Biography

American economic botanist and ethnologist who served first in the navy and then in the United States Department of Agriculture. William Safford, known as Ned, was born and raised in Ohio. Graduating in 1880 from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Safford sailed in the tropics before beginning post-graduate work in botany and zoology at Yale University (1883) and in marine zoology at Harvard (1885). He travelled through the Straits of Magellan towards the end of 1886, gathering plants, especially seaweeds, which he sent to R.A. Philippi in Santiago. Oh his return he taught languages in Annapolis for two years. He spent 1891-1892 in South America as commissioner to Peru and Bolivia for the Chicago Columbian Exhibition (a role dealing mainly with ethnology and ethnological objects).

Re-joining the navy in 1893 Safford served in the Spanish-American War in 1898, after which he was appointed vice governor of Guam. While stationed on the Pacific island he compiled a thorough survey of its economic plants. A pioneering work in ethnobotany, it also offered insights into the history and culture of Guam. He also produced a work on the native language, Chamorro, and was kept company in his quarters by 200 books formerly owned by Robert Louis Stevenson, that he had purchased in Samoa.

Safford’s term lasted little more than a year, after which he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an assistant botanist in the Office of Economic and Systematic Botany of the Bureau of Plant Industry. He was promoted to economic botanist in 1915, in which position he remained for the rest of his life. He was also an active member of the Washington Biologists’ Field Club from 1901 onwards. Over the course of this part of his career Safford published works including Cactaceae of Northeastern and Central Mexico (1909), Edible plants and textiles of ancient America (1916), Daturas of the Old World and New (1922), Ant Acacias and Acacia Ants of Mexico (1923). He gained a PhD in marine biology from George Washington University in 1920. Safford suffered a stroke in 1924 which paralysed him, but he continued to work by dictating books and correspondence until his death two years later. Several taxa are named after him including the genera Saffordia Maxon and Saffordiella Merr.

Sources:
W.C. Barnes, 1926, Science, 63(1634): 418
E.J. Godley, 1970, "Botany of the Southern Zone - Exploration, 1847-1891", Tuatara, 18(2): 83
Hunt Institute website, "William Edwin Stafford (1859-1926)", Archives Collection List:
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Archives/Archives-SZ/Safford.shtml, accessed 4 Aug 2009.

Sources:
"William Edwin Safford", Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation:
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Archives/Archives-SZ/Safford.shtml
Washington Biologists Field Club:
www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/perry/bios/SaffordWilliam.htm
1926, Journal of Heredity, 17(10): 365-367.

Biography

American economic botanist and ethnologist who served first in the navy and then in the United States Department of Agriculture. William Safford, known as Ned, was born and raised in Ohio. Graduating in 1880 from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Safford sailed in the tropics before beginning post-graduate work in botany and zoology at Yale University (1883) and in marine zoology at Harvard (1885). He travelled through the Straits of Magellan towards the end of 1886, gathering plants, especially seaweeds, which he sent to R.A. Philippi in Santiago. Oh his return he taught languages in Annapolis for two years. He spent 1891-1892 in South America as commissioner to Peru and Bolivia for the Chicago Columbian Exhibition (a role dealing mainly with ethnology and ethnological objects).

Re-joining the navy in 1893 Safford served in the Spanish-American War in 1898, after which he was appointed vice governor of Guam. While stationed on the Pacific island he compiled a thorough survey of its economic plants. A pioneering work in ethnobotany, it also offered insights into the history and culture of Guam. He also produced a work on the native language, Chamorro, and was kept company in his quarters by 200 books formerly owned by Robert Louis Stevenson, that he had purchased in Samoa.

Safford’s term lasted little more than a year, after which he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an assistant botanist in the Office of Economic and Systematic Botany of the Bureau of Plant Industry. He was promoted to economic botanist in 1915, in which position he remained for the rest of his life. He was also an active member of the Washington Biologists’ Field Club from 1901 onwards. Over the course of this part of his career Safford published works including Cactaceae of Northeastern and Central Mexico (1909), Edible plants and textiles of ancient America (1916), Daturas of the Old World and New (1922), Ant Acacias and Acacia Ants of Mexico (1923). He gained a PhD in marine biology from George Washington University in 1920. Safford suffered a stroke in 1924 which paralysed him, but he continued to work by dictating books and correspondence until his death two years later. Several taxa are named after him including the genera Saffordia Maxon and Saffordiella Merr.

Sources:
W.C. Barnes, 1926, Science, 63(1634): 418
E.J. Godley, 1970, "Botany of the Southern Zone - Exploration, 1847-1891", Tuatara, 18(2): 83
Hunt Institute website, "William Edwin Stafford (1859-1926)", Archives Collection List:
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Archives/Archives-SZ/Safford.shtml, accessed 4 Aug 2009.

Sources:
"William Edwin Safford", Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation:
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Archives/Archives-SZ/Safford.shtml
Washington Biologists Field Club:
www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/perry/bios/SaffordWilliam.htm
1926, Journal of Heredity, 17(10): 365-367.

Biography

American economic botanist and ethnologist who served first in the navy and then in the United States Department of Agriculture. William Safford, known as Ned, was born and raised in Ohio. Graduating in 1880 from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Safford sailed in the tropics before beginning post-graduate work in botany and zoology at Yale University (1883) and in marine zoology at Harvard (1885). He travelled through the Straits of Magellan towards the end of 1886, gathering plants, especially seaweeds, which he sent to R.A. Philippi in Santiago. Oh his return he taught languages in Annapolis for two years. He spent 1891-1892 in South America as commissioner to Peru and Bolivia for the Chicago Columbian Exhibition (a role dealing mainly with ethnology and ethnological objects).

Re-joining the navy in 1893 Safford served in the Spanish-American War in 1898, after which he was appointed vice governor of Guam. While stationed on the Pacific island he compiled a thorough survey of its economic plants. A pioneering work in ethnobotany, it also offered insights into the history and culture of Guam. He also produced a work on the native language, Chamorro, and was kept company in his quarters by 200 books formerly owned by Robert Louis Stevenson, that he had purchased in Samoa.

Safford’s term lasted little more than a year, after which he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an assistant botanist in the Office of Economic and Systematic Botany of the Bureau of Plant Industry. He was promoted to economic botanist in 1915, in which position he remained for the rest of his life. He was also an active member of the Washington Biologists’ Field Club from 1901 onwards. Over the course of this part of his career Safford published works including Cactaceae of Northeastern and Central Mexico (1909), Edible plants and textiles of ancient America (1916), Daturas of the Old World and New (1922), Ant Acacias and Acacia Ants of Mexico (1923). He gained a PhD in marine biology from George Washington University in 1920. Safford suffered a stroke in 1924 which paralysed him, but he continued to work by dictating books and correspondence until his death two years later. Several taxa are named after him including the genera Saffordia Maxon and Saffordiella Merr.

Sources:
W.C. Barnes, 1926, Science, 63(1634): 418
E.J. Godley, 1970, "Botany of the Southern Zone - Exploration, 1847-1891", Tuatara, 18(2): 83
Hunt Institute website, "William Edwin Stafford (1859-1926)", Archives Collection List:
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Archives/Archives-SZ/Safford.shtml, accessed 4 Aug 2009.

Sources:
"William Edwin Safford", Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation:
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Archives/Archives-SZ/Safford.shtml
Washington Biologists Field Club:
www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/perry/bios/SaffordWilliam.htm
1926, Journal of Heredity, 17(10): 365-367.