Isaac F. Holton and John Torrey correspondence, 1840-1870

Related Titles

Related/Analytical: New York Botanical Garden Archives

Series: John Torrey papers, series 1, correspondence

By

Holton, Isaac F. (Isaac Farwell)

Type

Collection

Material

Archival material

Publication info

Notes

Correspondence from Isaac F. Holton to John Torrey, dated 1840-1870. In his early letters, the young preacher Holton writes from his first teaching post in Illinois, where he complains of a lack of mental stimulation ("I see absolutely nothing of a scientific nature except at Dr. Mead's ... The last prairie flower is dead & I have not till now seen a Botanical work this year"), not to mention his own books and clothes, held up for months in shipping. Throughout the 1840s Holton leads an almost itinerant existence, cobbling together a meager living from preaching and lecturing on scientific subjects; he reflects often on his uncertain future ("Am I to circulate in an eddy all my life? I hope not.") and asks Torrey for advice. By the latter half of the decade he has moved to New York and found work teaching in girls' and boys' schools and later, at the New York College of Pharmacy. After some years in New York and Princeton, New Jersey, Holton finds his way to New England, and finally again to Illinois, and a late marriage. Surprisingly little mention is made of his journey to South America and the book which came out of that trip, "New Granada: twenty months in the Andes" (1857). The collection also includes letters from Holton to Asa Gray, Samuel Barnum Mead, Charles Wilkins Short, Oliver Rivington Willis, Peter Vincent Le Roy, and Seth Hastings Grant. Obsolete plant names mentioned include Annona triloba, Canchalagua, and Nelumbium. The final letter makes use of the phrase "metric florin" and includes an unidentified annotated newspaper clipping pertaining to systems of currency.

In English.

Subjects

Asimina triloba , Atwater, Lyman Hotchkiss, 1813-1883 , Beck, Lewis C. (Lewis Caleb), 1798-1853 , Botanical specimens , Botany of the northern and middle states , Brackenridge, William D. (William Dunlop), 1810-18 , Browne, D. J. (Daniel Jay), 1804- , Carex , Carey, John, 1797-1880 , Chapman, A. W. (Alvan Wentworth), 1809-1899 , Chemistry , Classification , Coleman, Lyman, 1796-1882 , Correspondence , Crawe, I. B. (Ithamar Bingham), 1792-1847 , Curtis, M. A. (Moses Ashley), 1808-1872 , De Kay, James E. (James Ellsworth), 1792-1851 , Desabaye-Chegaray, Eloise, 1792-1889 , Eaton, Amos, 1776-1842 , Ellet, William Henry, 1806-1859 , Emmons, Ebenezer, 1799-1863 , Engelmann, George, 1809-1884 , Flora of North America , Foster, J. T. (James T.) , Frémont, John Charles, 1813-1890 , Gaudichaud, Charles, 1789-1854 , Gibbs, Wolcott, 1822-1908 , Grant, S. Hastings (Seth Hastings), 1828-1910 , Gray, Asa, 1810-1888 , Griffith, R. Eglesfeld (Robert Eglesfeld), 1798-18 , Hadley, George, 1813-1877 , Hallock, William A. (William Allen), 1794-1880 , Henry, Joseph, 1797-1878 , Hitchcock, Edward, 1793-1864 , Holton, Isaac F. (Isaac Farwell) , Knieskern, Peter D., 1798-1871 , Le Roy, Peter Vincent, 1821-1889 , Lyceum of Natural History (New York, N.Y.) , Maclean, George Macintosh, -1886 , Manual of botany , Mead, Samuel Barnum, 1798-1880 , Medical botany , Moffat, James C. (James Clement), 1811-1890 , Money , Nelson, David, 1793-1844 , Nelumbo , Parker, William H. (William Henry), 1809-1889 , Peuquet, Hyacinth, active 1849 , Plants , Schaeffer, F. C. (Frederick C.), Rev., active 1817 , Schanck, John Stillwell, 1817-1898 , Short, Charles Wilkins, 1794-1863 , Silphium laciniatum , Sullivant, William Starling, 1803-1873 , Tappan, Henry Philip, 1805-1881 , Taylor, John S., active 1832-1854 , Torrey, John, 1796-1873 , Trécul, Auguste, 1818-1896 , Tuckerman, Edward, 1817-1886 , Wiley & Putnam , Willis, Oliver R. (Oliver Rivington), 1815-1902 , Wood, Alphonso, 1810-1881

BHL Collections

John Torrey Papers

Language

English

Identifiers

OCLC: 1017736492