Franklin Post Metcalf was born on June 10, 1892, in Oberlin, Ohio. He was an assistant ornithologist at Oberlin College from 1912-1913 and received his A.B. from the school in 1913. He was a botanist at Cornell University from 1913-1916. During the summers of those years he was a tutor at Kamp Kiamesha in Vermont (1913), an assistant instructor at Cornell (1914), and an assistant instructor for Professor Lynd Jones' field course (1915). He was an instructor at Cornell during the 1916-1917 academic year and then accepted an appointment as an assistant biologist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) biological survey in North Dakota in 1917. He returned to that post in 1919, which he held until 1923, following his service in the United States Army Signal Corps from 1918-1919. As part of his USDA duties he performed fieldwork in the summers of 1920 and 1921. From 1923 to 1928 he was a professor of botany at Fukien Christian University and became recognized as a specialist in Chinese flora. In 1940, he held a year-long Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. From 1941-1942 he continued his work at the Arnold Arboretum as a Milton-Clarke fellow and research associate. Metcalf retired in 1947 and died in 1955.
From the description of Papers of Franklin Post Metcalf (1930-1946) (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 528688658
