the coastline continued throughout the War (City of Apalachicola 2021).

Dr. Chapman favored the Union, but his spouse was a devout Secessionist. The pair were unable to resolve their differences and Mrs. Chapman left Apalachicola (for the duration of the war) to live with relatives in Marianna. Allegiance to the Union made Dr. Chapman's life treacherous, but his stature as the only doctor in the community afforded him some measure of protection. Even though Union Navy vessels patrolled the coast, Confederate guerillas often invaded Apalachicola and ransacked Chapman's pharmacy. During each raid Dr. Chapman would take refuge in the Trinity Episcopal church and until it was safe to emerge, he reclined in his cushioned pew and was quoted as having said, "If I must hide, I decided I might as well be comfortable" (Cox 2010, Hume 1943, Kimball et al. 1921).

In early 1864, Andersonville Prison was established only a few miles west of the Flint River in Georgia. The tens of thousands of Northern Soldiers incarcerated there, were immersed in a cesspool of disease, exposure, and malnourishment (Thorp 189X). Though they were few in number, prisoners who successfully escaped and survived the 200-plus mile trip downstream via the Flint and Apalachicola Rivers, sought refuge and concealment in the coastal salt marsh vegetation near Apalachicola. Slaves who discovered the escapees would get word to Dr. Chapman. Then, under cover of darkness, Chapman and/or an accomplice used a concealed dugout to ferry the survivors out into Apalachicola Bay to the safety of one of the blockading Union ships (Kimball et al. 1921).

Of his life during the Civil War Dr. Chapman said, "I did not do much botanical work in those days, I was too busy doctoring... " And following the war, "My love for all flowers began to develop soon after I came South. I think I first began to give up my medical practice and devote more attention to plants when I went up to Marianna the summer after Appomattox and visited my wife" (Kimball et al. 1921).

In reality, Chapman became interested in botany while he was still a New Englander and it continued during his career in Georgia. During his residence in Quincy, Dr. Chapman became acquainted with Hardy Bryan Croon, a plantation owner and plant enthusiast, whose influence further piqued Chapman's interest in native plants. Though he published sparingly (Chapman 1845, 1860, 1878), Chapman botanized extensively throughout the southeastern part of the United States. His personal drive, field experiences, and communications with Asa Gray and other botanists led to his botanical successes. Dr. Chapman's greatest work was the publication of the "Flora of the Southern United States" with the first appearing in 1860 and was followed by several updates. As was stated above, Chapman botanized little during the Civil War period, but following that conflict he traveled widely and documented the flora of the south, until his death in 1899 (Cox 2010, Hume 1943, Kimball et al. 1921, Knowlton 1899, Mohr 1899, Trelease 1899).

Only three specimens from Chapman's herbarium are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium: Cyrilla racemiflora Walt., Cassiope hypnoides Don, & Samolus ebracteatus HBK. However, data regarding hundreds of his collections may be viewed via the SEINet and/or the iDigBio specimen database.

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Chapman, Alvin W. 1845. A list of the plants growing spontaneously in the vicinity of Quincy, Florida.. Western Jrnl. of Medicine & Surgery. 3(6):1-23.

Chapman, Alvin W. 1860. Flora of the Southern United States. Ivison, Phinney, and Co. New York City, New York. 621 pp.

Chapman, A. W. 1878. An enumeration of some plants - chiefly from the semi-tropical regions of Florida - which are either new, or which have not hitherto been recorded as belonging to the Flora or the Southern States. Bot. Gazette. 3(2&3):2-6, 9-12, 15-21.

City of Apalachicola. 2021. Apalachicola History. Apalachicola, Florida.

Cox, Dale. 2010. Grave of Dr. Alvin Wentworth Chapman - Apalachicola, Florida. ExploreSouthernHistory.com.

Fletcher, Robert S. & Malcolm O. Young (eds.) 1927. Amherst College Class of 1830. Amherst College Biographical Record, Centennial Edition (1821-1921). The College. Amherst Massachusetts.

Hume, H. Harold. 1943. Botanical explorers of the Southeastern United States. The Florida Historical Quarterly 21:289-302.

Kelly, Howard A. 1914. Some American medical botanists. The Southworth Co. Troy, New York. pp. 163 - 164 of 215.

Kimball, Winifred, John K. Small, & John Hendley Barnhart. 1921. Reminiscences of Alvan Wentworth Chapman. Jrnl. New York Bot. Garden. 22:1-11.

Knowlton, F.H. 1899.
Dr. Alvin Wentworth Chapman. The Plant World 2:141-143.

Mohr, C. 1899. Alvin Wentworth Chapman. Botanical Gazette. 27:473-478.

Thorp, Sergeant Clark N. 189X. Inside Andersonville: An Eyewitness Account of the Civil War's Most Infamous Prison. George Skoch (ed.). Andersonville Prison Camp: Facts, information, and articles about Andersonville Prison Camp, an infamous prison camp in the Civil War. HistoryNet.

Trelease, William. 1899. Alvin Wentworth Chapman. Amer. Naturalist. 33:643-646.

Chatterton, F. W. (1852 - 19XX)

Frederick W. and Lizzie E. Chatterton were the children of Francis and Mary J. Chatterton. It appears that both children were born in New Haven, Connecticut — Frederick in August 1852 and Lizzie four years. Mary E. Forbes and Frederick were married in New Haven in December of 1896 (Carrington Publishing Co. 1896, United States Federal Census 1880 & 1900). F.W. Chatterton is mentioned occasionally in the newspapers of New Haven and the last such piece appeared on Christmas Day 1917 (Warnock 1917). No additional information about the couple's personal life has been uncovered.

F.W. Chatterton was a member of the Sullivant Moss Society and the Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association while he lived in New Haven, Connecticut (Bigelow 1892a&b, Smith 1909-1911). He was an assistant cashier at the Mechanics Bank in New Haven, Connecticut for a number of years (Anonymous 1903, Dana 1907, Rand-McNally 1910) and a notary public in the same city (Bodenwein 1906, Rogers 1912). According to The Naturalists' Directory Frederick was interested in botany, microscopy, photography, and entomology (Cassino 1898).

Mr. Chatterton contributed to the knowledge of mosses in New England, but the dearth of information about his involvement in the field of bryology suggests that his role was more recreational than professional. Regarding Chatterton's work, the following was written in Bigelow (1892b) "A special section on mosses was organized early last year, consisting in all of ten members. It is arranged that this section report only once a year, during the holidays. Following is a list of the members, with reports on last year's work. F.W. Chatterton, New Haven, Conn., reports at length on the mosses in his vicinity, pointing out some of their haunts. Mr. Chatterton's paper shows a loving reverence for 'this fascinating and interesting family'."

From a publications perspective, only two items of importance have be located. One of Chatterton's plant collections from Connecticut was cited in Schoonberger (1942). The single publication authored by Frederick was a brief description of printed resources available for moss identification (Chatterton 1891).

Five bryophyte specimens from three genera — Aulacomnium palustre, Eurhynchium boscii, Hypnum curvifolium, Hypnum riparium, Hypnum cuspidatum — collected by Chatterton in 1890 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Other Chatterton specimens may be examined via the iDigBio and Harvard University specimen databases.

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Anonymous. 1903. New banks, bankers, etc.. The Bankers Magazine 66:721.

Bigelow, E.F. (ed.) 1892a. Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association. The Observer. 3(6):192.

Bigelow, E.F. (ed.) 1892b. Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association. The Observer. 3(7):224.

Bodenwein, Theodore. (sec'y.) 1906. State of Connecticut: Register and Manual. Case, Lockwood, & Brainard Co. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 201 of 606.

Carrington Publishing Co. 1896. Chatterton-Forbes: Fine wedding on Townsend Avenue Las [sic] Evening. New Haven Morning Journal and Courier. New Haven, Connecticut. December 10, 1896. p. 3. column 2.

Cassino, Samuel E. 1898. The Naturalists' Directory. S.E. Cassino Publ. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 35 of 227.

Chatterton, F. W. 1891. The study of mosses. The ornithologist and botanist. 1:80.

Dana, William B. (ed.) 1907. Items About Banks, Bankers, and Trust Co's. The Commercial & Financial Chronicle. August 3, 1907. 85(2197):258.

Rand-McNally. 1910. Rand McNally international bankers' directory and list of attorneys. Rand McNally & Company. Chicago, Illinois. p. 90 of 1470.

Rogers, Mathew H. (sec'y.) 1912. State of Connecticut: Register and Manual. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 203 of 635.

Schnooberger, Irma. 1942. Distribution of Tortula papillosa Wils. The Bryologist. 45(1):24-27.

Smith, Annie M. (ed.) 1909-1911. Sullivant Moss Society Members. The Bryologist. 12:17, 13:21, 14:20.

United States Federal Census. 1880. New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut. in Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

United States Federal Census. 1900. New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut. in Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Warnock, Thomas R. 1917. Borough Briefs. Meriden Morning Record. Meriden, Connecticut. p. 11. column 2. December 25, 1917.

Chesnut, Victor K. (1867 - 1938)

Victor King Chesnut was born in Nevada City, California in June of 1867 — the youngest of three sons born to John A. & Henrietta S. Chesnut. He attended high school in Oakland, California, then earned the Bachelor of Science degree (with an emphasis in chemistry and botany) from the University of California in 1890 (Anonymous 1906, Schweich 2012, United States Federal Census 1870). He completed some graduate work in chemistry in the Ogden School of Science at the University of Chicago (University of Chicago 1894) and at Columbian University (Wagstaf 2004).

Chesnut's botanical career began at the University of California as a student of Prof. Edward L. Greene. As part of his program of study, Prof. Greene asked Victor to botanize a variety of locations in California and Elmer R. Drew was often his collecting partner. Drew was at Berkeley pursuing his B.S. degree in physics and for reasons that are presently unknown, he chose to assist Chesnut. According to specimens listed in various online databases, the Chesnut/Drew collecting team was together from 1887 through 1891. The duo investigated a large swath of California and Drew (1889) published the results of one summer collecting trip in "Notes on the botany of Humboldt County, California" (Schweich 2012 & 2015). Additionally, collectors Chesnut and Drew are mentioned frequently in Pittonia papers published by Professor Greene (e.g. Greene 1889). (Edward L. Greene's personal story is an interesting saga, summarized nicely by Jercinovic (2009)).

From 1894 to 1904 Chesnut worked for the Bureau of Plant Industry (USDA), where he investigated livestock poisoned by plants ingested while grazing on open range (Anonymous 1906, Chesnut & Wilcox 1901, Wagstaf 2004). Victor's investigations while associated with the Bureau of Plant Industry, led to a variety of publications related to plant toxicity (e.g. Chesnut 1897a&b, 1898, 1899, 1902b).

His most geographically focused study occurred during the growing season of 1900, when he and Dr. Earley V. Wilcox investigated plant toxicity that reportedly caused the deaths of cattle, horses, and sheep in Montana. Via wagon, horseback, train, and stagecoach the pair visited every county in Montana, traveled over 7000 miles, and ultimately published "Stock-poisoning plants of Montana" (Chesnut & Wilcox 1901). Their report provided abundant information about many plants, but perhaps most importantly it documented the symptoms of, treatment of, and preventative measures for preventing livestock poisoning caused by Death Camas (Zygadenus venenosus), Larkspur (three species of Delphinium), Water Hemlock (Cicuta occidentalis), Loco Weed (species of Aragallus (= Oxytropis sp.)), and Lupines (Lupinus sp.).

Mr. Chesnut's ethnobotanical publication in 1902 was a noteworthy deviation from his typical studies on plant toxicity. The research began "... in 1892 for the purpose of collecting anthropological and ethnological data for the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893". The resulting book "Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California" (Chesnut 1902a) was assembled with the assistance of many people including, Prof. Edward Greene, Willis Jepson, Elmer Drew, and Victor's wife, Olive. The work documented the names and uses of plants important to the indigenous people north of San Francisco for food, defense, clothing, fishing, hunting, and medicine. Chesnut continued his work with the Bureau of Plant Industry until 1904, when he accepted a position in Montana.

From 1904 through 1907 Chesnut was in Bozeman, Montana as a professor of chemistry and geology at Montana Agricultural College (Montana State University). He then took a position in the Bureau of Chemistry (today's U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and moved from Montana to Washington, D.C. in 1907 (Leonard 1903-1905, Wagstaff 2004). It's worth noting that prior to his return to Washington, an interesting aspect of Victor's life in Bozeman, Montana evolved from his interactions with a herdsman and a story about Yellowstone National Park.

In 1903, when Chesnut was in Montana investigating poisonous plants (Schweich 2015), he met sheep rancher Charles W. Cook in Meagher County. Their relationship was a friendly one and during an idle conversation Cook described his 1869 exploration of Yellowstone National Park with David E. Folsom and William Peterson. Theirs was the first bona fide venture that explored and documented the Upper Yellowstone region and it occurred three years before Yellowstone was an established national park. Cook, Folsom, and Peterson had documented their fieldtrip in writing and a version of it, "The valley of the Upper Yellowstone" (Cook 1870), had been published in the Chicago-based Western Monthly. Copies were mailed to subscribers, but tragically, the original manuscript and all remaining copies were destroyed in a fire that destroyed the publisher's headquarters in September 1870 (Scott 1999).

Cook gave Chesnut his original notes of the 1869 fieldtrip and Chesnut converted them to a typed transcript, which was subsequently edited by Folsom and returned it to Chesnut. Regrettably, Chesnut was busy with his duties at Montana State College and did little or nothing else with Cook's original notes. In 1916 a fire swept through the chemistry department at Montana State and, although Cook's original notes were destroyed, Chesnut's typed manuscript was spared. Various pieces of the narrative have been lost, uncovered, and published (see: Langford 1894, Scott 2009), but a seamless document that knits the events of the entire exploration together has not been produced. Articles by Schontzler (2013) and Scott (1999) provide many fascinating details of that early Yellowstone adventure and the attempts made to publish a chronicle of the adventure.

In 2012 David A. Folsom, great-grandson of Yellowstone explorer David E. Folsom, happened across Kim Scott's "A Missing Piece of a Yellowstone Puzzle". He contacted Scott about 30 or 40 pages in his possession, that were handwritten by his great-grandfather and described in detail the 1869 Cook-Folsom-Peterson expedition through Yellowstone. David A. Folsom donated that 140+ year-old manuscript, along with some of David E. Folsom's correspondence, to the Montana State University Library and digital copies are available online (Folsom 1869-1904).

Two ancillary, but interesting, factoids are worth mentioning. While working for the USDA in Washington, Chesnut and co-worker Frederick B. Power were awarded patent number 1,540,649 in 1925 for a "bait attractive to the cotton-boll weevil". They had isolated compounds from cotton plants that were insect attractants and then proposed the use of them ("with or without insecticide") to lure cotton plant pests (in particular the cotton-boll weevil) to their demise in an insect trap (Power & Chesnut 1925). In 1899 Victor Chesnut, the botanist working for the Bureau of Plant Industry on a poisonous plant project, married fellow University of California graduate and mathematician Ms. Olive Branch Spohr in Berkeley, California (Anonymous 1906, C 2009, Leonard 1903-1905, Russ 1895, Wagstaff 2004), they raised seven children (Family Search 2021).

Evidently Edward Greene (1889, p. 224) thought highly of his former pupil Victor Chesnut, as evidenced in his description of a new species "Ribes victoris ... Collected near the base of Mt. Tamalpais, in Marin County, California, by Mr. Victor K. Chesnut, a pupil of mine to whom I gladly dedicate the species." In addition to "Victor's Gooseberry", many plants collected by Chesnut himself or the Chesnut/Drew team may be found in a number of North American herbaria (e.g. Consortium of California Herbaria, the University and Jepson Herbaria, iDigBio, and SEINet). Fifty-six specimens from California's flora are in the Putnam Museum herbarium and list Chesnut or Chesnut and Drew as the collector(s).

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Anonymous. 1906. Chesnut, Victor King. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. James T. White and Company. p. 295.

C. 2009. Victor King Chesnut. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Chesnut, Victor K. 1897a. Abrus poisoning. Asa Gray Bulletin. 5(3):35-36.

Chesnut, Victor K. 1897b. Some common poisonous plants. U.S. Dept. Agriculture. Division of Botany. 146 pp.

Chesnut, Victor King. 1898. Thirty poisonous plants of the United States. Farmers' Bull. No. 86. U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C.

Chesnut, Victor King. 1899. Principal poisonous plants of the United States. Illinois State Board of Health. Springfield, Illinois. 60 pp.

Chesnut, V. K. 1902a. Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California. Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium. 7:295-408.

Chesnut, V. K. 1902b. Problems in the chemistry and toxicology of plant substances. Science. N.S. 15(391):1016-1028.

Chesnut, V. K. & E.V. Wilcox. 1901. Stock-poisoning plants of Montana: a preliminary report. Bull. No. 26. U.S. Dept. Ag. Division of Botany. Washington, D.C.

Cook, Charles W. 1870. The valley of the Upper Yellowstone. The Western Monthly. July. 4:60-67.

Drew, E. R. 1889. Notes on the botany of Humboldt County, California. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 16:147-152.

Family Search. 2021. Gertrude Vorhees Chesnut. FamilySearch International. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Folsom, David E. 1869-1904. David E. Folsom papers (1869-1904). Montana State University-Bozeman Library. Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections. Bozeman, Montana.

Greene, Edward L. 1889. New or noteworthy species, I, II, III. Pittonia. 1:139-143, 159-176, 215-225. [see pp. 66, 173, & 224-225]

Jercinovic, Eugene. 2009. Ninety years after Greene. NewMexicoFlores.com: Botanical History.

Langford, Nathaniel P. 1894. The Folsom-Cook exploration of the upper Yellowstone in the year 1869. H.L. Collins Company. St. Paul, Minnesota. 22 pp.

Leonard, John W. (ed.) 1903-1905. Who's who in America. A.N. Marquis & Co. Chicago, Illinois. p. 262 of 1744.

Power, Frederick B. & Victor K. Chesnut. 1925. No. 1,540,649. Bait attractive to the cotton-boll weevil. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Alexandria, Virginia.

Russ, Raymond J. (ed.) 1895. Degrees conferred: 1893-1894. The Blue and Gold. Univ. of California. Berkeley, California. p. 101 of 218.

Schontzler, Gail. 2013. Long-lost manuscript from first Yellowstone expedition comes to MSU. Bozeman Daily Chronicle. November 5, 2013. Bozeman, Montana.

Schweich, Tom. 2012. Flora of the Mono Lake Basin. East side of the West.

Schweich, Tom. 2015. Chesnut and Drew. in A Checklist Flora of the Mono Lake Basin, Mono County, California and Mineral County, Nevada

Scott, Kim A. 1999. A missing piece of a Yellowstone puzzle: The tangled provenance of the Cook-Folsom-Peterson Yellowstone expedition diary. Yellowstone Science 7:12-16.

Scott, Kim Allen. 2009. Victor K. Chesnut Papers, 1903-1922. Montana State University-Bozeman Library. Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections. Bozeman, Montana.

United States Federal Census. 1870. Nevada Township, Nevada County, California. in Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

University of Chicago. 1894. Classification and directory of students in attendance, Winter quarter, 1894. Quarterly calendar of the University of Chicago. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 38 & 66 of 160.

Wagstaff, D. J. 2004. Victor Chesnut, a poisonous plant pioneer. in Poisonous plants and related toxins. T. Acamovic, C.S. Stewart, & T.W. Pennycott (eds.). CABI Publishing, Cambridge, MA. pp. 120-122.

Chickering, Reverend John White (1831 - 1913)

J. W. Chickering, Jr. — the elder of two sons raised by Rev. John White and Frances Eveline Chickering — was born in Bolton, Massachusetts in 1831. After completing his public education, he earned a bachelor's degree (1852) and master's degree (1855) from Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine). Chickering taught in several public schools from 1852 through 1858, before beginning his religious studies at Bangor Theological Seminary (Gallaudet University & Peet 2015, JSTOR 2013, Little 1909, McCormick 2011).

In December 1856 John Chickering and Luciana Jameson were married. Together they had three children: Frances, John, and Luciana. In addition to their own children, it appears that John and Luciana acted as guardians for Isabella Mowll. How the arrangement came about is unknown, but the Mowll family was experiencing financial difficulties and the guardianship may have developed to provide for Isabella's education. The details are fuzzy and evidently Isabella spent only part of 1857 under the Chickerings' roof (Little 1909, Walker 2006).

Chickering graduated from the seminary in 1860 and was named pastor at the Congregational Church in Springfield, Vermont, where he stayed until 1863. In 1865 he moved on to continue his pastoral work at the Second Congregational Church at Exeter, New Hampshire. In 1870 he left the "Granite State" and became the chairman of the department of natural history at Gallaudet College (founded at the National Deaf Mute College) in Washington, D.C. and remained there until his retirement in 1899 (Gallaudet University & Peet 2015, Little 1909, McCormick 2011, National Park Service 2021). John was also active outside the realms of religion and education.

In 1843 Rev. Chickering was one of two dozen founders of the Portland Society of Natural History and he served as the organization's second president (Eastman 2006, JSTOR 2013) and he also helped establish the Biological Society of Washington (Goode & Rathbun 1882). He is credited with helping initiate the formation of the Gallaudet College Museum by donating 1500 shells from his personal collection and for personally planting many trees on the Gallaudet campus (Gallaudet University & Peet 2015).

Chickering's natural science interests varied widely. He was something of a malacologist and authored "List of Marine, Freshwater, and Land Shells Found in the Vicinity of Portland, Maine" (Chickering 1854). The shells he gifted to the Gallaudet College Museum were later donated to the Smithsonian Institution (Gallaudet University & Peet 2015). His interest in geology was illustrated by Packard & Cope's (1879) statement, "Prof. John W. Chickering, Jr. gave a description of the newly discovered cave at Luray, Page County, Va." He even published a paper on glaciers (Chickering 1888) and another on the relationship between patterns of temperature fluctuation and elevation (Chickering 1884).

Other sciences aside, Chickering was particularly interested in the botany and the overall natural history of mountainous areas. He climbed Mount Katahdin twice in the 1850s, collected alpine plants from it (Eastman 2006), and gave a presentation regarding the physical features of the mountain to the Biological Society of Washington (Chickering 1883). Prof. Chickering published a catalog of alpine and sub-alpine taxa from the White Mountains (Chickering 1876), authored "Roan Mountain and Its Flora" in 1877 (Chickering 1877b & 1880), and gave a presentation entitled "The 'Balds' of Southern Mountains" in 1882. Chickering also studied the plants of Virginia as evidenced by "The flora of the Dismal Swamp" (Chickering 1873) and "A botanical trip in Virginia" (Chickering 1877a). (More comprehensive lists of Chickering's publications are available from McCormick (2011) and Google Scholar).

A single specimen of Carex rostrata collected in New Hampshire by J. Blake & J.W. Chickering is the only plant in the Putnam Museum herbarium representing this botanist. Other records of Rev. Chickering's herbarium specimens may be viewed at the Harvard University Herbarium, iDigBio, and SEINet specimen databases.

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Chickering, J.W. 1854. List of marine, freshwater, and land shells found in the vicinity of Portland, Maine. Double sheet published by the author. in W.G. Binney. 1864. Bibliography of North American conchology previous to the year 1860. Smithsonian Misc. Collections. 5:243-245.

Chickering, J.W. 1873. The flora of the Dismal Swamp. Amer. Naturalist. 7:521-524.

Chickering, J.W. 1876. Catalogue of the alpine and sub-alpine flora of the White Mountains of N.H. Field and Forest. 2:98-99.

Chickering, J.W. 1877a. A botanical trip in Virginia. Field and Forest. 3:1-4.

Chickering, J.W. 1877b. Roan Mountain and its flora. Field and Forest. 3:37-42.

Chickering, J.W. 1880. A Summer on Roan Mountain. Bot. Gazette 5:144-148.

Chickering, J.W. 1882. The "Balds" of Southern Mountains. Proc. Biological Soc. Washington. 2:xxxiii.

Chickering, J.W. 1883. Physical features of Mount Katahdin. Proc. Biological Soc. Washington 2:xli.

Chickering, J.W. 1884. Thermal belts. Amer. Meteorological Jrnl. 1:213-218.

Chickering, J.W. 1888. The Muir Glacier. Amer. Meteorological Jrnl. 5:265-269.

Eastman, L.M. 2006. The Portland Society of Natural History: The Rise and Fall of a Venerable Institution. Monograph 1. Northeastern Naturalist 13:1-38.

Gallaudet University & Elizabeth Peet. 2015. John White Chickering. Hall of Fame: Past Inductees.

Goode, G. Brown & Richard Rathbun. (Sec'y). 1882. List of members of the Biological Society of Washington. Proc. Biological Soc. Washington. 1:9-20.

JSTOR. 2013. Chickering, John White (1831-1913). Global Plants.

Little, George Thomas. (ed.) 1909. Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine. Lewis Historical Publ. Co. New York City, New York. EWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY

McCormick, Carol Ann. 2011. John White Chickering, Jr.. Collectors of the UNC herbarium. University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

National Park Service. 2021. Gallaudet College. U.S. Dept. of the Interior. Washington, D.C.

Packard, A.S. and Edward D. Cope (eds.). 1879. General notes: geology and paleontology. Amer. Naturalist. 13:719.

Walker, Barbara. 2006. The private journals of C. W. Mowll: Family, politics and power in mid-nineteenth century Boston. Master of Arts thesis. Univ. of Delaware. Newark, Delaware. 139 pp.

Clark, Howard W. (1870 - 1941)

Howard W. Clark, the fourth of seven children in the Sarah and Wilson Clark family, was born in Allen County, Indiana in September of 1870. After completing his primary and secondary education in the local public schools, Howard earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (1896) and a Master of Arts degree (1902) from Indiana University — both were in botany (Alumni and Development 2015, MacFarland 1941, United States Federal Census 1880).

From 1901 to 1904 Clark was employed by the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) as a specimen preparator, but he left the museum to take a position with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. Mr. Clark was stationed in Washington, D.C. (1904-1909), where his work in aquatic biology resulted in at least three publications — one dealt with fish from Santo Domingo (Evermann & Clark 1906), a second summarized stream conditions and fish species in West Virginia (Goldsborough & Clark 1908), and the third focused on freshwater algae from Guatemala (Clark 1908). Clark left Washington, D.C. and from 1910 through 1923 he served as a scientific assistant in the Bureau's biological station on the shore of the Mississippi River at Fairport, Iowa (Alumni and Development 2015, Loomis 1910b, MacFarland 1941). Howard Clark's work at Fairport (now an a Iowa State Fish Hatchery) focused on the health, growth, reproduction, and economic value of freshwater mussels (Coker et al. 1921, MacFarland 1941).

The harvest of Mississippi River freshwater mussels for the button industry skyrocketed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. So much so, that the mussel population was severely depleted and the potential economic impact upon the harvest communities was significant. In response, the Bureau of Fisheries "established the Fairport Biological Station to engage in the propagation of mussels and the studies of mussel problems" (Coker 1914).

