d Rohinson, B.L. 1864. 1935. Robert Robinson [Who's Who in America, 1932-33; Electrical En- gineering, Mar. 1933; Jour. of Engineering Education, May 2, 190I, he was a brigadier-general and Mar. 1933 ; N. Y. Times, Jan. 27, 1933 letter from chief of engineers. Following his retirement he Prof. W. J. Williams, head of the dept. of electrical served as chairman of the board of engineers engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.] who designed the sea-wall for Galveston after BURR A. ROBINSON the destructive tidal wave of 1900, and in I9II ROBERT, HENRY MARTYN (May 2, he planned improvements for the harbor of Fron- 1837-May II, 1923), army engineer, parliamen- tera, Mexico. He was the author of The Water- tarian, was born in Robertville, S. C., fourth of Jet as an Aid to Engineering Construction the seven children and second son of the Rev. (1881) and Analytical and Topical Index to the Joseph Thomas and Adeline Elizabeth (Law- Reports of the Chief of Engineers and the Offi- ton) Robert. He was a descendant of Pierre cers of the Corps of Engineers, United States Robert, who settled in South Carolina in 1686 Army, 1866-1879 (1881), of which a sec- and was the first pastor of the Santee River ond volume published in 1889 brought the work colony of French Huguenots; his mother was down to 1887. a daughter of Col. Alexander James and Martha When about twenty-five years old, Robert was (Mosse) Lawton, and a sister of Alexander Rob- unexpectedly called upon to preside over a meet- ert Lawton [q.v.]. ing. His unpreparedness led to his discovery Appointed to the United States Military Acad- that no simple parliamentary guide existed, and emy from Ohio in 1853, he was graduated in later led to his preparation of the Pocket Manual 1857 with a brilliant record /in mathematics. of Rules of Order (1876), slightly revised in After one year as assistant professor of natural 1893 and 1904, and greatly enlarged in 1915 as and experimental philosophy and instructor in Robert's Rules of Orden Revised. This book, of practical military engineering at West Point, he which more than a million copies were sold, be- became second lieutenant of engineers, Dec. I3, came the parliamentary authority for most or- 1858, and performed engineering duty in the ganizations in the United States. In 1921 he Northwest for two years, being in charge of the published Parliamentary Practice, and in 1923, defenses on San Juan Island, Washington Terri- his comprehensive Parliamentary Law. His tory, at the time of the boundary dispute with books reduced parliamentary procedure to a har- Great Britain in 1859. During the Civil War monious system based on reason and common he supervised the construction of defenses for sense. Washington, Philadelphia, and New Bedford, On Dec. 24, 1860, he married Helen M. Mass., being promoted first lieutenant, Aug. 3, Thresher in Dayton, Ohio. They had a son, 1861, and captain, Mar. 3, 1863. He was then Henry M. Robert, Jr., for many years a profes- made instructor in practical military engineering sor of mathematics at the United States Naval at West Point and served as treasurer of the Academy, and four daughters, of whom three Academy, 1865-67 Promoted major, Mar. 7, survived him-Helen, Corinne, and Portia. Six 1867, he was attached to the staff of the Military years after the death of his first wife, he married, Division of the Pacific for the following four May 8 1901, Tsabel Livingstone Hoagland in years. Subsequently, for twenty years, he was Owego, N. Y. He died at Hornell, N. Y., and superintending engineer of river and harbor im- was buried in rington National Cemetery. provements and military defenses in Oregon and [A, E. Miller, Our Family Circle (1931) G. W. Washington on Lakes Superior, Michigan, Erie, Cullum, Biog. Reg. Officers and Grads. U. S. Mil. Acad., vols. II-VII (1891-1930) Engineering News- Ontario, and Champlain; and on the St. Law- Record, Apr. 22, 1920; Army and Navy Reg., May 19, rence River and Delaware Bay, and their tribu- 1923; Who's Who in America, 1922-23; and auto- biog. sketch in manuscript.] taries. He was also engineer of the 4th and 13th CHARLES L. LEWIS lighthouse districts. Meanwhile, he became lieu- tenant-colonel, Jan. IO, 1883, and in 1890-91 was ROBINSON, BENJAMIN LINCOLN engineer commissioner of the District of Colum- (Nov. 8, 1864-July botanist, was born bia. After engineering work on the rivers of at Bloomington, Ill., the