Rost, Ernest Christian, 1867-1940

Ernest Christian Rost, an artist, pioneer photographer, adventurer, and botanist. He was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., son of German parents, Christian Wilhelm, an engraver of renown, and Minna Rost, an embroiderer of military insignia. Rost studied at the National Academy of Design and continued his artistic education Europe. In the late 1890's, he turned to photography, working in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and Panama. In 1907, he married Etta N. Newbury. By 1918, he settled in California. Having failed at growing grapes in San Joaquin Valley, he moved to Alhambra and devoted his life to studies of cacti. Rost traveled widely throughout the Mojave Desert, Nevada, Mexico, and Arizona, collecting and classifying desert plants. In 1929, he became an editor of Desert, the official publication of the American Succulent Societies. In 1931, he was elected to the German Horticultural Society. In 1933, Rost sought to publish a book Something about cacti, but the project was never realized.