The anticipated success of the new facility and the implications of the research conducted there were not lost on the nearby community of Muscatine. Many were hopeful that the Mississippi River clam beds could "again be replenished, and the button industry, upon which Muscatine is in a large measure dependent, may be permanently established. The result of the work, which is to be performed in the nearby town [Fairport], will therefore be anxiously awaited by the thousands engaged and interested in the pearl button manufacture in Muscatine (Loomis 1910a)."

Though the facility at Fairport and others established by the Bureau of Fisheries had success in propagating mussels, the industry soon fell into decline. Overfishing, pollution that reduced river oxygen levels, foreign competition, buttons made from new materials, and changing fashions all contributed to the inexorable downturn of the button industry (Farrel-Beck & Meints 1983). The decline of the button industry didn't impact H.W. Clark, but a job offer from the west did.

In 1914 Dr. Barton Evermann became the director of the California Academy of Sciences. Two years later Evermann met a wealthy banker by the name of Ignatz Steinhart who expressed interest in financing the construction of a public aquarium in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Steinhart unexpectedly died in May 1917 and it was revealed he had bequeathed $250,000 to the California Academy of Sciences for aquarium construction. After considerable planning and labor the Steinhart Aquarium opened its doors on September 29, 1923.

That same year, probably after some friendly coaxing from his research collaborator Barton Evermann (Evermann & Clark 1906, 1920, 1931; Jordan et al. 1930), H. Walton Clark was lured to California from Fairport, Iowa to begin his career with the Steinhart Aquarium and the California Academy of Sciences system. Within the Academy, Clark held several positions, but ultimately was promoted to be the California Academy of Sciences' Curator of Ichthyology (Evermann 1924, MacFarland 1941, Nielsen 2021). Though Clark perished in 1941, Linda Halst wrote a moving tribute to him, evidently based upon the kindly and supportive manner in which he guided students at the aquarium (Halst 1964).

Among the papers listed in Google Scholar (2017) that were authored or co-authored by H.W. Clark, only a few are botanical in nature (e.g. Clark 1901, 1908, 1912, 1917). Even though he chose a malacologist/ichthyologist career, Clark's interest in the plants of California is documented by his specimens in the Consortium of California Herbaria database. Additional collections by H.W. Clark may be viewed using the SEINet and/or the iDigBio specimen database. Clark is included in this project, because one sheet of Grevillea robusta collected by him in California is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Alumni and Development. 2015. Howard W. Clark Scholarship. Indiana University. Bloomington, Indiana.

Clark, H. Walton. 1901. Flora of Eagle Lake and vicinity. Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci. 11:128-192.

Clark, H. Walton. 1908. The holophytic plankton of Lakes Atitlan and Amatitlan, Guatemala. Proc. Bio. Soc. Washington . 21:91-106.

Clark, H. Walton. 1912. A comparison of the 'Mammoth' and Spanish Peanuts as grown in central Iowa. Science 36(928):488-490.

Clark, H. Walton. 1917. Dwarf shore floras. Trans. Illinois State Acad. Sci 10:145-159.

Coker, R.E. 1914. The protection of fresh-water mussels. Bureau of Fisheries. Document No. 793. 23 pp.

Coker, R.E., A.F. Shira, H.W. Clark, & A.D. Howard. 1921. Natural history and propagation of fresh-water mussels. Bull. Bureau of Fisheries. Vol. 37. Document 893.

Evermann, Barton Warren. 1924. The Steinhart Aquarium of the California Academy of Sciences. The Scientific Monthly. 18(2):149-158

Evermann, Barton W. and H. Walton Clark. 1906. New fishes from Santo Domingo. Proc. United States National Museum. 30(1478):851-855.

Evermann, Barton W. and Howard W. Clark. 1920. Lake Maxinkuckee: A physical and biological survey. Dept. of Cons. State of Indiana. Publ. 7. Vol. 1.

Evermann, Barton W. and Howard W. Clark. 1931. A Distributional List of the Species of Freshwater Fishes Known to Occur in California. Division of Fish and Game of California. Fish Bulletin No. 35. 67 pp.

Farrel-Beck, Jane A. & Rebecca H. Meints. 1983. The Role of Technology in the Fresh-Water Pearl Button Industry of Muscatine, Iowa, 1891-1910 The Annals of Iowa. 47:3-18.

Goldsborough, Edmund Lee & H. Walton Clark. 1908. Fishes of West Virginia. Bull. Bureau of Fisheries. Volume 27. Document 631.

Google Scholar. 2017. H. Walton Clark. Google LLC. Mountain View, California.

Halst, Linda. 1964. Opportunity. The Youth's Instructor. 112(19):12-14.

Jordan, David S., Barton W. Evermann, and Howard W. Clark. 1930. A check list of the fishes and fishlike vertebrates of North and Middle America, north of Venezuela and Colombia. Bureau of Fisheries. Document 1055. 670 pp.

Loomis, L.P. (ed.) 1910a. Description of the Fairport clam hatchery - Its objects and purposes - What it means to city. The Muscatine Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 7. columns 3-5. January 29, 1910.

Loomis, L.P. (ed.) 1910b. Prof. H.W. Clark now at hatchery. The Muscatine Journal. Muscatine, Iowa. p. 10. columns 6&7. May 21, 1910.

MacFarland, F. M. 1941. Deaths and Memorials: Howard Walton Clark. Science 94:226.

Nielsen, Larry A. 2021. Steinhart Aquarium opens (1923). Today in Conservation. WebLog.

United States Federal Census. 1880. Wayne Township, Allen County, Indiana. in Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Clark, Mary H. (1813 - 1875)

Mary H. Clark was born in Albany, New York on June 25, 1813. She and her sisters, Chloe and Roby, were alumni of Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary (Troy, New York (Anonymous 1875)). The family moved to Michigan in the autumn of 1837, when her father, Reverend William A. Clark, purchased land in Brighton Township (Brighton Township 2017, Seewald 2017).

Mary Clark and her sisters moved to Ann Arbor, where they founded the Misses Clark's Seminary for Young Ladies in 1839 with Mary serving as headmistress. Though the private school occupied several locations in Ann Arbor (Fuller 1923-1926), it consistently provided an education to many young women and remained in business for 37 years. Chloe Clark was in charge of the grade school curriculum and Mary taught secondary classes (college preparatory courses) in astronomy, geometry, history, literature, and the study of nature, owing to Mary's strong interest in botany (Ann Arbor District Library 2013, Anonymous 1875, Chapman 1881, Putnam 1866, Smith 2019).

The Seminary was more than academics and the Clark sisters worked to uphold proper behavioral etiquette of the time. "Young ladies who lived at the school could not receive gentlemen callers except for Friday or Saturday events and then only with Mary Clark present. Students were only allowed to shop on Wednesday or Saturday afternoons — because the Clark sisters did not want to "promote ... undue love of society" (Smith 2019).

Mary Clark's botanical pursuits guided her outside-the-classroom activities. She was a member of the Ann Arbor Scientific Association (established: April 1875), which was comprised of interested amateurs, teachers, and University of Michigan staff members. Association meetings typically included the reading of a paper of interest followed by a discussion of it.

At the meeting of June 5, 1875, two of the non-University members, "Miss Mary H. Clark and Miss E. C. Allmendinger were made a committee to make out a list of plants found growing within a radius of four miles of Ann Arbor" (Rose 1876). Though Mary Clark died unexpectedly later in June of the same year (Anonymous 1875), Miss Allmendinger "from the Committee on the 'Flora of Ann Arbor,' made a final report, which was accepted" at the December 4, 1875 meeting (Rose 1876). Allmendinger and Clark's report (Almendinger 1876) was a valuable record of native and introduced species present at the time, but it provided few specific localities. Sixteen introduced species were among the 848 species listed and the authors wrote that two of them, Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) and bur grass (Cenchrus sp.) "will give trouble in the future if not soon exterminated" (Voss 1978).

About three dozen Michigan plant specimens collected by Mary H. Clark are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Additional collections made by her may be seen using the iDigBio specimen database.

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Almendinger, E.C. 1876. Flora of Ann Arbor and vicinity. Proc. Ann Arbor Sci. Assoc. 85-116.

Ann Arbor District Library. 2013. Clark Girls School. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Anonymous. 1875. Obituary: Mary H. Clark. Michigan Argus. July 16, 1875.

Brighton Township. 2017. An 1880 text history of early settlers. Charter township of Brighton, Michigan.

Chapman, Chas. C. & Co. 1881. History of Washtenaw County, Michigan. Chas. C. Chapman & Co. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 930-933 of 1452.

Fuller, George N. (ed.) 1924-1926. Historic Michigan, land of the Great Lakes. Vol. 3. pp. National Historic Assoc. Dayton, Ohio. 96-97 of 221.

NWHN. 2013. Emma Hart Willard. National Women's History Museum. Alexandria, Virginia.

Putnam, F.W. 1866. The Naturalists' directory. Pt. II. North America and the West Indies. The Essex Institute. Salem, Massachusetts. p. 26.

Rose, Preston B. 1876. Minutes: May 1st, 1875. Proc. Ann Arbor Sci. Assoc. p. 14.

Seewald, Joel. 2017. St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Historical Marker Database. Powell, Ohio.

Smith, Patti. 2019. The Misses Clark's School for Girls: It was a pioneer in women's education. Ann Arbor Observer. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Voss, E. G. 1978. Botanical beachcombers and explorers: Pioneers of the 19th century in the Upper Great Lakes. Contrib. Univ. of Michigan Herbarium. Vol 13. pp. 67-69.

Clarke, Dr. Daniel (1811 - 1884)

Dr. Daniel Clarke (photo here) was born in Dedham, Massachusetts on April 10, 1811). He was one of nineteen medical school graduates from the Harvard University class of 1839 (Harrington 1905). He moved to Grand Blanc township in Genesee County, Michigan (just southeast of Flint) in 1840 and then to Flint proper in 1844. Dr. Clarke stayed there only until 1845, when he returned to Massachusetts. In 1847, Clarke decided to make Flint his home and there he stayed until he perished on April 16th of 1884 (Beal 1901, Ellis 1879, Harrington 1905).

Besides practicing medicine, Dr. Clarke's activities in Flint were varied. During the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s he was involved in the planning/organizing of the Flint public schools and he was the long-time physician for the Michigan State School for the Deaf (Beal 1901, Ellis 1879, Wood 1916). In 1871 Clarke was one of the organizers and the first president of the Flint Academy of Medicine (Ellis 1879, Wood 1916). Daniel Clarke was a natural history enthusiast, with a particular interest in botany (Putnam 1866), who in February of 1853, was one of the eight founders of "The Flint Scientific Institute" with the expressed purpose to "... promote the study and investigation of the several branches of scientific knowledge, the establishment of a library of scientific works, and a museum of natural history ..." (Ellis 1879).

A few months after its inception, The Flint Scientific Institute made a public request for donations of books and specimens to develop their natural history collection. The call to the citizenry was successful and by October 1855 the Institute's museum had grown so that members decided that steps needed to be taken to better organize and preserve existing specimens, as well as plan for further expansion. Part of the process including appointing individuals to serve as curators for various divisions of the natural history collection and Dr. Clarke was selected to oversee the curation of the botany and entomology specimens (Ellis 1879).

At least for a time, Clarke's botanical interests focused on willows, as evidenced by this quote from Beal (1904) "S. petiolaris x Candida Bebb. Herb Salicum, No. 30. Originally from Hascall's swamp, near Flint, Mich., where it was discovered by Daniel Clarke, M. D., in 1872 - the locality being soon after obliterated. Should it be deemed advisable hereafter to treat supposed hybrids as quasi-species, after the manner of Anderson, Kerner and others, I very much wish that this beautiful willow should be called S. Clarkei ...". Dr. Clarke was a horticulturist (Beal 1901), as well as a student of the native flora. That commitment was illustrated by Edwin Wood's (1916) comment "the beautiful elms which grace East Kearsley Street and many other of the handsome residence districts of Flint were the famous 'Boston Elms' and were brought when striplings from their native haunts and planted by Doctor Clarke himself along the principal streets".

Clarke assembled a herbarium that exceeded 5,000 specimens, which was donated to Michigan State University (Beal 1901). Seventy-one of his specimens, most of which were collected in Flint, Michigan, are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. An additional 80 or so plant specimens (primarily members of the Cyperaceae and Salicaceae) collected by Dr. Clarke may be reviewed using the iDigBio specimen database.

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Beal, W. J. 1901. Sketch of Daniel Clarke. Report of the Michigan Academy of Science. 2:109.

Beal, W. J. 1904. Michigan Flora: A List of the Fern and Seed Plants Growing Without Cultivation. State Board of Agriculture. Agricultural College. Lansing, Michigan. p. 68 of 89.

Ellis, Franklin. 1879. History of Genesee County, Michigan: her people. Everts & Abbott. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 56, 58-59, 140-141, 148-151 of 446.

Harrington, Thomas Francis. 1905. The Harvard Medical School Volume III. Lewis Publ. Co. New York. p. 1470 of 1653.

Putnam, F.W. 1866. The Naturalists' directory. Pt. II. North America and the West Indies. The Essex Institute. Salem, Massachusetts. p. 26. Appendix pp. 3 & 4.

Wood, Edwin Orin. 1916. History of Genesee county Michigan: her people, industries and institutions. 1:322, 575, 583-584.

Clinton, George W. (1807 - 1885)

George W. Clinton was born in New York City (13 April 1807 (Day 1885)), but was raised in Albany and attended the Albany Academy. He continued his education at Hamilton College (graduating in 1825) and then enrolled at American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy (which later became Norwich University (Lord 1995)). In 1926 George was able to join a field trip led by Amos Eaton, one of the founders and senior professor at the Rensselaer School (today's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). The troop traveled by canal boat from Albany to Buffalo, New York and studied the natural history of the territory through which they passed (Benton 2020, Rensselaer 2018). That field trip helped cement his inclination to continue his studies in the fields of medicine, chemistry, and botany, when ee graduated from the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy in 1827, but "life circumstances" intervened.

His father, Governor Dewitt Clinton, died unexpected in 1828 and Governor Clinton's friend, Chief Justice Ambrose Spencer, convinced George that he should study law. Consequently, G.W. Clinton attended Litchfield Law School in Connecticut, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and ultimately earned the LL. D. from the Hamilton College in 1864. George and Ms. Laura Spencer (Judge Ambrose Spencer's granddaughter) were married and moved to Buffalo in 1836 (Day 1885, Ellis 1911, Genealogical Publishing Co. 1906-1908, Gray 1886, Lemire 2015).

In addition to practicing law in Buffalo for many years, Clinton served New York's public as: Ontario County district attorney, mayor of Buffalo, U.S. district attorney, Supreme Court judge, Supreme Court Chief Justice, and Regent and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the State of New York (Ellis 1911, Gray 1886, Lemire 2015). His judicial record was extensive and all-consuming for many years. However, in 1861 he returned his attentions to the field of natural history, botany in particular (e.g. Clinton 1864, Eckel 2003), and that led to his affiliation with the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences (Day 1885).

When established in 1836, the Young Men's Association (YMA) in Buffalo, New York was intended to serve as a cultural center for the city. As the YMA developed, committees were formed to deal with issues concerning art, literature, the public library, and science. Consequently, the Association accumulated "numerous specimens, minerals, fossils, shells, insects, pressed plants, sea weeds and various paintings and articles of historic value". By 1861 the collections had grown, specimens were in formal display cabinets, and public interest in natural science had blossomed. Owing to the burgeoning number of specimens, a proposal to organize a natural history society was circulated and soon thereafter the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences was born, with George W. Clinton serving as its first president (Buffalo Museum of Science 2015, Day 1885 & 1890, Genealogical Publishing Co. 1906-1908).

The Society's "Committee on Botany", consisting of Judge Clinton and David F. Day, set a goal to collect all of the native and naturalized plants of the Buffalo area for preservation in its herbarium. In large part due to the efforts of Clinton, via collecting and exchange (Zander 1985), the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences' herbarium grew tremendously and was ultimately designated the "Clinton Herbarium" in recognition of the judge's contributions to its establishment and growth. Clinton's expressive speaking style and engaging writing technique made his speaking engagements on natural history and his "Notes of a Botanist" (published in the Sunday issue of the Buffalo Currier) popular with the public. It seems somehow fitting that when Judge Clinton perished on September 7, 1885 he was outdoors collecting Buffalo's flora (Day 1885, Lemire 2015).

Judge Clinton's collections and exchange program contributed significantly to the expanding the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences (today's Putnam Museum and Science Center). As noted by the Davenport Academy's director "... In addition to the local collections above mentioned, the Herbarium contains a very complete collection of about 2,000 species of eastern plants, presented by Hon. G. W. Clinton, of Buffalo, N. Y., and ..." (Gray 1886, Putnam 1877).

In excess of 800 plants collected by George W. Clinton are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Data from other specimens collected by Clinton may be viewed using the iDigBio database.

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Benton, Allen H. 2020. Clinton's passion in the 1860S, A judge's love of nature helped found the museum of science. The Buffalo News. Buffalo, New York.

Buffalo Museum of Science. 2015. History. Buffalo, New York.

Clinton, George W. 1864. Preliminary list of plants of Buffalo and its vicinity. Young, Lockwood, and Cos steam press. Buffalo, New York.

Day, David F. 1885. George W. Clinton, LL.D. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 12:103-106

Day, David F. 1890. An address commemorative of George W. Clinton. Buffalo Historical Society. Baker, Jones, and Company. Buffalo, New York. 29 pp.

Eckel, P. M. (ed.) 2003. The Botanical Journal of G. W. Clinton. Res Botanica. Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Ellis, William A. (ed.) 1911. Norwich University, 1819-1911; Her History, Her Graduates, Her Roll of Honor. Volume 3. The Capital City Press, Montpelier, Vermont. page 567.

Genealogical Publishing Co. 1906-1908. Memorial and family history of Erie County, New York: biographical and genealogical. Vol. 1: Biographical and genealogical illustrated. The Winthrop Press, New York City. pp. 21 & 22 of 391.

Gray, Asa. 1886. Botanical necrology of 1885. American Jrnl. Sci. 31:12-21.

Lemire, Paula. 2015. The death of Judge Clinton. Albany Rural Cemetery - Beyond The Graves. Weblog.

Lord, Gary Thomas. 1995. History of Norwich University. Norwich University. Northfield, Vermont.

Putnam, J.D. 1877. Report of the director: Biological section. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 2:121

Rensselaer. 2018. Hall of Fame: Amos Eaton. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Troy, New York.

Zander, J.D. 1985. The Clinton Herbarium of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. Modified from Notes from the Clinton Herbarium No. 8. Flora Online. Issue 4.

Couthouy, Joseph Pitty (1808 - 1864)

Joseph Pitty Couthouy, a son of Joseph and Susannah Couthouy, was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 6, 1808. He attended the Boston Latin School. Joseph Couthouy senior was deceased by 1830 and Susannah survived until about 1833. Joseph, like his father, became a merchant marine and was captain of his own ship by 1835. He married Mary Greenwood Wild in March 1832 and they raised four children: William, Josephine, Mary, and Helen (Ancestry.com 2023, Geiser 1957).

In 1837 a Naval expedition was organized with the purpose of exploring the Pacific region from end-to-end in order to enhance trade and gather scientific information. In reality the U.S. was trying to gain a commercial foothold in territory that France and England had previously explored. The expedition was charged with mapping the regions visited for the purpose of improving nautical charts, which in turn would enhance U.S. commerce in whaling, the seal fur trade, and business transactions with China (Egerton 2012, Johnson 1946, Philbrick 2015).

Couthouy learned of the Pacific expedition and approached President Andrew Jackson in person to apply for a position on the scientific team. Though all positions had been filled, Couthouy refused to take "No" for an answer and argued so persuasively that President Jackson told him to, "Go back to Boston and I will see if anything can be done for you (Dall 1888)." So, when the six-ship, four-year "U.S. Exploring Expedition" (Cummings 2018, Johnson 1946, Philbrick 2015), under the direction of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, set sail on August 18, 1838, conchologist Joseph P. Couthouy was aboard.

Friction developed between the expedition naturalists and Wilkes, over the restrictions he (Wilkes) placed on the number of specimens they (the naturalists) could collect. At some point during the expedition, Wilkes demanded Couthouy's notes for an expedition summary he was writing. Couthouy feared that relinquishing his original notes and sketches would severely undermine his future research, so he refused the demand on the grounds that as an official member of the science team he was entitled to keep his records until the end of the voyage. Following the disagreement on professional notes and sometime after departing Samoa, Couthouy became seriously ill. The expedition reached Hawaii in September 1839. Later in the year Wilkes suspended the still infirmed Couthouy from the expedition, put him ashore in Honolulu, and ordered him home "for disobedience of orders" (Dall 1888, Egerton 2012, JSTOR 2013, Wilkes 1845).

Couthouy had numbered his collection notes and had attached a tin tag bearing a matching value to each corresponding specimen. When the ship carrying the specimens ran aground and sank in the mouth of the Columbia River, a sizeable portion of Couthouy's mollusk collection was destroyed. Even so, many survived that calamity and arrived in Washington, D.C. An administrator in the capital hired "a reverend gentleman who knew nothing of science, with a fat salary, to unpack and take care of the specimens sent home by the expedition". The "reverend gentleman" found that the alcohol in which Couthouy's mollusks were preserved had become cloudy (lead had leached out of the tin identification tags). In order to prevent further clouding of the preservative, he removed each of the tin tags, tossed them all together in a single jar and replaced NONE of the identifying numbers. Such was the dubious nature of the curation of the specimens, which had been so carefully preserved for identification and future study. To make matters worse, before any of the expedition members had returned to the United States, many of the rare specimens had, for a fee, been distributed to various prominent U.S. conchologists (Cummings 2018, Dall 1888, Johnson 1946, JSTOR 2013, Wilkes 1845).

Following his dismissal, Couthouy returned to Washington and found that, due to the curatorial and shipwreck mishaps (see paragraph above), many of the shells he had collected could not be matched to his field notes and that other specimens were missing entirely. Nonetheless, Couthouy worked to organize and study his collection until the rest of the expedition returned home. It was then that he learned the pay for all expedition naturalists had been cut by 44% and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Couthouy, who had a family of four to support, refused to finish his report and he returned to his former career as a merchant marine. Fortunately, his notes and collections ultimately ended up in the hands of Dr. A. A. Gould who verified the great value of Couthouy's work (Dall 1888, Gould 1852, Johnson 1946).

In the years following the expedition Couthouy's merchant marine career took him to various locations in South America and the Pacific. In 1854 he was commander of a three-year venture to the Bay of Cumaná (probably near the island of Margarita), Venezuela for the Boston Relief and Submarine Company. (The location is suggested by some to be along the coast of Ecuador. For example Jorgensen & Leon-Yanez (1999).) Though early prospects seemed bright (Emerson's Magazine 1858), he and his crew recovered only about $75,000 out of an estimated $3,000,000 worth of treasure aboard the wrecked Spanish war ship San Pedro Alcántara, which caught fire and sank in 1815 (Anonymous 1871, Geiser 1957, Dall 1888).

Couthouy, a Navy volunteer during the Civil War, became an acting volunteer lieutenant on August 26, 1861 and within a week he took command of the U.S.S. Kingfisher. On December 31, 1862 he took charge of the U.S.S. Columbia, which ran aground at Masonboro Inlet near Wilmington, North Carolina. Couthouy was captured aboard the grounded vessel by Confederate forces and imprisoned for three months at Salisbury, North Carolina, but was freed during a prisoner exchange (Dall 1888, Fonvielle 2013, Garrison 1862). Couthouy returned to active duty (May 29, 1863) as commander of the monitor U.S.S. Osage within the Mississippi Squadron, but he was eventually transferred to the U.S.S. Chillicothe. On April 3, 1864 Couthouy was stationed on the turret of his ship patrolling the Red River off Grand Ecore, Louisiana, when he was shot by a shore-based sniper. He died the following day (Cummings 2018, Dall 1888).

Couthouy presented his first paper dealing with a saltwater snail, before the Boston Society on October 5, 1836 (Couthouy 1836). In volume two of the same journal, Joseph published two more papers on mollusks (Couthouy 1838, 1839) and in all three publications he is designated as Captain Joseph P. Couthouy in the table of contents. His publication record includes four papers in the Boston Journal of Natural History, three published prior to the "U.S. Exploring Expedition" and one on corals published after that voyage (Couthouy 1836, 1838, 1839, 1843). A summary of Couthouy's publications about mollusks and his zoological collections was provided by Johnson (1946). Regarding botany, a single specimen of Cystopteris fragilis collected by Couthouy in 1855 from the Quitensian Andes of Ecuador is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Various other species collected by Couthouy, including others from his 1855 trip to Ecuador and other ventures to South America, may be accessed via the iDigBio database.

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Ancestry.com. 2023. Joseph Pitty Couthouy. Melinda Stimpson Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1871. Ocean Treasures: Story of the loss of the San Pedro. Daily Alta California. Volume 23, Number 7702. 24 April 1871.

Couthouy, Joseph P. 1836. Descriptions of new species of Marginella (Lam.), with some observations upon the same. Boston Jrnl. Nat. History. 1:440-443.

Couthouy, Joseph P. 1838. Descriptions of new species of Mollusca and shells, and remarks on several polypi found in Massachusetts Bay. Boston Jrnl. Nat. History. 2:53-111.

Couthouy, Joseph P. 1839. Monograph on the Family Osteodesmacea of DeShayes. Boston Jrnl. Nat. History. 2:129-189.

Couthouy, Joseph P. 1843. Remarks on coral formations of the Pacific. Boston Jrnl. Nat. History. 4:66-105, 137-162.

Cummings, Kevin S. 2018. Joseph Pitty Couthouy. Illinois Nat. Hist. Survey. Champaign, Illinois.

Dall, William H. 1888. Some American conchologists. Proc. Biological Soc. Washington. 4:95-134.

Egerton, Frank N. 2012. Roots of ecology: Antiquity to Haeckel. Univ. California Press. pp. 149-150.

Emerson's Magazine. 1858. The lost treasures of the San Pedro. Emerson's Magazine & Putnam's Monthly. 6:556-557.

Fonvielle, Chris E. 2013. Wrightsville Wreck of the USS Columbia. Wrightsville Beach Magazine. pp. 149-150.

Garrison, William Lloyd. (ed.) 1862. Joseph P. Couthouy. The Liberator. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 2. column 4. December 19, 1862.

Geiser, S.W. 1957. Joseph Pitty Couthouy (1808-1864) in Texas.

Gould, Augustus A. 1852. United States Exploring Expedition: Molluska & Shells. in Forbes, David W. (ed.). Hawaiian National Bibliography, Vol 3: 1851-1880. p. 30 of 312.

