American plant collector, curator and school teacher in Ontario. Claude E. Garton was born in Aylmer and, after attending normal school, became a teacher at Port Arthur. Remaining at this institution from 1928 until 1966, he received an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry from Queen's University in 1942.

Garton collected plants throughout north-western Ontario during the summer months and amassed a large personal herbarium. His own well prepared specimens and material acquired through exchanges would eventually number over 98,000. In 1967 Garton was named curator of the herbarium of Lakehead University where he also gave various botany courses, both in the classroom and in the field. Continuing his summer plant collecting, now with the help of student assistants, he increasingly concentrated on the islands and shores of Lake Nipigon. In honour of his years of specimen gathering, the Claude Garton Herbarium (a regional collection for the northwest of Ontario) bears his name. Garton was also active in many natural history societies and conservation groups, notably his involvement in the founding of the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists in 1933.

Sources:
Major Collectors and Past Curators, Northern Ontario Plant Database:
http://www.northernontarioflora.ca/biography.cfm, accessed 3rd June 2011.