Smith, John Donnell (1829–1928) correspondence

Collection

Identifier: HIBDARC-41

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains seven letters to Smith about the identification of plants, particularly relating to Lobeliaceae, Agave Linnaeus and Annonaceae, from Ignatius Urban (1848–1931), Benjamin Lincoln Robinson (1864–1935), Charles Baron Clarke (1832–1906), Casimir de Candolle (1836–1918), William Trelease (1857–1945) and William Edwin Safford (1859–1926). There is also a commentary, which originally may have been included with the Candolle letter, from Robert Buser (1857–1931) about Lobelia tuerckheimii Rendle and L. parviflora M. Martens & Galeotti.

Dates

Creation: 1892–1911, n.d.

Language of Materials

German, English, French

Biographical / Historical

Taxonomist John Donnell Smith (1829–1928) of Baltimore, Maryland, was a trustee of Peabody Institute in Baltimore (1888–1915) as well as a captain in the Confederate Army. In 1906 he donated his herbarium of more than 100,000 mounted specimens and his botanical library of over 1,600 volumes to the Smithsonian Institution. The herbarium is now kept as a historical collection in the U.S. National Herbarium.

Extent

.1 Linear Feet (1 file folder)

Additional Description

Related Materials

The Hunt Institute Art Department also has 32 pencil drawings by Faxon, which are the originals for new species described by Smith in his series of 36 papers, “Undescribed plants from Guatemala,” for the American journal, Botanical Gazette (1887–1916, nos. 12–61). For additional Smith items, see HI Archives collection nos. 42, 92 and 370.