Botanists -- United States -- Correspondence; Gray, Asa, 1810-1888 -- Correspondence
Dr. Gray in his will left to the herbarium the proceeds of all his
copyrights. His strong belief in the importance of a large and well-kept
herbarium, as an establishment indispensable not only to the development
of botanical studies at Harvard but also to the diffusion throughout the
whole country of a knowledge of its flora, is shown by this bequest, and
also by the active efforts he was constantly making in its behalf during
his life and by the personal sacrifices to which he cheerfully
submitted, that the herbarium might profit. Some of the difficulties in
the development of his cherished project will already have suggested
themselves to the reader of these pages. Others may be touched upon
briefly here.
The reputation of Dr. Gray at home and abroad naturally served to draw
to the herbarium large numbers of specimens, and the number was
increased by the purchases which he contrived to make from time to time,
either from his own scanty means, or from the occasional gifts of
friends. The storing of his large and valuable collections in the small
house in the garden where he lived was attended by so much danger of
destruction by fire that he offered to present the collection to Harvard
University, if a suitable building for its reception were provided; and,
greatly to his relief, his herbarium was transferred in 1864 to the new
fire-proof building, for whose construction twelve thousand dollars were
given by his liberal friend, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer.
If Dr. Gray was able during his life to secure a building which at the
time of its completion seemed ample for its purpose, he was less
fortunate in his efforts to obtain a permanent fund for the maintenance
of the collection. In 1864, the sum of $10,000-$12,000 was raised by
friends for its support; but the interest of all the available funds was
far short of what was necessary for the proper payment of a curator, for
necessary purchases of plants and books and for running expenses. In
fact, during his lifetime, running expenses could not have been met had
it not been for occasional gifts from friends of the herbarium,
including, for several years, a grant from the Massachusetts Society for
the Promotion of Agriculture. The bequest in his will was an attempt on
his part to replace, as far as he was able, the sums obtained by him
annually from various sources during his life. But even with the amount
derived from the copyrights, which must, of necessity, diminish in
future years, the endowments of the herbarium are by no means sufficient
to provide for its maintenance, even on the present scale. At the time
of the transfer in 1864, the herbarium contained at least two hundred
thousand specimens, and the library between two and three thousand
works. Both have increased largely since that date.
B. A PARTIAL LIST OF THE WRITINGS OF ASA GRAY.
1. TEXT-BOOKS AND INDEPENDENT VOLUMES.
1836. Elements of Botany. New York.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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