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COLLECTION Identifier: gra00035

Henry Griswold Jesup correspondence

Scope and Content

This collection consists of two scrapbooks of letters to Jesup from botanists. The blue volume, dated 1859-1876, contains around 80 letters arranged in chronological order and includes an index. The red volume, dated 1873-1880, contains around 30 letters with no clear arrangement. Letters at the front of the volume appear to be in reverse chronological order with some letters arranged by correspondent.

Dates

  • Creation: 1859-1895

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is available by appointment for research. Researchers must register and provide valid photo identification. Please contact botref@oeb.harvard.edu for additional information.

Extent

0.2 linear feet (2 volumes in 1 box)

Biography

Henry Griswold Jesup was born on January 23, 1826 in Saugatuck (now Westport), Connecticut to William Henry and Mary Hannah Jesup (née Riley). He graduated from Yale University in 1847 and studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York from 1850-1853. He was pastor of the Congregational Church in Stanwich, Connecticut from 1854 until 1862, when he resigned due to poor health. Jesup spent a year in Minnesota recuperating, then returned to New England where he settled in Amherst, Massachusetts. He devoted the next several years of his life to studying nature and in 1877 was appointed Professor of Natural History at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He became Professor of Botany in 1894 and held that position until he retired and was appointed Professor Emeritus in 1899. Jesup was interested in systematic botany and is best known for his work on the local floras of Amherst and Hanover. He never married. His personal herbarium of over 10,000 sheets was deposited at Dartmouth after his death in Hanover on June 15, 1930.

Sources
  1. Henry Griswold Jesup. Rhodora. 5(56):191; 1903.
  2. Chapin HB, editor. 1897. Jubilee Anniversary Report of the Class of 1847, Yale University. New York: Styles & Cash.

Provenance

One (blue) scrapbook was given to the Harvard College Library in 1918 with the library of Evart J. Wendell and later transferred to the Gray Herbarium. A second (red) scrapbook was transferred to the Gray Herbarium from the Harvard College Library on November 8, 1926.

Related Materials

Other related material at the Botany Libraries, Harvard University Herbaria: Administrative correspondence of the Gray Herbarium and Harvard University Herbaria, 1890-1965; Asa Gray correspondence files, 1832-1892.

Title
Jesup, Henry G. (Henry Griswold), 1826-1903. Henry Griswold Jesup correspondence, 1859-1895: A Guide.
Status
completed
Author
Botany Libraries, Gray Herbarium Library, Harvard University.
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
gra00035

Repository Details

Part of the Botany Libraries, Gray Herbarium Library, Harvard University Repository

The Harvard University Herbaria houses five research libraries that are managed collectively as the Botany Libraries. The Gray Herbarium Library specializes in the identification and classification of New World plants with emphasis on North American plants. The Archives of the Gray Herbarium 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 Gray Herbarium.

Contact:
Harvard University Herbaria
22 Divinity Ave
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2366