From his early days as a naturalist, George William Clinton was to become the mayor of Buffalo in 1842 and U.S. District Attorney in 1847. His father was DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828), New York State Senator, U.S. Senator, Mayor of New York City, Governor of New York for three terms and nominated for President in 1812, but eventually losing to the fourth President, James Madison. Perhaps his most abiding claim to fame is as the person who fought hard for construction of the Erie canal and he is sometimes referred to as 'Father of the Erie Canal'. The genus Clintonia Raf. in the Liliaceae was named in honour of D. Clinton.
G.W. Clinton co-founded the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, where he lectured on botany and geology, and was elected as the first president from 1861-1881. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), G.W. Clinton was a vocal supporter of the Union and gave speeches supporting President Lincoln. When peace returned, Clinton was appointed to various positions within the University at Buffalo becoming Vice-Chancellor in 1881. In the following year, the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences dedicated his plant collections as the Clinton Herbarium (BUF), to become one of the earliest established herbaria in the United States. Material from his herbarium and types are also at NYS.
Clinton was one of those rarest of individuals, a politically effective advocate of natural history; he was instrumental in the appointment of C.H. Peck (1883-1917) as State Botanist in 1883. Clinton's interest in botany continued throughout his life and is evident from diary obervations that he made from as early as 1826, accompanying his father on the newly completed Erie canal. George William Clinton died on 7 November 1807 while walking through a cemetery in Albany. He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery (a place that his office had set apart as consecrated ground in 1850) still clutching a piece of clover that he was holding when he died.
BM specimens are mostly undated collections of phanerogams from New York State. They were probably sent for exchange, as Clinton regularly exchanged specimens with other scientists and incorporated their material into his herbarium. For example, he exchanged lichens with C.C. Babington (1808-1895), whose herbarium is in part at BM. A few of the many plants named after G.W. Clinton include Scirpus clintonii A. Gray (= Trichophorum clintonii (A. Gray) S.G. Sm.), the fern Aspidium cristatum var. clintonianum D.C. Eaton (= Dryopteris clintoniana (D.C. Eaton ex A. Gray) Dowell, sometimes included in Nephrodium or Thelypteris) and the moss Bryum clintonii Austin.
