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Subscribing to Specimens, Cataloging Subscribed Specimens, and Assembling the First Phytogeographical Survey in the United States

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Abstract

Throughout the late 1840s and the early 1850s, Harvard botanist Asa Gray (1810–1888) and his close friend George Engelmann (1809–1884) of St. Louis engaged themselves with recruiting men who sought to make a living by natural history collecting, sending these men into the field, searching for institutions and individuals who would subscribe to incoming collections, compiling catalogs, and collecting subscription fees. Although several botanists have noted Gray and Engelmann’s bold experiment as having introduced America to a mode by which European naturalists had devised to organize scientific expeditions, historians of science have not taken the “subscription mode” seriously. I argue that it was specifically by undertaking the labor of cataloging species and charging subscription fees for the cataloged species that Gray established himself as a metropolitan botanist. One crucial consequence of Gray’s rising profile was that he acquired sufficient “cataloging power” to secure his status as an authoritative cataloger of species, and as a kind of “mint” or “storehouse” (McOuat in Br J Hist Sci 34(1):1–28, 2001a) who produced well-pruned lists of American species to enable transactions between American and European botanists. But this essay is not focused on the Europeanization of American taxonomy. Drawing on work by scholars who place emphasis on how new forms of knowledge get produced when knowledge travels, my focus here is the evolution of the subscription mode when Gray and Engelmann adapted it to American natural history. My conclusion examines what historian of science Vanessa Heggie (Isis 105(2):318–334, 2014) identifies as the “danger of category dominance” in today’s historiography of science and shows how a kind of “assemblage thinking” may help historians cope with this danger.

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Notes

  1. Gray to Engelmann, July 26, 1842, Asa Gray (1810–1888) Papers, Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (hereafter cited as AGPG).

  2. Engelmann to Gray, January 18, 1843, Historic Letters, Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (hereafter cited as HL); Gray to Engelmann, February 13, 1843, AGPG.

  3. For studies concerning the making of an authoritative botanical author, see Bellon (2001), Bonneuil (2002), Endersby (2001, 2008), Hoquet (2014), Müller-Wille (2003, 2007), and Stevens (1996).

  4. Collinson to Bartram, February 20, 1736, Berkeley and Berkeley (1992, p. 22).

  5. Collinson to Bartram, April 21, 1736, Berkeley and Berkeley (1992, p. 27).

  6. Gray to Torrey, December 12, 1838, Gray (1893, p. 90).

  7. For a taxonomic analysis of Gray’s “grass-book,” see Rickett and Gilly (1942).

  8. Torrey to Rafinesque, February 5, 1834, Reingold (1964, p. 44).

  9. See also Short to Rafinesque, September 7, 1834, Reingold (1964, pp. 47–48).

  10. Gray to Morris, April 24, 1844, Asa Gray Papers, 1840–1859 (MSS84489), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC (hereafter cited as AGPL).

  11. Part of this letter can be found in Gray (1893, pp. 278–279). But the sentence about Nuttall’s amor pecuniae is missing there. Fortunately, a typed copy of this particular letter remains at Gray Herbarium. Dupree (1952) made use of this typed copy in his remarkable essay on the Nuttall–Gray controversy.

  12. Nuttall to Gray, April 7, 1841; Gray to Nuttall, April 14, 1841, quoted in Dupree (1952, pp. 298–299).

  13. Gray to Engelmann, February 29, 1848, AGPG.

  14. Curtis to Engelmann, March 4, 1841, and July 31, 1846, Folder 2, Box 1, Correspondence of Moses Ashley Curtis, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (hereafter cited as CMAC).

  15. Tuckerman to Gray, April 8, 1844, HL.

  16. Torrey to Henry, August [no day] 1838, HL.

  17. The quotations are from the title pages of Rafinesque (1836; 1836–1838). For a notable account of Rafinesque’s life and career, see Endersby (2009).

