Thurber-Woolson Botanical Collection 1803-1918

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Thurber-Woolson Botanical Collection 1803-1918

http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/umass/mums065.html

Largely self-educated, George Thurber (1821-1890) began a career as a pharmacist before signing on as botanist to the U.S. Boundary Commission from 1850-1854. After completing a masters degree at Brown University, he emerged as a important horticultural writer and editor of American Agriculturist from 1863 to 1885. Letters, photographs, engravings, and clippings compiled primarily by George Thurber and bequeathed to George Clark Woolson (MAC class of 1871) who added to it and donated it as a memorial to his class, the first to graduate from the College. The collection includes 993 letters written by 336 correspondents, and 35 photographs and engravings, primarily botanists and other scientists, including Asa Gray, Louis Agassiz, John Torrey, Frederick Law Olmsted, John James Audubon, Henry Ward Beecher, Jefferson Davis, Edward Payson Roe, Donald G. Mitchell, and George Brown Goode.

4 boxes; (2.5 linear ft.)

eng,

Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6323347

Related Entities

There are 12 Entities related to this resource.

Gray, Asa, 1810-1888

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65f9k1r (person)

Often called the “Father of American Botany,” Asa Gray was instrumental in establishing systematic botany as a field of study at Harvard University and, to some extent, in the United States. His relationships with European and North American botanists and collectors enabled him to serve as a central clearing house for the identification of plants from newly explored areas of North America. He also served as a link between American and European botanical sciences. Gray regularly reviewed new Euro...

Torrey, John, 1796-1873

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g55fhw (person)

John Torrey (1796-1873) was one of the greatest figures in American botanical history. He led botanists in the adoption of the natural system of classification. His extensive herbarium became the foundation of the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium. Appointed botanist for the Geological Survey of the State of New York in 1836, he published the first compete flora of the state in addition to preparing descriptions of plants collected during surveys for the Pacific railroad routes, the...

Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68h99sx (person)

Swiss-American zoologist and geologist. Professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University. Louis Agassiz was born in Môtier-en-Vuly, Switzerland. He studied at the universities of Zürich, Erlangen (Ph.D., 1829), Heidelberg, and Munich (M.D., 1830). Agassiz studied medicine briefly but turned to zoology, with a special interest in fishes and fossils, while studying under the French naturalist Cuvier. In 1832 he became professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel, Sw...

Thurber, George.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bm7p3d (person)

Roe, Edward Payson, 1838-1888

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ns1gj0 (person)

American author and clergyman. From the description of Papers of Edward Payson Roe, 1871-1888. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 34689926 American clergyman and novelist. From the description of Autograph letter signed : Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, New York, to [Henry Chandler] Bowen, 1887 Dec. 28. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270656294 ...

Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822-1903

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hd7vhb (person)

Landscape architect. From the description of Frederick Law Olmsted papers, 1777-1952 (bulk 1838-1903). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70979908 American landscape designer. From the description of Autograph letter signed : New York, to Charles A. Dana, 1876 July 24. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270872066 Landscape architect. Related material in Biography and Genealogy Files under 'F.L. Olmsted.' From the description ...

Woolson, George Clark.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qh53hc (person)

Thurber, George, and Woolson, George Clark, compilers

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hc5ft9 (person)

George Thurber, botanist, naturalist, and editor, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, September 2, 1821 and died at his home near Passaic, New Jersey, April 2, 1890. In his early years he devoted himself eagerly to the study of chemistry and natural sciences in general, but especially to botany, so that at an early age he was already well known as one of the most prominent botanists of the country. This brought him in close intimacy with John Torrey, Asa Gray, George Engelmann, Lo...

Audubon, John James, 1785-1851

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m32tvb (person)

Naturalist, ornithologist, and artist, known for his Birds of America. From the description of Letters received, 1831-1853. (Buffalo History Museum). WorldCat record id: 56506202 Audubon was an American artist and ornithologost. From the guide to the John James Audubon letters and drawings, 1805-1892 (inclusive), 1805-1847 (bulk)., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University) John James Audubon was a painter and ornithologist. Born in ...

Mitchell, Donald Grant, 1822-1908

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62r3t8p (person)

Donald Grant Mitchell, essayist and novelist, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, graduated from Yale College in 1841 and, after serving abroad briefly as U.S. consul in Venice, Italy, from 1853 to 1854, settled near New Haven, Connecticut. Mitchell wrote literary criticism, travel literature, and volumes of essays on rural themes, including Reveries of a Bachelor (1850), My Farm of Edgewood: A Country Book (1863), and Rural Studies (1867). Other works include the novel Doctor Johns (1866), About ...

Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xk8d2z (person)

Mary Ann Lamar Cobb (1818-1889), wife of Gen. Howell Cobb (1815-1868). From the description of Letter to Mary Ann Lamar Cobb, 1888 Oct. 2. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 38476494 Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) was born in Kentucky. He attended Transylvania University for a short time before enrolling at West Point in 1824, at the age of 16. He graduated in 1828 and immediately joined the First Infantry. His regiment was engaged in the Blackhawk War of 1831. In 1833, he became a...

Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dr30vg (person)

Abolitionist; orator; pastor of Plymouth Church, 1847-1887. From the description of Papers, [ca.1847]-1937, 1847-1887 (bulk) (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155459715 American Congregational clergyman, lecturer, reformer, and author. From the guide to the Henry Ward Beecher papers, 1851-1896, n.d, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.) Congregationalist minister. From the description of Sermon notes, [n.d.], 1893, 18...