Nathaniel Lord Britton

{{Infobox scientist

| image = Portrait of Nathaniel Lord Britton 2.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date |1859 |01|15}}

| birth_place = Staten Island, New York

| death_date = {{death date and age |1934|06|25 |1859 |01|15}}

| death_place = Bronx, New York

| fields = Botany

| workplaces = Columbia University, New York Botanical Garden

| education = Columbia University School of Mines

| known_for = Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada, and the British Possessions, with Addison Brown; The Cactaceae, with Joseph Nelson Rose

| author_abbrev_bot = Britton

| spouse = Elizabeth Gertrude Knight

}}

Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859 – 1934) was an American botanist and taxonomist who co-founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York.

Early life

Britton was born on the 15 of January 1859 at New Dorp, Richmond County, New York (state) to Jasper Alexander Hamilton Britton and Harriet Lord Turner.{{cite web|last=Fraser|first=Susan|title=NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON RECORDS (1875-1934)|url=http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/libr/finding_guide/britwb2.asp.html|publisher=New York Botanical Garden|access-date=5 July 2012}}{{cite web|title=Toddler's Dress|url=https://statenisland.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/27EAD842-5C22-41EA-ADB1-810313079220|work=Online Collections Database|publisher=Staten Island Historical Society|access-date=11 May 2011}} His parents wanted him to study religion, but he was attracted to nature study at an early age.

He was a graduate of the Columbia University School of Mines and afterwards taught geology and botany at Columbia University. He joined the Torrey Botanical Club soon after graduation and was a member his entire life. Britton was an elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences,{{Cite web |title=Nathaniel Britton |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20001077.html |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=www.nasonline.org}} the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,{{Cite web |date=2023-02-09 |title=Nathaniel Lord Britton |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/nathaniel-lord-britton |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}} and the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Nathaniel+L.+Britton&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}} He married Elizabeth Gertrude Knight, a bryologist, on August 27, 1885. They had met when she joined the club and were lifelong collaborators in botanical research.

New York Botanical Garden

During their honeymoon in 1888, they visited Kew Gardens, which led to his wife proposing a botanical garden for New York at a Torrey Club meeting. Together, they campaigned to bring about the NYBG. Britton left Columbia in 1895 to become the first director of the New York Botanical Garden, a position he held until 1929. He was on the first Board of Managers for the institution, along with Andrew Carnegie, J. Pierpont Morgan, and Cornelius Vanderbilt II. He engendered substantial financial support for the botanical garden by naming plants after wealthy contributors.

Scientific research

Much of his field work was done in the Caribbean, where he visited frequently when the winter weather in New York City became too severe. His contributions to the study of Caribbean flora are undisputed.

He wrote Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada, and the British Possessions (1896) with Addison Brown, and The Cactaceae with Joseph Nelson Rose.

Britton is also remembered as one of the signatories of the American Code of Botanical Nomenclature{{cite journal|journal=Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club|title=American Code of Botanical Nomenclature|volume=34|year=1907}}
* {{wikisource-inline|Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club/V34/American Code of Botanical Nomenclature}} that proposed such radical changes to the rules governing nomenclature that a compromise was not reached (and some of the principal American provisions adopted) until nearly 30 years later.

Death and legacy

He died at his home in the Bronx on June 25, 1934, after suffering a stroke 9 weeks earlier.{{cite news|title=Dr N.L. Britton, 74, Biologist, is dead|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/06/26/93761609.pdf|work=26 June 1934|publisher=New York Times|access-date=5 July 2012}}

The house he lived and worked in, the Britton Cottage, is preserved at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island.

The genera Brittonastrum (now a synonym of Agastache Clayton ex Gronov.{{cite web |title=Brittonastrum Briq. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:296077-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=1 November 2021 |language=en}}), Brittonella (a synonym of Mionandra Griseb.{{cite web |title=Brittonella Rusby {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:296078-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=1 November 2021 |language=en}}), Brittonamra (which is now a synonym of Coursetia DC.), Brittonia (synonym of Ferocactus Britton & Rose{{cite web |title=Brittonia C.A.Armstr. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30414944-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=1 November 2021 |language=en}}), and Brittonrosea (a synonym of Echinocactus Link & Otto{{cite web |title=Brittonrosea Speg. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:5237-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=1 November 2021 |language=en}}) and also Neobrittonia,{{cite web |title=Neobrittonia Hochr. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:295351-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=18 May 2021 |language=en}} as well as the botanical journal Brittonia are all named after him.{{cite web|title=California Plant Names|url=http://www.calflora.net/botanicalnames/pageBL-BY.html|author=Michael Charters|access-date=30 October 2019}}{{cite web|title=Botanical Latin|author=William T. Stearn|date=11 October 2017|url=https://archive.org/stream/BOTANICALLATINWILLIAMSTEARN/BOTANICAL%20LATIN%20WILLIAM%20STEARN_djvu.txt|publisher=David & Charles|access-date=30 October 2019}}

