Biography

One of the most eminent American botanists and professor at Harvard University. Asa Gray is sometimes referred to as the "Father of American Botany". He published numerous standard texts for the botany enthusiast at every level. An authority on the flora of North America and the Compositae (Asteraceae) family in particular, he also made contributions in the field of plant distribution throughout the world and was an important advocate of Darwinism despite his strong religious convictions.

Asa Gray was born in the Sauquoit Valley near the township of Paris, Oneida County, New York. He grew up on his father's farm and worked there as well as for the family tannery business while a youngster. From Clinton High School he went on to attend the Fairfield Academy before studying at the Medical College of the Western District of Fairfield. While he never practised medicine as a career, it was during the years spent studying this subject that Gray developed an interest in botany, both through the influence of certain professors and from identifying plants in the field using Amos Eaton's Manual of Botany.

On graduating as a medical doctor in 1831 he was employed at Bartlett's School in Utica as a chemistry, mineralogy and geology teacher, and at this time entered into correspondence with John Torrey. A professor at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, Torrey was perhaps the best known botanist in North America and he invited the young Gray to assist him in 1833. Although this arrangement lasted less than a year, through this connection he was named Curator of the New York Lyceum of Natural History in 1836. This same year Gray published his first text book, Elements of Botany and was also appointed botanist on the Wilkes Exploring Expedition to the South Pacific. Following the expedition's delay in leaving, however, he abandoned this position to once again become Torrey's assistant, this time to aid him in the creation of a Flora of North America. Several volumes of the flora were produced between 1838 and 1943, but in 1842 Gray was named Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University and due to his duties there, as well as the overwhelming influx of new material from the West, the project was put on hold for almost 30 years.

Asa Gray would remain at Harvard for the rest of his working life, greatly developing the institution's botanic garden, library and herbarium (the latter of which did not exist before he was appointed there). At the same time as working to build up a herbarium which would become one of the most important in the country, Gray began to study the wealth of plant specimens being collected on various expeditions and surveys advancing further and further into the west of the country. From this material he published what has been referred to as an 'avalanche' of scientific papers on the United States flora and on the systematics of the Asteraceae family in particular.

Perhaps the contribution that Gray is best remembered for is the publication of a number of standard botany text books for students of the subject. Titles include: The Botanical Text Book (1842), How Plants Grow (1858) and How Plants Behave (1872) as well as Elements of Botany, a name he also gave to the last text book he ever wrote in 1887. The most important, however, was almost certainly A Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States (five editions from 1848 to 1867) which became a household name throughout the northeast and was widely consulted by anyone keen to identify the local flora. Towards the end of his career Gray returned to the North American flora he had begun with Torrey all those years ago. Although he published two extensive parts to The Synoptic Flora of North America: the Camopetalae after Compositae (1878) and Caprifoliaceae Compositae (1884), he was unable to complete the work before his death from a cerebral haemorrhage in 1888.

Another important contribution Gray made to science in general was in defending Darwinism in the United States. He and Charles Darwin were in correspondence for many years and Gray furnished the British naturalist with a great deal of data on plant distribution and endemism in the United States. During the 1860s and 1870s he was locked in an intense academic dispute with L. Agassiz over the theory of evolution by natural selection. Married to Jane Lathrop Loring, Gray travelled several times to Europe, visiting institutions throughout the continent for his research. By the end of his career he had been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Edinburgh and the University of Oxford and he had also received a master's degree and an LLD from Harvard University (1844 and 1875 respectively). His material at BM was mainly bequeathed with the herbarium of N.B. Ward (1869).

Sources:
W. Deane, 1888, "Asa Gray", Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 15(3): 59-72
H.B. Humphrey, 1861, Makers of North American Botany: 96-99
D. Isley, 1994, One Hundred and One Botanists: 191-195.