Bartram, William (09 April 1739–22 July 1823), naturalist, artist, and explorer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Bartram, a naturalist, and Ann Mendenhall. Unlike his father, who was essentially self-taught, William Bartram benefited from a rigorous formal education at the Philadelphia Academy, where he studied history, Latin, French, and the classics. From an early age, however, his overriding interest was in nature. He spent much of his time as a young man traveling with his father to collect and draw plants and other specimens for John Bartram’s overseas patrons and scientific correspondents....
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Bartram, William (1739-1823), naturalist, artist, and explorer
Robert McCracken Peck
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Carver, George Washington (1864-1943), African-American scientist and educator
Linda O. McMurry
Carver, George Washington (1864–05 January 1943), African-American scientist and educator, was born in Diamond (formerly Diamond Grove), Missouri, the son of Mary Carver, who was the slave of Moses and Susan Carver. His father was said to have been a slave on a neighboring farm who was accidently killed before Carver’s birth. His mother was apparently kidnapped by slave raiders while he was very young, and he and his older brother were raised by the Carvers on their small farm....
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Carver, George Washington (1864-1943)
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George Washington Carver Photograph by Arthur Rothstein, 1942. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USW3- 000165-D).
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Chardón, Carlos E. (28 Sept. 1897–7 March 1965), mycologist, university chancellor, government administrator, and historian of science
Darryl E. Brock
Chardón, Carlos E. (28 Sept. 1897–7 March 1965), mycologist, university chancellor, government administrator, and historian of science, was born Carlos Eugenio Chardón Palacios in Ponce, Puerto Rico, one of two sons to Carlos Félix Chardón, a notary and successful planter, and Isabel Palacios Pelletier. Chard...
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Crockett, James Underwood (1915-1979), gardener and writer
Ann T. Keene
Crockett, James Underwood (09 October 1915–11 July 1979), gardener and writer, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the son of Earle Royce Crockett and Inez Underwood Crockett. After attending area public schools, he studied horticulture briefly at the University of Massachusetts. By 1935 he had moved to Long Island, New York, where he became an employee of Oak Park Nurseries, in East Patchogue. Four years later he moved again, this time to Texas, and became the superintendent of the Japanese Nursery Company in Houston. During his two years in Texas he studied horticulture part time at the state Agricultural and Mechanical College, now known as Texas A&M University....
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Dabney, Charles William (1855-1945), educator, college president, and agrichemist
Kevin Grace
Dabney, Charles William (19 June 1855–15 June 1945), educator, college president, and agrichemist, was born in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia, the son of Robert Louis Dabney, a Presbyterian theologian, and Margaretta Lavinia Morrison. His mother and father were both from prominent southern families, and his father served as chaplain to ...
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Davenport, Eugene (1856-1941), agricultural educator
Winton U. Solberg
Davenport, Eugene (20 June 1856–31 March 1941), agricultural educator, was born near Woodland, Michigan, the son of George Martin Davenport and Esther Sutton, farmers. His parents were Universalists. He attended local schools, taught school briefly, and graduated from Michigan Agricultural College (later Michigan State University) with a B.S. in 1878. For ten years he helped his father operate the family farm. In 1881 he married Emma Jane Coats; they had one child who survived infancy....
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Elliott, William (1788-1863), planter, writer, and sportsman
B. N. Skardon
Elliott, William (27 April 1788–03 February 1863), planter, writer, and sportsman, was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, the son of William Elliott, a planter, and Phoebe Waight. Elliott was educated in the schools at Beaufort and at Beaufort College. He entered the sophomore class at Harvard in 1806. He withdrew from Harvard in 1808 because of ill health; he was later awarded a B.A. in 1810 and an A.M. in 1815 from the school. After leaving Harvard, he returned to Beaufort and devoted himself to the management of the family rice and cotton plantations. In 1817 Elliott married Ann Hutchinson Smith; they had nine children....
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Ladd, Carl Edwin (1888-1943), agriculturist and educator
Claire Strom
Ladd, Carl Edwin (25 February 1888–23 July 1943), agriculturist and educator, was born in McLean, New York, the son of Arnold Daniel Ladd and Mary Ellen Mineah, dairy farmers. In 1907 he graduated from the Cortland (N.Y.) Normal and Training School and went on to the New York State School of Agriculture at Cornell University from which he received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science in 1912. He then accepted a post at Cornell as instructor in farm management while working for his doctorate, specializing in farm cost accounting, which he received in 1915....
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McBryde, John McLaren (1841-1923), agriculturist, educator, and college president
Claire Strom
McBryde, John McLaren (01 January 1841–20 March 1923), agriculturist, educator, and college president, was born in Abbeville, South Carolina, the son of John McBryde, a successful cotton factor, and Susan McLaren. His parents immigrated to the United States from Scotland around 1820. After receiving a classical education at local schools, McBryde entered South Carolina college in Columbia, where he received lectures from ...
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Miles, Manly (1826-1898), physician, biologist, and professor of agriculture
Donald B. Marti
Miles, Manly (20 July 1826–15 February 1898), physician, biologist, and professor of agriculture, was born in Homer, New York, the son of Manly Miles and Mary Cushman, farmers. When he was eleven, his family moved to a farm in eastern Michigan, near Flint. Trained in farm labor and deeply interested in science, especially chemistry and biology, in which he was ambitiously self-educated, he earned an M.D. from Chicago’s Rush Medical College in 1850. He married Mary E. Dodge in 1851. After practicing medicine in Flint for nine years, he became zoologist for Michigan’s new state geological survey. As its physician and zoologist he gathered collections of mollusca, birds, reptiles, and other animals, some of which he shared with scholars, including ...
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Stakman, Elvin Charles (1885-1979), agricultural scientist and educator
John H. Perkins
Stakman, Elvin Charles (17 May 1885–22 January 1979), agricultural scientist and educator, was born in Ahnapee (later Algoma), Wisconsin, the son of Frederick Stakman and Emelie Eberhardt, farmers. Soon after Stakman’s birth, the family moved to Brownton, Minnesota. Stakman entered the University of Minnesota in 1902 and received his B.A. in botany in 1906 and his M.A. and Ph.D., both in plant pathology, in 1910 and 1913, respectively. He taught in the public schools from 1906 until 1909, when he accepted his first appointment as instructor in plant pathology at the University of Minnesota. In 1917 he married E. Louise Jensen; the couple did not have children....