Jørgensen, P.M. & S. León-Yánez (eds.) 1999. Catalogue of the vascular plants of Ecuador: history of collection. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 75: i-viii, 1-1182.

Johnson, Richard I. 1946.
Joseph Pitty Couthouy - A bibliography and catalogue of his species. Occasional papers on mollusks. 1(5):33-40

JSTOR. 2013. Couthouy, Joseph Pitty. Global Plants.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. 2015. The United State Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. Smithsonian Libraries.

Wilkes, Charles. 1845. Narrative of the United States' exploring expedition, during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Whittaker and Company. London, England. 372 pp.

Cowles, Samuel N. (1846 - 1929)

Samuel Noah Cowles was born on Christmas eve 1846 in Otisco, New York to Elisha and Cynthia Cowles. He completed his education at Homer Academy in Homer, New York and spent his entire life in the vicinity of Otisco. Samuel and Celestia Roberts were married in 1870 and raised two children, Lena and James (Ancestry 2017, Kroll 2002, Valcovic 2006). Celestia perished in 1905 and Samuel remained single until 1911, when he married Rhoda Calista Roberts (Ancestry.com 2017).

During his life Samuel seems to have been recognized as a person well versed in the field of botany (Beauchamp 1908). According to the Naturalists' Directory (Cassino 1895) "Samuel N. Cowles, Otisco, Onondaga County, New York" was engaged in the study of "Botany, Entomology, Microscopy". S.N. Cowles is listed as the collector of record for plant specimens noted in reports by the New York State Botanist (Peck 1872-1874), Fernald (1902), Metcalf & Griscom (1917), and others. He also published a few miscellaneous botanical pieces in The American Naturalist (e.g. Cowles 1868, 1870).

Apparently Cowles was an Otisco town supervisor from 1889 to 1890 and a successful farmer (Bruce 1896). He served as president for the Onondaga County branch of the New York State Board of Health in 1889 (Hill 1889).

A dozen specimens collected by Cowles in the state of New York are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Some Cowles specimens may be reviewed via the Brown University Herbarium and a few others via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Ancestry. 2017. Samuel Noah Cowles. Erma Thompson Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Lehi, Utah.

Beauchamp, Rev. William M. 1908. Past and Present of Syracuse and Onondaga County. S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. New York City, New York. pp. 36 & 404.

Bruce, Dwight H. (ed.) 1896. The town of Otisco. in Onondaga's Centennial. Vol. I. pp. 922-932. Boston History Company - publisher.

Cassino, Samuel E. 1895. The Naturalists' Directory. S.E. Cassino, Publisher. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 43.

Cowles, Samuel N. 1868. Bidens frondosa. The American Naturalist 2:658.

Cowles, Samuel N. 1870. Botanical notes. The American Naturalist 3:101-102.

Fernald, M.L. 1902. The Variations of Some Boreal Carices. Proc. Amer. Academy of Arts and Sci. 37(17):495-514.

Hill, David B. 1889. Ninth annual report of the State Board of Health of New York. Troy Press Company, printers. Albany, New York. p. 586 of 609.

Kroll, Diana. 2002. Cowles families in America: Descendants of John 'Cole' Cowles. Genealogy.com.

Metcalf, F.P. & L. Griscom. 1917. Notes on rare New York State plants. Rhodora 19:28-37.

Peck, Charles A. 1872-1874. Report of the botanist. Annual Rpt. New York State Museum Nat. Hist. pp.57, 101, (1872). p. 108 (1873). pp. 46, 48 (1873).

Valcovic, Beverly D. 2006. Samuel Noah Cowles. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Craig, John (1864 - 1912)

John Craig (photo here) was born (April 27, 1864) in Lakefield, Argenteuil County, Quebec, Canada. He finished grade school in Abbotsford and completed high school in Montreal. Because his father was employed on the experimental fruit tree farm of Charles Gibb in Abbotsford, Craig received an early introduction to horticulture. His interest in horticulture expanded after high school, when he spent two years assisting Mr. Gibb's efforts in cold hardiness testing of various fruit trees and ornamental plants (Yates 1912, Woolverton 1893).

Following Gibb's suggestion, Craig enrolled in the horticulture program at Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) and studied under Professor J.L. Budd. Budd and Gibb were acquainted, because they had made trips to England, Russia, and various European countries in search of plant varieties hardy enough to be propagated and survive the severe winters in Canada and Iowa. Craig graduated from Iowa State with a B.S. degree in 1887 (Woolverton 1893).

When the Iowa Experiment Station was established in 1888, Craig was chosen to be assistant director and he took charge of the horticulture department. While at the station, one of his assignments was to collect as many wild and cultivated grasses as possible. That assignment took him on a fieldtrip through Colorado, the Dakotas, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. In 1890 Craig returned to Canada as horticulturist for the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa and there he stayed through 1897 (Hall 2015, Woolverton 1893, Yates 1912).

Craig then turned to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and earned a Master of Science degree in agriculture in June 1899 (Cornell University 1899). But in 1898, he returned to Iowa State to replace Professor Budd as head of the horticulture department. From 1900 until his death Craig was a Professor of Horticulture at Cornell University in New York and he succeeded Liberty Hyde Bailey to become chair of the Horticulture Department in 1903 (Friedlander 2000, Hall 2015, Woolverton 1893, Yates 1912).

Craig's publication history mirrored his horticulture/agriculture occupation (see examples below). A specimen of Poa serotina from Montana collected by Craig in 1888 is in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A few additional herbarium specimens collected by Craig may be accessed at the SEINet database.

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Cornell University. 1899. Thirty-first annual commencement. The Register. p. 433.

Craig, John. 1895. Spraying for the prevention of fungous diseases. Canada Cent. Exp. Farm. Bull. 23. 34 pp.

Craig, John. 1896. Anthracnose of the raspberry (Gleosporium venetum). Canada Exp. Farms. Rept. pp. 123-124.

Craig, John. 1898. Peach culture in Canada. Canada Cent. Exp. Farm. Bull. 1. Series 2. 45 pp.

Craig, John. 1899. Observations and suggestions on the root-killing of fruit trees. Bull. 44. Iowa Ag. College Expt. Station. Ames, Iowa. 213 pp.

Craig, John. 1900a. Facts and opinions on plum and plum growing in Iowa. Bull. 46. Iowa Ag. College Expt. Station. Ames, Iowa. pp. 233-304.

Craig, John. 1900b. Notes on vegetables. Bull. 47. Iowa Ag. College Expt. Station. Ames, Iowa. 32 pp.

Craig, John. 1902. Orchard cover-crops. Bull. 198. Cornell Ag. Expt. Station. Ithaca, New York. pp. 97-133.

Craig, John, & H. Harold Hume. 1899. Native crab apples and their cultivated varieties. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sciences. 7:123-141.

Friedlander, Blaine. 2000. New Department of Horticulture at Cornell is grafted from progeny to produce original shoot. Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University. Ithaca, New York.

Grosser, Leslie H. (ed.) 1912. Professor John Craig dies as summer home. Cornell Daily Sun. Vol. 33. p. 11. September 23, 1912.

Hall, Charles V. 2015. Department of Horticulture: History. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

James, Charles C. (John Craig, ed.) 1899. Practical agriculture. D. Appleton and Company. New York City, New York. 203 pp.

Yates, C.L. (ed.) 1912. Death of John Craig. The National nurseryman. 20:332-334.

Woolverton, L. 1893. Prominent Canadian horticulturists: Mr. John Craig, Ottawa, Ont.. The Canadian horticulturist. 16:200-201.

Cratty, Robert I. (1853 - 1940)

Robert Cratty, a son of Martha E. and William C. Cratty, was born in Butler County of western Pennsylvania (United States Federal Census 1860), but the Cratty family moved to Alto Township near Rochelle, Illinois (United States Federal Census 1870), when he was ten. Robert's father died in 1875 and two years later Robert moved to Iowa. He first settled in Algona, but soon moved about 25 miles to the northwest, where he purchased a 160-acre farm in the Armstrong area. There in Emmet County, Robert met Lovena Cannon and in April 1878 the two were married. The couple raised three daughters and a son — Mabel, Edna, Alta, & Ralph (Anonymous 1917, Beard 2021, Bendixen 2014, Estherville Enterprise 1940, Hayden 1940, JSTOR 2013).

He continued as a farmer, teacher, and school administrator in Emmet County for over 20 years. His civic, educational, and ecclesiastical activities are well documented in Emmet County newspapers of the period, but he obviously loved his work in natural history. Cratty's interest in the native plants of Iowa was considerable as evidenced by the multi-thousand specimen herbarium he amassed. Dr. Louis H. Pammel named him as herbarium curator at Iowa State University in 1918 and he retained that position until he retired in 1932 (Anonymous 1917, Bendixen 2014, Estherville Enterprise 1940, Freese 1998, Hayden 1940, JSTOR 2013, Lewis 2006).

Cratty's long career of observing and studying the flora of Iowa led to numerous publications on the native and introduced taxa in the state. His accomplishments included The Iowa Sedges (Cratty 1898), Flora of Emmett County (Cratty 1904), The Juncaceae of Iowa (Cratty 1905), The Immigrant Flora of Iowa (Cratty 1929), and others (see below, Google Scholar, & Hayden 1940).

Seventy-five specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium list R. Cratty as either the collector or co-collector. Other collections by him are available for review via the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

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Anonymous. 1917. Robert Irvin Cratty. in History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress, and Achievement. Volume II: pp 83-84. Pioneer Publishing Co., Chicago, IL.

Beard, G.M. 2021. Beard Family Tree: Robert Irvin Cratty. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bendixen, Merllene Andre. 2014. Robert Irvin Cratty 1853-1940. IAGenWeb Project. Emmett County, Iowa.

Cratty, R. J. [sic] 1882. Notes from northern Iowa. Bot. Gazette. 7:85-86.

Cratty, Robert I. 1895. Notes on the aquatic phenogams of Iowa. Bull. Lab. Nat. Sci. - State Univ. of Iowa. 3:136-152.

Cratty, Robert I. 1898. The Iowa Sedges. Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist. - State Univ. of Iowa. 4:313-375.

Cratty, Robert I. 1904a. Flora of Emmet County, Iowa: a list of the native and introduced plants. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 11:201-251.

Cratty, Robert I. 1904b. Some interesting grasses of northwestern Iowa. The Iowa Naturalist. 1:3-6.

Cratty, Robert I. 1905. The Juncaceae of Iowa. The Iowa Naturalist. 1:71-74.

Cratty, R. I. 1929. The immigrant flora of Iowa. Iowa State College Jrnl. Sci. 3(3):247-269.

Cratty, R.I. 1933. The Iowa flora. An annotated list of the ferns, fern allies, and the native and introduced flowering plants represented in the Iowa State College Herbarium. Iowa State College Jrnl. Sci. 7(3):177-252.

Estherville Enterprise. 1940. Robert Irvin Cratty 1853-1940. Estherville, Iowa. Obituary published: March 14, 1940.

Freese, Ed. 1998. Early botanists. Iowa Native Plant Soc. Newsletter 4:9.

Hayden, Ada. 1940. In Memoriam: Robert Irwin Cratty. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science. 47(1):31-34.

JSTOR. 2013. Cratty, Robert Irvin (1853-1940). Global Plants.

Lewis, D. 2006. Ada Hayden Herbarium: history. Iowa State University. Ames, Iowa.

United States Federal Census. 1860. Muddy Creek Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania. in Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

United States Federal Census. 1870. Alto Township, Lee County, Illinois. in Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Cuddihy, Sister Mary Agnes "Pacifica" (1894-1965)

Pacifica Cuddihy, a daughter of Patrick and Augusta Cuddihy, was born November 2, 1894 in Great Falls, Montana (Ancestry.com 2024, Cross 2018, Meglitsch 1966). She attended grade school and high school in Great Falls (Gerhars 1957, Great Falls High School 1913), but prior to high school graduation, she entered the Congregation of the Humility of Mary in January 1913 and took the name Sister Mary Agnes (Cross 2018, Meglitsch 1966).

Sister Mary Agnes earned her Bachelor of Science degree from College of St. Catherine in 1921 and she graduated from Eastern Montana Normal School in 1929. The nun completed her M.S. degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1946 (Bills 1965, Morris Brothers 1929, University of Notre Dame 1946).

Sister Mary Agnes served as a teacher and principal in several schools in Great Falls, Montana until 1953, when she accepted a position in the biology department at Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa (Bills 1965, Bureau of Census 1950, Leysen 1953, Meglitsch 1966). During her career Sister Mary Agnes was a member of the National Science Teachers Association, the Iowa Academy of Science, and the Association of Midwestern College Biology Teachers (Bills 1965, Meglitsch 1966, Richardson 1956).

One hundred one plants in the Putnam Museum herbarium (like American Holly shown to the right) were collected by Sister Mary Agnes Cuddihy. All but three were collected in either Indiana or Ohio. The plants were originally part of the herbarium at Marycrest College, but became part of the Putnam Museum herbarium when Marycrest’s doors closed in 2002.

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Pacifica Mary Cuddihy. Cuddihy Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1965. Sister Mary Agnes final rites Monday. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 11. columns 4 & 5. Oct. 23, 1965.

Bureau of Census. 1950. United States Federal Census. Cascade County, Montana. April 18, 1950.

Cross, Sara Corbett. 2018. Sr Mary Agnes "Pacifica" Cuddihy. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Gerhars, Fr. Joseph H. 1957. Humility nuns note 50 years of teaching in see. Eastern Montana Catholic Register. Great Falls, Montana. pp. 1 & 2. August 7, 1957.

Great Falls High School. 1913. Round Up Annual. Locals. p. 70.

Leysen, Ralph J. (ed.) 1953. Bright classrooms to greet Marycrest College students. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 16. Columns 1-3. August 7, 1953.

Meglitsch, Paul A. (ed.) 1966. In Memoriam: Sister Mary Agnes Cuddihy. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science. 73(1):11.

Morris Brothers. (proprietors) 1929. Receive diplomas. Billings Times. Billings, Montana. p. 5. column 2. June 13, 1929.

Richardson, John S. 1956. Membership directory. National Science Teachers Association. The Science Teacher. Vol. 23:33.

Curtiss, Allen Hiram (1845 - 1907)

Allen H. Curtiss (photo here), one of Gaston and Floretta Curtiss' two sons, was born in Central Square, Oswego County, New York in 1845. His father moved the family to what is today Bedford County, Virginia in the 1860s (1861?) and it was during that time period that Curtiss began collecting plants (see Harvard University Herbarium records and iDigBio specimen database). Gaston Curtis died of consumption in November 1872 and three years later Allen Curtiss moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he earned a living with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a full-time plant collector (Diane 2013a&c, Gunter 2013, McCormick 2015, Murrill 2013).

Curtiss made the acquaintance of Dr. Alvin W. Chapman (Curtiss 1880) in Florida and, since it was the only comprehensive key to the plants of the region in existence at the time, he likely used Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States for specimen identification. After 1900 Curtiss expanded his collecting region to other states in the south as well as various islands in the West Indies (see: Curtiss 1903-1905, iDigBio specimen database). He assembled countless sets of specimens during his professional collecting career and distributed them to numerous herbaria (A.H.C. 1880, Curtiss 1877-1880, Harper 1949, JSTOR 2013, Small 1924).

In addition to being a plant collector, Curtiss edited and published in the Florida Farmer and Fruit Grower (e.g. Curtiss 1887 a&b). He authored the "Catalogue of the phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous plants of Canada and the north-eastern portion of the United States" (Curtiss 1873), the "List of Forest Trees of Florida" (Curtiss 1884), and other works enumerated below and by McCormick (2015).

A single specimen of Gerardia integrifolia (= Aureolaria levigata) collected by Curtiss in September 1873 from Bedford, Virginia and four undated specimens he collected in northern Florida are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Thousands of additional Curtiss collections are available for review via the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

An interesting side note is that Allen H. Curtiss appears to have acquired his botanical interests from his mother, Floretta Anna Allen Curtiss. As a young woman she started life on a farm near Central Square, New York about 16 miles north of Syracuse. Though the place was secluded and the family subsisted on harvested game and crops they raised on land they had cleared of trees, Floretta became acquainted with people of means and completed a good education. She associated with the family of James Roosevelt (father of FDR) and her uncle financed her education in Rome, New York and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Floretta's mother guided her to social engagements attended by people of means and it was at one such soirée that Floretta met Gaston Curtiss (Curtiss 1899, Wynne 1996).

By virtue of the people she knew, the servants she had, and the initial success of Gaston, Floretta's life was comfortable. But shortly after the birth of her first son, Allen, and during the times leading up to and during the Civil War life became more challenging. Mrs. Curtiss survived times of prosperity and hardship, intervals of good health and infirmity (tuberculosis), periods filled with good friends and others filled with resentment and exclusion. In mid-December 1862 Floretta and Allen left New York and joined Gaston in Alexandria, Virginia. Gaston, following varying degrees of financial success and failure, abolitionist views that raised the ire of some of his fellow Virginians who labeled him a carpetbagger, survived only until November 1872 (Curtiss 1899, Diane L.M. 2013c, Gunter 2013, Wynne 1996).

As mentioned above, in April 1875 Allen Curtiss "received a commission to do some botanical work in the South for the Department of Agriculture" and in November of the same year Mrs. Curtiss, after overcoming several familial hurdles, joined her son in Jacksonville, Florida. For many years she lived in the "Talleyrand Place" just a few miles northeast of Jacksonville along the St. Johns River. It was there that her interest in botany reemerged, as she became intrigued with the marine algae of Florida's coast. Allen thought that his more first became interested while "beach combing" near the mouth of the St. Johns River. He wrote, "That she should find pleasure in examining and mounting algae was to be expected, it being quite in accord with her tastes. In the line of "fancywork" she ... devoted much time to embroidery ... [and] in algae she found not only species of artwork, but a nature study requiring close mental application" (Curtiss 1899, Wynne 1996).

Regardless of her motivation, Floretta Curtiss became an industrious collector and was described by Wynne (1996) as one of North American's pioneering phycologists. Floretta spent the last 20 years of her life collecting algae in Florida and communicating with other prominent phycologists like William G. Farlow at Harvard University. Though she did not publish the results of her work, she did amass a sizeable herbarium, which her son Allen named "Algae Curtissianae", had it bound into eight volumes, and donated it to the United States National Herbarium in Washington, D.C. Seventy-two of her collections are available for review at the Harvard University specimen database (Curtiss 1899, Diane L.M. 2013b, McCormick 2015, Wynne 1996).

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A. H. C. (Allen H. Curtiss) 1880. Curtiss' 4th Fascicle of Southern Plants. Bot. Gazette 5:136.

Curtiss, A.H. 1872. Hints on Herborizing. The American Naturalist 6:257-260.

Curtiss, Allen H. 1873. Catalogue of the phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous plants of Canada and the north-eastern portion of the United States, including Virginia and Kentucky on the South, and Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota on the West. Liberty, Virginia. 8 pp.

Curtiss, Allen H. 1877-1880. North American Plants - Fascicles I, II, & III. Publ. by A.H. Curtiss. Jacksonville, Florida. 3 pp.

Curtiss, A. H. 1880. Notes from Florida . Bot. Gazette 5:65.

Curtiss, Allen H. 1884. List of the forest trees of Florida. Ashmead Brothers. Jacksonville, Florida.

Curtiss, A.H. (ed.) 1887a. Florida's new palm. Florida Farmer & Fruit Grower. 1(8):1 February 23, 1887. (see p. 1, columns 5 & 6).

Curtiss, A.H. (ed.) 1887b. Florida Farmer & Fruit Grower. Vol. 1. No. 37. Wednesday, September 14, 1887. (see p. 2, column 6).

Curtiss, A.H. 1888. Florida oranges. Garden & Forest. 1:519.

Curtiss, Allen H. 1899. Mrs. Floretta A. Curtiss, a biographical sketch by her son. H. &: W.B. Drew Company. Jacksonville, Florida. 14 pp.

Curtiss, A.H. 1903-1905. Curtiss' West Indian plants. Series I-III. Jacksonville, Florida.

Diane L.M. 2013a. Allen Hiram Curtiss. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Diane L.M. 2013b. Floretta Anna Allen Curtiss. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Diane L.M. 2013c. Gaston G. Curtiss. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Gunter, Donald W. and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. 2013. Gaston G. Curtiss (1819-1872)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Charlottesville, Virginia.

Harper, Roland M. 1949. A preliminary list of the endemic flowering plants of Florida. Quarterly Jrnl. Florida Acad. Sci. 11:25-35. (see pp. 30-31).

JSTOR. 2013. Curtiss, Allen Hiram. Global Plants.

McCormick, Carol Ann. 2015. Allen Hiram Curtiss. Collectors of the UNC Herbarium.

Murrill, William A. 2013. Historic foundations of botany in Florida (and America). Published by the author. Gainesville, Florida. page 18 of 51.

Small, John K. 1924. The Silver-Palm: Coccothrinax argentea. Jrnl. New York Bot. Gard. 25:237-242. (see footnotes pp. 239-240).

Wynne, Michael J. 1996. Phycological Trailblazer No. 9 - Floretta Allen Curtis. Phycological Newsletter Vol. 32. 6 pp.

Davidson, Robert A. (1927 - 1980)

Robert Austin Davidson was born in Keokuk, Iowa in 1927 to Robert and Bessie Davidson. He earned his high school diploma from the Davenport Public High School (Iowa) and his B.A. degree from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Davidson continued on to earn his Master of Science degree (1952) and his Ph. D. (1957) from the University of Iowa (Anonymous 1980, Hayes 1990). His dissertation, The flora of southeastern Iowa, was one of several floristic works completed by students under the direction of Dr. Robert F. Thorne (Horton 2006). Davidson's research specialty was in the taxonomy of Froelichia in the Amaranthaceae (Davidson 1957 & 1960c, Todd 2001).

Following graduation from the University of Iowa, Dr. Davidson served in the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine. Davidson achieved the rank of first lieutenant while stationed at Randolph Air Force Base and his research centered around the study of allergic reactions to pollen (hay fever) (Davidson 1960b). Davidson completed his military career and accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Iowa in 1959. He left Iowa in 1960 to join the USDA in Maryland, where his research focused on economically important plants. Davidson remained with the USDA until the early part of 1961, at which time he went to the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (Davidson 1960c, Todd 2001).

Davidson's research in Washington, D.C. was diverse, but tended to illustrate methods for the increased use of computers for data analysis in plant systematics and taxonomy (see publications cited below). During his tenure at the university, he supervised the work of four doctoral candidates and one master's student. Dr. Davidson was curator of Catholic University's Langlois Herbarium (LCU) until his death in 1980 (Tucker et al. 1989).

Three eastern Iowa plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium list Davidson as collector or co-collector. A few hundred listing Davidson as collector or co-collector may be scanned using the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

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Anonymous. 1980. Obituaries: Robert Davidson. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 5. column 1. May 31, 1980.

Davidson, R.A. 1966. Non-Mendelian systematics and the problems which confront the systematist. in Mendel Centenary Symposium. Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. BioScience 16:197-198.

Davidson, Robert A. 1957. The flora of southeastern Iowa. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Iowa. Iowa City, IA.

Davidson, Robert A. 1960a. A proposal related to taxonomic research material. Taxon 9:197-198.

Davidson, Robert A. 1960b. Botanic aspects of pollinosis in the area of San Antonio, Texas. U.S.A.F. School of Aviation Medicine. Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. Report no. 60-20. 59 pp.

Davidson, Robert A. 1960c. Curriculum vitae. The Catholic University of America Archive. Washington, D.C.

Davidson, Robert A. & Phyllis E. Davidson. 1961. Variance in herbarium specimen identification and other considerations used upon the preparation of a local flora. Rhodora 63(752):207-214.

Davidson, Robert A. 1963. Initial biometric survey of morphological variation in the Cirsium altissimum - C. discolor complex. Brittonia 15:222-241.

Davidson, Robert A. 1965. Photoperiodism in Froelichia floridana (Nutt.) Moq. (Amaranthaceae). Ecology 46:520-524.

Davidson, Robert A. 1967. A cybernetic approach to classification: preliminaries. Taxon 16:3-7.

Davidson, Robert A. & Phyllis E. Davidson. 1961. Variance in herbarium specimen identification and other considerations based upon the preparation of a local flora. Rhodora 63:207-214.

Davidson, Robert A. & Rosalie A. Dunn. 1966. A new biometric approach to systematic problems. BioScience 16:528-536.

Davidson, Robert A. & Rosalie A. Dunn. 1967. A correlation approach to certain problems of population-environment relations . Amer. Jrnl. Botany 54:529-538.

Davidson, Robert A. & Rosalie A. Dunn. 1968. Computer simulation of certain forms of evolutionary change: A preliminary report . Taxon 17:3-10.

Davidson, Robert A. & Rosalie A. Dunn. 1969. A cognitive view and a probability-oriented model of biological classification. Annals New York Acad. Sci. 161:424-449.

Dunn, Rosalie A. & Robert A. Davidson. 1968. Pattern recognition in biologic classification. Pattern Recognition 1:75-84.

Hayes, Daniel K. 1990. Bessie Ava Davidson, 100. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 23. columns 1 & 2. September 11, 1990.

Horton, Diana. 2006. History of the University of Iowa herbarium: A legacy lost. Iowa's Fragile Flora.

Martin, J.K. 2014. Robert A. Davidson. Find a Grave.

Todd, Angela L. 2001. Quis? Ubi? Quando?. Bull. Hunt Inst. Bot. Doc. 13(1):9.

Tucker, Arthur O., Muriel E. Poston, and Hugh H. Iltis. 1989. History of the LCU herbarium, 1895-1986. Taxon 38(2):196-203.

Davis, Charles A. (1861 - 1916)

Charles Albert Davis was born in September of 1861 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His early education was provided by the Portsmouth public school system and he graduated from high school there in about 1879. He followed high school with three years of work in his father's photographic studio, but eventually decided to attend Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine) and he was admitted in 1882. At Bowdoin, Davis was curator of the mineral collection, sold bicycles, was an active member of the League of American Wheelmen, and earned the A.B. degree in 1886.

From Bowdoin he moved on to Hyde Park, Illinois where he taught at Hyde Park High School, but the size of the Chicago metropolitan area didn't agree with him, so Davis' high school teaching career had a one-year duration. He moved on to Alma College in Michigan (1887), where he taught classes in chemistry and natural science, as well as earning his master's degree from Bowdoin College in 1889 (Bowdoin College 1886, Calbreath 1916, JSTOR 2013, Lane 1917, Philbrick 1916).

At Alma, his scientific interests focused on botany, but he enjoyed many branches of science (geology and zoology in particular) and had a hand in organizing the Michigan Academy of Science. He was employed for a time by the Michigan Geological Survey in the lower peninsula (see Davis 1910), but the year 1901 found Davis accepting a forestry position at the University of Michigan. During the early part of his stay at Michigan (1901-1905), Charles Davis was granted a six-month sabbatical to study forestry at Cornell University, he taught in Michigan's forestry program, and he was an active doctoral candidate (Calbreath 1916, JSTOR 2013, Lane 1917).

Upon earning the Ph.D. (Davis 1905 & 1907, Philbrick 1916) Davis was appointed curator of the University of Michigan's herbarium, a position he retained until 1908. In that year he began scientific work for the United States government as a peat expert with the Geological Survey and published several papers on the formation, distribution, and uses of peat deposits (Davis 1908a&b, 1911, 1913). In 1910 he was transferred to the Bureau of Mines, where he worked as a fuel technologist (beginning in 1912) and a geologist (beginning in 1915). Davis' investigations shifted from the utilization of peat and coal to the origin of the oil shale deposits of Colorado and Utah. As a petroleum geologist, Dr. Davis was interested in determining the nature of the organic compounds in shale deposits and how those deposits might contribute to the production of petroleum distillates (Calbreath 1916, Casey 1909, Davis 1916a&c, JSTOR 2013, Lane 1917, Mains 2014, Philbrick 1916).

From the time his career began at Alma College, until his death due to kidney disease in April 1916, Charles Davis published a number of papers on a variety of botanical and geological topics. Though a few of his scholarly works are listed below, a more complete bibliography is present in Lane (1917). Plant specimens collected by Davis from Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Hampshire from 1886 to 1890 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. In addition, nearly 2000 of Davis' collections may be found in the University of Michigan's herbarium.

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Bowdoin College. 1886. Bowdoin College Catalogue(1885-1886). Bowdoin College. Brunswick, Main. pp. 12, 39, 51 of 55.

Calbreath, J.F. (ed.) 1916. Chas. A. Davis, of Bureau of Mines, dies suddenly. The Mining Congress Jrnl. 2:226.

Casey, William M. 1909. Fraternities: Peninsular Chapter. Michiganensian p. xi of xv-14.

Davis, Charles A. 1894. A flora of Michigan lakes. in Report Michigan Acad. Science 1894-1899. 1:24-31.

Davis, Charles A. 1898. A Contribution to the Knowledge of the Flora of Tuscola County, Michigan Bot. Gazette. 25(6):453-458.

Davis, Charles A. 1900. A contribution to the natural history of marl. Jrnl. of Geology 8:485-497.

Davis, Charles A. 1901. A second contribution to the natural history of marl. Jrnl. of Geology 9:491-506.

Davis, Charles A. 1903. The testimony of the plants of the forest preserve region. in Report of the Michigan Forestry Commission for 1902. Lansing, Michigan. pp 24-28.

Davis, Charles A. 1905. The ecology of peat formation in Michigan. Ph.D. dissertation. Univ. of Michigan. 179 pp.

Davis, Charles A. 1907. Peat, essays on its origin, uses and distribution in Michigan. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan. 179 pp.

Davis, Charles A. 1908a. Some possibilities of peat utilization. Rpt. Michigan Acad. Sci. 10:99-106.

Davis, Charles A. 1908b. Peat deposits as geological records. Rpt. Michigan Acad. Sci. 10:107-112.

Davis, Charles A. 1910. Report on the geology of Tuscola county, Michigan. in Report of the state board of Geological Survey of Michigan for the year 1908. 81 pp.

Davis, Charles A. 1911. The uses of peat for fuel and other purposes. Bull. 16. U.S. Dept. Interior. Bureau of Mines. 214 pp.

Davis, Charles A. 1913. Peat. in Mineral resources of the United States. Part II. U.S. Geological Survey. Washington, D.C. pp. 383-392 of 1617.

Davis, Charles A. 1916a. On the fossil algae of the petroleum-yielding shales of the Green River Formation of Colorado and Utah. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 2:114-119

Davis, Charles A. 1916b. Physiographic evidence of recent subsidence on the coast of Maine. Bull. Geological Soc. Amer. 27:108.

Davis, Charles A. 1916c. Some fossil algae from the oil-yielding shales of the Green River formation of Colorado and Utah. Bull. Geological Soc. Amer. 27:159.

JSTOR. 2013. Davis, Charles Albert (1861-1916). Global Plants.

Lane, Alfred C. 1917. Memorial of Charles A. Davis. Bull. Geol. Soc. America. 28:14-40.

Mains, Edwin B. 2014. History of the University of Michigan Herbarium. in The University of Michigan, an Encyclopedic Survey. Part 8. Wilfred B. Shaw (ed.). pp 1431-1442.

Philbrick, Donald W. (ed.) 1916. Alumni Department. Bowdoin Orient. 44(2):16.

Davis, Eldred H. (1875 - 1907)

The "life and times" of Eldred H. Davis have not been well documented, hence the following hodgepodge of marginally satisfying snippets. He was the son of Eldred R. and Annie W. Davis — he had two sisters (A.S. Abell Company 1907).

"Eldred Higgins Davis came to McDonogh in the summer of 1887. He left June 13, 1892. ... In the summer of 1891 the botany job was given to Davis. He attended to this work very well, and seldom made any mistakes in his work. He was the best botanist the school has had for a good while. He knew the name of almost every plant that has ever been found on the farm" (Childes 1892).

Shortly after leaving McDonogh School, Davis went to work for Johnson, Omohundro & Co., "as a type-writer and general assistant. This is a large wholesale notion firm, 21 Hopkins Place, Baltimore. ..." (Childes 1892). Mr. Davis also worked for Wilson, Colston & Company, which was a banking and brokerage firm in Baltimore (A.S. Abell Company 1907, Anonymous 1900). In August of 1905 Mr. Davis relocated and became the "Commandant's Clerk" for Admiral Samuel W. Very at the U.S. Naval Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. Regrettably, he contracted "typhoid-pneumonia" and perished a little over two years later (November 19, 1907) at Queen's Hospital on the island. His body was interred at Nuuanu Cemetery (Hoogs 1905, Langton 1906, Smith 1907).

Twenty-eight of Davis' specimens (collected in 1891) are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Most were collected at or near McDonogh, Maryland.

.......

A.S. Abell Company. 1907. Died in Honolulu: Eldred Higgins Davis was a native of Baltimore. The Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. p.4. column 4. November 20, 1907.

Anonymous. 1900. Baltimore's prominent banks, bankers, trust companies, etc. The Bankers' Magazine. 60(4):629. April 1900.

Baublitz, Ron. 2015. Eldred Higgins Davis. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Childes, W. T. 1892. E. H. Davis leaves McDonogh. The Week. 9(49):196-197.

Hoogs, Frank L. (mgr.) 1905. Sherman brought many local people & Iroquois must go to Midway. Hawaiian Star. Honolulu, Hawaii. p. 1. columns 3 & 4. August 12, 1905.

Langton, William M. (ed.) 1906. Official Directory: Navy. Paradise of the Pacific. 19:64.

Smith, Walter G. (ed.) 1907. Local brevities. The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu, Hawaii. p. 9. column 2. November 19, 1907.

Davis, Nancy Jane (1833 - 1921)

Nancy Jane Davis was born near Lewistown, Pennsylvania in December of 1833 to James and Mary Davis. Her early education was completed at Kishacoquillas Academy and Jacksonville Seminary (Anderson 2009, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 1921, Heustis 1921, Jepson 1934, Welch & Welch 1921). She was an 1856 graduate of Mt. Holyoke Seminary (Read 1911) and received an honorary M.A. and an honorary L.H.D. (1902 and 1917, respectively) from Mt. Holyoke for her pioneering work in the field of education for women (Archives & Special Collections 2023). Ms. Davis served as principal at Milroy Academy in Milroy, Pennsylvania town, but resigned and moved to Birmingham, Pennsylvania in 1857 (Heustis 1921, Welch & Welch 1921).

Ms. Davis, with Lemuele G. Grier and his wife Sarah Boileau Grier, moved to Birmingham, Pennsylvania in October of 1857, after Mr. and Mrs. Grier had purchased a building and the surrounding plot of land that included the defunct "Mountain Female Seminary". The trio refurbished the facility and formally reopened the girls' school in May of 1858 to a combination of boarding students and day students (Green 1953, Grier School 2023, Salyards 2021).

For $130 per annum in the 1850s (Salyards 2021), The Birmingham School for Girls' curriculum included classes in religion, languages, mathematics, and the arts — science classes did not appear in the curriculum until 1910 — and the first graduating class (two students) received diplomas in 1861. The facility officially changed its name to "The Grier School" in 1937, and Ms. Davis served as an educator there until her death at age 88 (Green 1953). Grier School continues to thrive today with an enrollment of about 250 (Grier School 2023).

Ms. Davis' career in botany is not well documented, but Jepson's (1934) account of how he serendipitously discovered her connection to California plants is worth reading. In short, Ms. Davis made three trips to California: 1863, 1895, & 1915. Nancy Jane made her first trek to California via the Panama Canal (Welch & Welch 1921) and that was the venture that brought her to Jepson's attention, because of "a fine and beautifully prepared collection of plants" she assembled from near Eureka, California and sent to Asa Gray. Among them was an ericaceous shrub Gray named Leucothoe davisiae in her honor (Gray 1868, Hooker 1876, Jepson 1934).

Apart from the above, Davis must have been fairly active in botany. She corresponded with John Torrey (Davis 1869), collected plants with Rev. Thomas C. Porter, and completed a course in introductory "Phaenogamic Botany" at Harvard University in the summer of 1878 (iDigBio database, Porter 1893, Sever 1878). In addition to Leucothoe davisiae, two other western plant taxa, Allium lacunosum var. davisiae and Polygonum davisiae, were named in her honor (Charters 2015, Gray 1872, Jepsen 1934).

Four specimens collected in Pennsylvania by "Miss Davis" in 1870 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. A query of the SEINet database revealed four of Davis' Pennsylvania collections at Drexel University, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the New York Botanical Garden; 13 of her collections from California are at the New York Botanical Garden. In spite of Gray's comment above, only three of Ms. Davis' plant collections are listed in the Harvard Herbarium plant database and another eight are listed in the iDigBio database.

.......

Anderson, Mona. 2009. Nancy J. Davis. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Archives & Special Collections. 2023. Honorary degrees recipients. Mt. Holyoke College. South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Charters, Michael L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations. see "davis'iae".

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 1921. Death Certificate: Nancy Jane Davis. Department of Health. Bureau of Vital Statistics. via Ancestry.com.

Davis, N.J. 1869. Letter to John Torrey. LuEsther T. Mertz Library. New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, New York.

Gray, Asa. 1868. Characters of new plants of California and elsewhere principally of those collected by H. N. Bolander in the State Geological Survey. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 7(2):327-401. (see p. 400).

Gray, Asa. 1872. Determination of a collection of plants made in Oregon by Elihu Hall during the summer of 1871, with characters of some new species and various notes. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 8:372-412. (see pp. 399-400).

Green, Harriet. 1953. The Grier School: the first hundred years. Published by the Grier School. Tyrone, Pennsylvania.

Grier School. 2023. Grier School: history. Grier School. Birmingham, Pennsylvania.

Heustis, Charles H. (ed.) 1921. Educator to be buried. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 6. column 2. June 21, 1921.

Hooker, Joseph Dalton. (ed.) 1876. Leucothoe davisiae. Curtis's Botanical Magazine. 102:6247.

Jepson, Willis Linn. 1934. The botanical explorers of California - IX. Madrono. 2:116.

Porter, Thomas C. 1893. A list of the grasses of Pennsylvania. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 20:193-207. (see Agropyrum violaceum, p. 207).

Read, Florence M. (sec'y). 1911. Mt. Holyoke Seminary: graduates. in General Catalogue of Officers and Students of Mount Holyoke College, 1837-1911. Mt. Holyoke College. South Hadley, Massachusetts. p. 17 of 375.

Salyards, Keri. 2021. Follow The Gleam: Ruth's Story. Grier School. Birmingham, Pennsylvania.

Sever, Charles W. 1878. Summer courses of instruction: botany. The Harvard University Catalog 1878-1879. Cambridge: Press of John Wilson & Son. p. 201.

Snowden, James A., James D. Moffat, & John A. Marquis. 1902. Miss N.J. Davis: Principal Mountain Seminary, Birmingham, PA. Presbyterian Banner 89(8):4. August 7, 1902. (Source of Nancy J. Davis photo.)

Welch, A.S. & C.H. Welch. (eds.) 1921. Miss Davis dies at Birmingham. The Mount Union Times. Mount Union, Pennsylvania. p. 1. column 5. June 24, 1921.

Day, David F. (1829 - 1900)

David Fisher Day, one of Ebenezer and Abigail Day's five children, was born June 11, 1829 in Buffalo, New York. He attended the local schools of Buffalo and when he was about 17 (~1846) David began studying law in the offices of H.B. Potter and Mr. Howard, where he gained sufficient experience and knowledge to pass the bar exam about 4 years later (~1850). David and Helen Jones were married in Buffalo in August of 1857 and the couple had four children — Isabella, Helen, Niles, and Oliver (Conners 1900, Mathews 1900, Meyer 2010, U.S. Federal Census. 1860, Weast/Woods Family Tree 2021)

Mr. Day was an attorney and close personal friend of George W. Clinton. Day, an active member of the community, was involved with the establishment of the Buffalo Botanical Gardens, the Buffalo Society of Natural History, and the Buffalo Historical Society in the late 1800s. As a founding member of the Buffalo Society of Natural History committee on botany, he and Clinton were committed to thoroughly botanizing the Buffalo region and to the creation of a herbarium highlighting the region's plant life (Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens 2016, Buffalo Historical Society 1875, Eckel 2002, Larned 1911, Meehan 1900).

To that end, Day and G.W. Clinton investigated the plants of western New York and the adjacent section of southern Ontario. Some publications by Day and/or Clinton described the flora of the Buffalo region in general and others focused on specific locales like Niagara Falls or the Niagara River Gorge (Day 1882, 1886, 1888, 1901). Day was an avid student of the flora of Buffalo and environs, as well as an enthusiastic promoter of botanical and zoological collections in the Buffalo area (Eckel 2002). He seems to have even dabbled in a bit of paleontology (Hussakof & Bryant 1918 - see p. 194).

Beyond his natural history pursuits, Mr. Day was a public servant who earned respect as an attorney in Buffalo and a New York State Assemblyman (Kestenbaum 2015). He was active in a variety of civil organizations, not the least of which was the Buffalo State Normal School, where he sat on the board of trustees for 15 years (Lothrop & Fryer 1900, Meehan 1900).

About half of Day's specimens at BDI bear neither collection date, nor collection locality. The rest are from New York or Ohio and, given that he died in 1900, were collected no later than that year. Additional plant specimens collected by Mr. Day may be reviewed in the SEINet and iDigBio databases.

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Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. 2016. History of the Gardens. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. 4:65-279.

Buffalo Historical Society. 1875. Certificate of incorporation, constitution and by-laws, list of officers and members, collections, etc.. The Courier Company, printers. Buffalo, New York. 32 pp.

Conners, William J. 1900. Funeral services of David F. Day. The Buffalo Courier. Buffalo, New York. p. 8. column 3. August 25, 1900.

Day, David F. 1882. The plants of Buffalo and its vicinity. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. 4:65-279.

Day, David F. 1886. Native and naturalized plants of Buffalo and its vicinity - second supplement. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. 5:85-96.

Day, D. F. 1888. Catalogue of the Niagara flora. A catalogue of the flowering and fern-Like plants growing without cultivation in the vicinity of the Falls of the Niagara. Troy Press Company Printers. Troy, New York.

Day, David F. 1901. The flora and fauna of Niagara Falls. in Howells, William D., Mark Twain, & Nathaniel S. Shaler (eds.). The Niagara Book. Doubleday, Page, & Co. New York. pp. 158-177.

Eckel, P.M. 2002. Botanical evaluation of the Goat Island Complex, Niagara Falls, New York. Res Botanica, Missouri Botanical Garden Web Site. St. Louis.

Hussakof, L. & W.L. Bryant. 1918. Catalog of the fossil fishes in the museum of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. 12:5-198.

Kestenbaum, Lawrence. 2015. Political Graveyard. WebLog. Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Larned, J.N. 1911. A history of Buffalo - Delineating the evolution of the city. Vol. II. The Progress of the Empire State Company. New York City, New York. pp. 176-182 of 321.

Lothrop, Thomas & Robert L. Fryer. 1900. In memoriam: David F. Day, LL.D. in Forty-seventh annual report of the State Superintendent. Dept. Public Instruction. State of New York. Albany, New York. pp.590 & 591 of 734.

Mathews, J.N. 1900. David F. Day passes away. Buffalo Express. Buffalo, New York. p. 6. column 5. August 22, 1900.

Meehan, Thomas. 1900. Biography and literature - David F. Day. Meehan's Monthly. 10:159.

Meyer, Phyllis. 2010. David F. Day. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

U.S. Federal Census. 1860. 10th Ward, Buffalo City, Erie County, New York. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Weast/Woods Family Tree. 2021. David Fisher Day. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Deam, Charles C. (1865 - 1953)

Charles Clemon Deam was born August 30, 1865 to John Henry and Martha Deam near Bluffton, Indiana and grew up on his family's farm with his younger brother, Lewis. On the farm Charlie tended the crops, cared for the livestock, split wood, and nearly died of typhoid fever. In spite of the hard work, Deam persevered with his education and he was part of the first graduating class from Bluffton High School in 1884. Deam taught in a country school near Bluffton during the 1884-1885 academic year and then used the teaching salary he'd saved to enroll at DePauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) in the fall of 1885. Regrettably, lack of funds forced Deam to leave DePauw and he returned to Bluffton after only a couple of years (Bowen 1903, Indiana Department of Natural Resources 2015, Indiana University 2016, Scherber 2016, Weatherwax 1971).

After leaving DePauw he farmed and worked on a surveying crew, but ultimately Deam entered into an apprenticeship in a pharmacy. That successful apprenticeship led to drug store ownership and Charlie committed himself to a non-stop life in the business. The store even marketed a line of his own products like "Deam's Pleasant Worm Syrup", "Deam's Nerve and Bone Liniment" (Customer 1900), and even "Deam's Liquid Smoke" for curing meat (Stein-Gray 1907). Long working hours and a hard-driving demeanor were good for business, but not for his health. So, Charlie's doctor prescribed time off and long walks to correct the ill effects of a draining business (Indiana Department of Natural Resources 2015, Indiana University 2016, Kriebel 1987, Scherber 2016, Weatherwax 1971).

And so, his doctor's recommendation for recuperative walks, coupled with frequent drives with his wife through the local countryside, led Charles C. Deam to slowly kindle an interest in plants. A healthy natural curiosity and an introduction to Gray's Manual of Botany steered Charlie to plant collecting. Early on Charlie and his wife visited and botanized Mexico and other countries in Latin America, but he eventually decided to concentrate his botanical efforts on Indiana's flora (Scherber 2016, Weatherwax 1971).

Deam published many papers and authored several books on various aspects of the flora of his home state (e.g. Deam 1922, 1940, 1953). He held the position of Indiana state forester for many years and was a longtime proponent of conservation. Charlie Deam had a distinctive personality and was long on accomplishments, honesty, and trustworthiness, all of which are nicely detailed in the well-written works of Hibben (2012), Kriebel (1987), and Weatherwax (1971), where thorough accounts of the life and deeds of Charles C. Deam are presented.

Deam is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Carex lupuliformis Sartwell collected in Posey County, Indiana. Several thousand additional Deam specimens may be reviewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Bowen, B.F. (publ.) 1903. Biographical memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, publisher. Logansport, Indiana. pp. 500-501 of 597.

Customer, A. 1900. A notorious character. Amer. Druggist and Pharma. Record 37:384.

Deam, Charles C. 1922. Indiana woodlands and their management. Indiana Dept. Conservation. Forestry Div. Bull. No. 5. Indianapolis, IN. 22 pp.

Deam, Charles C. 1940. Flora of Indiana. Indiana Dept. Conservation. Wm. B. Burford Printing Co. Indianapolis, IN.

Deam, Charles C. 1953. Trees of Indiana. Dept. of Conservation. State of Indiana.

Hibben, George. 2012. Charlie Deam and the Deam Oak (Quercus X deamii). Arnoldia. Vol. 69. 7 pp.

Indiana Department of Natural Resources. 2015. Indiana's first state forester - Charles Clemon Deam. Division of Forestry Information. Indianapolis, IN.

Indiana University. 2016. Charles C. Deam papers, 1881-1983. Archives Online. Indiana University Office of University Archives and Records Management. Bloomington, Indiana.

Kriebel, R.C. 1987. Plain Ol' Charlie Deam, pioneer Hoosier botanist. Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana. 183 pp.

Scherber, Annette. 2016. Charles C. Deam: From Typhoid Survivor to the Great Hoosier Botanist. Indiana Historical Bureau. Web blog post.

Stein-Gray. 1907. Proprietary medicines and pharmaceutical specialties. Drugs & Sundries. Stein & Gray Drug Company. Cincinnati, Ohio. Vol. 5. May-September. (See p. 41 in each issue.)

Weatherwax, Paul. 1971. Charles Clemon Deam: Hoosier Botanist. Indiana Magazine of History. 67(3):197-267.

Decker, Edward G. (1873? - XXXX)

Edward G. Decker, the eldest son of Charles W. and Isabelle Decker, was born about 1873 (United States Federal Census 1880, Witherell 1880). Edward (class of 1891), Edwin Farber (class of 1892), Naomi Melville (class of 1891), Emma Peck (class of 1887), Inez Rabell (class of 1888), John Randall (class of 1886), Anna Richter (class of 1890), and Edith Ross (class of 1886) were Davenport High School graduates (Labath 2012) who have herbarium specimens preserved at the Putnam Museum. Evidently, during the 1880s and 1890s at least some Davenport High School seniors completed science projects that involved assembling a personal herbarium.

Botanists in high school? Why would a 19th century high school student decide to become a plant collector? The most likely explanation seems to lie with Davenport High School's principal, Mr. Frederick E. Stratton.

In the fall of 1883, Davenport found itself in need of a new high school principal. The first person to whom the position was offered declined the opportunity and subsequently the city was "fortunate in securing a gentleman for the place who bears as high a reputation as teacher as any man recommended to the board — Mr. F.E. Stratton of Orange, Mass." (Richardson 1883). Frederick Stratton was a Williams College graduate who had botanized in Central America (Myers & Myers 1871) and had taught for several years. The details of his personal story may be of interest (see Frederick Stratton biography), but suffice it to say that he was a trained botanist, published a botany textbook during his stay in Davenport (Stratton 1891), and the only 19th century students represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium graduated from Davenport High School during his tenure. It seems reasonable, then, to consider him a leading contender for the position of Davenport High School's "plant science promoter". But, back to Edward Decker.

After high school, Decker attended the State University of Iowa and graduated with a B.S. in 1895 (Anonymous 1895, State University of Iowa 1893). The depth of his involvement is unknown, but Ed evidently had more than passing interest in birds. He advertised in The Swiss Cross for, "Eggs, skins, stamps, tags, and curiosities, for ornithological specimens" (Decker 1888). Other authors mentioned his avian observations and collections in texts dealing with the birds of Iowa (Anderson 1907, Nutting 1892).

Decker was a member of research voyage to the West Indies led by Dr. Charles C. Nutting (the museum curator and a natural history professor (Calder 2004)) sponsored by the University of Iowa. Excluding the sailing crew, seven women and fourteen men set sail aboard the schooner Emily E. Johnson on May 5, 1893 (Nutting 1893b, 1894, Remley & Johns 1893). During the trip Ed Decker was, with Webb Ballord (Ballord 1907, Hole 1914), involved with the bird collecting that occurred (Nutting 1894-1896) and he, along with three other individuals, kept journals of their expedition experiences. Those notes were blended to produce a narrative about the trip entitled "The Bahama Expedition" (Larrabee et al. 1893, Nutting 1893a&b, 1894). Another thorough description of the voyage and a few images from it are available in Wilson (1894); additional images related to the expedition are available from the Iowa Digital Library.

The rest of Edward Decker's life is a bit of a jumble that would benefit from the inspection and disentanglement of a professional genealogist. As listed above, Edward G. Decker, son of Charles and Isabelle Decker was born in 1873 and had two brothers — Herbert and Charles (United States Federal Census 1880). It appears that the same E.G. Decker continued his education at the State University of Iowa and earned his medical degree in 1897 (Anonymous 1897a). It also appears that following graduation he returned to Davenport to practice medicine (Anonymous 1897b). Various community announcements and medicine related newspaper articles mention Dr. E.G. Decker until 1905 (Richardson 1905), then he disappeared and a bit of a conundrum develops.

After 1905, Drs. George E. and Herbert M. Decker were mentioned in various newspaper accounts (e.g. Cram 1918). They were also natives of Davenport, Iowa and they were the sons of a Charles W. and Isabelle Decker (Blackman 1939, Hardman 1911). How closely the three Doctors Decker and the two sets of Charles W. and Isabelle Decker were related on the tree of life is yet to be determined.

Edward Decker is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by three plants collected in Scott County, Iowa — a hawthorn, a sedge, and a willow.

.......

Anderson, Rudolph Martin. 1907. The birds of Iowa. Ph.D. Thesis. State Univ. of Iowa. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 11:125-417.

Anonymous. 1895. Commencement Week. The Davenport Daily Times. June 6, 1895. p. 3. column 2.

Anonymous. 1897a. Medics graduate: A large number receive degrees at the state university. The Davenport Daily Times. March 19, 1897. p. 3. column 2.

Anonymous. 1897b. An interesting paper: read at tri-city medical meeting by Dr. M'Cowen. The Davenport Daily Times. October 15, 1897. p. 3. column 5.

Ballord, Esek S. 1907. Some of the descendants of Zaccheus Ballord. Press of David Clapp & son. Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 40 & 54 of 73.

Blackman, L.R. (ed.) 1939. Dr. Decker dies in Cincinnati, O. Daily Dispatch. Moline, Illinois. November 4, 1939. p. 12. columns 2 & 3.

Calder, Dale R. 2004. From birds to hydroids: Charles Cleveland Nutting (1858-1927) of the University of Iowa. Hydrobiologia 530/531:13-25.

Cram, Ralph W. 1918. Dr. H.M. Decker leaves for Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. The Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. column 1.

Decker, Edward. 1888. Exchanges. The Swiss Cross 3:159.

Hardman, J.E. 1911. Charles W. Decker dies at hospital. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. March 11, 1911. p. 6. column 2.

Hole, Elmer C. 1914. In important command. American Lumberman January 3, 1914. pp. 66-67.

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

Larrabee, William, Edward G. Decker, Edwin L. Sabin, and William P. Powell. 1893. The Bahama Expedition. Scientific Expeditions of the S.U.I. 32 pp.

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.

Nutting, C.C. 1892. Report of committee on state fauna. Proc. Iowa Acad. Nat. Sci. 193):39-42.

Nutting, Charles C. 1893a. Report of Charles C. Nutting, Professor of Zoology, on University Expeditions. Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Iowa. Report of the State Univ. of Iowa. G.H. Ragsdale, State Printer. Des Moines, Iowa.

Nutting, Charles C. 1893b. Report of Charles C. Nutting, Professor of Zoology, on University Expeditions. Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Iowa. Report of the State Univ. of Iowa. G.H. Ragsdale, State Printer. Des Moines, Iowa.

Nutting, C.C. 1894. History of the Bahama Expedition. The Annals of Iowa 1(4):298-302.

Nutting, C.C. 1894-1896. Narrative and preliminary report of Bahama Expedition. Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist. State Univ. Iowa. Volume III. p. 40 of 251.

Remley, Hubert & E.B. Johns. (eds.) 1893. To the Bahamas. The Daily Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. April 2, 1893. page 3. columns 2 & 3.

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

Richardson, J.B. (manager). 1905. Personal. The Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. October 17, 1905. p. 9. column 3.

State University of Iowa. 1893. Class of '95. The Hawkeye: Junior Annual of the class of '94. p. 28. pp. 39-45 of 78.

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

United States Federal Census. 1880. Edward G. Decker. in Ancestry.com.

Wilson, E.B. 1894. The Bahama Expedition of the State University of Iowa. Scientific American. 70(15):229-230. APRIL 14, 1894.

Witherell, L.K. (census taker) 1880. Inhabitants: Davenport, 6th Ward, West Miss. Ave, Scott County, Iowa. U.S. Federal Census. page 36 of 45.

Denslow, William Wallace (1826 - 1868)

William Denslow was the eldest child of Allen A. and Rebecca B. Denslow (Gilbert 2005). As a pharmacist he became interested in botany as a way to reduce the impact of his tuberculosis through outdoor activities. Denslow was described as "the chief authority on the flora of the northern part of the island" (Burgess 1900), which is presumably a reference to his understanding of the flora of what is the present-day borough of Manhattan in New York City. Though he apparently published nothing in the field of botany, he did assemble a remarkable personal herbarium (JSTOR 2013, University of Massachusetts 2016).

Denslow amassed a collection of some 15,000 plant specimens, via exchange (e.g. Denslow 1867) and his own botanizing habits. His herbarium, including North American and European species, was purchased in 1870 for $2000 by the Massachusetts Agricultural College (later the University of Massachusetts) (JSTOR 2013, Seidler 2017, University of Massachusetts 2016). Included among the specimens in Denslow's herbarium were a few plants collected by John J. Audubon, that ultimately found a home at the University of Massachusetts and the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). It is unknown exactly how they came to be in Denslow's possession, but those at NYBG can be viewed via their
herbarium database (Vargues 2016).

Mr. Denslow was listed in the 1865 edition of the Naturalists' Directory (Putnam 1865) and some of his plant collections were cited in the first volume of the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club (Leggett 1870b). Also found in the Torrey Botanical Club's first volume is the following report, "We have lost by death one member, W. W. Denslow, one of the earliest, most enthusiastic, and, with the disadvantage of feeble health, one of the most indefatigable. No one had studied so carefully the plants on the northern end of this island: unfortunately we have but a partial report of his observations" (Leggett 1870a).

Mr. Denslow fathered at least two children. LeGrand N. Denslow became a physician affiliated with the St. Paul Medical College in Minnesota (Empson 2006, Rauch 1886). A second son, William Wallace Denslow, Jr. illustrated L. Frank Baum's " The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" published in 1900 (JSTOR 2013), one version of "Humpty Dumpty" (Denslow 1903), and other works for children.

Four plants collected by Denslow in New York state are present in the Putnam Museum Herbarium: Diodia teres, Liquidambar styraciflua, Quercus palustris, & Vicia cracca. A few additional Denslow specimens may be viewed via a search of the SEINet database, as well as the iDigBio, the Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria, and the Williams College Herbarium databases.

.......

Burgess, Edward S. 1900. The work of the Torrey Botanical Club. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 27:552-558.

Denslow, W.W. 1867. Exchanges. Hardwicke's Science-Gossip. 3:144.

Denslow, W.W. 1903. Humpty Dumpty. G.W. Dillingham Company. New York City, New York.

Empson, Donald L. 2006. The Street Where You Live: A Guide to the Place Names of St. Paul. Univ. Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 74 of 325.

Gilbert, Nancy. 2005. William Wallace Denslow. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

JSTOR. 2013. Denslow, William Wallace (1826-1868). Global Plants.

Leggett, W.H. (ed.) 1870a. The club. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 1:45.

Leggett, W.H. (ed.) 1870b. The club. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 1:45.

Putnam, F.W. (ed.) 1865. The Naturalists' Directory. Part 1: North America and the West Indies. The Essex Institute. Salem, Massachusetts. p. 11 of 31.

Rauch, John H. (sec'y.) 1886. Medical colleges of the United States and Canada (1765-1886). in Eighth annual report of the State Board of Health of Illinois. Springfield, Illinois. p. 475 of 556.

Seidler, Tristram. 2017. Herbarium. Biology Department. University of Massachusetts. Amherst, Massachusetts.

University of Massachusetts. 2016. William Wallace Denslow Botanical Manuscripts Collection, 1864-1868. Special Collections & University Archives: UMass Amherst Libraries. Amherst, MA.

Vargues, Lisa. 2016. Audubon's Final Journey: Botanical Relics Uncovered at NYBG. Interesting plant stories. New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, New York.

Dewey, Chester (1784 - 1867)

On October 25, 1784 Chester Dewey was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts to Stephen and Elizabeth Dewey. He graduated from Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts) in 1806 and completed his ministerial studies at Williams in 1808. During the same year (1808) Dewey became a tutor at Williams College and two years later he earned a professorship in "mathematics and natural philosophy" at the school. He retained the last position until 1827 (Gray 1868 & 1889, Mount Hope NY 2004, Peck 1884, Seelye 1894, University of Rochester 2016).

Dewey left Williams College in 1827 to become the principal at Berkshire Gymnasium, which became a well-respected school for boys in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Dewey stayed at Berkshire until 1836, when he accepted the principalship at the high school in Rochester, New York (eventually known as the Rochester Collegiate Institute). In addition to his duties at Rochester Collegiate Institute, he served as a professor/lecturer in the fields of botany, chemistry, and natural philosophy at the Berkshire Medical Institution (1822-1852) in Pittsfield. In addition, he taught at the medical school in Woodstock, Vermont (1842–1849). When the University of Rochester was founded in 1850, Dewey became professor of chemistry and natural sciences at the institution and remained there until his retirement in 1861 (Allen & Son 1838, Beckwith 1912 & 1920, Gray 1868 & 1889, Halsey 2015, Peck 1884, Seelye 1894, University of Rochester 2016).

On June 13, 1826, when Rev. Dewey was engaged at Williams College, the Berkshire Association of Congregational Ministers voted to publish "... as soon as circumstances shall permit, the printing and circulation, of a History of the County...". "At the time ... it was designed to apply to Prof. Dewey to write the Natural History of the County." Dewey's work encompassed the natural history of the county and then some. He described the county's inhabitants, cities, roads, elected officials, military engagements, and whatnot in addition to the region's geography, geology, meteorology, flora and fauna. Rev. Dewey's summary of the "vegetables" of the county included a "Catalogue of the Plants found in the County of Berkshire, MS", which was composed of the native, cultivated, and invasive species known to him (Dewey 1829).

Dr. Dewey was devoutly committed to teaching and, as indicated in the paragraphs above, even in the field of medicine he staked a claim to the position of educator, not medical practitioner. He once stated, "I have lived life with the young, and for them I have labored. By their influence I have felt obligated to keep up with the times in valuable knowledge and benevolent effort, and my life has seemed to be renewed among them (Heffer 2021)." But his dedication reached beyond education to research interests that broached a variety of topics, including meteorology, chemistry, geology, and paleontology (e.g. Dewey 1818, 1821, 1824, 1840).

However, he was a most enthusiastic student of botany. Dewey studied and introduced his students to the flora of the Rochester region (Beckwith & Macauley 1894, Dewey 1842), but he was most committed to the genus Carex, as evidenced by his numerous publications on "Caricography" (e.g. Dewey 1863, 1865, 1866) in Silliman's Journal (American Journal of Science).

Chester Dewey is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by four plants collected in northwestern New York — Aesculus flava, Aesculus hippocastanum, Carex tuckermanii, and Ribes sanguineum.

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Allen, Phinehas & Son. (publ.) 1838. Berkshire Medical Institution. The Pittsfield Sun. September 6, 1838. p. 3. column 5.

Beckwith, Florence. 1912. Early botanists of Rochester and vicinity and the botanical section. Proc. Rochester Acad. Sci. 6:39-58.

Beckwith, Florence. 1920. American Medical Biographies: Dewey, Chester. in Kelley, Howard A. & Walter L. Burrage. American Medical Biographies. The Norman Remington Company. Baltimore, Maryland. pp. 309 & 310 of 1320.

Beckwith, Florence & Mary E. Macauley. 1894. Plants of Monroe County, New York, and Adjacent Territory. Proc. Rochester Acad. Sci. 3:1-150.

Dewey, Chester. 1818. A Sketch of the geology and mineralogy of the western part of Massachusetts, and a small part of the adjoining states. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 8:1-60.

Dewey, Chester. 1821. Results of meteorological observations made at Williamstown, Massachusetts. Memoirs Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences 4:387-92.

Dewey, Chester. 1824. Sketch of the Mineralogy and Geology of the vicinity of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 1:337-346.

Dewey, Chester. 1829. A History of the County of Berkshire, Part I, containing a general view of the county. pp. 1 - 86 of 197. in Gentlemen in the County, Clergy and Laymen. A History of the County of Berkshire, Massachusetts. Samuel W. Bush. Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Dewey, Chester. 1840. Report on the herbaceous flowering plants of Massachusetts. Cambridge, Folsom, Wells, and Thurston. Cambridge, MA.

Dewey, Chester. 1842. Catalogue of plants, and their time of flowering, in and about the city of Rochester, for the year 1841. Fifty-fifth annual report of the regents of the University of the State of New York. 55:265-272.

Dewey, C. 1863. Caricography. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 103:57-60.

Dewey, C. 1865. Caricography. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 115:69-73.

Dewey, C. 1866. Caricography. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 126:325-334.

Gray, Asa. 1868. Botanical necrology for the year 1867. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts. 95:122-123.

Gray, Asa. 1889. Scientific papers of Asa Gray. Volume 2: Essays; Biographical Sketches. Selected by Charles Sprague Sargent. pp. 345-346.

Halsey, Richard T. 2015. Biographies of Monroe County People. GenWeb of Monroe County, NY. pp. 19 & 46.

Heffer, Wendy. 2021. Glimpses into History - Chester Dewey. Friends of Mt. Hope Cemetery. Rochester, New York.

Mount Hope NY. 2004. Dr. Chester Dewey. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Peck, William F. 1884. From Semi-Centennial History of the City of Rochester. D. Mason & Company. Syracuse, New York. pp. 650-653 of 736.

Seelye, Charles W. 1894. A memorial sketch of Chester Dewey, M.D., D.D.. Proc. Rochester Acad. Sci. 3:182-185.

University of Rochester. 2016. Chester Dewey Papers . River Campus Libraries. Rochester, NY.

Diffenbaugh, Elias (1831 - 1870)

Elias Diffenbaugh (spelled "Dieffenbaugh" or "Diffenbach" at times) was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (October 1831) and became a typesetter for a printing company in Philadelphia. He made the acquaintance of Thomas C. Porter (of Lafayette College), an association that apparently piqued his (Diffenbaugh's) interest in botany. Elias' botanical skills were such that he was offered a position, which included a stipend, to assist Dr. Alvin Chapman's investigations of the flora of the Southeast in Apalachicola, Florida. Diffenbaugh declined the opportunity, perhaps due to ill-health issues brought on by tuberculosis and he instead (about 1869) moved to Freeport, Illinois. There Elias worked for his brother, a pharmacist, but the change of venue did not improve his condition and he succumbed to the bacterial contagion in March 1870 at the age of 38 (Harshberger 1899, Meehan 1870, Pennell 1942-1943, Putnam 1866, Wright 2011).

As early as 1864, Diffenbaugh and other botanists gained interest in the introduced plant species (adventive and naturalized) found on ballast piles, reclaimed land, and other disturbed ground in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Smith (1867) described the nature of the Navy Yard and summarized the discoveries of several plant collectors, among them Diffenbaugh.

Across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Elias made other important early collections. Diffenbaugh's two 1868 collections of Bidens bidentoides (a species of beggartick) are among the earliest recorded. One specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Herbarium was collected February 11, 1868 from Camden, New Jersey. Then in September 1868 [along the] "shore of the Delaware [River] ab. Cooper's Bridge, Camden, N.J." Diffenbaugh collected the plant a second time. The exact location of neither of Diffenbaugh's collections is know, but the September specimen may well have been found near the point where the Camden and Amboy Railroad crossed Cooper's Creek, shown in this 1870 map of the region.

This particular beggartick is of special interest because it is more or less restricted to freshwater intertidal wetlands, its distribution in North America is limited, and its populations are shrinking. Diffenbaugh's early collections of the plant provided a bit of information that has been used in studies to mitigate the impact of industrial development along the Delaware River on Bidens bidentoides' intertidal habitat (Beros 2021, Smith 2014).

Another interesting Diffenbaugh collection was made by Elias about 65 miles west of the Philadelphia Navy Yard in the waning days of August 1865. In the "rich woods of the Susquehanna [River], below Safe Harbor". There he collected specimens of Three-bird Orchid (Triphora trianthophoros (Sw.) Rydb.). A nice description of Diffenbaugh's original collections and a summary of ophthalmologist Kerry Givens' contemporary search for this rare Pennsylvanian orchid is provided by unchartedadam (2021).

As a member of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, his plant collecting focused on the Philadelphia/Delaware/New Jersey area (see Mears 1981, iDigBio, SEINet). I've located no publications attributed to Diffenbaugh, but his collections were mentioned in publications by several other botanists - for example see Britton (1881 & 1889), Keller & Stewardson (1905), Moyer (1905), and Porter (1887).

Some of Diffenbaugh's specimens may be viewed at the iDigBio or the SEINet specimen portal. Four of his collections, one from New Jersey and three from Pennsylvania are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Beros, Julia. 2021. "E.D." and the elusive Bidens. The Plant Press. 24(2):13-14.

Britton, N. L. 1881. A preliminary catalogue of the flora of New Jersey. Geological Survey of New Jersey. Rutgers College. New Brunswick, New Jersey. 233 pp.

Britton, N. L. 1889. The genus Eleocharis in North America. Jrnl. New York Microscopical Soc. 5(4):95-111.

Harshberger, John W. 1899. The botanists of Philadelphia and their work. T.C. Davis & Son. Philadelphia, PA. p. 353. (see pp. 211 & 353. spelling - Diffenbach).

Keller, Ida A. and Stewardson Brown. 1905. Handbook of the flora of Philadelphia and vicinity. Philadelphia Bot. Club. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 360 pp.

Mears, James A. 1981. Guide to plant collectors represented in the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 133:141-165. (see p. 149)

Meehan, Thomas (ed.). 1870. Obituary - Elias Diffenbaugh. The Gardener's Monthly 12:154.

Moyer, I.S. 1905. Flora of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. pp. 3-54. also in Davis, W.W.H. 1876. The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Appendix.

Pennell, Francis W. 1942-1943. Botanical collectors of the Philadelphia local area. Bartonia 22:10-31. (see p. 22.)

Porter, Thomas C. 1887. A list of the Carices of Pennsylvania. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia. 39(1):68-80.

Putnam, F.W. 1866. The Naturalists' Directory. Part II. Essex Institute. Salem, Massachusetts. p. 27 of 85 + appendix.

Smith, Aubrey H. 1867. On colonies of plants observed near Philadelphia. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences of Philadelphia. 19:15-24.

Smith, Chelsea. 2014. Resource Recovery Plan: Bidens bidentoides, A Rare Pennsylvania , A Rare Pennsylvania Plant. Morris Arboretum. University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

unchartedadam. 2021. Raiders of the Lost Flower. Can you help locate the elusive Three Birds Orchid? Uncharted Lancaster. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Wright, Ken. 2011. Elias Diffenbaugh. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Dillman, Emily L. (1833 - 1900)

Emily Loughridge, one of the daughters of James and Charity Ann Loughridge, was born in 1833 in Mansfield, Ohio. Her mother perished in 1835 and James was remarried in 1842 to Ida Handley. All-in-all Emily had three siblings and seven half-siblings (Ancestry.com 2024), but nothing else about Emily’s early life has been uncovered to date.

Emily completed what was called the "Ladies' Course" (perhaps with an emphasis in literature) from Oberlin College in 1854. She and her future husband then taught at Mount Pleasant College in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania from 1854 through 1856. Their tenure at Mt. Pleasant College was cut short, when it was merged with Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.

Ms. Loughridge (photograph here) and Sylvester Samuel Dillman (photograph here) were married in Mansfield, Ohio in August 1856. The couple had three children — a daughter, Laura C. Dillman and two sons, George L. and James W.L. Dillman (Ancestry.com 2024, Cappeller & Heistand 1900, Gazette Co. 1937, Harris 2004, Reece 2007, State of Ohio 1856). Only eight years after their wedding, Sylvester perished with other Union Army soldiers during the Civil War at the Battle of Winchester in 1864 (Reece 2007, Union Publishing Co. 1883).

Emily and Sylvester moved to Shueyville, Iowa in 1857, where they comprised half of the four-member faculty of Western College, which was built by the United Brethren in Christ. She became the principal of the "Ladies' Department" at Western College and retained that position through 1860. At that time the family moved about 50 miles west of Shueyville, because Sylvester had accepted the principal's position with the public schools in Toledo, Iowa (Brooke 1909, Coe College 2024, Jones 1937, Union Publishing Co. 1883, Walkinshaw 1937), Ward 1911).

Emily taught in the Toledo school system for a number of years and was mentioned frequently in local newspapers (e.g. Rice 1867, True 1868, Wieting 1866). She continued her teaching career until 1870, when the community's postmaster resigned and Mrs. Dillman was selected to fill the vacancy. Emily held the position of postmistress in Toledo from 1870 through 1887 (True 1870, Ward 1911). Ms. Dillman was also instrumental in the effort to move Western College from the Shueyville location to Toledo (Hartman 1948, Ward 1911).

Mrs. Dillman collected one as yet unidentified plant from Toledo, Iowa that is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. The collection was made in 1877 and Emily donated the specimen to Charles W. Irish, who, over his career, assembled a person herbarium of over 1000 specimens that became part of the Putnam Museum herbarium. Irish and his family resided in Toledo during part of the 1850s and 1860s, which is likely when the two families became acquainted (Plants of Iowa 2024).

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Emily Amanda Loughridge. Brewer Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Brooke, Franklin E. 1909. Annual catalog of Leander Clark College. 1908-1909. Leander Clark College. Toledo, Ohio.

Cappeller, W.S. & S.S. Heistand. (eds.) 1900. The city in brief – Died in California. The Mansfield News. Mansfield, Ohio. p. 8. column 3. April 13, 1900.

Coe College. 2024. Western Leander Clark College, A brief history. Coe College. Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Gazette Co. 1937. Court house news. p. 14. column 3. The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. June 30, 1937.

Harris, Michael. 2004. Emily Loughridge Dillman. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Hartman, W.H. (publisher). 1948. Toledo church plans ceremony on clearing debt. Waterloo Daily Courier. p. 6. columns 5 & 6. November 26, 1948.

Jones, George M. (ed.) 1937. Alumni catalogue 1833 – 1936. Oberlin College. Oberlin, Ohio. p. 10 of 484.

Plants of Iowa. 2024. Irish, Charles W. Biographies of people who contributed plants to the Putnam Museum Herbarium.

Reece, Brett. 2007. Lieutenant Sylvester Samuel Dillman. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Rice, J.T. (ed.) 1867. Our public schools. Tama County Republican. Toledo, Iowa. p. 3. column 3. February 1, 1867.

State of Ohio. 1856. Richland County marriage records. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

True, M.B.C. (publisher) 1868. Proceedings of the Teachers' Institute. Tama County Republican. Toledo, Iowa. p. 1. column 7. November 12, 1868.

True, M.B.C. (publisher) 1870. The post office. Tama County Republican. Toledo, Iowa. p. 3. column 4. March 10, 1870.

Union Publishing Co. 1883. History of Tama County, Iowa. Union Publishing Company. Springfield, Illinois. 1081 pp. [This publication is also found here.]

Walkinshaw, Lewis C. 1937. Higher education at Mount Pleasant. Western Pennsylvania History: 1918-2020. pp. 275-286.

Ward, Henry W. 1911. Western-Leander-Clark College 1856-1911. Otterbein Press. Oberlin, Ohio. see page 70.

Wieting, N.C. (ed.) 1866. The schools. The Iowa Transcript. Toledo, Iowa. p. 4. column 2. October 5, 1866.

Drew, Elmer R. (1865 - 1930)

Elmer Reginald Drew was born in Yolo County, California in December of 1865 to Enoch and Sarah Goodrich Drew — evidently their only child. Elmer earned his B.S. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley (1888 graduation photo here) and began his professional career as a physicist at the same institution. In June 1893 Ms. Lottie Eastman married Elmer Drew and over the ensuing years the couple successfully parented three sons: Eliot, Reginald, and Russell (Ancestry.com 2021, Dargie 1893, Jones 1895, Wallace 1930).

Until 1902, except for 1897-1898 when he completed some graduate studies at the University of Chicago, Elmer was an instructor at the Berkeley campus and a technician in the physics laboratory of Prof. John LeConte (Drew & Kerlin 1884-1892, Jones 1895, Wallace 1930). [Two LeConte brothers moved to California from South Carolina and became associated with the University of California: John was a physicist and Joseph was a geologist/botanist (Wikipedia 2021a&b). The controversy that surrounds UC Berkeley and the Brothers LeConte is well documented by Kell (2020), Lienhard (2006), and Warma (2018).]

Drew left California in 1902 to pursue the Ph.D. at Cornell University, which he earned in 1903. Following post-graduate work in Germany at the University of Berlin (1903-1905), an opening in the physics department at Stanford University appeared in 1905 — Drew accepted the position and there he remained, until his death in October of 1930 (Schweich 2016, Wallace 1930).

Elmer Drew's subsequent career in science was dedicated to the field of physics (Schweich 2016, Wallace 1930). In 1898 the first edition of his text on the proper use of instrumentation was published (Drew 1902a) and he later co-authored "General Physics for Colleges" (Webster et al. 1926). A paper on the viscosity of water (Drew 1901) was based on research he completed while studying at the University of Chicago. Drew (1902b) documented investigations he completed in Berkeley on the interaction between light and thin transparent films. Finally, "The Luminous Efficiency of Vacuum-Tube Radiation" (Drew 1903) was a summary of research he finished, while pursuing his Ph.D. at Cornell University.

Elmer Drew's biography appears among these pages, because a number of California plant specimens were collected by him and Victor Chesnut. It's unclear how the partnership between Elmer Drew, the physicist, and Victor Chesnut, the botanist, came into being, but Elmer was an outdoorsman, who enjoyed camping and hunting (Leonard 2012), so for him to join Chesnut on field trips that involved plant prospecting is not surprising. Chesnut was a student of Prof. Edward L. Greene (Berkeley class of 1890) and it seems likely that Greene oversaw the collecting trips undertaken by the plant-collecting duo. [Edward L. Greene's personal story is an interesting saga, summarized nicely by Jercinovic (2009)]. Regardless of how it came about, Elmer R. Drew and Victor King Chesnut were a plant collecting team from 1887 to 1891.

The duo collected extensively across a large portion of California and Drew (1889) published the results of one of their summer collecting trips in "Notes on the botany of Humboldt County, California". A modern adjunct to Drew and Chesnut's Humboldt County field trip is based upon their collection of Grants pass willowherb (Epilobium oreganum Greene) in 1888. A year before Drew and Chesnut found the plant in California, Thomas J. Howell collected it in the vicinity of Grants Pass, Oregon (Greene 1888). The plant owes its noteworthiness today to its rarity. Epilobium oreganum is considered "fairly threatened in California" (Calflora 2021) and is a "candidate for listing as threatened or endangered" in Oregon (Oregon Biodiversity Information Center 2019).

Epilobium oreganum, along with Hastingsia bracteosa, Hastingsia atropurpurea, Gentiana setigera, and Viola primulifolia ssp. occidentalis are rare taxa typically found in unique serpentine wetlands heavily populated by the carnivorous Cobra Lily (Darlingtonia californica Torr.). They are also of special interest, because their "small population sizes, isolated occurrences, and sensitivity to disturbance ... render them vulnerable to local extinction (Hoover et al. n.d.)."

It seems Elmer R. Drew's botanical work was not limited to his association with Victor Chesnut. Among his correspondence at Berkeley are several snippets mentioning field excursions that involved plant collecting (Drew & Kerlin 1884-1892; Leonard, Tom pers. comm. 2021). About 100 of Drew's collections dating from 1887 through 1898 that list no co-collector may be reviewed via the iDigBio and SEINet databases.

Specimens collected by Chesnut, Drew, or the Chesnut/Drew team may be found in a number of the herbaria in North America: see the University and Jepson, the SEINet, and/or the iDigBio specimen databases. The Putnam Museum herbarium holds 56 specimens collected in California by the duo.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Elmer Reginald Drew. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Calflora. 2021. Epilobium oreganum Greene. Taxon Report. Berkeley, California.

Dargie, William E. 1893. Drew-Eastman. Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. June 17, 1893. p. 8. column 4.

Drew, E. R. & Kerlin, T. J. 1884-1892. Elmer Reginald Drew letters: to Christopher Adam Elliott, 1884-1892. Bancroft Library. University of California. Berkeley, California.

Drew, E. R. 1889. Notes on the botany of Humboldt County, California. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 16(6):147-152.

Drew, E. R. 1901. A determination of the viscosity of water. Physical Review (Series I) 12(2):114-120.

Drew, Elmer R. 1902a. A sophomore course in physical measurements. Berkeley, California. 72 pp.

Drew, E. R. 1902b. Interference in Thin Films - A Graphical Treatment. Physical Review (Series I), 15(4):226-232.

Drew, E. R. 1903. The Luminous Efficiency of Vacuum-Tube Radiation. Physical Review (Series I). 17(5):321-354.

Greene, Edward L. 1888. New or noteworthy species. III. Pittonia 1(15):215-225 . see p. 225.

Hoover, Lisa, John McRae, Wayne Rolle, Mark Mousseaux, Linda Mazzu, & Sam Friedman. n.d. Conservation agreement for Hastingsia bracteosa, H. atropurpurea, Gentiana setigera, Epilobium oreganum, and Viola primulifolia ssp. occidentalis and serpentine Darlingtonia wetlands and fens from Southwestern Oregon and Northwestern California. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Washington, D.C.

Jercinovic, Eugene. 2009. Ninety years after Greene. NewMexicoFlores.com: Botanical History.

Jones, William C. 1895. Elmer Reginald Drew. Illustrated History of the University of California, 1868-1895. Frank H. Dukesmith, Publ. San Francisco, CA. p. 338 of 413.

Kell, Gretchen. 2020. UC Berkeley’s LeConte and Barrows halls lose their names. Berkeley News. Berkeley, California. November 18, 2020.

Leonard, Tom. 2012. Back to school circa 1886: A young man’s reflection. Berkeleyside. Berkeley, California.

Lienhard, John H. 2006. Joseph and John LeConte. Engines of Our Ingenuity. University of Houston. Houston, Texas.

Oregon Biodiversity Information Center. 2019. Rare, Threatened and Endangered Vascular Plant Species of Oregon. Portland State University. Portland, Oregon. 49 pp.

Schweich, Tom. 2016. A Checklist Flora of the Mono Lake Basin, Mono County, California and Mineral County, Nevada. Eastern Mojave Vegetation: Mono Lake Region.

Wallace, Gale D. (ed.) 1930. Drew dies in S.F. after 3 year illness. The Stanford Daily. Volume 78, Issue 14, 20 October 1930. page 1, column 3.

Warma, Zachary. 2018. The Golden State’s Scientific White Supremacist. Boom California. University of California Press. Oakland, California.

Webster, David Locke, Hermon W. Farwell, & Elmer Reginald Drew. 1926. General physics for colleges. The Century Co. New York City, New York. 707 pp.

Wikipedia. 2021a. John LeConte. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Wikipedia. 2021b. Joseph LeConte. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Dubal, Ellen (1876-1973)

Ellen Dubal was one of seven children (four girls and three boys) born to Joseph and Anna Dubal. She was christened Elinor Claire Dubal on January 6, 1876 in Iowa City, Iowa (Family Search 2020, Godwin 2015) and apparently completed her education in the same community. Ellen earned a living as a teacher and principal in the Iowa City public school system and she was a student at the University of Iowa enrolled in a course of study in science (Miller 1901). Evidently, during her days at the university she met geologist Thomas E. Savage and the couple exchanged marriage vows (July 21, 1900) in Iowa City (Family Search 2020, Mercer & Mercer 1899 a&b, Springer 1900). Eventually the family moved to Illinois, when Thomas accepted a position in the Geology Department at the University of Illinois (Collinson 2013).

Ellen and Lucy Cavanagh were students together at the University of Iowa (Converse et al. 1893). Ms. Cavanagh earned the Bachelor of Science degree in 1896 (State University of Iowa 1905), but no record has been located of Ms. Dubal's graduation (Converse et al. 1893, State University of Iowa 1894 & 1895).

Ms. Dubal was a contributor to the development of the herbarium at the University of Iowa (State University of Iowa 1899) and she worked with Lucy Cavanagh on botanical projects, as evidenced by Dubal & Cavanagh being listed as collectors on a number of herbarium specimens deposited in various herbaria (see IDigBio and/or SEINet databases).

One specimen of Euphorbia corollata collected by Cavanagh and Dubal in 1898 is present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Collinson, Charles W. 2013. Thomas E. Savage. Il. State Geol. Survey. Springfield, Illinois.

Converse, W. L., Willie A. Lomas, & Arthur S. Hamilton. (eds.) 1893. Class '96. The Hawkeye. pp. 28, 32, & 94.

Family Search. 2020. Elinor Claire Dubal. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Godwin, David. 2015. Elinor C. Dubal Savage. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1899a. Interest increases: The opening meeting demonstrates that the teachers are here for work. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 4. column 4. April 7, 1899.

Mercer, S.W. & C.S. Mercer. (Publs.) 1899b. Teachers named. Daily Iowa State Press. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 5. column 4. April 19, 1899.

Miller, Daniel Fry. (ed). 1901. University of Iowa Hawkeye Yearbook. University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. p. 37 of 297.

Springer, Johnathon. (ed.) 1900. Thomas E. Savage and Miss Eleanor E. [sic] Dubal united in marriage. Iowa City Press Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. July 23, 1900. p. 4. column 3.

State University of Iowa. 1894 & 1895. Collegiate department. Catalogue of the State University of Iowa. 1893-1894 & 1894-1894. p. 141 (1894 catalogue). p. 154 (1895 catalogue).

State University of Iowa. 1899. Natural history collections: herbarium. Catalogue of the State University of Iowa. 1898-1899. pp. 109-110.

State University of Iowa. 1905. The graduate college faculty. Calendar of the State University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. pp. 25, 76, 234.

DuBois, Constance G. (1856 - 1934)

Constance Goddard DuBois was born in Zanesville, Ohio to John and Alice DuBois (U.S. Federal Census 1860, Cheryl 2020). She completed her early education at the Putnam Female Seminary (located in a part of Zanesville formerly known as the town of Putnam). After Zanesville, Constance lived in West Virginia and New York for a time, but settled in Waterbury, Connecticut in the early 1890s (Anderson et al. 1896, Guest 2017). In Waterbury DuBois shared a home with her partner Dr. Caroline R. Conkey, until the physician's death in 1917 (Guest 2017, U.S. Federal Census 1900).

Constance was an accomplished author who published a number of novels, as well as short stories (in periodicals such as Demorest's Magazine, Belford's Magazine & Out West Magazine) in the late 1800s (Anderson et al. 1896, DuBois 1907). Her topics varied from witchcraft to Christopher Columbus and his mistress Beatriz Enriquez de Arana to serials based on DuBois' research into the mythological tales of the Mission Indians (AMAZON 2016, Ockerbloom 2021).

Around the turn of the 20th century, following a visit to California, Constance DuBois became interested in the history, folklore, and traditions of southern California's Mission Indians (tribes who had been closely associated with the local Franciscan Missions (Smith 2005)). In particular her research focused on the Luiseño and Diegueño tribes from the region near San Diego, which she often visited during the summer months. She spent winters in Connecticut writing and publishing scholarly reports describing the traditional ceremonies, mythologies, and crafts of the tribesman. Beyond being a documentarian of traditions, and perhaps more importantly, she dedicated much of her time and efforts to publicizing the substandard living conditions of the indigent tribes and she worked to improve their standard of living (AMAZON 2016; DuBois 1904, 1906 & 1908; Earle 2006; Laylander 2006).

Ms. DuBois' interest in natural science is illustrated by her involvement in the Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association (Clute 1891, DuBois 1896, The Asa Gray Bulletin 1894). Her active role in the Association included serving as a division secretary for the organization and her tenure as editor for The Asa Gray Bulletin. DuBois also authored several short natural history pieces in the Bulletin and The Swiss Cross (DuBois 1887a, 1887b, 1888, 1896). In 1908 she donated a large number of her plant specimens to Waterbury High School (Maloney 1908).

Miss C.G. DuBois is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Polygala paucifolia collected in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1888. Additional specimens collected by DuBois may be viewed at the iDigBio and SEINet specimen portals.

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AMAZON. 2016. Constance Goddard DuBois. Books and reprints of her work.

Anderson, Joseph, Sarah J. Prichard, & Anna L. Ward. 1896. The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut. Volume 3: From the aboriginal period to 1899. The Price & Lee Co. New Haven, CT. p. 966.

Cheryl. 2020.
Constance G. DuBois. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Clute, Willard N. (ed.) 1891. Announcement. The ornithologist and botanist. 1:40 & 96.

DuBois, Constance G. 1887a. Podophyllum peltatum. The Swiss Cross. 1:205.

DuBois, Constance G. 1887b. Ministering insects. The Swiss Cross. 2:1-2.

DuBois, Constance G. 1888. Interesting spore. The Swiss Cross. 3:28-29.

DuBois, Constance G. 1896. The Torrey Pine. Asa Gray Bull. 6:84-85.

DuBois, Constance Goddard. 1904 & 1906. Mythology of the Mission Indians. Jrnl. Amer. Folk-Lore Soc. 17:185-8 [1904]; 19:52-60 & 145-64 [1906].

DuBois, Constance Goddard. 1907. The Raven of Capistrano: A True Wonder Tale. Out West: A magazine of the Old Pacific and the New. 26:430-437, 537-544; 27:57-64, 152-157, 227-233, 343-351, 415-421, 523-531.

DuBois, Constance Goddard. 1908. The religion of the Luiseno Indians of southern California. Univ. California Publ. in American Archaeology and Ethnology. 8:69-186.

Earle, Evan F. 2006. Guide to the Constance Goddard DuBois Papers, 1897-1909. Cornell University Library: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.

Guest, Raechel. 2017. Early female physicians. Waterbury Thoughts. Weblog.

Laylander, Don. 2006. Early Ethnographic Notes from Constance Goddard DuBois on the Indians of San Diego County. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 26:205-214.

Maloney, C. (ed.) 1908. City News. Waterbury Evening Democrat. Waterbury, Connecticut. April 9, 1908. p. 12. column 2.

Ockerbloom, John Mark. (ed.) 2021. Online Books by Constance Goddard DuBois. The Online Books Page. University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Smith, Chuck. 2005. An Introduction to California's native people: Missionization. Anthropology Dept. Cabrillo College. Aptos, California.

The Asa Gray Bulletin. 1894. Officers of the G.M.B.C.. Bulletin of the Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association. 4:12.

U.S. Federal Census. 1860. Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

U.S. Federal Census. 1900. Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Dudgeon, Winfield S. (1886 - 1932)

Winfield S. Dudgeon, a son of Lafeyette and Mary Dudgeon, was born near Hedrick, Iowa in the spring of 1886 (Davis 2014, Iaed 2012). He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State College in 1907, his Master of Science degree from Yale University in 1910, and the Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1917 (see Dudgeon 1918). He was a member of the botany department faculty at Iowa State University botany for three years and in the department of natural science at Central College (Pella, Iowa) for three years. Winfield left Pella in 1912 to join the teaching staff at Ewing Christian College (associated with the Presbyterian Church) in Allahabad, India (Cattell & Brimhall 1921).

Dudgeon helped establish the Indian Botanical Society in December of 1920 and served as its first president. At Ewing Christian College, he was the founder and head of the botany (from 1912 to 1932), as well as being a committed teacher, missionary, and researcher (Ewing Christian College 2016, JSTOR 2013). He was committed to the benefits of education as a tool to overcome the obstacles generated by India's caste system (Dudgeon 1916).

Often in conjunction with fellow biology professor Leslie Kenoyer, Dudgeon's investigations focused on the flora and ecology of regions such as Mussoorie, Tehri Garhwal, and Landour in India's northern
State of Uttarakhand (Dudgeon 1920, 1923, 1925; Stewart 1982). While on a one-year sabbatical leave at Iowa State University, Dr. Dudgeon contracted and succumbed to influenza. He was survived by his wife, Grace and two daughters, Ruth and Mary (Ancestry.com 2021, Powers 1932).

Four plant specimens in the Putnam Museum herbarium dated 1904 from the vicinity of Ames, Iowa bare Dudgeon's name as collector or co-collector. They are: Amaranthus blitoides (co-collector with Howard S. Fawcett), Amaranthus retroflexus, Cnicus iowensis (=Cirsium altissimum), and Cnicus lanceolatus. A handful of additional specimens collected by Dr. Dudgeon from the United States may be viewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases. Several hundred plants collected in India by the Winfield Dudgeon/Leslie Kenoyer team are also available for perusal through the aforementioned online resources.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Winfield Scott Dudgeon. Keith/Dykstra Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Cattell, J. McKeen & Dean R. Brimhall (eds.) 1921. Dudgeon, Prof. Winfield (Scott). American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory, Volume 3. 3rd edition. The Science Press. Garrison, New York. page 189.

Davis, John Evan. 2014. L. Dudgeon 1857-1910. IaGenWeb Project: Wapello County.

Dudgeon, W. S. 1907. A study in the variation in the number of ray flowers in certain Compositae. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 14:89-97.

Dudgeon, W. 1914. A Method of Handling Material to be Imbedded in Paraffine. Bot. Gazette, 57(1):70-72.

Dudgeon, Winfield. 1916. Opportunity offered by higher education work in India. Woman's Work 31:75-78.

Dudgeon, Winfield. 1918. Morphology of Rumex crispus. Bot. Gazette 66:393-342.

Dudgeon, Winfield. 1920. A contribution to the ecology of the Upper Gangetic Plain. Jrnl. Indian Bot. Soc. 1:296-324.

Dudgeon, Winfield. 1922. Guide to intermediate practical botany. The Christian Lit. Soc. Allahabad, India.

Dudgeon, Winfield. 1923. Succession of epiphytes in the Quercus incana forest at Landour, Western Himalayas. Preliminary Note. Jrnl. Indian Bot. Soc. 3:270-272.

Dudgeon, W. and L.A. Kenoyer. 1925. The ecology of Tehri Garhwal. A contribution to the ecology of western Himalaya. Jrnl. Indian Bot. Soc. 4:233-284.

Ewing Christian College. 2016. Botany. Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Iaed. 2012. Winfield Dudgeon. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

JSTOR. 2013. Dudgeon, Winfield. American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory, Volume 3. 3rd edition. The Science Press. Garrison, New York. page 189.

Martin, J.N. 1933. In Memoriam: Winfield Scott Dudgeon. Proc. Iowa Acad. Science. 40(1):33-34.

Powers, J.L. (manager) 1932. Dr. Dudgeon dies in I.S. hospital. Ames Daily Tribune-Times. Ames, Iowa. December 27, 1932. p. 3. column 3.

Stewart, Ralph R. 1982. Missionaries and clergymen as botanists in Indian and Pakistan. Taxon 31:57-64.

Dyer, Charles B. (1806 - 1883)

Charles Brain Dyer, son of Richard and Dinah (Brain) Dyer, was born near Dudley Castle, in Worcestershire, England in April of 1806. Charles spent his most of his youth working to support his mother and himself; so, he had little, if any, formal education (Auto Graver 2011, Byrnes et al. 1883, White 1906).

Dyer arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1828 and started a business in the production of soap and candles. In 1832 Elizabeth Langtry accepted C.B. Dyer's marriage proposal and the two exchanged vows December 4, 1832. The couple had nine children, seven of whom survived — six daughters and a son (Ancestry.com 2021, Byrnes et al. 1883. White 1906).

Hard work and dedication made the soap/candle business a lucrative venture and in 1852 Charles retired in financial comfort. In his early years Dyer was an avid hunter, who also developed a fondness for fossils he happened across. On many hunting excursions, Dyer apparently pocketed a number of the preserved specimens he unearthed. Following his retirement from business Dyer's enjoyment of paleontological pursuits was rekindled as well as an interest in the local flora of the Cincinnati area and natural science in general (Anonymous 1883, Byrnes et al. 1883, White 1906).

Dyer was one of the original members of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History (Cincinnati Society of Natural History 1874), but more significantly, 30-plus years of retired life allowed him to become a tireless fossil collector. His specimen collection from the Cincinnati area was extensive and he is listed as co-author for a number of species enumerated in the "Catalogue of the fossils for the Cincinnati Group" (James 1881). Additionally, he was well known for his interest in and collections of the crinoids of the Crawfordsville, Indiana area (Meyer & Davis 2009). Mr. Dyer is listed as co-author on only a couple of professional papers (Miller & Dyer 1888a&b), but his fossil collections were acknowledged in several professional paleontology articles.

Though not particularly germane to the discussion of Dyer's contribution to paleontology, it's interesting to note that he was something of an adherent to philosopher Charles Fourier's socialistic (Shelley 2008) plan to improve the world for the economic betterment of all people. To achieve that goal, Fourier proposed communities where people with diverse economic and social backgrounds worked together for the advancement of all, in terms of working conditions and financial well-being. In that way he hoped to eradicate poverty. To that end, Dyer is listed as one of the officers of the Cincinnati Phalanx (Anonymous 1844a).

The Cincinnati Phalanx purchased about 1000 acres of land along the Ohio River in Clermont County about 38 miles upstream from Cincinnati. Owing to the land's location the group morphed into the Clermont Phalanx and the set out to establish a utopian community. The founding of that community, named Utopia, was an attempt to embrace the doctrine of Charles Fourier (at least sections of it). The original "utopian" community enjoyed only a brief life and no mention is made of the level to which Mr. Dyer was involved in the community (Anonymous 1844b, Guarneri 1982, Wikipedia 2021).

Many of Dyer's specimens were deposited at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology and fossil data may be retrieved from the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ten angiosperm herbarium specimens collected by Mr. Dyer are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Charles Brain Dyer. Brain Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1844a. Officers of the Cincinnati Phalanx. The Phalanx 1(7):98.

Anonymous. 1844b. The Clermont Phalanx. The Phalanx 1(11):160-161.

Anonymous. 1883. Notes and News. Science. 2:118.

Auto Graver. 2011. Charles Brain Dyer. Find a grave.

Byrnes, R. M., L. S. Cotton, & F. W. Langdon. 1883. In memoriam: Charles B. Dyer. Jrnl. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist. 6:207-210.

Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 1874. Constitution, by-laws, & list of members. Cincinnati History Library and Archives. Cincinnati, Ohio.

Guarneri, Carl J. 1982. Importing Fourierism to America. Jrnl. History of Ideas. 43(4):581-594.

James, Joseph F. 1881. Catalogue of the fossils for the Cincinnati Group. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist. Printed by J. Barclay, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Meyer, David L. & Richard Arnold Davis. 2009. A Sea without fish: Life in the Ordovician Sea of the Cincinnati Region. Indiana Univ. Press. Bloomington, Indiana. pp. 23-24.

Miller, S.A. and C. B. Dyer. 1878a. Contributions to Paleontology. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist. 1:24-39.

Miller, S.A. and C. B. Dyer. 1878b. Contributions to Paleontology. No. 2. Printed by James Barclay, 269 Vine Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. 11 pp.

Shelley. 2008. Charles Fourier: Utopian Socialist. Utopian Worlds.

White, J. T. 1906. The national cyclopaedia of American biography. Vol. 4. James T. White & Company. New York. p. 528 of 560.

Wikipedia. 2021. Utopia, Ohio. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Eaton, Daniel Cady (1834 - 1895)

Daniel Cady Eaton was born at the Fort Gratiot Army post (Michigan) in September of 1834. His early family life and education were ever-changing, owing to his father's military career (Brigadier General Amos Eaton (Ancestry.com 2021)). While Amos was fighting in the Mexican-American War, Daniel, his two sisters (Ellen and Frances), and his mother (Elizabeth) lived in Rochester, New York near some of Elizabeth's family members. Later he was a student at the Rensselaer Institute in Troy, New York and he even received part of his education at the Russell Military School in New Haven, Connecticut (Brewer 1895, Davenport 1895, Setchell 1900).

Daniel enrolled at Yale College in 1853, graduated four years later, and then was accepted as a graduate student in systematic botany at Harvard University under the direction of Asa Gray. For his thesis "Filices Wrightianae et Fendlerianae", Daniel cataloged the Cuban fern collections of Charles Wright and the Venezuelan fern collections of Augustus Fendler. Eaton graduated from Harvard in 1860 (Britton 1895, Eaton 1860, Setchell 1900, Woolsey 1896).

Subsequently, he spent much of the Civil War as Clerk and Inspector of Stores with his father in the U.S. Commissary Department in New York. In 1864 he accepted a position at Yale as botany professor and he soon established the Yale Herbarium starting with his personal plant collections. Today the collection has grown to ˜365,000 specimens (Britton 1895, Davenport 1895, Index Herbariorum 2021, Peabody Museum of Natural History 2021, Setchell 1900, Woolsey 1896).

Though Eaton's research focused on the systematics of pteridophytes, with his two-volume "Ferns of North America" probably being the most important, overall, he published articles on a variety of topics. The 1893 edition of "Yale Bibliographies" (Fisher 1893) lists many of his works, which spanned topics such as: ferns, mosses, marine algae, composites, and the genealogy of his own family. Eaton also contributed to the work of other authors during his career (Davenport 1895), for example he wrote the fern section in Chapman's "Flora of the Southern U.S." (Chapman 1860) and he contributed the summary of the composites in the report on the botany of the U. S. Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel (Watson 1871). Some of Eaton's publications are listed below and many others may be easily accessed via Google Scholar.

The Yale University Herbarium holds many of his plant collections and specimen data may be viewed using the herbarium's database. Data from other Eaton collections are available via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases. Seven plant specimens collected by Eaton in Connecticut and New York are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Daniel Cady Eaton. Anne Selden's Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Brewer, W.H. 1895. Daniel Cady Eaton. Amer. Jrnl. Science. 50:84-188.

Britton, N.L. 1895. Daniel Cady Eaton. Science. New Series. 2(29):57-58.

Chapman, A. W. 1860. Flora of the Southern United States. Ivison, Phinney, & Co. New York City, NY. 621 pp.

Davenport, George E. 1895. Daniel Cady Eaton. Botanical Gazette 20:366-369.

Eaton, Daniel C. 1860. Filices Wrightianae et Fendlerianae. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 218 pp.

Eaton, Daniel C. 1879 & 1880. Ferns of North America. Volumes 1 & 2. S.E. Cassino, Publ. Salem, MA.

Eaton, Daniel C. 1886. Beautiful Ferns. Estes and Lauriat. Boston, MA. 116 pp.

Fisher, Irving (ed.) 1893. Daniel C. Eaton - Professor of Botany. Bibliographies of the present officers of Yale University. pp. 56-58.

Index Herbariorum. 2021. Yale University (YU). New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, New York.

Peabody Museum of Natural History. 2021. The Yale Herbarium. Yale University. New Haven, Connecticut.

Setchell, William A. 1900. Daniel Cady Eaton. The Fern Bull. 8:49-52.

Watson, Sereno. 1871. Botany. Volume 5. Report of U. S. Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. pp. 130-208 of 525.

Woolsey, Theodore S. 1896. Daniel Cady Eaton; a sketch. Colonial Wars Society. New Haven, Connecticut. 16 pp.

Eberdt, Sister Kathleen Mary Lois (1913-2005)

Kathleen Eberdt, the youngest of five children (four daughters and a son) born to Edward and Gertrude Eberdt, was born March 15, 1913 in Fort Madison, Iowa. In 1932 Kathleen became part of the Congregation of the Humility of Mary and took the name Sister Mary Lois (Ancestry.com 2024, Humenik 2005a&b, Tbel 2020).

She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in social science from Marycrest College in 1941 (Harrison 1941, Humenik 2005a&b). Sister Mary Lois continued her education and earned an M.A. at George Peabody College, followed by a Ph.D. in history from St. Louis University in 1952 (Humenik 2005a&b, Pulitzer Publishing 1952).

Sister Mary Lois used her name in religion and she was referred to using that name in documents published prior to 1968. From 1968 and going forward, she exchanged her name in religion for her baptismal name and was referred to as Sister Kathleen Eberdt. The reversion to her baptismal name was made possible by decisions made by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Levandoski 2020).

Sister Mary Lois taught in parochial and public schools in Iowa. She held positions at St. Mary’s in Ottumwa and St. Alphonsus in teaching in Davenport and also taught in public elementary schools in Cosgrove, Melrose, and Parnell (Humenik 2005b , Ridolfi 2002). She then moved on to teach at the collegiate level.

Sister Kathleen taught economic geography and history at Marycrest College (Leysen 1943, Quad-City Times 1982) and was head of the social science department for many years (Fulton 1952, Yockey 1967). She served on the Iowa Commission on Teacher Education and Professional Standards (Bills 1968 & 1969) and was appointed Dean of Students for the Vita International Study Center, when it opened its doors in 1969 in Asembourg, Luxembourg (Nordeen 1969). After completing 40 years of teaching at Marycrest College, the institution awarded Sister Kathleen Professor Emeritus status in 1982 (Quad-City Times 1982).

Sister Kathleen traveled to many parts of the world and shared her experiences in print (e.g. Eberdt 1985, Lassa 1987) and at community functions (e.g. Hayes 1987 & 1990). She published her doctoral dissertation as Sister Kathleen (Eberdt 1952), but her other published works, in the fields of sociology and history (Eberdt 1953, Google Scholar 2024), were authored using her name in religion, Sister Mary Lois.

Sister Kathleen is included among these biographies, because she (as Sister Mary Lois) collected two plants that are found among those in the Putnam Museum herbarium. She identified one plant as a specimen of Sequoia gigantea (= Sequoiadendron giganteum) from Oregon (evidently cultivated, if identified correctly) and the second is a specimen of Artemisia cana from Colorado.

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Ancestry.com. 2024. Kathleen Mary Lois Eberdt, Sister. McCune/Muhs Family Tree. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1968. Gets appointment. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 15. column 8. May 6, 1968.

Bills, Fred C. (ed.) 1969. Iowa unit sets talks. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 22. column 3. January 23, 1969.

Eberdt, Sister K. 1952. Evolution of liberalism in England from laissez-faire individualism of the Victorian Compromise to the New Liberalism, 1919: causes for the change of thought and policy. Doctoral dissertation. Saint Louis University. St. Louis, Missouri.

Eberdt, Sister Mary Lois, 1953. Industrialism and the Popes: A Study Made Under the Auspices of the Department of Sociology. St. Louis University, with Special Emphasis on the Industry Council Plan. P.J. Kenedy & Sons. New York City, New York. 245 pp.

Eberdt, Sister Kathleen. 1985. Russia revisited: Where much, little has changed. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. section D. p. 1. columns 1-3. September 1, 1985.

Fulton, M.A. (ed.) 1952. Book by Marycrest nun to be published by New York House. Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 3b. column 7. November 14, 1952.

Google Scholar. 2024. Mary Lois Eberdt. Academic publication search engine. Mountain View, California.

Harrison, Hugh. (ed.) 1941. Colleges will graduate 94. Davenport Democrat and Leader. Davenport, Iowa. p. 32. columns 1-4. May 22, 1941.

Hayes, Daniel K. (ed.) 1987. Nun to reflect on study trip to Latin America. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 9. columns 5-6. June 13, 1987.

Hayes, Daniel K. (ed.) 1990. Join Marycrest's 'Senior Scholars'. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 7g. column 3. October 14, 1990.

Humenik, John M. (ed.) 2005a. Longtime Marycrest professor dies at 92. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. a3. column 6. March 17, 2005.

Humenik, John M. (ed.) 2005b. Sr. Kathleen Marie Eberdt, CHM. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. c3. column 5. March 17, 2005.

Lassa, Todd. 1987. Davenport peace group heads for C. America. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. section B. p. 1. columns 2-3. January 18, 1987.

Levandoski, Michele. 2020. What’s in a name? School Sisters of Notre Dame. Baltimore, Maryland & Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1943. Numerous evening classes are to be held at Marycrest. Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 7. columns 3-5. September 27, 1943.

Nordeen, Peggy. 1969. Count describes Castel-College. Times-Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 27. columns 6-8. February 20, 1969.

Pulitzer Publishing. 1952. St. Louis U. to graduate 1650 tomorrow at Kiel Auditorium. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis, Missouri. p. 6b. columns 1-3. June 2, 1952.

