Correspondence, 1870-1955

Summary

• Consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence between Division of Plants staff and leading United States and foreign botanists; colleagues; directors and curators of United States and foreign herbaria; custodians of botanical nurseries; naturalists; plant collectors; dealers in patent medicines; feed companies; seed growers; ranchers; farmers; geological surveys of the United States and Canada; Department of Agriculture staff members and administrative officers; Smithsonian Institution administrators; newspaper publishers and editors; scientific societies; the United States Experimental Grass and Forage Station at Garden City, Kansas; botanists from the agricultural and mining colleges and their agricultural experiment stations; florists; agrostologists; field agents; amateur plant collectors; entomologists; horticulturists; foresters; seed laboratories; and friends.
• Correspondence concerns requests for botanical specimens and seeds; determination, identification, and description of plants, grasses, and seeds; collecting expeditions; requests for plants to protect embankments; purchase of specimens; transfer of specimens to the National Herbarium; exchange of plant collections; lists of specimens in herbaria; information on plant collection methods; collecting in the field; botanical experiments; publishing taxonomies and other articles on botanical collections; requests publications; requests for jobs with the Department of Agriculture; staff salary increases and transfers of staff members; activities of colleagues and their collections; personal matters; and drafts of manuscripts. Some correspondence also includes accession lists, annual reports, requests and approvals for field work, and nomenclatorial work.
• Curators and research staff represented in these materials include George Vasey, Botanist and Curator of the National Herbarium, 1872-1889, and Honorary Curator of the Department of Botany, 1889-1893; and his successor Frederick V. (Frederick Vernon) Coville, 1894-1937; J. N. (Joseph Nelson) Rose, Assistant Curator and Curator, 1897-1911, 1917-1928; Charles Louis Pollard, Assistant Curator, 1897-1903; O. F. (Orator Fuller) Cook, Assistant Curator, 1898; William R. (William Ralph) Maxon, Aid, Assistant Curator, Associate Curator, and Curator, 1899-1946; Joseph Hannum Painter, Aid, 1904-1908; LeRoy Abrams, Assistant Curator, 1906-1907; Paul Carpenter Standley, Assistant Curator, 1909-1922; E. C. (Emery Clarence) Leonard, Aid, Assistant Curator, and Associate Curator, 1918-1947; Ellsworth Paine Killip, Aid, Assistant Curator, Associate Curator, and Curator, 1919-1947; C. V. (Conrad Vernon) Morton, Aid, Assistant Curator, and Associate Curator, 1928-1947; and Egbert H. (Egbert Hamilton) Walker, Aid, Assistant Curator, and Associate Curator, 1928-1947.

Subject

• Morton, C. V (Conrad Vernon) 1905-1972
• Walker, Egbert H (Egbert Hamilton) 1899-1991
• Killip, Ellsworth Paine 1890-
• Leonard, E. C (Emery Clarence) 1892-1968
• Standley, Paul Carpenter 1884-1963
• Abrams, Le Roy 1874-1956
• Maxon, William R (William Ralph) 1877-1948
• Cook, O. F (Orator Fuller) 1867-1949
• Pollard, Charles Louis 1872-1945
• Rose, J. N (Joseph Nelson) 1862-1928
• Coville, Frederick V (Frederick Vernon) 1867-1937
• Painter, Joseph Hannum
• Vasey, George

Category

Series Level Description

Notes

• To view records that comprise this series, see the detailed list of accessions and/or record units below.
• For a history of the creating unit, refer to "Forms part of" above.

Organization

Chronologic and alphabetic

Repository Loc.

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Capital Gallery, Suite 3000, MRC 507; 600 Maryland Avenue, SW; Washington, DC 20024-2520

Date

• 1870
• 1870-1955

Topic

• Plants
• Botany

Form/Genre

Manuscripts

Local number

SIA RS00194

Physical description

42.25 cu. ft. processed holdings

Full Record

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