American teacher, pastor and botanist interested in the flora of the eastern United States. John White Chickering was born in Bolton, Massachusetts and studied at Bowdoin College in Maine, receiving a BA degree in 1852. Continuing on to graduate studies at this college Chickering was awarded a master's degree in 1855 and began to teach at the same time. Following this he became principal of Seneca College (1857-1858) and served as pastor of this college (1860-1870) as well as holding pastoral posts in Springfield (Vermont), and Exeter (New Hampshire). Chickering also taught at the Theological Seminary at Bangor, Maine. From 1870 he worked as a teacher of natural sciences, first as professor at Gallaudet University (1870-1900), and then as a lector at Gallaudet and at Howard University (both in Washington DC) from 1900. He retired in 1899.

As a botanist Chickering clearly studied the plants of Virginia, publishing a flora of the Dismal Swamp (a marshy area of the Coastal Plain Region between this state and north eastern North Carolina) in 1873 as well as a paper entitled "A botanical trip in Virginia" (1877). He also published several general works on his local flora including "The flowers of early Spring" (1869) and "Our native trees and shrubs" (1870). With a particular interest in alpine plants he undertook expeditions to Mount Katahdin in 1850 and 1858 and also visited Roan Mountain of North Carolina in 1880. Branching out into the fields of zoology and geology, Chickering published works on the shells of Maine and a new cave system in Virginia.

Sources:
C.A. McCormick, "John White Chickering, Jr", Collectors of the UNC Herbarium, The University of North Carolina Herbarium:
http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/Collectors/Chickering.htm
F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan, 1976-1998, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition (TL-2).