Biography

Swedish-born American botanist. Svenson was a curator at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as well as working for the US Geological Survey. He was the chief botanist on the Astor Expedition to the Galapagos Islands.

Henry Knute Svenson was born in Hinnyard, Sweden, but his family moved to the USA when he was still a baby. He worked for the family musical instrument making business in Boston as a young man, going on to study at Harvard University. After a period serving in the US Army he returned to Harvard, gaining his PhD in botany in 1929. In the intervening years, he had accrued work experience at the university's Arnold Arboretum and at the Gray Herbarium, and taught at Union College, Schenectady. His hard work no doubt helped him to secure a position as assistant curator at Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 1930, where in his first year he was chosen to join an expedition to the Galapagos Islands. Svenson remained at Brooklyn until 1946 (as curator of the herbarium from 1936) before joining the department of forestry and botany at the American Museum of Natural History (1946-1952). He then took on work creating vegetation maps of Europe and North America for the military branch of the US Geological Survey, retiring in 1966.

In 1930 Sevnson had been hired as the chief botanist in a group of scientists accompanying Vincent Astor to the Galapagos in 1930. In this role Svenson was able to indulge his passion for ferns as well as collecting many plants for the herbarium at Brooklyn. Also on the trip were C.H. Townsend of the New York Aquarium, ornithologist James P. Chapin and herpetologist Clarence L. Hay. Their first stop, Isla Santa Cruz, was a rocky desert dominated by Opuntia cacti and spiny shrubs, but the party determined to cross the desert to reach the forested slopes of the volcanic mountain inland, Mount Crocker. They never reached its summit due to a critical lack of water and injuries incurred by the difficult terrain, but Svenson nevertheless managed to collect a respectable 300 species from the island, some new to science. After a week on the island the party travelled to some of the smaller islands before taking their collections back to the US; Svenson's were deposited at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and duplicates at the Gray Herbarium.

In the mid-1930s Svenson published works on his findings in Galapagos before a Guggenheim fellowship award allowed him to travel once more to the area, this time to mainland Ecuador and Peru. In 1946 he published his work on the vegetation of the coasts of Peru and Ecuador in relation to the islands. He wrote up his results in Plants of the Astor Expedition (1935) and Pteridophyta of the Galapagos and Cocos Islands (1938). He also wrote tracts on the Cyperaceae from the Templeton Crocker Expedition later in the 1930s and in the Flora of Panama (1943). After his retirement he returned to this interest, making copious Cyperaceae collections in Nicaragua in 1971.

Svenson spent the latter part of his life in Osterville, Cape Cod, and co-authored a guide to the flora of Cape Cod in 1979. He was a member of the Explorers Club of America, the New England Botanical Club and the Joselyn Botanical Society. His papers are held in the archives of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University.

Sources:
Anon, 1986, "In Memoriam: Henry K. Svenson 1897-1986", Rhodora, 88(855): 426
H.K. Svenson, 1944, "A New Isoetes from Ecuador", American Fern Journal, 34(4): 121
Brooklyn Botanic Garden:
www.bbg.org/research/herbarium/astor, accessed 20 December 2011.

Biography

Swedish-born American botanist. Svenson was a curator at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as well as working for the US Geological Survey. He was the chief botanist on the Astor Expedition to the Galapagos Islands.

Henry Knute Svenson was born in Hinnyard, Sweden, but his family moved to the USA when he was still a baby. He worked for the family musical instrument making business in Boston as a young man, going on to study at Harvard University. After a period serving in the US Army he returned to Harvard, gaining his PhD in botany in 1929. In the intervening years, he had accrued work experience at the university's Arnold Arboretum and at the Gray Herbarium, and taught at Union College, Schenectady. His hard work no doubt helped him to secure a position as assistant curator at Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 1930, where in his first year he was chosen to join an expedition to the Galapagos Islands. Svenson remained at Brooklyn until 1946 (as curator of the herbarium from 1936) before joining the department of forestry and botany at the American Museum of Natural History (1946-1952). He then took on work creating vegetation maps of Europe and North America for the military branch of the US Geological Survey, retiring in 1966.

In 1930 Sevnson had been hired as the chief botanist in a group of scientists accompanying Vincent Astor to the Galapagos in 1930. In this role Svenson was able to indulge his passion for ferns as well as collecting many plants for the herbarium at Brooklyn. Also on the trip were C.H. Townsend of the New York Aquarium, ornithologist James P. Chapin and herpetologist Clarence L. Hay. Their first stop, Isla Santa Cruz, was a rocky desert dominated by Opuntia cacti and spiny shrubs, but the party determined to cross the desert to reach the forested slopes of the volcanic mountain inland, Mount Crocker. They never reached its summit due to a critical lack of water and injuries incurred by the difficult terrain, but Svenson nevertheless managed to collect a respectable 300 species from the island, some new to science. After a week on the island the party travelled to some of the smaller islands before taking their collections back to the US; Svenson's were deposited at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and duplicates at the Gray Herbarium.

In the mid-1930s Svenson published works on his findings in Galapagos before a Guggenheim fellowship award allowed him to travel once more to the area, this time to mainland Ecuador and Peru. In 1946 he published his work on the vegetation of the coasts of Peru and Ecuador in relation to the islands. He wrote up his results in Plants of the Astor Expedition (1935) and Pteridophyta of the Galapagos and Cocos Islands (1938). He also wrote tracts on the Cyperaceae from the Templeton Crocker Expedition later in the 1930s and in the Flora of Panama (1943). After his retirement he returned to this interest, making copious Cyperaceae collections in Nicaragua in 1971.

Svenson spent the latter part of his life in Osterville, Cape Cod, and co-authored a guide to the flora of Cape Cod in 1979. He was a member of the Explorers Club of America, the New England Botanical Club and the Joselyn Botanical Society. His papers are held in the archives of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University.

Sources:
Anon, 1986, "In Memoriam: Henry K. Svenson 1897-1986", Rhodora, 88(855): 426
H.K. Svenson, 1944, "A New Isoetes from Ecuador", American Fern Journal, 34(4): 121
Brooklyn Botanic Garden:
www.bbg.org/research/herbarium/astor, accessed 20 December 2011.