Scope and Content
This collection contains correspondence addressed to Job Bicknell Ellis. There are nine letters from Auguste B. Langlois dated 1885-1889. There are also letters from Frederick W. Anderson, Joseph Blake, Mordecai C. Cooke, Francis W. Cragin, William G. Farlow, Asa Gray and three indecipherable signatures, S.J. Harkness, John Macoun, Charles Peck, a postcard from Pier A. Saccardo, and a postcard from William C Stevenson, Jr. The letters from Cooke include a specimen list.
Dates
- Creation: 1877-1901
Creator
- Ellis, Job Bicknell, 1829-1905 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research by appointment. Researchers must register and provide one form of valid photo identification. Please contact botref@oeb.harvard.edu for additional information.
Extent
0.1 linear feet (1 volume)Biographical note
Job Bicknell Ellis was born on January 21, 1829 in Potsdam, New York to Freeman Ellis and Sarah Bicknell. He graduated from Union College in 1851 and began a career as a classics teacher, collecting plants with other teachers on the weekends. In 1855 he wrote a letter to the mycologist Henry W. Ravenel, who encouraged him to begin sending specimens for determination to Ravenel as well as to established European mycologists. During the Civil War he served in the United States Navy, afterwards moving to Newfield, New Jersey where he resumed his mycological studies.
With help from William G. Farlow in 1877, Ellis began work on his exsiccate Fungi Nova-Caesareenses, later renamed North American Fungi. In 1885 Ellis founded the Journal of Mycology with Benjamin M. Everhart and William A. Kellerman. He also published North American Pyrenomycetes in 1892, which included illustrations by Frederick W. Anderson.
Ellis married Arvilla J. Bacon on April 19, 1856. They had one daughter, Cora. In 1896 he sold most of his herbarium to the New York Botanical Garden, who purchased the remainder in 1900. Ellis died on December 30, 1905 at his home in Newfield.
References:
Kaye, Geraldine C. 1986. Job Bicknell Ellis 1829-1905. Mycotaxon. 26:29-45.
Kellerman, W.A. 1906. Obituary- Job Bicknell Ellis. J. Mycol. 12(82):41-45.
Arrangement
The letters from Auguste B. Langlois are arranged chronologically. The remaining letters are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name, letters from the same author are arranged chronologically.
Provenance
Provenance was not recorded. The collection may have been acquired by William Gilson Farlow in the purchase of the J.B. Ellis Herbarium remainders.
Processing Information
Processed by Victorya Dube, 2022, September.
Creator
- Ellis, Job Bicknell, 1829-1905 (Person)
- Title
- Ellis, Job Bicknell, 1829-1905. Job Bicknell Ellis letters, 1877-1901: A Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Botany Libraries, Farlow Reference Library of Cryptogamic Botany, Harvard University.
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- far00065
Repository Details
Part of the Botany Libraries, Farlow Reference Library of Cryptogamic Botany, Harvard University Repository
The Harvard University Herbaria houses five research libraries that are managed collectively as the Botany Libraries. The Farlow Reference Library of Cryptogamic Botany specializes in organisms that reproduce by spores, without flowers or seeds. The Archives of the Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany houses unique resources including personal papers, institutional records, field notes and plant lists, expedition records, photographs, original artwork, and objects from faculty, curators, staff, and affiliates of the Farlow Herbarium.
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