Thomas Jefferson Howell (1842 - 1912)
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Biography
Sources
Selected publications
Biography
1842 October 9, born in Pisgah, Missouri
1850 family moves to the Oregon territory, and settles on a land grant near Portland
1892 marries Effie McIlwane
1912 December, dies in Portland, Oregon
As a young man, Howell built up an impressive herbarium, and sent sets of exsicati to herbaria in Europe and the United States, undertaking expeditions to the Siskiyou Mountains and then-unexplored northern California in search of specimens. Between 1881 and 1887, he worked on a list which he published as (1887) A Catalogue of the Known Plants .
Not satisfied with this, he decided to publish complete descriptions of all the plants in his list (2,152 species and ~220 varieties), a task made especially difficult by his marginal literacy (he only had six months of school in his entire life) and lack of hard cash. To defray publication expenses, he learned how to set type, composed the pages of his book himself at home, then carried them into town for individual printing. He completed the manuscript for this, his Flora of Northwest America, in 1897, and it was not completely printed and issued until 1903. It remained the most complete account of the flora of the Pacific Northwest for nearly fifty years.
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Sources
Harry Baker Humphrey (1961) Makers of North American Botany
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Selected Publications
Thomas Jefferson Howell (1887) A Catalogue of the Known Plants (Phaenogamia and Pteridophyta of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho
Thomas Jefferson Howell (1903) Flora of Northwest America
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