Archives and Manuscript Collections
Records of the Herbarium (RG4)
PERCY WILSON RECORDS (1908-1940)
2.6 linear feet (1 box)
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Percy
Wilson (1879-1944) first worked at The New York Botanical Garden as a museum
aide. Nathaniel Lord Britton, the Garden's Director-in-Chief, perceived
a particularly effective employee and dispatched Wilson on several of the
earliest New York Botanical Garden botanical expeditions. One of these
was the "Total Eclipse Expedition" to the East Indies, where he was commissioned
to establish official ties with certain botanic gardens of Asia. His success
in this endeavor resulted in the procurement of specimens for the garden's
young and growing Herbarium. In 1902 Wilson joined Dr. and Mrs. Britton
on their initial botanical exploration of the island of Puerto Rico.
Soon afterwards, Britton appointed Wilson as his personal assistant,
a relationship that lasted from 1905 to Britton's retirement in 1929. In
1914 Wilson became an Associate Curator. Three years later he published
The
Vegetation of Vieques Island, one of the studies which originated from
The
Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Britton and
Wilson's chief collaboration in the survey was Part 7, Descriptive Flora,
Spermatophyta. After Britton's retirement, Wilson provided continuity
in the collaborative relationships established with the Puerto Rican scientific
and governmental communities. He retired from the Garden in 1939 and died
in 1944 following a long struggle with a degenerative illness.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The Percy Wilson collection consists of correspondence and a manuscript
of A Provisional List of the Known Trees of Cuba pertaining to his
work at The New York Botanical Garden. Several of Wilson's field notebooks
are held in the Collectors' Field Notebooks series.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1: Correspondence
Series 2: Manuscript
Series 1 Correspondence, 1908-1940
0.3 lin. in. Arranged alphabetically.
There are 4 files, including correspondence with Frances Horne and Robert
C. Murphy.
Series 2 Manuscript, 1925
2.3 lin. in. One item.
There is one manuscript (with a duplicate copy) entitled A Provisional
Life of the Known Trees of Cuba.
RELATED COLLECTIONS
The New York Botanical Garden
PP Frances W. Horne Papers
RG4 Nathaniel Lord Britton Records
CFN Numbers 27-28, 41, 57, 68, 132-155, 157, 166-168
Processed April 1999 by David Rose 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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