Harry Norton Patterson (February 15, 1853 – May 22, 1919) was an American

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer ( fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * Jame ...

and

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 ...

. Patterson was born on February 15, 1853. His father was Edwin H. N. "Sniktau" Patterson, the namesake of

Mount Sniktau Mount Sniktau is a high mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located in Arapaho National Forest, northeast ( bearing 48°) of Loveland Pass in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States ...

. He started his career as an apprentice to his grandfather, the publisher of the ''Oquawka Spectator'' newspaper. At the age of 19, he published his first botanical paper, which was a catalog of plants collected around his hometown of

Oquawka, Illinois Oquawka is a village in Henderson County, Illinois, Henderson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,371 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Henderson County. Oquawka is part of the Burlington, Iowa, Burlington, Iowa, IA&n ...

Merritt Lyndon Fernald Merritt Lyndon Fernald (October 5, 1873 – September 22, 1950) was an American botanist. He was a respected scholar of the taxonomy and phytogeography of the vascular plant flora of temperate eastern North America. During his career, Fernald pub ...

remarked on the thoroughness of this text. He began to study the flora of Colorado sporadically between 1880 and 1895, with his early trips focused on the

Gore Range The Gore Range (elevation approximately 12,000 ft) is a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of north central Colorado in the United States. Geography The range runs for approximately 60 miles (100 km) northwest-to-southeast, through ...

. In 1884, Patterson took control of the ''Spectator''. He often collaborated with botanists such as

Michael Schuck Bebb Michael Schuck Bebb (December 23, 1833 – December 5, 1895) was an amateur systematic botanist in the 19th century with a reputation as the leading salicologist in both America and Europe. His extensive work on the genus ''Salix'' led to several ...

, Cyrus Pringle,

Edward Lee Greene Edward Lee Greene (August 20, 1843–November 10, 1915) was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part ''Landmarks of Botanical History'' and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American W ...

William Marriott Canby William Marriott Canby Sr. (1831–1904) was an American banker, business executive, philanthropist and botanist. He is famous as a leading expert on the flora of Delaware and the "eastern shore" region of Maryland and as an epistolary corresponde ...

, and

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...

, and exchanged printed

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

s with his contemporaries. He also published works by other botanists, including

John Donnell Smith Captain John Donnell Smith (June 5, 1829 – December 2, 1928) of Baltimore, Maryland was a biologist and taxonomist. He was also an officer in the Confederate army. He was a graduate of Yale in 1847, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. ...

's catalog of Guatemalan plants. His wife Florence Beaty also collected botanical specimens.

Legacy

'' Stylisma pickeringii var. pattersonii'', known as Patterson's bindweed, is named for Patterson. '' Artemesia pattersonii'', '' Astragalus pattersonii'', '' Cryptantha pattersonii'', and '' Machaeranthera pattersonii'' were named for Patterson by Asa Gray. '' Poa pattersonii'' was named for him by George Vasey. His personal herbarium is now housed at the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

Select publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Harry Norton 1853 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American botanists Scientists from Illinois