Henry Willey (10 July 1824–15 March 1907) was an American lichenologist. He was also the editor of the
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...
newspaper ''
The Standard
The Standard may refer to:
Entertainment
* The Standard (band), an indie rock band from Portland, Oregon
* ''The Standard'' (novel), a 1934 novel by the Austrian writer Alexander Lernet-Holenia
* ''The Standard'' (Tommy Flanagan album), 1980
* ...
'' from 1856 until 1900.
Biography
Henry Willey was born in Geneseo, New York in 1824. Before becoming an editor with ''The Standard'' he was a school teacher in
Mattapoisett
Mattapoisett is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,508 at the 2020 census.
For geographic and demographic information on the village of Mattapoisett Center, please see the article Mattapoisett Center, Ma ...
. He started collecting
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Edward Tuckerman. This work eventually resulted in the publication of ''An Enumeration of the Lichens Found in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and its Vicinity from 1862 to 1892''. This work contained 500 species and subspecies, including 17 newly described species. He published 26 papers about lichens between 1867 and 1898, and a total of 26 new species.
Willey's collection of lichen specimens was in its day one of the largest private American collections, numbering about 10,000 specimens. It is now kept at the Smithsonian Institution.
Willey died in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1907.