Harper, Roland McMillan, 1878-1966

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Biographical History

Roland Harper was born in Farmington, Maine in 1878. He studied engineering at University of Georgia, 1894 – 1897, during which time he became interested in botany. He completed his PhD at Columbia University in 1905. He then began his career at the Alabama Geological Survey in 1905 as a botanist and geographer. He published over 500 papers, many on botany and also including some on more sociological topics such as “Significance of bachelors and spinsters” and “Corn bread, appendicitis, and the birth-date”. He also published a study of the pine barren vegetation of Mississippi based on observations from car windows. His research interests included plant ecology, systematic botany, soils, crops and weeds, forestry and controlled burning, demography, railroading, conservation, and photography.

Source

Obituary, Roland McMillan Harper (1878 – 1966). Journal of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 95, No. 4 (July – August 1968) pp. 390-393.

Birth Date

1878

Death Date

1966

Topic

Botany

Form/Genre

Personal name

Occupation

Botanists