Works

John Hendley Barnhart contributed a bibliography of all of Britton's works to Biographical memoir of Nathaniel Lord Britton, 1859-1934 authored by Elmer Drew Merrill and presented to the National Academy of Sciences at the annual meeting, 1938.{{cite book |last1=Merrill |first1=Elmer D. |title=Biographical memoir of Nathaniel Lord Britton, 1859-1934 |date=1938 |url=http://willow.nybg.org/record=b1050275}} In 1960, Henry A. Gleason published The scientific work of Nathanial Lord Britton, where he summarized and provided commentary on Britton's early botanical activities, botanical organizations, his nomenclatural work, the Illustrated Flora, his leadership of the New York Botanical Garden, his West Indian Flora, his North America Flora, his Flora of Northern South America, his North American Trees, and his monographic work.{{cite journal |last1=Gleason |first1=Henry A. |title=The Scientific Work of Nathaniel Lord Britton |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |date=1960 |volume=104 |issue=2 |pages=205–226}}

{{cite book

| last = Britton

| first = Nathaniel

|author2=Addison Brown

|author2-link=Addison Brown

| title = An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian

| url = https://archive.org/details/anillustratedfl01browgoog

| series = Volume I, Ophioglossaceae to Aizoaceae

| year = 1896

| publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/anillustratedfl01browgoog/page/n625 612]

}}

{{cite book

| last = Britton

| first = Nathaniel

|author2=Addison Brown

|author2-link=Addison Brown

| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3YgCAAAAYAAJ

| access-date = 2008-06-24

| series = Volume III, Apocynacea to Compositae; Dogbane to Thistle

| year = 1898

| publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons

| page = 643 pages

}}

{{cite book

| last = Britton

| first = Nathaniel

|author2=Addison Brown

|author2-link=Addison Brown

| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RZUCAAAAYAAJ

| access-date = 2008-05-10

| series = Volume II, Amaranthaceae to Loganiaceae

| year = 1913

| publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons

| page = 2052 pages

}}

{{cite book

| last = Britton

| first = Nathaniel Lord

|author2=Addison Brown

|author2-link=Addison Brown

| title = An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian

| url = https://archive.org/details/illustratedflora03britrich

| access-date = 2008-06-17

| edition = Second Edition -- Revised and Enlarged

| series = Volume III Gentianaceae to Compositae -- Gentian to Thistle

| year = 1913

| publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons

| location = New York

}}

{{cite book

| last = Britton

| first = Nathaniel

|author2=Joseph Nelson Rose

|author2-link=Joseph Nelson Rose

| title = The Cactaceae: Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus Family

| url = https://archive.org/details/cactaceaedescri02rosegoog

| access-date = 2008-05-10

| year = 1922

| publisher = Carnegie Institution for Science

| page = [https://archive.org/details/cactaceaedescri02rosegoog/page/n320 263] pages

}}

[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/16404 A preliminary catalogue of the flora of New Jersey] (1881) Et al.
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/10850 An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions from Newfoundland to the parallel of the southern boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic ocean westward to the 102d meridian] 3 volumes. (1896–98) With Addison Brown.
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/42418 Contributions to the botany of the Yukon Territory] (1901) Et al.
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/15515 Manual of the flora of the northern states and Canada] (1901)
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23191 The sedges of Jamaica] (1907)
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/20688 Studies in West Indian plants] (1908–26)
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23338 Rhipsalis in the West Indies] (1909)
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/940 An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions] (Vol. 1–3, 1913) With Addison Brown.
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/20667 The vegetation of Mona Island] (1915)
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/16209 Flora of Bermuda] (1918)
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23292 The flora of the American Virgin Islands] (1918)
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23296 Descriptions of Cuban plants new to science] (1920)
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/20679 The Bahama flora] (1920) With Charles Frederick Millspaugh.
[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23420 Neoabbottia, a new cactus genus from Hispaniola] (1921)
[https://archive.org/details/cactaceaedescri03brit The Cactaceae] (1919 - 1923) online
With Henry Hurd Rusby he issued the exsiccata Plantae Bolivianae a Miguel Bang lectae.{{cite web |title=Plantae Bolivianae a Miguel Bang lectae: IndExs ExsiccataID=1902623999 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=1902623999 |access-date=16 July 2024}}

References

External links

{{Internet Archive author|sname=Nathaniel Lord Britton}}
New York Botanical Garden, Archives and Manuscript Collections [http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/libr/finding_guide/britwb2.asp.html "Nathaniel Lord Britton Records (1875-1934)"]

{{Presidents of the Botanical Society of America|state=collapsed}}

Category:1859 births

Category:1934 deaths

Category:American mycologists

Category:American bryologists

Category:American pteridologists

Category:Botanists active in the Caribbean

Category:Botanical Society of America

Category:New York Botanical Garden

Category:Torrey Botanical Society members

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni