George Edmund Lindsay (1916 – 2002) was an American
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
, naturalist, and museum director. From 1956 to 1963, he was director of the
San Diego Natural History Museum
The San Diego Natural History Museum is a museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. It is the second oldest scientific institution west of the Mississippi and th ...
and served as Director of the
California Academy of Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...
from 1963 to 1982. At both institutions, Lindsay led research field expeditions to the islands in the Sea of Cortez (Vermilion Sea and Gulf of California) found between the
Baja California Peninsula and mainland Sonora, Mexico. These expeditions relied on the Vermilion Sea Field Station at Bahia del Los Angeles as their base of operations, which he facilitated and organized. He was active in transnational conservation efforts to protect the islands as biodiversity sanctuaries in the
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...
.
Biography
Lindsay was born in Los Angeles County, in
Pomona, California
Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Polyte ...
, on August 17, 1916, to orchardists Alice H. Foster and Charles W. Lindsay. He attended Chaffey Junior College (in Ontario, California) and
San Diego State College
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...
before finishing his undergraduate degree at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in 1950; he continued graduate studies at Stanford (studying with
Ira L. Wiggins), completing his dissertation on the taxonomy and ecology of the cactus genus Ferocactus in 1955.
Lindsay specialized in desert plants, with field work in Mexico and the western United States. In 1940, he was executive director of the
Desert Botanical Garden
Desert Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located in Papago Park, at 1201 N. Galvin Parkway in Phoenix, central Arizona.
Founded by the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society in 1937 and established at this site in 1939, the garden now has ...
in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1956, Lindsay became director of the San Diego Natural History Museum, leading research expeditions throughout his tenure. He became director of the California Academy of Sciences in 1963.
Selected publications
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References
External links
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San Diego Natural History Museum Research Libraryhouses a significant collection of George Lindsay's papers and photographs.
Directors of museums in the United States
1916 births
2002 deaths
Botanists with author abbreviations
People associated with the California Academy of Sciences
People associated with the San Diego Natural History Museum
20th-century American botanists
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