Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: gra00040

Albert Hanford Moore correspondence

Scope and Content

The Moore correspondence consists of 128 letters from 102 botanists, dated 1896-1916, with the bulk dated 1906-1912. Almost one third are from botanists outside of the United States. The letters may have been selected as sample autograph letters, since no botanist is represented by more than three letters. Much of the correspondence consists of letters of acknowledgement for a list of Bermuda plants sent by Moore around 1906. The letters are arranged alphabetically; original order has been maintained.

Dates

  • Creation: 1896-1916
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1906-1912

Creator

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

0.1 linear feet (128 letters in 5 folders) : Stored in file cabinet P1.

Biography

Albert Hanford Moore was born on May 13, 1883 in Zanesville, Ohio, to George Foot Moore and Mary Soper Hanford. He attended Phillips Andover Academy and enrolled at Harvard College in 1901 earning a B.A. in 1905 and an M.A. in 1906. He continued as a graduate student in botany until the spring of 1909 without earning a Ph.D. He was then offered a temporary position at the Arnold Arboretum performing bibliographic work. He left in June for a month-long position at the U.S. National Herbarium, then spent several months traveling in Germany and Europe before accepting a permanent position at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in July 1910.

Moore worked under William Franklin Wight as an assistant botanist in the Office of Taxonomic and Range Investigations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. He held the position until 1914 or 1915. During this time he contributed articles to “Rhodora” and collaborated with Arthur Stanley Pease on a flora of Coos County, New Hampshire.

Moore returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1915 and established a photography and photostatic reproduction service at the Harvard University Library. This apparently marked the decline of his interest in botany. He continued in this work until the outbreak of World War I. During the war he worked briefly at the Sturtevant Blower Works in Readville, Massachusetts, and later for the United Fruit Company until the end of the war. Moore married Marguerite Denny Stevenson on April 28, 1917. In 1920 he was teaching German at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1932.

Sources

Barnhart JH. Biographical Notes Upon Botanists, vol. 2. Boston (MA): G. K. Hall; 1965.

Harvard College, Class of 1905. Fourth Report. Norwood (MA): Plimpton Press; 1920.

Harvard College, Class of 1905. Secretary's Second Report. Cambridge (MA): Crimson Printing Co.; 1911.

Harvard College, Class of 1905. Secretary's Third Report. [place unknown]: [publisher unknown]; 1915.

Provenance

Moore gave his correspondence to the Gray Herbarium on September 24, 1917. He gave his personal herbarium to the Gray Herbarium in 1926.

Processing Information

Processed by Lynn McWhood

Title
Moore, Albert Hanford, 1883-. Albert Hanford Moore correspondence, 1896-1916, bulk 1906-1912: A Guide.
Status
completed
Author
Botany Libraries, Gray Herbarium Library, Harvard University.
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
gra00040

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