Quad-City Times. 1982. Professor emeritus. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. 21. column 1. December 18, 1982.

Ridolfi, Mark. (ed.) 2002. Sisters celebrate 50 or more years of commitment. Quad-City Times. Davenport, Iowa. p. A11. columns 2-6. June 29, 2002.

Tbel. 2020. Sr. Kathleen M. Eberdt. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Yockey, Roger. 1967. Interest rates down; Q-C effect unknown. Times Democrat. Davenport, Iowa. p. 7. columns 6 & 7. January 26, 1967.

Elwell, Levi Henry (1854 - 1916)

Levi Elwell was born in Northampton, Massachusetts in March of 1854 to Levi Henry and Harriet Adeline Elwell. Levi Jr. had three brothers: John, Frank, and half-brother Albert. Following his high school education at Northampton High School, he earned his undergraduate and Master of Arts degrees at Amherst College in 1875 and 1878 respectively (Amherst College 1914, Bianco 2014, Hicks 1915).

After completing his undergraduate work, Elwell taught at the Poughkeepsie Military Institute. He then continued his education at Yale University, in the study of Sanskrit and the development of various languages (philology). In 1877 he accepted a position to teach Latin and Greek at Amherst University, where he continued and eventually became a professor in the language department, teaching various classes until his death (Amherst College 1914, Hicks 1915).

Ms. Abbie M. Nickerson and Levi Elwell were married December 19, 1883. The couple raised three daughters, Marion (1884–1977), Florence (1888–1947), Helen (1894–1899), and one son, James (1896–1957) (Bianco 2014, Marriage Records 1883).

Though his scholarly pursuits focused on philology (e.g. Elwell 1886 & 1890), Elwell was also a genealogist (see for example: Elwell 1900, 1911). As a botanist, he published a few brief articles in Meehans' Monthly magazine (for example: Elwell 1899, 1902b), another regarding the Ram's-Head Lady's-Slipper orchid in Rhodora (Elwell 1902a), and he was listed in Cassino's 1894 directory. Searcy (2008) mentioned him and his collections numerous times in the "Vascular flora of the Greater Mount Holyoke Range, Hampshire County, Massachusetts".

Over 200 of Elwell's plant collections, most of which come from in and around Massachusetts, are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Specimen data for other Elwell collections may be accessed through Harvard University's herbarium database. About 1500 Elwell plant collections may be screened via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Amherst College. 1914. Obituary Record of Graduates and Non-graduates of Amherst College for the Academical Year ending June 24, 1914. Amherst College Bulletin 3:423-429.

Bianco, James. 2014. Levi Henry Elwell. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Cassino, S.E. 1894. The naturalists' directory. Cassino, S.E., publisher. Boston, Massachusetts. p. 70.

Hicks, Lewis W. 1915. Levi Henry Elwell, M.A.. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register: Memoirs of deceased members. New England Historical and Genealogical Soc. Boston, MA. pp. lxix-lxx.

Elwell, Levi H. 1886. Nine Jatakas. Ginn & Co. Boston, Massachusetts.

Elwell, Levi H. 1890. A tale of thievery, Herodotus II.121. . Amer. Philological Assoc. Amherst, Massachusetts. 43 pp.

Elwell, L. H. 1899. Variation in species. Meehans' Monthly 9:99.

Elwell, Levi Henry. 1900. The family of Thomas Elwell of Hardwick, Massachusetts. Amherst, Massachusetts. 10 pp.

Elwell, L. H. 1902a. Cypripedium arietinum on Mt. Toby, Massachusetts. Rhodora. 4(39):62.

Elwell, L. H. 1902b. Notes on Delphinium and King Alcinous. Meehans' Monthly. 12:39 & 65.

Elwell, Levi Henry. 1911. The gravestone records of Shaftsbury, Bennington County, Vermont. Amherst, Massachusetts. 76 pp.

Marriage Records. 1883. Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Boston, Massachusetts.

Searcy, Karen B. 2008. Vascular flora of the Greater Mount Holyoke Range, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Special publications. New England Bot. Club. 92 pp.

Engelmann, George (1809 - 1884)

George Engelmann, born February 2, 1809 in Frankfort-on-the-Main, was the oldest of Julius and Julie Engelmann's 13 children. George was home-schooled until his 18th birthday and then in 1827 he entered the University of Heidelberg. George remained in Heidelberg until sometime in 1828, when he left for Berlin University. After two years in Berlin, Engelmann transferred to the University of Würzburg, where he earned his medical degree in the summer of in 1831 (Ridenbaugh 1896, Staples n.d., White 1896).

Engelmann spent the first half of 1832 on further academic pursuits in Paris, France, during which period some of his uncles let it be known that they were interested in purchasing land in the United States. It's unclear who approached whom, but George accepted the opportunity to become his relatives' land agent. In September 1832 he sailed to Baltimore and arrived in southwestern Illinois in the winter of the same year. There, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Engelmann settled in with some of his relatives who had previously moved to the area (Ridenbaugh 1896, White 1896).

Real estate agent George Engelmann spent 1833 and 1834 astride a horse investigating land purchases in Arkansas, southern Illinois, and Missouri along the Mississippi River — it's unclear just how much land purchasing he accomplished before the support money ran out. In the fall of 1835 Engelmann was long on frontier experiences and short on money (Ridenbaugh 1896, Staples n.d., White 1896). So, he sold his gun, marketed his horse, and established a medical practice in St. Louis (population in 1835, ̃8300 souls (Wikipedia 2021a,b,c)).

The motived and skilled medical practitioner was a success in St. Louis and after four years he was well enough established that he could think more of his personal life. He put his medical practice on hold and returned to Germany in order follow through on a long-term commitment to his distant cousin, Dorothea (Dora) Horstmann. He asked Dora become his wife, she accepted, and June 11, 1840 the couple were married in Kreuznach, Germany. They returned to the United States and en route to St. Louis, the newlyweds reached Cambridge, Massachusetts, where George first made the acquaintance of botanist Asa Gray — an encounter that developed into a life-long friendship (Ridenbaugh 1896, Staples n.d., White 1896).

Thoughout his lifetime, George Engelmann was engaged in scientific pursuits within the St. Louis community and far beyond its periphery. When he learned the wealthy businessman Henry Shaw intended to build a botanical garden on his St. Louis estate. Engelmann, with the help of his friends, Asa Gray at Harvard University and Sir William Hooker at England's Royal Botanic Gardens, was able to convince Shaw that his garden should me more than just a public park. So Shaw's Garden, now the Missouri Botanical Garden, incorporated a herbarium and library (Schuster 1983) and its life as a scientific institution began.

Though Dr. Engelmann maintained a reliable medical practice in St. Louis, he occasionally shuttered his office for extended periods to travel. Whether to Europe, Mexico, or either coast of the United States, it seems that Engelmann mixed botanical business with pleasure — collecting plants, examining herbarium specimens, and visiting friends and family (White 1896).

Engelmann's first professional botanical publication was his medical degree thesis "De Antholysi Prodromus" (Engelmann 1832) — a description of morphological oddities among members of the plant kingdom. During the following decade, George published nothing that was plant related, but he did botanize extensively (see the iDigBio and/or SEINet specimen database). His plant collections during that period were primarily from Missouri, Arkansas, and Illinois; many found homes in European herbaria (Soule 1970).

In 1842 Engelmann's desire to publish things botanical was awakened. Ironically his publication that year dealt with dodders (Engelmann 1842) and yet he was anything but a dodderer. Over the next 20 years George completed 27 scholarly works and the pace of his publication efforts only increased from there. During the 1862-1871 decade George finished 25 papers, from 1872 through 1881 he completed 48, and during the last seven years of his life Engelmann published another 22 articles. Over the years of his botanical career, Dr. Engelmann published on a variety of topics, but three plant groups were his favorites: Dodder, Cacti, and Gymnosperms (Engelmann 1832-1883, Missouri Botanical Garden 2021).

The preceding lines provide a cursory look at the botanical contributions of Dr. George Engelmann during his 75-year life. To really do justice to Engelmann's plant science career and to enumerate his considerable accomplishments would require more space than can be dedicated here. The interested reader is encouraged to peruse the biographical works referenced below (Kelly 1914, Ridenbaugh 1896, Schneider 2016, Soule 1970, Staples n.d., White 1896) and/or any of the other fine published sketches of the life and times of George Engelmann that exist online. Compilations of Engelmann's publications (botanical and otherwise) are available through Wikipedia (Engelmann 1832-1883), Engelmann Online (Missouri Botanical Garden 2021), the assemblage by Trelease & Gray (1887), and probably other sources.

Engelmann is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Draba brachycarpa Nutt. collected in 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri. Additional collections made by him may be reviewed via the iDigBio and SEINet specimen databases.

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Engelmann, George. 1832-1883. George Engelmann bibliography. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Engelmann, George. 1832. De Antholysi Prodromus. Dissertatio inauguralis phytomorphologica. Frankfurt am Main 1832.

Engelmann, G. 1842. A Monography of the North American Cuscutineae. Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts 43(2):333–345.

Kelly, Howard A. 1914. Some American medical botanists commemorated in our botanical nomenclature. The Southworth Co., Troy, New York. pp. 157-162 of 215.

Missouri Botanical Garden. 2021. Engelmann Online. Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Ridenbaugh, Mary Y. 1896. Biographical sketch of George Engelmann, M.D., 1809-1884. Reprint from Biography of Ephraim McDowell, M.D., with life sketches and portraits of prominent members of the medical profession. McDowell Publishing Co., New York City.

Schneider, A. 2016. Biographies of scientists and explorers. in Wildflowers, ferns, & trees of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, & Utah.

Schuster, Joseph M. 1983. A Brief History of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis, Missouri.

Soule, Oscar H. 1970. Dr. George Engelmann: The First Man of Cacti and a Complete Scientist. Annals Missouri Bot. Garden. 57(2):135-144.

Staples, Chuck. n.d. George Engelmann biography. Cactus & Succulent Society of America. Claremont, California.

Trelease, William & Asa Gray. (eds.) 1887. The botanical works of the late George Engelmann, collected for Henry Shaw, esq. John Wilson & Son. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 548 pp. plus plates.

White, Charles A. 1896. Memoir of George Engelmann, 1809-1884. Extract from volume 4: Biographical memoirs National Academy of Sciences. Judd & Detweiler, printers. Washington, D.C.

Wikipedia. 2021a. History of St. Louis. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Wikipedia. 2021b. 1830 United States census. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Wikipedia. 2021c. 1840 United States census. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. San Francisco, California.

Ensign, Evelyn (Anna Evelyn) (1894 - 1988)

Ms. Ensign was born in Marcus, Iowa in August of 1894 (Nagy 2011), but Storm Lake, Iowa is listed as her residence, while she was a college student (Partridge 1918). She earned her B.A. from Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa in 1915 (Buena Vista County Schools 1923) and subsequently earned the M.A. degree from the State University of Iowa in 1919 (Anonymous 1919, Smith 1922). Her graduate work had at least an emphasis in botany, as evidenced by her paper on Rosa pratincola (Ensign 1919).

After completing her education in Iowa City, Ms. Ensign applied for a missionary position with the Presbyterian Church's Board of Foreign Missions. She was accepted into the program and studied Japanese in Tokyo for a year. She then began a teaching position at Hokusei Jo Gakko (Northern Star Girls' School) located in Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido in September of 1922. She retained that position until July 1923, when she married Albert A. Leininger, a fellow missionary in Japan. The couple spent the next two years in Tokyo and then returned to the United States, where Albert served as pastor in several churches in New York (Allison 2009, Pearl Digital Collections 1923, Smith 1922). The couple had one child, James, who was born in New York City in 1934, but only survived to celebrate his twelfth birthday (Ancestry.com 2021).

Evelyn's botanical career seems to have been isolated to the years she spent at the State University of Iowa. There are three Rosa specimens (Rosa blanda, Rosa woodsii, and a Rosa blanda x woodsii hybrid) in the Putnam Museum herbarium collected by Ms. Ensign in 1918. Two more rose specimens are present in the St. Ambrose University herbarium, but no other specimens collected by Ms. Ensign are listed in either the iDigBio or the SEINet database.

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Allison, James E. 2009. Missionaries who worked with Sarah C. Smith. Hokusei Gakuen University. 46:31-54. (see p. 35).

Ancestry.com. 2021. Anna Evelyn "Annie" Ensign. Gary Neist Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1919. Graduates at the 1919 commencement of the State University of Iowa. Iowa City Press Citizen. Iowa City, Iowa. June 17, 1919. p. 9.

Anonymous. 1921. Iowa Girl To Japan. The Boyden Reporter. Boyden, Iowa. August 11, 1921. p. 9.

Buena Vista County Schools. 1923. Buena Vista College Alumni, 1893-1922. in Buena Vista County History and Heritage Project. McClure, Sheryl. (creator).

Ensign, Evelyn. 1919. Rosa pratincola Greene in Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 26:303-310.

Nagy, Paul. (coordinator). 2011. Passport Applications - 1890-1925. Buena Vista County, Iowa. U.S. GenWeb Project.

Pearl Digital Collections. 1923. Miss Anna E. Ensign. Presbyterian Historical Society. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Smith, Grace Partridge. (ed.) 1918. Alumni Notes. The Iowa Alumnus. 16:316.

Smith, Grace Partridge. (ed.) 1922. Alumni Notes. The Iowa Alumnus. 20:75.

State University of Iowa. 1917-1918. Catalog. Published by the University, Iowa City, Iowa. pp. 94 & 466.

Farber, Edwin N. (1875 - 1943)

Edward Decker (class of 1891), Edwin Farber (class of 1892), Naomi Melville (class of 1891), Emma Peck (class of 1887), Inez Rabell (class of 1888), John Randall (class of 1886), Anna Richter (class of 1890), and Edith Ross (class of 1886) were Davenport High School graduates who have herbarium specimens preserved in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Evidently, during the 1880s and 1890s at least some Davenport High School seniors completed science projects that involved assembling a personal herbarium (Labath 2012).

Botanists in high school? Why would a 19th century high school student decide to become a plant collector? The most likely explanation seems to lie with Davenport High School's principal, Mr. Frederick E. Stratton.

In the fall of 1883, Davenport found itself in need of a new high school principal. The first person to whom the position was offered declined the opportunity and subsequently the city was "fortunate in securing a gentleman for the place who bears as high a reputation as teacher as any man recommended to the board — Mr. F.E. Stratton of Orange, Mass." (Richardson 1883). Frederick Stratton was a Williams College graduate who had botanized in Central America (Myers & Myers 1871) and had taught for several years. The details of his personal story may be of interest (see Frederick Stratton biography), but suffice it to say that he was a trained botanist, published a botany textbook during his stay in Davenport (Stratton 1891), and the only 19th century students represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium graduated from Davenport High School during his tenure. It seems reasonable, then, to consider him a leading contender for the position of Davenport High School's "plant science promoter". But, back to Edward Decker.

Edwin Nott Farber was born August 15, 1875 in Davenport, Iowa to John and Catharine Farber. Ed the youngest of five children and, as mentioned above, he graduated from Davenport High School in 1892 (Ancestry.com. 2021, Labath 2012, thoran 2013). Farber continued his education and earned a law degree from the University of Iowa in 1899 (State University of Iowa 1904-1905). It appears he began his law practice in Lisbon, Iowa with Elmer A. Johnson in 1899 (Cole & Ebersole 1907, The Vidette-Reporter 1899) and then in 1904 moved on to continue his profession in Marshalltown, Iowa with Thaddeus Binford and William E. Snelling (Cole & Ebersole 1907, Commercial Law League of America 1918, Carney 1917). He was a 1910 Republican candidate for Marshall County attorney in Iowa (Times-Republican 1910) and continued to practice law in Marshalltown until September 1915 (Carney 1917).

In December 1910 Ed Farber and Cornelia M. Coleman were married in Toledo, Iowa (Young 1910). The couple made their home in Marshalltown, Iowa and raised two children, John and Katharine (Ancestry.com. 2021, Leysen 1943). Following Edwin's death, his personal library of approximately 1000 volumes was donated to the State University of Iowa by his daughter (Slattery 1957).

Approximately 40 herbarium specimens collected from the Quad Cities region by Ed Farber in 1892 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. It appears that Farber's botanical pursuits were confined to his high school career.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Edwin Nott Farber. Charles Henry Farber Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Carney, J.L. 1917. Thaddeus Binford: 1839-1917. in Horack, H.C. (ed.). Proceedings of the 23rd annual session of the Iowa State Bar Association. Publ. by the Assoc. Iowa City, Iowa. pp. 113-115 of 301.

Cole, Chester C. & E.C. Ebersole. 1907. The courts and legal profession of Iowa. Volume 2. H.C. Cooper, Jr. & Co. Chicago, Illinois. pp. 808 & 844 of 1142.

Commercial Law League of America. 1918. Roll of members. The Bulletin of the Commercial Law League of America. Volume 23. Pp. 34, 256, 453.

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

Leysen, R.J. (ed.) 1943. Death notices: Farber. The Daily Times. Davenport, Iowa. January 20, 1943. p. 6. column 5.

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.

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

Slattery, Tom. (ed.) 1957. SUI grants hit $170,000. The Daily Iowan. Wednesday, November 13, 1957. page 8, column 5.

State University of Iowa. 1904-1905. The Iowa Alumnus. Alumni Assoc. of the Univ. of Iowa. Volume 3. p. 27.

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

The Vidette-Reporter. 1899. Law Class of '99. Volume 32. Page 1. Iowa City, Iowa.

thoran. 2013. Edwin N. Farber. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Times-Republican. 1910. Announcements: county attorney. June 4, 1910. Marshalltown, Iowa. page 9, column 5.

Young, W.G. (ed.) 1910. Colman/Farber. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. p. 3. column 5. December 21, 1910.

Fawcett, Howard Samuel (1877 - 1948)

Howard S. Fawcett was born in April of 1877 near Salem, Ohio to Thomas and Sidney Fawcett. After completing his elementary and secondary education in Salem, Fawcett studied botany at the Westtown School (West Chester Pennsylvania). After graduating from Westtown in 1899, Fawcett spent a year teaching science at the Stavanger Boarding School (a Quaker affiliate) near Le Grande, Iowa. Fawcett enrolled at Iowa State College, worked as a teaching assistant to Dr. Louis H. Pammel, and earned his undergraduate degree in 1905 (Boyce et al. 1948, Fawcett 1918, thoran 2010, Zentmeyer 1988).

Fawcett accepted a botany/horticulture position at the University of Florida in 1906, where he cultivated an interest in fungal diseases of citrus trees. He continued his plant pathology career for seven years at the University of Florida and during that period he earned his Master of Science degree (Boyce et al. 1948, Zentmeyer 1988), writing his thesis on "Fungi parasitic on Aleyrodes citri" (Fawcett 1908).

In 1912 Fawcett moved on to the California State Commission of Horticulture as a plant pathologist and continued his work in citrus groves. After only a year with the Commission, he accepted a post as associate professor of plant pathology at the University of California (Riverside). From 1916 to 1918, while on sabbatical at Johns Hopkins University, Fawcett's research focused on the relationship between temperature and the growth of parasitic fungi on citrus crops. He earned the Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1918, by completing his dissertation on "The Temperature Relations in Growth of Certain Parasitic Fungi" (Fawcett 1918). Fawcett returned to his work in University of California system at Riverside and there he remained until he earned Emeritus status in 1947 (Boyce et al. 1948, Zentmeyer 1988).

During his career Prof. Fawcett completed extensive research and wrote copiously about citrus psorosis and other diseases that plagued the citrus crops not only in North America, but Europe, North Africa, and South America as well. He published scholarly works in the form of books such as "Citrus diseases and their control" (Fawcett 1936) and in professional journals like Phytopathology (e.g. Fawcett 1934). Many of Professor Fawcett's publications may be accessed via Google Scholar.

Among his several hundred publications are pieces he wrote for the trade journal "The California Citrograph" where he used the nom de plume "I. C. Bigg" (Boyce et al. 1948, Zentmeyer 1988). Though the stories were clever fantasies of a miniaturized Mr. Bigg exploring a microscopic world, they educated tradesmen in an entertaining manner about viruses, molds, and other pathogens that were problematic among the various citrus crops of the region (e.g. Bigg 1943 & 1945).

Three herbarium specimens collected by Fawcett from Ames, Iowa in 1904 are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Howard is listed as the collector for a sheet of Brassica nigra and another of Sisymbrium officinale. He is listed as co-collector on a specimen of Amaranthus blitoides with classmate Winfield S. Dudgeon.

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Bigg, I.C. (Fawcett, Howard S.) 1943. Turning back 50 years: Pest and disease problems of the '90s and what growers did about them. California Citrograph. 29:9, 16-17.

Bigg, I.C. (Fawcett, Howard S.) 1945. Rain, hail, lemons, and black pit. California Citrograph. 31:62.

Boyce, A.M., W. H. Chandler, & L. J. Klotz. 1948. University of California: In Memoriam. University of California Academic Senate.

Fawcett, Howard S. 1908. Fungi parasitic upon Aleyrodes citri. Master's thesis. Univ. of Florida. Gainesville, Florida.

Fawcett, Howard S. 1918. The temperature relations of growth in certain parasitic fungi. Ph.D. dissertation. Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, Maryland.

Fawcett, Howard S. 1934. Is psorosis of citrus a virus disease? Phytopathology. 24:659-668.

Fawcett, Howard S. 1936. Citrus diseases and their control. McGraw-Hill Book Company. New York & London. 656 pp.

Salem News. 1948. Dr. Howard Fawcett, Salem native, Citrus plant expert, Dies. The Salem News. Salem, Ohio. December 13, 1948. p. 1. column 3.

thoran. 2010. Howard Samuel Fawcett. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Zentmeyer, George A. 1988. Howard Samuel Fawcett: Pioneer in Phytopathology. Ann. Rev. Phytopathol. 26:17-21.

Fish, George T. (1838 - 1926)

George T. Fish (photo here, Plate II adjacent to p. 138), who had two brothers (Albert & Thomas), was born in Rochester, New York in August 1838 to Benjamin and Sarah Fish. The Fishes made their home in Rochester's "Ruffle Shirt District", now known as Corn Hill". Early on, the area was populated by moneyed, sophisticated, and powerful merchants and flour millers of Rochester (Hopkins n.d., McAlister n.d., Miller 2019, Robinson 1899, U.S. Federal Census 1850) and it was to those well-to-do clients that George's father sold his nursery stock.

It seems that George accumulated about five years of education between the ages of seven and eighteen by attending local schools off-and-on for five or six months each year. He also attended Rochester High School for a short period when he was 19 (Suydam 1942). Evidently, George's formal education took a back seat to working in his father's nursery. He spent the growing season learning the horticulturist/nurseryman trade by planting and/or overseeing the planting of stock (Suydam 1942).

George T. Fish was listed in the Rochester City Directories during the 1870s and 1880s (Rochester 1870-1880s), but little information was provided other than the addresses of his nursery business and his home (Rochester 1870-1880s). In addition, Fish was a vendor of nurserymen's plates - colored prints of flowers and fruits bound together in an attractive catalog that was used by growers and their travelling sales staff to promote products to potential buyers (Kabelac 1982, Meehan 1865, Williams 1872).

Outside the nursery business, Fish taught school for a short time in his early 20s and, despite his lack of formal education, George was interested in a variety of sciences, such as chemistry, entomology, geology, and ornithology. He not only taught people about parliamentary law (e.g. Fish 1882) and botany, but dabbled in genealogy (e.g. Fish 1903). In addition, Fish and his wife, as members of the Independent Order of Good Templars of New York (a branch of the International Order of Good Templars) were promoters of the temperance movement and their names appear in various capacities in a number of the issues of that organization's publication (Telford et al. 1903-1923). In the same vein, Mr. Fish was an active member of Rochester's "Central Prohibition Club" (Pond 1887).

In 1867 George and Elizabeth L. Vanderbeck were married and three sons were born to the couple (Ancestry.com 2021). Beyond his business ventures and temperance involvement, Fish was an active member of the Western New York Horticultural Society (Barry 1874-1879). Because of his interest in the impact of birds on the horticulture industry, he was a multi-year member of the Horticultural Society's ornithology committee. One published report (Fish 1875) is an entertaining narrative professing that the benefits of native birds (insect pest reduction) out-weigh their detriments (fruit consumption) and that avifauna are worthy of protection.

Fish was a charter member and the first president of the botanical section of the Rochester Academy of Science (Schneider & Coleman 1981, Suydam 1942). During the early 1900s, Fish was involved in a failed attempt to preserve the "Bergen Swamp" as a bird sanctuary (Dilcher 1987).

George T. Fish was a fairly active plant collector and his efforts are mentioned in publications like "The Plants of Monroe County, New York" (Beckwith et al. 1910) and "The Cyperaceae of Monroe County" (Matthews & White 1963). He is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by a single specimen of Diplopappus cornifolius Darl. (Asteraceae: Doellingeria infirma (Michx.) Greene) collected near Pithole City, Pennsylvania in 1865.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. George Thompson Fish. Moller Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Barry, Patrick. (president) 1874-1879. Plants of Monroe County, New York and adjacent territory. Proc. Western New York Hort. Soc. Annual mtg. no. 19-24.

Beckwith, Florence, Mary E. Macauley, & Milton S. Baxter. 1910. Plants of Monroe County, New York and adjacent territory. Proc. Rochester Acad. Sci. 5:1-38.

Dilcher, Ronald. 1987. The History of the Bergen Swamp Preservation Society. Bergen Swamp Preservation Society. Bergen, New York.

Fish, George T. 1875. Report on ornithology. Proc. Western N.Y. Hort. Soc. pp. 27-29.

Fish, George T. 1882. American manual of parliamentary law: Or, The common law of deliberative assemblies. Harper & Brothers. New York City, New York.

Fish, George T. 1903. Some descendants of Thomas and Cecilia Hunt of Stamford, Connecticut and Westchester, New York. Rochester, New York. 140 pp.

Hopkins, Melissa Corcoran. n.d. 19th and 20th Century Rochester. Archive Collections. Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester, New York.

Kabelac, Karl S. 1982. Nineteenth-Century Rochester Fruit and Flower Plates. University of Rochester Library Bulletin. Volume 35.

Matthews, Warren A. & Douglas M. White. 1963. The Cyperaceae of Monroe and Adjacent Counties, New York. Proc. Rochester Acad. Sci. 10:69-118.

McAlister, Carol. n.d. Ralph Avery Mall. Corn Hill Neighbors Association. Rochester, New York.

Meehan, Thomas. (ed.) 1865. Horticultural Advertiser. The Gardener's Monthly & Horticultural Advertiser. Vol. 7. (see Jan. p. 3, Feb. p. 15, & March p. 29).

Miller, Shelley. 2019. George Thompson Fish. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Pond, N.P. (sec'y). 1887. Prohibition Club. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, New York. August 6, 1887. p. 6. column 6.

