John Donnell Smith

{{Short description|American biologist and taxonomist}}

File:JohnDonnellSmith.jpg

Captain John Donnell Smith (June 5, 1829 – December 2, 1928){{cite web | url=http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1925_1952/1928-29.pdf | title=Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University 1928–1929 | publisher=Yale University | date=November 1, 1929 | accessdate=April 18, 2011 | page=3 | archive-date=June 6, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606153845/http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1925_1952/1928-29.pdf | url-status=dead }} of Baltimore, Maryland was an American 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.{{cite news | title=J.D. SMITH, 99, DIES; OLDEST YALE MAN: Graduated in 1847--Never at Reunion--A Botanist and Confederate Veteran. | work=New York Times | date=3 Dec 1928 | pages=27}}

He was a botanical researcher; a trustee of Peabody Institute in Baltimore (1888–1915). He issued an exsiccata-like series distributing numbered specimen sets often collected by Hans von Türckheim under the title Ex plantis Guatemalensibus, quas edidit John Donnell Smith.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae. Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany.{{cite web |title=Ex plantis Guatemalensibus, quas edidit John Donnell Smith: IndExs ExsiccataID=785923328 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=785923328 |access-date=12 September 2024}} He was a Captain in the Confederate Army, and Commander of Battery A, 10th Battalion (Huger's Battalion) of Virginia Artillery (known as the Bedford Light Artillery), serving in every campaign and battle of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was severely wounded at Gettysburg, and was present at the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865.

In 1890, botanists J.M.Coult. & Rose named a genus of plants from central America, after him.{{cite book | last=Quattrocchi | first=Umberto | title=CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume II, D–L | publisher=CRC Press | location=Boca Raton, Florida | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8493-2676-9}} The name of Donnellsmithia was published in Bot. Gaz. Vol.15 on page 15 in 1890.{{cite web |title=Donnellsmithia J.M.Coult. & Rose {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:296511-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=15 May 2021 |language=en}}

In January 1906, he presented his herbarium consisting of more than 100,000 mounted specimens and his botanical library of over 1600 bound volumes to the Smithsonian Institution. The books pertain mostly to the systematic botany of Mexico and Central America and remain in Baltimore. The herbarium now forms part of the U.S. National Herbarium reference.

He died at age 99. In his last years, he was celebrated as the oldest living graduate of Yale.

{{botanist|Donn. Sm.}}