  18. Gray to Silliman, October 5, 1840; November 15, 1840; December 31, 1840, Asa Gray Papers, 1838–1887 (Mss.B.G78), American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA.

  19. Gray to W. Hooker, March 30, 1842, J. L. Gray (1893, pp. 282–283).

  20. W. Hooker to Gray, November 10, 1842; Curtis to Gray, August 1, 1842; Sullivant to Gray, April 19, 1842; HL.

  21. Gray told Engelmann that he was now “imploring correspondents in every part of the country to send me all they can”; Gray to Engelmann, September 26, 1842, AGPG. See also Sullivant to Gray, November 21, 1842, HL; Curtis to Gray, November 7, 1843, HL; Gray to Morris, December 5, 1842, Box 1, Folder 3, AGPL.

  22. Engelmann to Gray, January 18, 1843, HL.

  23. Gray to Engelmann, February 13, 1843, AGPG.

  24. Gray to Engelmann, February 13, 1843, AGPG.

  25. Engelmann to Gray, March 9, 1843, HL.

  26. Engelmann to Gray, January 18, 1843, HL.

  27. Lindheimer to Engelmann, August 10, 1843, Goyne (1991, p. 67).

  28. Lindheimer to Engelmann, April 18, 1845, Goyne (1991, p. 112).

  29. This quote can be found in Lindheimer to Engelmann, April 18, 1845, Goyne (1991, p. 113).

  30. Lindheimer to Engelmann, July 8, 1846, Goyne (1991, pp. 159–161).

  31. Negotiations taking place between Engelmann and Gray regarding how to run the subscription mode effectively and efficiently can be found in the following letters, all of which are part of the HL collection: Engelmann to Gray, January 8, 1844; Engelmann to Gray, February 17, 1844, Engelmann to Gray, April 8, 1844; Engelmann to Gray, October 5, 1844.

  32. Fielding to Gray, August 8 1846, HL.

  33. Engelmann to Gray, September 1 1846, HL.

  34. Engelmann to Gray, January 11, 1845, HL.

  35. Gray to Engelmann, February 3, 1845, AGPG; Gray used the term “gentlemen with public spirit” in a letter sent to Hooker, dated February 28, 1843 (see Gray 1893, p. 299).

  36. Gray to Engelmann, July 15, 1846, AGPG; Engelmann to Gray, August 2, 1846, HL.

  37. Fendler’s autobiography can be found in Canby (1885); the quotation is from p. 288.

  38. See Engelmann to Gray, July 3, 1846, HL.

  39. Fendler to Gray, July 25, 1848, HL.

  40. Engelmann to Gray, October 31, 1847, HL.

  41. Gray to Engelmann, December 20, 1847, AGPG.

  42. Gray reported the financial support he had secured for Fendler in two letters, dated November 18, 1848 and November 30, 1848, respectively, both of which are in AGPG.

  43. Engelmann to Gray, March 28, 1849, HL.

  44. Engelmann to Gray, 10 December 1846, HL.

  45. Gray to Engelmann, 5 January 1847, AGPG.

  46. Gray to Engelmann, 2 May 1849, AGPG; Torrey to Gray, May 23, 1849, HL.

  47. Gray to Engelmann, November 7, 1849, HL.

  48. The term “drum up” appeared in Gray to Engelmann, February 25, 1849 (J. L. Gray 1893, p. 362).

  49. See Engelmann to Gray, December 21, 1849, HL.

  50. For example, the best set of Lindheimer’s was sold for the price of $38.50. See a letter from Engelmann to Gray, undated but postmarked March 10, 1850, HL.

  51. This paragraph is based on letters sent by Engelmann to Gray in 1849, dated March 28, May 13, July [undated], and August 6; all letters are in HL.

  52. The phrase “bad business” appears in a letter from Gray to Engelmann, dated June, 1, 1847, which can be found in AGPG.

