Hough, Romeyn Beck, 1857-1924

Romeyn Beck Hough (1857-1924) son of Franklin Benjamin Hough, was a naturalist, author and businessman in the state of New York. In 1888 he published the first volume of a series of 12 books titled American Woods, which contained the native and naturalized species of woods in the United States and Canada. These volumes were unique in that they included samples of wood as illustrations. Hough also devised a machine for cutting wood sections with thichnesses of 1/10 to 1/1,200 of an inch. In the scientific world, American woods was well received and won numerous awards; including the grand prize at the Paris Exposition in 1889. Subsequently, Hough produced another book, Handbook of the Trees of the Northern States and Canada, containing photographic and textual descriptions of 208 kinds of trees found in Canada and in the Eastern United States. To do research for these publications, Hough travelled frequently and kept journals of his activities.

From the description of Romeyn Beck Hough : papers, 1882-1908 1882-1900. (National Agricultural Library). WorldCat record id: 644582244