Ghosts of curators past and other fascinating botanists

So, to alleviate the boredom of entering dozens of often repetitive herbarium specimens into a database all day long, sometimes I get the idea to google one of the collectors or identifiers listed on the sheets, to find out what these people were really like - why, for example, Virginius H. Chase felt compelled to collect about six times as many specimens of Crataegus than I really feel like he needed to.

From my perusing, I have discovered that the Curator of this herbarium several people ago, George Neville Jones, died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident on the way to a nearby park/reserve, Allerton Park.  I've been there a few times myself - once to actually explore, picnic and play a little frisbee, and once for the wedding of two acquaintances.  It's a nice place.  If I ever go again, I'm going to need to hunt up the tree there that's dedicated to him.

Dr. Jones's wife, Almut G. Jones, apparently became curator several years after he died.  She did a great deal with the Asteraceae, the first family I worked on databasing when I came here.  Apparently she had a very strong personality, so in a way I'm somewhat glad that I will never have the chance to meet her (being that I can be rather meek and wimpy myself), but I really respect the work she did here, especially on labeling so many of the type specimens that I work with.  Remnants of her presence here are still running around... I had to box up a bunch of her books and papers the first week, and store them away; I cleared out one of her desks to use as my own, and - do not be creeped out - occasionally don one of her lab coats for an extra layer of warmth when the place is feeling particularly frigid.  I frequently refer to her on a first name basis when speaking with my husband, feeling just a little bit of a connection with her since I'm probably spending as much time in here as she ever did, and more than anybody else has in a good long while.  (I also have been borrowing her leftover tea and sugar, assuming she wouldn't really care.)

As for Virginius H. Chase, when I tried looking up him, I first got this big long article on his aunt, Mary Ellen Chase.  She met her husband, William, when she was 19 and he 34, but unfortunately he died within a year of their marriage.  Mary Ellen, however, went on to discover a love of botany while working with her nephew, Virginius, and became one of the leading scholars on the grasses.  She wrote, 'Grass is what holds the earth together.'  I like that.  I almost wish I had lived in the age where there was so much to be discovered... fairly easily discovered, since much of the biodiversity of this country was yet to be discovered, believe it or not, even in the first half of the 20th century.

Virginius appears to have been much less famous than his Aunt, but was still renowned for his collections, many of which were made around his hometown of Peoria Heights (another city I am somewhat acquainted with - they have an excellent downtown and fun drive along the Illinois River through beautiful neighborhoods.)

However, I still think Virginius collected too dang many hawthorns.

Fragment of the day.