Leonard John Brass (17 May 1900 – 29 August 1971) was an Australian and 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 ...

botanical collector Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting i ...

and explorer.

Early life

Brass was born at Toowoomba, Queensland. He was trained at the Queensland Herbarium.

Career

Brass collected plant specimens for the Queensland Herbarium from the 1930s to the 1960s, as well as participating in several international expeditions to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Africa. Grave of Leonard John BRASS Cairns Martyn Street Cemetery

Grave of Leonard John BRASS Cairns Martyn Street Cemetery

From 1939 to 1966 Brass was an associate curator of the Archbold Expedition collections with the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. He was associated with the Archbold Biological Station at Lake Placid, Florida, for which he helped to formulate the organizational structure it has today, and also where he lived between expeditions. In the course of his many expeditions to New Guinea he was a major collector of plant specimens for the

Arnold Arboretum The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a botanical research institution and free public park, located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1872, it is the oldest public arboretum in N ...

in Massachusetts. He was especially interested in the relationship between the floras of Australia and New Guinea. Brass was director of field operations for an expedition in 1949–50 to tropical Africa, sponsored by the Upjohn and Penick companies, to find precursors for the manufacture of cortisone. Later he was an advisor to an Arnold Arboretum study to search for medical plants in the western Pacific, as well as serving on a National Science Foundation panel regarding botanical study of the islands of the Indian Ocean. Brass served in the Canadian army during the Second World War, became a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1947 and received an honorary doctorate from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

at Tallahassee in 1962. In Florida he was active, with

Richard Archbold Richard Archbold (April 9, 1907 – August 1, 1976) was an American zoologist and philanthropist. He was independently wealthy, being the grandson of the capitalist John Dustin Archbold. He was educated at private schools, and later attended cla ...

, in the establishment of the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in 1955.

Later life

Brass retired from the

in 1966 and returned to Australia, where he died at Cairns, Queensland in 1971. Brass was married to Maria Schiavone, who died in 1954.

Expeditions

Expeditions Brass participated in include: * New Guinea (1925-1926) for the Arnold Arboretum * Solomon Islands (1932-1933) for the Arnold Arboretum * New Guinea (1933-1934), first Archbold New Guinea Expedition, plants going to the Arnold Arboretum * New Guinea (1936-1937), second Archbold New Guinea Expedition, plants going to the Arnold Arboretum * New Guinea (1938-1939), third Archbold New Guinea Expedition, plants going to the Arnold Arboretum * Nyasaland (1946), Vernay Nyasaland Expedition, plants going to the New York Botanical Garden * Cape York Peninsula, Australia (1948), Archbold Cape York Expedition, plants going to the Arnold Arboretum * Tropical Africa (1949-1950), Upjohn-Penick Expedition * New Guinea (1953), fourth Archbold New Guinea Expedition, plants going to the Arnold Arboretum * New Guinea (1956-1957), fifth Archbold New Guinea Expedition, plants going to the Rijksherbarium at Leiden, Netherlands * New Guinea (1959), sixth Archbold New Guinea Expedition, plants going to the US National Herbarium at Washington, DC, United States

References

Bright Sparcs entry on Leonard J. Brass
Accessed 8 April 2007.
Harvard University Library entry on Leonard J. Brass
Accessed 8 April 2007. * Morse, R. (2000). ''Richard Archbold and the Archbold Biological Station''. University Press of Florida: Gainesville. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brass 20th-century Australian botanists American botanists 1900 births 1971 deaths Arnold Arboretum People associated with the American Museum of Natural History 20th-century American scientists Australian emigrants to the United States