Gray, Asa (1810-1888)

Asa Gray (1810-1888)

Source

Botanist

Childhood. Asa Gray was the oldest of eight children born to a prosperous farmer in Oneida County, New York. Gray acquired his early education at a country school nine miles from his home. At age fifteen he began college preparatory studies at the Fairfield Academy in Herkimer County, where he was first exposed to the natural sciences. He became interested in botany in particular during the winter of 1827–1828, when he happened to read an essay on the subject in an encyclopedia. His curiosity aroused, he purchased Amos Eaton’s Manual of Botany and studied it enthusiastically until, finally, spring arrived. On one of his first botanical excursions after the snows melted, in April 1828, he discovered a rare and previously unidentified plant.

Professional Scientist. Gray began a medical apprenticeship under the tutelage of Dr. John Trowbridge of Bridgewater, New York, in 1828. From 1829 to 1831 he also studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District. He received the doctor of medicine degree in 1831 and practiced medicine in Bridgewater for about a year. As his interest in botany grew, his desire to practice medicine dwindled. He soon joined that cadre of young men who formed the first generation of professional scientists in the United States. For the next eleven years he alternated between lecturing in preparatory schools and colleges to earn enough money to survive and going on botanical excursions in New Jersey and New York. During this time he became the friend and protége of John Torrey, then the leading botanist in the United States.

The Natural System. Gray followed the lead of his mentor in espousing a new “natural system” for the classification of plants, rejecting the “artificial” Linnaean system that had prevailed since the mid eighteenth century. The Linnaean system classified all plants based on their number and type of reproductive organs. The natural system, on the other hand, considered a variety of characteristics in establishing relationships between plants. Gray’s career contributed significantly to the demise of the Linnaean system in the United States and the acceptance of the natural system; in this sense he helped revolutionize the research and teaching of botany. His first book, The Elements of Botany, appeared in 1836. He collaborated with Torrey in producing the two-volume Flora of North America between 1838 and 1843. In 1842 Gray published his Botanical Text-book, which appeared in numerous editions and served as the standard textbook in botany for most of the nineteenth century. He also later published five books that greatly contributed to the growing popularity of botany as a hobby.

Research Emphasis. Although he supported the popularization of science in general and botany in particular, Gray was first and foremost a research scientist. At various times he served as an officer of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. From 1874 until his death in 1888, he was a member of the board of regents of the Smithsonian Institution. He joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1842 as a professor of natural history and continued in that position for the rest of his life. In that forty-five-year period he made major contributions to scholarship and gained an international reputation through more than 350 articles, scholarly papers, and books.

Relationship with Darwin. In addition to being a renowned scientist, Gray was a devout Christian of the Presbyterian denomination. He experienced religious conversion through the influence of the Torreys in 1835. Nevertheless, Gray became one of Charles Darwin’s most important North American correspondents and supporters. Because of his openly avowed faith Gray’s support was quite important for Darwin’s cause and added a lively dimension to the greatest debate in the annals of nineteenth-century science.

Source

A. Hunter Dupree, Asa Gray, 1810–1888 (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1959).