Archives and Manuscript Collections
Records of the Herbarium (RG4)
HENRY HURD RUSBY RECORDS (1885-1928)
1.5 linear feet
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Henry
Hurd Rusby (1855-1940) was influential in promoting the study of economic
botany at The New York Botanical Garden throughout the first fifty years
of its existence. As a youth growing up in Franklin (now Nutley), New Jersey,
Rusby demonstrated a passionate interest in plants. At the age of 21 his
personal herbarium won him first prize at the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia in 1876. At that time he became acquainted with Dr. George
Thurber, who was the President of the Torrey Botanical Club. Rusby joined
the Torrey Botanical Club in 1879 and around that time began studying medicine
at the Medical College of New York University. In 1880, while still a medical
student, he spent 18 months collecting plants in Texas and New Mexico as
an agent for the Smithsonian Institution. In 1883 he returned to the Southwest
to study and collect medicinal flora of Arizona for Parke, Davis &
Co.
Rusby graduated from medical school in 1884 and in 1885 he embarked
on a two-year excursion for Parke, Davis & Co., traversing the South
American continent and exploring remote regions of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,
Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil.
Although trained as a physician, Rusby chose to forego medicine in favor
of his interest in plants. In 1889 he was made Professor of Botany and
Materia Medica at the College of Pharmacy at Columbia University. He served
26 years as Dean of the Faculty until his retirement in 1930, and as Dean
Emeritus until his death in 1940.
Rusby's association with The New York Botanical Garden began even before
the Garden was formally established. As a member of the Torrey Botanical
Club, he met Nathaniel Lord Britton. It had long been a goal of the club
to establish a botanic garden. In 1888 a botanic garden committee of eight
distinguished club members, including Britton and Rusby, was formed. Rusby
is listed among the numerous incorporators and was instrumental in arranging
to have the Columbia College herbarium and botanical library deposited
at the Garden. In 1898 Rusby was appointed Honorary Curator of the Economic
Botany Museum and served on the Board of Managers until 1933.
Rusby's neotropical explorations, particularly in the Amazon region
set the precedent for the systematic and economic botany that has characterized
subsequent research at The New York Botanical Garden. The productivity
of his trips was due to his endurance and resourcefulness as an explorer.
In 1921, when Rusby was 65 years old, he embarked on his last field trip
to South America as the Director of the Mulford Biological Exploration
of the Amazon Basin.
Henry Rusby died on November 18, 1940, at the age of 85.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The collection documents Rusby's botanical explorations and studies
of South American floraand includes lists, manuscripts, correspondence,
photographs, lantern slides, and field notebooks. The collection is arranged
in four series.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1: Research and Field Notes
Series 2: Correspondence
Series 3: Diary
Series 4: Photographic Material
Series 1: Research and Field Notes, 1885-1917
2.75 lin. in. Arranged alphabetically.
Miscellaneous research notes and comments, and field notebooks for his
South and Central American trips are included in this series.
Series 2: Correspondence
0.5 lin. in. Arranged alphabetically.
This series includes incidental, miscellaneous correspondence pertaining
to his participation as a member of the New York Botanical Garden Board
of Managers and his research on plants.
Series 3: Diary, 1921-1922
1 lin. in.
This is a typescript of the "Official Diary of the Mulford Biological
Exploration of the Amazon Basin, 1921-1922, by H.H. Rusby."
Series 4: Photographic material,
1917
13 1/2 lin. in. (5 photo boxes)
This series consists of lantern slides from Rusby's 1917 Colombia trip
(with Pennell).
RELATED COLLECTIONS
The New York Botanical Garden
RG2 Records of the Board of Managers
RG3 Records of the Chief Exec. Officers
CFN Numbers 30, 86, 101, 106
Small Collections file - Lucille Mann's manuscript. The Drug Hunters:
{Mulford Biological Expedition}.
Merck & Co. - (Whitehouse Station, N.J.)
Mulford Biological Exploration material.
Processed March 1999 by Susan Fraser 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, New York 10458-5126
(718) 817-8879
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