Benjamin Lincoln Robinson (November 8, 1864 – July 27, 1935) was an American botanist.

Biography

Robinson was born on November 8, 1864, in

Bloomington, Illinois Bloomington is a city and the county seat of McLean County, Illinois, McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is adjacent to the town of Normal, Illinois, Normal, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomingto ...

. In 1887, he received an A.B. from Harvard. He married Margaret Louise Casson on June 29, 1887, and couple traveled to Europe. He studied plant anatomy with H. Solms-Laubach and completed his Dr.phil. at University of Strasbourg in 1889. They returned to the United States in the fall of 1890. Most of his career was Gray Herbarium curator and he died at his summer home in

Jaffrey, New Hampshire Jaffrey is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,320 at the 2020 census. The main village in town, where 3,058 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Jaffrey census-designated place (CDP) a ...

on July 27, 1935.

Career

In 1891, Robinson became an assistant to

Sereno Watson Sereno Watson (December 1, 1826 in East Windsor Hill, Connecticut – March 9, 1892 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American botanist. Graduating from Yale in 1847 in Biology, he drifted through various occupations until, in California, he ...

, the curator of

Gray Herbarium The Harvard University Herbaria and Botanical Museum are institutions located on the grounds of Harvard University at 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Botanical Museum is one of three which comprise the Harvard Museum of Natu ...

at Harvard University. Upon Watson's death in 1892, Robinson was appointed to the curator position. In 1899, Robinson became the first Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany. He was the editor of the New England Botanical Club's journal ''

Rhodora ''Rhododendron canadense'', the rhodora or Canada rosebay, is a deciduous flowering shrub that is native to northeastern North America. Classification Today's botanists consider the rhodora to be a distant relative of the other North Ameri ...

'' from 1899 to 1928. While at the Gray Herbarium, he began a long association with fellow botanist

Jesse More Greenman Jesse More Greenman (December 27, 1867 – January 20, 1951) was an American botanist. He specialized in tropical flora, with emphasis on plants from Mexico and Central America. He was an authority on the genus ''Senecio'' and noted for his work ...

Awards

*1929—Centennial Gold medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society

Family

Benjamin Lincoln Robinson was a brother of

James Harvey Robinson James Harvey Robinson (June 29, 1863 – February 16, 1936) was an American scholar of history who, with Charles Austin Beard, founded New History, a disciplinary approach that attempts to use history to understand contemporary problems, which g ...

(1868–1936), a historian, scholar, and educator.

References

External links

* American botanists 1864 births 1935 deaths People from Bloomington, Illinois Harvard University alumni University of Strasbourg alumni {{US-botanist-stub