Robinson, Charles Mulford. 1899. Third ward traits. The Genesee Press. Rochester, New York. 39 pp.

Rochester. 1870s-1880s. Rochester City Directories. Rochester, New York.

Schneider, Marion & Babette Coleman. 1981. History of Academy Sections: the botanical section. Proc. Rochester Acad. Sci. 14:75-78.

Suydam, Anna B. 1942. Early botanists of Rochester and vicinity. Proc. Rochester Acad. Sci. 8(4):123-232.

Telford, Chas. T. et al. (eds.) 1903-1923. The New York Templar. Official Organ of the Independent Order of Good Templars of New York. Delhi, New York.

U.S. Federal Census. 1850. Ward 6, Rochester, Monroe County, New York. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Williams, Henry T. (ed.) 1872. Editorial Notices: a new horticultural journal. The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste. 27:376.

Fisher, Harry (1860 - 1935)

Harry Fisher and his older sister, Kate, children of Thomas and Thirza Fisher, were born in St. Mary's Parish in Nottinghamshire. Harry, his wife Sara, and their two daughters, Kathleen and Vera lived in the Newark district of Nottinghamshire, where Harry was a registered pharmacist (Ancestry.com 2021, England Census 1871 & 1891, Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain 1885).

Harry was mentioned frequently as an active collector and contributor to the understanding of the flora of Nottinghamshire (Page 1906). He served a curator of botany at the University College, Nottingham (Jackson et al. 1895) and was a member of the Imperial Botanical Society of Vienna (Anonymous 1894). Mr. Fisher was also an active contributor at the Sheffield Botanical Gardens (Independent 1888 & 1889).

In addition to his own collections, Harry actively sought to expand his personal herbarium by offering specimens of British origin in exchange for those from North and/or South America (Fisher 1888). In 1884 Fisher donated 1000s of specimens, including species from Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, to the Nottinghamshire Natural History Museum (Lockyer 1884). It seems that Harry was more than a mild-mannered field botanist, he was a botanical adventurer.

The Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition (1894-1897) was led by British Arctic explorer Frederick George Jackson and financed by Alfred Harmsworth, a wealthy newspaper and magazine publisher. The expedition's goal was to explore Franz Josef Land (named after former Austrian Emperor Franz Josef), which lies about 800 miles northwest of Murmansk, Russia. At the time of the expedition Franz Joseph Land was thought to be a continuous land mass that extended to the north pole. The expedition and the survey it generated proved that the land was simply a large group of islands that spans a region between 80 and 82 degrees north (Davies 1994, Montefiore 1895, Nansen 1897).

On June 17, 1896 the Expedition stumbled across two Norwegians, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen (Nansen 1897, see chapter IX). The two had left their mother ship, Fram, which had become entrapped in the pack ice on March 14, 1895, in an attempt to reach the North Pole with dogs and sleds. On the 7th of April, after reaching a bit over 86 degrees north, the pair realized the existing severe conditions had rendered their trek to the pole impossible and they turned south. Nansen and Johansen reached Jackson Island in Franz Josef Land in August and spent the winter of 1895 in an earthen-based and hide-covered shelter.

Weather conditions eventually became favorable and the pair of explorers were attempting to return home in June of 1896, when they happened across the Jackson-Harmsworth base camp which had been established on Cape Flora of Northbrook Island. Nansen and Johansen sailed with the British expedition back to Norway and soon after their arrival in August, they received word that the Fram and its crew had survived their drift with the Arctic Ice and that they would soon return to port in Norway (Davies 1994, Montefiore 1895, Nansen 1897).

The Jackson-Harmsworth venture is mentioned, because Harry Fisher was the expedition's botanist (Montefiore 1895, Nature 1894). "Mr. H. Fisher, the botanist, is a capable amateur artist, and has made a number of sketches of considerable interest. Many photographs have been taken, and some of these have returned, but none of those taken in the interior. ... Dr. Kettlits and Mr. Fisher, I might add, regularly examined the contents of the bears' stomachs, with a view to their probable zoological and botanical interest" (Montefiore 1895). Jackson (1895) commented about Fisher as follows, "I regard Mr. Harry Fisher, ... not merely as one of the most scientific members of the expedition, but as a man of remarkable force of character".

Mr. Fisher is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by about 150 specimens collected in England from 1880 to 1891 that were once part of the herbarium of Edith A. Ross. Additional Fisher specimens may be reviewed using the herbaria@home database.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Harry Fisher. Drabble and Lyon Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Anonymous. 1894. Chronicle of the week: English Polar Expedition. The Tablet. Vol. 84. 17th March 1894. p. 6

Davies, Margaret Ellson (translator). 1994. Polar Explorers: Fridtjof Nansen (1861 - 1930) . Translated from: Greve,Marit. 1994. Tokens of Norway: Fridtjof Nansen. Oslo, Norway.

England Census. 1871. Bingham, Nottinghamshire, England. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

England Census. 1891. Newark, Nottinghamshire, England. Ancestry.com. Provo, Utah.

Fisher, H. 1888. Exchanges. Hardwicke's Science-gossip. 24:96, 144, 192, 283.

Independent. 1888. Sheffield Botanical Gardens: Meeting of shareholders. The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent. Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. February 4, 1888. p. 6. columns 1 & 2.

Independent. 1889. Sheffield Botanical Gardens: Annual meeting of proprietors. The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent. Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. February 3, 1889. p. 3. columns 5 & 6.

Jackson, Frederick George. 1895. The Great Frozen Land. Edited from the journals of Frederick Jackson by Arthur Montefiore. Macmillan and Co. London & New York. see p. 275 of 297.

Lockyer, Sir Norman. 1884. Notes. Nature 49:271.

Montefiore, Arthur. 1895. The Jackson-Harmsworth North Polar Expedition - an account of its first winter and of some discoveries in Franz Josef Land. The Geographical Journal. 6:499-522. see pp. 20 & 509.

Nansen, Fridtjof. 1897. Farthest north. Vol. 2. Archibald, Constable, & Co. Westminster, United Kingdom. 671 pp.

Nature. 1894. The Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition. Nature 50:255.

Page, William, ed. 1906. The Victoria history of the county of Nottingham. Volume 1. Archibald Constable & Company Limited. London. 381 pp. See botany section pp. 41-74

Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. 1885.
The registers of pharmaceutical chemists and chemists and druggists. London, England. pp. 9 & 102 of 277.

Fitzpatrick, Thomas Jefferson (1868 - 1952)

Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick, one of five children raised by Francis and Rebecca Fitzpatrick, was born at Centerville, Iowa in April of 1868. Thomas earned his B.S. in 1893 from the State University of Iowa and completed his Master of Science course work from the same institution by 1895. He formally received his M.S. in 1900 (Ancestry.com 2021, Becker 2016, Brown 2003, Lommasson 1952).

It's unknown how the encounter took place, but T.J. Fitzpatrick likely met Mary Frances Linder, who earned her bachelor's degree from the university in 1886 (Special Collections & University Archives 2016), when they were students and/or working at the State University of Iowa. The circumstances are unknown, but they evidently "fell for each other", because the couple was married in Iowa City in August 1896 (Iowa State Board of Health 1896, Lommasson 1952). Mary Frances and Thomas had three children: Frederick, Lilian, and Dethen (Ancestry.com 2021).

Thomas started his professional career at Graceland College in July of 1895, when the institution first opened its doors. At that time, he was one-third of Graceland's faculty, teaching botany, geology, and mathematics. In addition, he had a major administrative role and served as the college's first librarian. Unfortunately, Graceland College fell on financial hard times and Fitzpatrick's position was terminated in 1899 (the exact year of his termination is in question).

Fitzpatrick returned to Iowa City, where he served as superintendent of schools until 1908. During the same period, he was employed as a field collector for the Iowa State Historical Society (1903-1907). He once again joined the Graceland faculty in 1908 and remained there until 1913, when he accepted a professorship at Cotner College in Lincoln, Nebraska. Thomas left Cotner to take a position as botany professor and curator of the herbarium at the University of Nebraska in 1918. Among his other duties, Prof. Fitzpatrick taught courses in botanical literature and the history of botany and zoology, until his retirement from the University of Nebraska in 1949 (Becker 2016, English 1953, Lommasson 1952, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries 2005).

Thomas "the bibliophile" was a bit eccentric when it came to book acquisition. T.J. died March 28, 1952 and "left his wife a thirteen-room house and small bungalow filled to the rafters with books" (photo here). When Robert Vosper, director of the University of Kansas Library at the time, learned that the Fitzpatrick collection was for sale, he and some associates hauled "three five-ton truck loads of books on the history of science, especially American botany" to the Kansas University Library (KU Libraries Exhibits 2021). It has been estimated that T.J. "owned more than 100 tons of books" and, separate from those acquired by Kansas University, the Kansas City Public Library purchased nearly 20,000 items — some of which dated to the 1750s (Kansas City Public Library 2021).

T.J. and Mary Frances Fitzpatrick were devoted students of the flora of southern Iowa. They collected extensively in that region during their tenures at Graceland College and built a personal herbarium of at least 20,000 specimens (Fitzpatrick 1912). Many of their plant specimens are reported in the iDigBio and SEINet plant databases. Some of the works T.J. published (alone and in conjunction with his wife) are listed below, at Google Scholar, in Macbride (1912), and at the Hathi Trust Digital Library.

Fitzpatrick is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by two angiosperms (Aureolaria grandiflora (Benth.) Pennell and Viola rugulosa Greene) collected in Iowa in 1895. Additional Fitzpatrick (T.J. and Mary Francis) specimens may be viewed using the SEINet and/or iDigBio specimen databases.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick. Cook-Bruner Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Becker, Sharon R. 2016. Fitzpatrick, Thomas Jefferson & Mary Frances (Linder). IAGenWeb Project. Decatur County Biographies.

Brown, Sibylla. 2003. Leaves from the President's Notebook. Iowa Native Plant Soc. Newsletter. 9:2.

English, Emory H. (ed.). 1953. Iowa's Notable Dead. The Annals of Iowa. 31:556.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. 1896. The ferns and their allies of Iowa. Patriot Book Print. Lamoni, Iowa. 14 pp.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. & M. F. L. Fitzpatrick. 1897. The flora of southern Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 5:134-173.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. 1899a. Manual of the flowering plants of Iowa. Parts 1 & 2. Published privately. Lamoni, Iowa.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. & M. F. L. Fitzpatrick. 1899b. The Orchidaceae of Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 7(1):187-196.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. & M.F.L. Fitzpatrick. 1900. The Fagaceae of Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 8:177-195.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. & M.F.L. Fitzpatrick. 1901. The native oak groves of Iowa. The Plant World. Vol. 4. pp. 69-71.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. 1911. Rafinesque: a sketch of his life with bibliography. Historical Dept. of Iowa. Des Moines, Iowa. 241 pp.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. & M.F.L. Fitzpatrick. 1901. Ranunculaceae of Iowa. Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist. State Univ. Iowa. 5:87-137.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. 1927. The Place-Names of Appanoose County, Iowa. American Speech 3:39-66.

Fitzpatrick, T. J. 1929. The Place-Names of Lee County, Iowa. The Annals of Iowa 17:12-58.

Fitzpatrick, Mrs. T.J. 1912. Correspondence with Dr. George G. Kennedy. Dated: November 20, 1912. Lamoni, Decatur Co., Iowa.

Iowa State Board of Health. 1896. Marriages in county of Johnson. Cook-Bruner Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Kansas City Public Library. 2021.
Thomas J. Fitzpatrick Papers . Kansas City Public Library. Kansas City, Missouri.

KU Libraries Exhibits. 2021. Front hall of the Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick house. University of Kansas Libraries. Lawrence, Kansas.

Lommasson, Robert C. 1952. In Memoriam: Thomas Jefferson. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 59(1):42-60.

Macbride, Thomas H. 1912. Twenty-five years of botany in Iowa. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 19:43-64.

Special Collections & University Archives. 2016. University Archives: Resource Guide to University 'Firsts'. University of Iowa Libraries. University of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. 2005. T.J. Fitzpatrick, botany papers. Archives & Special Collections. Lincoln, Nebraska.

Foley, Sister Mary Emma Corrine (1920-2015)

Mary Emma Foley was the ninth of ten children born to Matthew and Emma Foley. She, along with seven brothers and two sisters grew up on a farm near Hills, Iowa, where she attended St. Joseph Elementary School (Ancestry.com 2024a, Curtis 2015, Grave walker 2015). In 1934 the family moved about 45 miles northwest of Hills to the vicinity of Belle Plaine in Benton County, Iowa (Ancestry.com 2024b, Gazette 1967). Mary Emma attended Belle Plaine High School for a year and then completed her high school education at Ottumwa Heights Academy in Ottumwa, Iowa (Curtis 2015).

In 1938 Mary Emma became part of the Congregation of the Humility of Mary (Humenik 2000) and her chosen name in religion was Sister Mary Corrine (Curtis 2015). Sister Corrine completed her Associate of Arts degree at Ottumwa Heights Junior College and earned her bachelor’s degree from Marycrest College with a major in elementary education. She periodically continued her education via course work in science and English at Drake University (Des Moines, Iowa) and the University of Montana (Missoula, Montana) (Curtis 2015).

During her teaching career Sister Mary Corrine taught in both elementary and high school settings. In the 1940s she was principal of St. Mary’s Girls High School in Phoenix, Arizona (Curtis 2015, Eliot 1947, Pulliam 1948). Sister Corrine was a music teacher for a number of years in Billings and Great Falls, Montana (Curtis 2015, Gerharz 1956, Warder 1964). She also taught at several schools in the state of Iowa (Curtis 2015, Kucharski 2015).

Sister Mary Corrine is included among this collection of biographies, because two plant specimens she collected in 1957 from the Marycrest College campus are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Those plants are Hydrocotyle americana (Araliaceae) and Solanum dulcamara (Solanaceae).

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Ancestry.com 2024a. Mary Emma (Sister Mary Corrine) Foley. RJFL Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com 2024b. 1940 United States Federal Census for Matthew C. Foley. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Curtis, Sr. Micheline. 2015. Sister Corrine Foley. Congregation of the Humility of Mary. Davenport, Iowa.

Eliot, Gerry. 1947. St. Mary’s prepares for fete. Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. section 2. p. 1. column 6. October 12, 1947.

Gazette. 1967. Services Tuesday for Belle Plaine woman. The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. p. 16. column 7. December 31, 1967.

Gerharz, Father Joseph H. (ed.) 1956. 'Song and Dance' festival held by St. Joseph’s youths. The Eastern Montana Catholic Register. Great Falls, Montana. p. 4. column 6. May 9, 1956.

Grave walker. 2015. Sr. Mary Corrine 'Mary Emma' Foley. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Kucharski, Zack. 2015. Sister Mary Corrine Foley, CHM. The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. p. 10a. columns 1-2. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. November 9, 2015.

Pulliam, Eugene C. (publisher) 1948. School fete draws 7,000. The Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. p. 3. column 3. April 19, 1948.

Warder, R.D. (ed.) 1964. Christmas in Montana. Great Falls Tribune. Great Falls, Montana. p. 34. columns 1-3. December 20, 1964.

Foote, Lewis (1838-1925)

Lewis Foote was born in June of 1838 in Otselic, New York and he earned his engineering degree from the University of Michigan in 1866. He was a civil engineer and botanist employed by the U.S. Lake Survey whose directive was "conducting a hydrographical survey of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes and preparing and publishing nautical charts and other navigation aids" (Lawrence Journal-World 1925, Spencer 1896, Wisconsin's Water Library 2007).

Foote's full-time labors with the Lake Survey began in 1864 and took him to the areas surrounding Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake St. Clair, and east to the Niagara River. His involvement in that work is acknowledged on some of the maps generated by the Lake Survey, such as the "North End of Green Bay" (Graham & Raynolds 1864) and "Saint Lawrence River, No. 1 & No. 2" (Comstock 1873a&2). Dr. Edward Voss' (1978 - see chapter 6) detailed account of Foote's Lake Survey travels and accomplishments, noted one interesting idiosyncrasy. Some of Foote's herbarium labels were written on birch bark, apparently not because manufactured writing materials were lacking, but because he occasionally preferred labels of a closer-to-sylvan nature. In 1903 Foote donated 2000 herbarium specimens, most of which he collected from the shorelines of the areas he investigated, to the University of Michigan (Shaw 1908 & 1958, Voss 1978).

Failing health caused Foote to resign from the Lake Survey in 1874 and following that career he and his wife, Bithiah, lived on a farm near Worthington, Minnesota for a time (Spencer 1896). Ultimately, they made their home in Wellsville, Kansas and it is there that Lewis and his wife were ultimately interred (Lawrence Journal-World 1925, Thomas & Darlene 2010, Voss 1978).

Three angiosperms (Adenocaulon bicolor, Liatris cylindracea, & Polygonum ramosissimum) from Michigan collected by Foote in the 1860s are present in the Putnam Museum herbarium. Some of Foote's collections, including those at the University of Michigan, may be viewed using the SEINet database.

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Comstock, C.B. 1873a. Saint Lawrence River, No. 1. Survey of the northern and north western [sic] lakes. Headquarters of the Corps of Engineers.

Comstock, C.B. 1873b. Saint Lawrence River, No. 2. Survey of the northern and north western [sic] lakes. Headquarters of the Corps of Engineers.

Graham, J.D. & W. F. Raynolds. 1864. North End of Green Bay. Survey of the northern and north western [sic] lakes. Bureau of engineers of the War Department.

Lawrence Journal-World. 1925. Obituary: Lewis Foote. May 28, 1925. p. 6. column 5.

Shaw, Wilfred B. (ed.) 1908. News from the classes. The Michigan Alumnus. 15(137):26-27.

Shaw, Wilfred B. (ed.) 1958. The University of Michigan, An Encyclopedic Survey. Part 8. Museums and Collections: the herbarium. p. 1448.

Spencer, Charles H. (ed.) 1896. Register of the engineering alumni. The Technic. Engineering Soc. Univ. Mich. p. 145.

Thomas & Darlene. 2010. Lewis Foote. Find a Grave, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Voss, Edward G. 1978. Botanical beachcombers and explorers: Pioneers of the 19th century in the Upper Great Lakes. Contrib. Univ. Mich. Herbarium. Vol. 13. pp. 1-100.

Wisconsin's Water Library. 2007. Great Lakes Maps: U.S. Lake Survey. University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute. Madison, Wisconsin.

Fowler, James (1829 - 1923)

James Fowler (birth surname: Fowlie) was born in July of 1829 in Bartibog, New Brunswick, Canada. He was the eldest of George and Jane Fowlie's nine children and, when George died in 1843, it would have been typical for James to be called upon to shoulder much of the workload for supporting the family. However, in this case Jane was able to provide for the family and James was able to continue his education. He attended grade school in Chatham, N.B. and completed his religious studies at the Free Church College in Halifax, Nova Scotia (1855). Following his ordination in 1857, Fowler began his career as a Presbyterian minister in Black River (New Brunswick), but by 1861 he had settled about 100 miles to the northeast in Bass River, New Brunswick (Clayden 2003-, Smithy 2019).

In addition to his ministerial duties, Fowler was devoted to the study of natural history, which in 1878, led him to accept a position as science master at the Normal School in Fredericton. In 1880 he left New Brunswick for a position as natural science lecturer at Queen's College (Ontario), where he became a full professor in 1890. As his career matured, Fowler's achievements in natural history garnered him great respect and he was awarded honorary M.A. and LL.D. degrees (1872 and 1900, respectively) from the University of New Brunswick (Clayden 2003-, Estey 1994, Hamilton 2013).

At Queen's College Fowler wore many hats, as his positions included librarian, museum curator, and lecturer for courses in botany, geology, and zoology. But perhaps his most important accomplishment at Queen's was the creation of the college's herbarium. The collection was established using specimens Fowler brought with him from New Brunswick and by the time he retired in 1907 the plant repository had grown to nearly 40,000 specimens. Today the Fowler Herbarium is home to about 140,000 specimens (McLeod 2015, Queen's University 2015).

Fowler's interest in natural history led him to explore the areas of botany, conchology, geology, and meteorology. Botany was his favorite and at each stage of his career, Fowler was a dedicated student of not only the local flora, but the flora of New Brunswick in general. His communications with botanists in the United States and other regions of the world led to specimen exchanges that expanded his plant holdings and transformed his personal herbarium into a collection that was both a geographically and taxonomically broad-based (Estey 1994, McLeod 2015, Queen's University 2015).

Rev. Fowler corresponded with Asa Gray at Harvard University, George Engelmann in St. Louis, Nathaniel Britton in New York, and others. But early on, his primary botanical advisor was George W. Clinton in Buffalo, New York. Judge Clinton was one of Buffalo's civic leaders and the first president of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. He, like Fowler, was interested in documenting the flora of his geographic area and he had worked to establish the Buffalo Society's herbarium (Clayden 2003-).

Though his list of publications is not lengthy (see Biodiversity Heritage Library), James Fowler was well respected for his extensive plant collections and his prodigious work on the flora of New Brunswick (see Fowler 1885). Fowler developed an interest in plant parasitic fungi and, by virtue of his extensive floristic work, he was considered a reliable consultant for the identification of the plants of eastern North America, especially grasses and sedges (Clayden 2003-).

Fowler's Knotweed (Polygonum fowleri B.L. Rob.) is a seashore plant known from all of the ocean-bordering provinces of Canada and Maine, Washington, Oregon, and California in the United States (Costea et al. 2005). It was named "for its discoverer, Prof. James Fowler of Kingston, Ontario" (Robinson 1902). Fowler identified the plant as "P[olygonum] maritimum, L. [A plant of the] Sandy seashore of Northumberland and Kent (Fowler 1885, see p. 53).

Reverend Fowler is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium by over 50 specimens that were part of a donation made to the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences herbarium from the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences by way of Judge George W. Clinton (Pratt 1876). All of the specimens were collected in New Brunswick, Canada in the 1800s, but specific dates for many of the collections are lacking. An additional group of specimens collected by Fowler may be accessed using the SEINet database.

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Clayden, Stephen R. 2003-. Fowler, James. in Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 15. University of Toronto/Universite Laval.

Costea, Mihai, Francois J. Tardif, and Harold H. Hinds. 2005. Polygonum L. Flora of North America North of Mexico 5:547-571. Oxford Univ. Press. New York and Oxford.

Estey, Ralph H. 1994. Essays on the Early History of Plant Pathology and Mycology in Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press. Montreal, Quebec.

Fowler, James. 1885. A preliminary list of the plants of New Brunswick. Ellis Robertson & Co. St. John, New Brunswick. 82 pp.

Hamilton, Willis D. 2013. Dictionary of Miramichi Biography. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. p. 342 of 1109. 460 pp.

McLeod, Susanna. 2015. Local history: The reverend's treasured herbarium. The Kingston Whig-Standard. Tuesday, April 14, 2015.

Pratt, William H. 1876. Record of proceedings - December 14, 1867. Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sciences. Vol. 1 (1867-1876):58

Queen's University. 2015. Fowler Herbarium. Biological Station. Queen's University. Elgin, Ontario.

Robinson, Benjamin L. 1902. The New England Polygonums of the section Avicularia. Rhodora 4(40):67.

Smithy. 2019. Rev. James Fowler. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Fox, William B. (1915 - 1952)

William Basil Fox (photograph here) was born in Talcott, West Virginia in July of 1915 to William L. and Minnie Fox. William B. completed his B.S and M.S. degrees (1939 and 1940, respectively) at the University of West Virginia. Fox continued his education at the University of Iowa, where in 1942 he earned the Ph.D. in botany after completing research on the legumes of Iowa (Fox 1945, Great Stone Face 2002, Krings 2001, McCormick 2006, Todd 2009). While he was at the University of Iowa, Bill taught an undergraduate botany course, where he met Helen Hensleigh.

Each found the other to be compatible and after Helen's graduation from the university, she and Bill were married in January 1944. During that World War II period (1942-1945), Bill was serving in the U.S. Air Force as a radar instructor, so following their marriage Helen joined him in Florida, where she was employed as a teacher. After his discharge, Dr. Fox accepted a position as an assistant agronomist at the Washington Agricultural Experiment Station (Pullman, Washington). The next year (1946) William became a staff member at North Carolina State University as professor of botany and the school's first herbarium curator (Ancestry.com 2021, Iowa Women’s Archives 2005, JSTOR 2013, McCormick 2006, North Carolina State University, Todd 2009).

As herbarium curator, Dr. Fox oversaw an update to the organization of the collection and improved the general operation of the facility. While at NCSU, Fox continued his Ph.D. work on the Leguminosae and completed other investigations on the flora of North Carolina (e.g. Fox & Godfrey 1949, Fox et al. 1950 & 1952). He was involved in an investigation of medicinal plants in Mexico for the USDA at the time of his death (Krings 2001, North Carolina State University 2015, Todd 2009).

Fox's premature death at the age of 37 was a product of his custom of using a .22 caliber rifle to collect specimens from the upper branches of trees. One morning, after playing with his nearly five-year-old son, Fox rolled over to catch a bit more sleep. His son took the loaded rifle out of his parent's closet and tragically shot his father in the back of the head (JSTOR 2013, Krings 2001).

William is represented in the Putnam Museum herbarium, not by a legume, but by two Umbellifers collected from the Lake Okoboji region of Iowa in 1941 — one specimen of Cicuta bulbifera and one of Sium suave.

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Ancestry.com. 2021. William Basil Fox. Fox Family Tree. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Provo, Utah.

Fox, William B. 1945. The Leguminosae in Iowa. Amer. Midland Naturalist. 34:207-230

Fox, William B. & R. K. Godfrey. 1949. Notes on distribution of North Carolina plants - I. Rhodora 51:129-146.

Fox, William B., R.K. Godfrey,& H.L. Blomquist. 1950. Notes on distribution of North Carolina plants - II. Rhodora. 52:253-271

Fox, William B., R.K. Godfrey,& H.L. Blomquist. 1952. Notes on distribution of North Carolina plants - III. Rhodora. 54:165-182.

Great Stone Face. 2002. William Basil Fox. Find a grave. Provo, Utah.

Iowa Women’s Archives. 2005. Helen Lee Hensleigh Wenger Papers (1922–2006). University of Iowa Libraries. Iowa City, Iowa.

JSTOR. 2013. Fox, William Basil (1915-1952). Global Plants.

Krings, Alexander. 2001. North Carolina State University Herbarium (NCSC): A brief history and a preliminary overview of the collections. Jrnl. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 117(4): 224-239.

McCormick, Carol Ann. 2006. Collectors of the UNC Herbarium - William Basil Fox. Univ. of North Carolina Herbarium. Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

North Carolina State University. 2015. Herbarium: history. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Todd, Angela L. 2009. Biographies of the agricultural explorers of the USDA's Bureau of Plant Industry, 1897-1955: Part 1, A-F. Huntia 14:51-86. (see p. 82.)


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