American professor of botany and forest pathologist. J. Franklin Collins worked for Brown University and the US Department of Agriculture, making particular advances in the field of tree surgery. Born in Anson, Maine, he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1873 and received his high school education there.
In 1879 Collins began to work for the Gorham Manufacturing Company as a silver worker, designer and embosser although he maintained an interest in botany at this time and undertook many outings into the local countryside. Keen to develop this talent, he became acquainted with Professor W. Whitman Bailey at Brown University who gave Collins much of his technical education, and in 1894 he was named curator of its Olney Herbarium thanks to Bailey's influence. In 1898 he was awarded an honorary bachelor's degree but it was not until the following year, when he was named instructor of botany, that Collins finally abandoned his work as a silversmith. In 1905 he became assistant professor and upon Bailey's retirement the following year, he was employed as head of the department. Collins remained in this position until 1911.
It was in 1907 that Collins first became associated with the US Department of Agriculture, working first as collaborator and later as agent to their Office of Forest Pathology. For several years he concentrated on the diseases of chestnut-bark until, in 1913, Brown University opened a branch laboratory of the Office of Forest Pathology (which would deal with the diseases of ornamental trees and shrubs) and Collins was put in its charge. While continuing as curator of the Olney Herbarium and as an instructor in botany, Collins conducted diagnoses and made his name known as the "father of tree surgery". Advocating more scientific methods of trimming and using flexible wood or sawdust as filler, his "Tree Surgery" (from 1920) and "Treatment and Care of Tree Wounds" (from 1934) sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
Not abandoning his taxonomic work, Collins continued to collect for his personal herbarium and maintained an expert knowledge of the vascular plants and mosses. With over 100 publications to his name he wrote about various aspects of his local flora, chestnut blight and moss taxonomy. Aside from the works mentioned, his most influential was probably his Key to New England Trees, Wild and Cultivated with Howard W. Preston (1909). Collecting regularly with other members of the New England Botanical Club he focused particularly on regions of Maine and the Gaspé Peninsula. As well as serving on the boards of numerous scientific associations, he also acted as associate editor of the journal of the New England Botanical Club Rhodora, and was an accomplished photographer and draftsman, adding illustrations to many of his and others' publications.
Sources:
M. Mitchell, 1993, "Collins, James Franklin", Encyclopedia Brunoniana:
http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=C0620, accessed 13 April 2011
W.H. Snell, 1942, "J. Franklin Collins", Rhodora, 44(520): 93-97
F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan, 1976-1998, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition (TL-2), 4:275.
