Torrey, Ray Ethan, 1887-

Contains short biographies, family and genealogical records, educational records, certificates of birth, awards, photographs, a will, an inventory of Torrey’s belongings made upon his death, newspaper clippings, and an annotated list of reference readings for regarding knowledge and the spiritual life.

The short biographies include biographical sketches by Dr. Oswald Tippo, a former student of Torrey and the first Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, and Robert Francis, an Amherst poet; as well as several clippings and obituaries. Family and genealogical records include certificates of marriage, lists of family members, and photographs of Torrey (1907), Torrey’s father, Theodore, and grandfather, Jacob. Educational records include the 1912 Massachusetts Agricultural College Commencement Program, his high school and college grade records, and his Ph.D. diploma from Harvard. Also included here is a certificate of Torrey’s membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1917), and a certificate appointing him as the Sheldon Fellow in Botany at Harvard for the academic year 1917-1918.

Incoming and outgoing letters of Ray Ethan Torrey for the years 1912-1955. Correspondents include: Otto Degener, M.L. Fernald, B.L. Robinson, Robert Woodsworth, Bernice G. Schubert, Burton N. Gates. There are also several letters to and from Isaac C. Kether, then President of Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania, referring to a teaching position that Torrey eventually accepted, and a group of letters from Torrey to Carrolle Anderson Markle.

This series includes letters from Don Smith, Class of 1934, dating from 1981-1983, concerning Torrey and the acquisition of some of his papers for this collection.

Contains addresses, published volumes, offprints of articles, and a typescript of an unpublished book. Addresses include a speech delivered before the Division of Science, Massachusetts Agricultural College on January 25, 1918, and the opening address at a meeting of the New York Branch of the Theosophical Society on March 29, 1930. Offprints are in the fields of plant morphology and phylogeny. This series also contains a typescript of his unpublished book Angiosperms and published volumes of: The Anatomy and Physiology of the Seed Plants (1922), Introductory Botany (1922), General Botany (1923) with an Instructors Manual (1923) and A Set of Botanical Drawings for Laboratory Use (1923), Introductory Botany (vol. 1, 1925; vol. 2, 1926), Science and Its Function in Education (1933), and Evolution of Green Plants (1936). Also in published form is the third part of his Ph.D. dissertation, Comparative Anatomy and Phylogeny of Coniferales (1923).

Torrey was a contributor to the Theosophical Quarterly; an index for the journal is included to indicate where these writings can be located.

Contains typescripts of class lectures, lecture outlines, bound volumes of class lectures, photographs that accompany the lectures, and class notes by students. It was Dr. Torrey’s practice to prepare formal typescripts of his lectures and to make them available for students to produce typed copies outside of class (this was before the advent of electrostatic copying machines) and to share with each other. Some such materials were also mimeographed, including drawings of plants and sections of plants, for use in botany courses.

Courses represented in this collection: Introductory Botany (1925, 1934-1936, 1946, 1950), The Evolution of Green Plants (1935/36, 1949/50), Angiosperms (1948/49), Systematic Botany of the Higher Plants (1926/27, 1934/35) and a General Philosophy Honors Course (1934/35). The materials for the Evolution of Green Plants (1935-1936) and both versions of Systematic Botany of the Higher Plants are bound volumes. The photographs accompany the course on Angiosperms (1948-1949).

Consists of twenty-seven original pen and ink drawings by Torrey, probably executed to illustrate a book by his Harvard dissertation director, Professor E. C. Jeffrey, and possibly used in one or more of Torrey’s own books; and three sketches of Torrey’s residences, not by Torrey. A Set of Botanical Drawings for Laboratory Use accompanies General Botany for Colleges and is located with it in Series 3: Writings.