Thurber-Woolson Botanical Manuscripts Collection
Largely self-educated, George Thurber (1821-1890) began a career as a pharmacist before signing on as botanist to the U.S. Boundary Commission from 1850-1854. After completing a masters degree at Brown University, he emerged as a important horticultural writer and editor of American Agriculturist from 1863 to 1885.
Letters, photographs, engravings, and clippings compiled primarily by George Thurber and bequeathed to George Clark Woolson (MAC class of 1871) who added to it and donated it as a memorial to his class, the first to graduate from the College. The collection includes 993 letters written by 336 correspondents, and 35 photographs and engravings, primarily botanists and other scientists, including Asa Gray, Louis Agassiz, John Torrey, Frederick Law Olmsted, John James Audubon, Henry Ward Beecher, Jefferson Davis, Edward Payson Roe, Donald G. Mitchell, and George Brown Goode.
Letters, photographs, engravings, and clippings compiled by George Thurber, agrostologist, horticultural writer, and editor of American Agriculturist from 1863 to 1885, and augmented by George Clark Woolson, father of Harry Thurber Woolson. Bulk of the collection is the nearly 1,000 letters written by 336 correspondents, primarily botanists and other scientists, including Asa Gray, Louis Agassiz, John Torrey, Frederick Law Olmsted, John James Audubon, Henry Ward Beecher, Jefferson Davis, Edward Payson Roe, Donald G. Mitchell, and George Brown Goode. Letters are bound; binding done by Reimann.
The collection is open for research.
Cite as: Thurber-Woolson Botanical Collection (MS 65). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Acquired from Harry Thurber Woolson, 1911, 1919
Processed by Linda Seidman.