Taylor, Norman, 1883-1967

Norman Taylor (1883-1967) was a popular author on gardening subjects and medicinal botany. He is best known for Taylor's Garden Encyclopedia. He was born in Hereford, England and emigrated to Yonkers, N.Y. in 1889. After two years at Cornell University, he began work in the Forestry Dept. of the New York Zoological Park. He was hired by Nathaniel Lord Britton as a museum assistant at the New York Botanical Garden. He worked with Britton and G.V. Nash as a collector on expeditions to Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Turks Island. In 1911 he was named Curator of Plants at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He worked with Robert Moses in the planning of state parks on Long Island and was instrumental in having Montauk Point declared a state park. From 1936-1951 he served as Director of the Cinchona Products Institute. He was editor of Botany, Ornamental Horticulture and Forestry for Webster's New International Dictionary (2nd. ed) and the American Heritage Dictionary (1965). He lived in New York and St. Anne, Md. with his second wife, Margaretta Stephenson.