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Personal Papers
GLADYS P. ANDERSON PAPERS (bulk 1934-38)
1.9 linear feet (6 boxes)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Gladys Pomeroy Anderson (1888-1977) was curator of the lichen herbarium of the Sullivant Moss Society in 1934-1935. Under her care, it was placed with The New York Botanical Garden, where it remains today. Marshall Howe made arrangements for the lichen herbarium to be housed within the Garden Herbarium where it remains today.

Anderson was born in Newark, New Jersey on May 16, 1888. She attended New Jersey State Normal School and Columbia Teachers College, and graduated from Columbia University with a B.S. in 1927. From 1917 to1919, she was a special student and assistant in botany at McGill University. She worked as a photomicrographer for the Canadian Forest Products Laboratory and several rubber companies. It is said that she was instrumental in creating the New Jersey part of the Appalachian Trail. In 1935 she contributed an article "Centraria Fahlunensis var. Frostii (Du Rietz) Zahlb., in New York State and in Pennsylvania" to the May-June issue of The Bryologist (vol. 38, no. 3). Anderson was the German translator for the Sullivant Moss Society, responsible for translating scientific articles into English. She was married to George Ernest Anderson in 1913 and lived in Rahway, New Jersey.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Gladys Pomeroy Anderson Papers document Anderson's curatorship of the lichen herbarium of the Sullivant Moss Society. Also documented are Anderson's botanical research and her career as an educator. The collection contains correspondence, notes, lists, index cards, lantern slides, and photographs. There is one tintype. The photographs appear to be divided between family photographs and photographs of sites and specimens. One group of photographs of trolley and train cars appears to be from Baltimore, Maryland, the home of Dr. C. C. Plitt. The lantern slides document an expedition through Maine. Three seed catalogs for Irises have been removed and are now in the Historic Seed Catalogs Collection. The collection is arranged into nine series.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series 1: Transmission Documents
Series 2: Correspondence
Series 3: Botanical Organizations
Series 4: Lichen Literature
Series 5: Personal Files
Series 6: Maps
Series 7: Photographs
Series 8: Lantern Slides
Series 9: Negatives

Series 1     Transmission Documents, 1967-1992
                   1 folder

This series contains two letters. One is from George Ernest Anderson, Jr., transmitting material. The other is from Antonia Adejo of The Garden Conservancy, transmitting material found in the estate of Mary Fleming, who was employed in the Bryological Herbarium of The New York Botanical Garden.

Series 2     Correspondence, 1932-1937
                   3 folders, Arranged alphabetically.

This series contains correspondence related to Gladys Anderson's determinations of lichen specimens, and general business of the Sullivant Moss Society. A. T. Beals was also involved with the Society.

Series 3     Botanical Organizations, 1916-1935
                   1 lin. in. Arranged by subject.

This series consists of papers and correspondence from Anderson in her capacity as curator of lichens. Reports of the activities of the lichen department are found here as well. Also included are papers and correspondence from C. C. Plitt and E. B. Chamberlain, who preceded her and served as Secretary-Treasurers in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Series 4     Lichen Literature, n.d.-1934
                   3.5 lin. in. Arranged by subject.

The material in this series consists of Mrs. Anderson's notes from lectures and the literature including notes on index cards.

Series 5     Personal Files, 1935-1938
                  1 lin. in. Arranged by subject.

This series contains an estate inventory of an unnamed person's possessions, a scrapbook of clippings belonging to Mrs. F. J. Feely, chair of the Committee on Spiritual Life of the Woman's Guild of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Westfield, New Jersey, and travel brochures for Maine, New Hampshire, Virginia, and the Carolinas.

Series 6     Maps, 1915-1935
                   1 lin. in. Arranged chronologically.

This series contains United States Geological Survey maps of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Series 7     Photographs, ca. 1860-ca. 1940
                   2 lin. in. Arranged by subject.

This series contains unlabeled portraits, especially those of an unamed boy. There is one tintype portrait. Other unlabeled photographs are landscapes and specimens. One folder contains photographs of railroad and trolley cars from Baltimore, Maryland. Negatives have been removed and are found in Series 9: Negatives.

Series 8     Lantern Slides, n.d.
                   5 lin. in. Arranged by number.

Lantern slides in this series document an excursion or expedition to Maine. They include maps and landscape and specimen photographs. They were found in numbered groups from I-X. Groups numbers VI-IX were absent from the collection.

Series 9     Negatives, n.d.-ca. 1940
                  1 folder. Arranged by subject.

Included in this series are the negatives from Series 7 which were removed.

PROVENANCE NOTE

The Gladys P. Anderson Collection was donated to The New York Botanical Garden with her herbarium in 1958. Dr. Clark P. Rogerson picked it up and transported it to the Garden. Additional materials were added in 1971, donated by her son, and in 1992, from the estate of Mary Fleming, and transmitted to the Garden by Antonia Adejo of The Garden Conservancy, Cold Spring, New York. The collection was transferred to the Garden Archives from the Garden Bryological Herbarium.

RELATED COLLECTIONS

The New York Botanical Garden

PP     A.T. Beals Papers

HSC     Historic Seed Catalogs Collection
 

Processed January 2000 by Laura Zelasnic under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) PA-23141-98 and a grant from the Harriet Ford Dickenson Foundation.


For more information and a complete description contact:
Susan Fraser, NYBG Archivist
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library
The New York Botanical Garden
Bronx, NY 10458-5126
(718) 817-8879

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