  53. Engelmann to Gray, March 27, 1850, HL.

  54. Engelmann to Gray, May 18, 1850, HL.

  55. Engelmann to Gray, February 6, 1851, HL.

  56. Engelmann to Gray, February 15, 1848, HL.

  57. Gray to Engelmann, February 29, 1848, AGPG.

  58. Gray to Engelmann, August 1, 1854, AGPG.

  59. Engelmann to Gray, September 1, 1846, HL; Fendler to Gray, October 23, 1853, HL.

  60. My ideas regarding Hooker’s social status are based on Endersby (2008, pp. 8–12).

  61. For the history of the natural system and de Candolle’s role therein, see Peter F. Stevens’s influential The Development of Biological Systematics: Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, Nature, and the Natural System (1994).

  62. Gray to Engelmann, July 14, 1853, AGPG.

  63. According to Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle, Wydler got yellow fever upon his arrival in Puerto Rico, and could only send back a small number of specimens of poor quality; see de Candolle (1862, p. 337).

  64. For a biographical account of Berlandier, see Muller (1980).

  65. For a thorough introduction of Berlandier’s frequent expeditions to South and West Texas and northeastern Mexico, see Muller (1980, pp. xv–xvi).

  66. For a concise account of the negotiations among Gray, Short, Couch, and the Smithsonian Institution, see Muller (1980, pp. xxviii–xxxv). In a letter to Charles Wright dated September 20, 1854, Gray wrote: “I am distributing, as I get spare hours…. The great mass of Berlandier’s collections of plants (bought by Short) off into sets. They are mostly singular Texan things—gathered 20 years ago. It is a great job” (Gray to Wright, September 20, 1854, AGPG). To Engelmann, he wrote: “For Dr. Short has purchased the five large boxes of plants left by Berlandier, which Lieut. Couch bought of Berlandier’s widow—and five great boxes are sent to me—with instructions to put the fullest set, with original memoranda into my own herbm. as most useful for American science” (Gray to Engelmann, August 1, 1854, AGPG).

  67. Short to Gray, May 9, 1855, HL; see also Muller (1980, pp. xxxii–xxxiii).

  68. Gray to Short, May 21, 1855, Coker (1941, pp. 143–144).

  69. Gray to Short, May 21, 1855, Coker (1941, p. 144).

  70. Gray to Engelmann, December 10, 1855, AGPG; also see Muller (1980, pp. xxxi–xxxii).

  71. An important reference for understanding the moral codes in Gray’s mind regarding the “professional collector” can be found in Gray (1862).

References

Manuscripts and Archives

  • Asa Gray Papers, 1838–1887 (Mss.B.G78), American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

  • Asa Gray (1810–1888) Papers, Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

  • Asa Gray Papers, 1840–1859 (MSS84489), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA.

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Acknowledgements

This essay is based on my unpublished doctoral dissertation entitled “Finding Patterns in Nature: Asa Gray’s Plant Geography and Collecting Networks (1830s–1860s),” submitted to the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University in 2013. In the course of turning several chapters of my dissertation into a journal article, I am deeply indebted to many colleagues and friends across the United States and Taiwan. I would especially like to thank Janet Browne, Shigehisa Kuriyama, Donald Pfister, Henrietta Harrison, Judith Warnement, Lisa DeCesare, David Boufford, Pamela M. Henson, and Shang-jen Li. I also want to thank the D. Kim Foundation for supporting my postdoctoral study at the Smithsonian Institution and the Needham Research Institute. Thanks also go to anonymous referees and editors of Journal of the History of Biology for their valuable comments on the earlier drafts. The completion of the work was financially supported by the NTU Research Center for Future Earth from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan (NTU-107L901004).

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Hung, KC. Subscribing to Specimens, Cataloging Subscribed Specimens, and Assembling the First Phytogeographical Survey in the United States. J Hist Biol 52, 391–431 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-019-9565-z

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