American botanist and banker responsible for amassing one of the most impressive private herbaria in the USA in the 19th century. Isaac Martindale's collection of well over 80,000 plant specimens was amassed through his own efforts in the field, through exchanges and through extensive purchases. Working as a cashier in Camden, New Jersey, in order to support his family, he became an expert on the flora of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Born on a farm near Byberry in Pennsylvania, Martindale was brought up in a Quaker tradition and schooled accordingly. Working on his father's farm, he developed an interest in natural history and specimen collecting at an early age and from 1860 was gathering and identifying plants for his growing herbarium. His early ramblings were confined to his own garden and the region around Byberry, and it was not until he was struck by a mystery illness in 1874 and travelled to Europe that he began to collect further afield.
In Switzerland and Scotland Martindale made small botanical excursions and was so inspired that on his return, plant collection came to be the main focus in his life. Particularly interested in ballast plants introduced around the ports of Philadelphia, Camden and New York, he also became an authority on the New Jersey Pine Barrens. During the 1870s he undertook several excursions throughout the United States, visiting Vermont in 1876 and Missouri (where he collected in the botanical gardens at St. Louis), Illinois (Cahokia) and Colorado (Pike's Peak) in 1878. A list of the plants collected by Martindale in Colorado, along with a description of his journey, was published in The American Naturalist in 1879. He also collected in Virginia and Tennessee.
Keen to amass the most complete set of North American plant specimens, he purchased material from the likes of Asa Gray, J.F. Gaudin, William E. Parry and Ferdinand Rugel, and in doing so also obtained an extensive collection of plants from the rest of the world. By the 1880s his collection was said to be equalled only by the best institutional herbaria in the USA in terms of its quality, and as a private collection was rivalled in size only by George Engelmann's herbarium. A value of $10,000 was placed on the collection at the time of his death and it was acquired by the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science in 1894. In 1964 some 80,000 of his specimens were purchased, along with bound exsiccatae, notes and letters, by the United States Department of Agriculture for the National Arboretum (NA) in Washington DC. From about 1888 Martindale largely concentrated on collecting specimens of Lepidoptera.
Professionally Martindale worked as a banker, initially as a junior clerk for the National State Bank of Camden, New Jersey (1867-1871), and later as a cashier for the aforementioned bank (1871-1885). Following this he was employed in the same capacity by the Camden National Bank in South Camden and he remained there until a few months before his death from 'apoplexy' at the age of 51. A member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, he served as a councillor from 1889 until his death and was also treasurer of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for several years. Married twice, Martindale had a total of six children, although only four of these survived to adulthood. The first two of these were mothered by Hannah Ann Kirk, and the rest by his second wife, Elizabeth J. Ball.
Sources:
F.G. Meyer and S. Elsasser, 1973, "The 19th century herbarium of Isaac C. Martindale", Taxon, 22(4): 375-404
J.H. Redfield, 1893, "Death of Isaac C. Martindale", Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 20(3): 98-100.
