Henry William Ravenel and Stephen Thayer Olney botanical correspondence

Stephen Thayer Olney was born on February 15, 1812, in Providence, Rhode Island to Stephen and Polly Olney (née Thayer). He was educated in Providence and worked for Isaac B. Cooke and Co. before starting the Wauskuck Company, a woolens firm, with Jesse Metcalf. The business was profitable and provided Olney with sufficient wealth and free time to pursue his botanical interests.

Olney was particularly interested in the genus Carex and contributed sections on Carices to Sereno Watson’s botanical report of the King Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel and to Asa Gray’s report on Elihu Hall’s Oregon plants. He amassed a large private herbarium and botanical library and corresponded with many prominent botanists.

Olney never married. He died in Providence on July 27, 1878 after a period of declining health. He bequeathed his herbarium and library as well as $35,000 to Brown University.

Sources:

Bailey WW. 1880. The Herbaria and Botanical Libraries of the United States, III. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club. 7(11):116-117.

Gray A. 1879. Scientific Intelligence: III. Botany. Am. J. Sci. Arts. 17(98):176-180.

Humphrey HB. Stephen Thayer Olney, 1812-1878. In: Makers of North American Botany. New York: Ronald Press; 1961. p.192-193.

Henry William Ravenel was born on May 19, 1814 in St. John’s Berkeley Parish, South Carolina. He graduated from South Carolina College in December 1832. In 1835 he married Elizabeth Galliard Snowden, with whom he had six children. Ravenel began a career as a planter and acquired Northampton Plantation from his father. During this time he began collecting, identifying, and preserving plants, as well as collaborating with other botanists including Asa Gray, Moses Curtis, and Edward Tuckerman. In 1851 he moved to Aiken, South Carolina. Elizabeth died in 1855. In 1858 he married Mary Huger Dawson. They had five daughters. Ravenel’s primary focus was mycology. He published Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati and contributed to Mordecai Cooke’s Fungi Americani Exsiccati. After the Civil War, the U.S Department of Agriculture commissioned Ravenel to investigate the cause of Texas Cattle Fever. The fungi he collected for that research, along with his Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati formed the basis of the National Fungus Collection at the Bureau of Plant Industry. Ravenel died in Aiken on July 17, 1887.

Sources:

Shealy, Harry, Jr. Ravenel, Henry William. South Carolina Encyclopedia. 2016. University of South Carolina, Institute for Southern Studies. Accessed 18 Oct 2022. https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/ravenel-henry-william/

Henry William Ravenel. Plants & Planter. Accessed 18 Oct 2022. https://plantsandplanter.org/about.php