eighth child of James Tennessee, on Long Island Sound, and in New Harvey and Latricia Maria (Drake) Robinson, York Harbor, he was promoted colonel, Feb. 3, and a younger brother of James Harvey Robin- 1895, /and served as division engineer of the son, the historian. His ancestor in the eighth Northwest and Southwest Divisions, and also as generation was the Rev. John Robinson, the Pil- president of engineer boards on about thirty- grims' pastor at Leyden. Benjamin's father, a three important projects. During the Spanish- banker, moved to Illinois from New York about American War he was president of the United 1840. The son received his early education at States board of fortifications. When he retired, home and in local schools, then at Williams Col- Robinson Robinson lege and at Harvard University, where he grad- M. L. Fernald, he prepared the thoroughly re. uated in 1887. Immediately thereafter, June 29, written seventh edition of Gray's Manual of the he married Margaret Louise Casson and went Botany of the Northern United States (1908). with her to Germany to continue his studies. In his later years he turned to monographic Their only child, a daughter who died in early work, never finished as a whole but productive girlhood, was born there. Robinson studied under of a number of short papers, on a portion of the Graf zu Solms-Laubach at Strassburg and was great family Compositae. awarded the doctorate in 1889. He had planned Though he inherited Gray's work, Robinson further study abroad, but was offered and ac- could not maintain his preeminence and well- cepted the position of assistant to Sereno Watson nigh undisputed authority in American botany. [q.v.], curator of the Gray Herbarium at Har- The field had widened and new men had arisen vard. Two years later, Watson died, and Robin- to challenge and compete for that leadership. son became curator at the age of twenty-eight. But he kept the standing of the Gray Herbarium From that time to the end of his life he devoted high and, significantly, he continued the Euro- himself unreservedly and effectively to the in- pean connections which Gray had established. terests of the herbarium. His slight, frail-looking, and, in his later years, He took over the charge of a collection already much-bent figure was familiar in European her- distinguished and carrying the high repute of baria many honors attested the esteem in which Asa Gray [q.v.], but with very small resources. he was held abroad. Gray's conservative concepts, At one time he so despaired of its financial sur- duly modified by increasing knowledge, remained vival that he suggested transferring the speci- the guiding principle of his scientific practice. mens to the recently founded Arnold Arboretum; His balancing and restraining influence at a but its director, Charles S. Sargent [q.v.], him- time of considerable, and too often ill-considered, self in the throes of setting a new institution innovation was not the least of his contributions firmly on its feet, wanted no penniless orphans to taxonomy. In the earnest and often acrimo- and refused. Eventually, with the anonymous nious discussions which attended the launching aid of Mrs. Gray and of a group of friends, the of the American Code of Botanical Nomencla- worst financial difficulties were overcome. Rob- ture in 1895 and during the thirty-five years inson had, however, always to work with a small when two codes were in use in the United States, staff and until toward the end of his term of he supported the conservative point of view and office was without permanent botanical assistants advocated action by international agreement and dependent on a succession of promising rather than by American botanists independently. young graduates. But he was a wise and skilful In this he was for a time almost alone; in the administrator, endowed with an unusual faculty end, his view of the necessity of international of attracting the loyalty and affection of sub- cooperation prevailed. In such argument, he ordinates; he left the herbarium one of the best could be as sharp and severe as he was precise organized of its kind, housed in a building of of phrase, but his normal manner was one of his own design, and with greatly increased en- slightly elaborate old-world courtesy, which well dowment. expressed at once his conservatism and his innate Naturally, Robinson succeeded to the unfin- graciousness. For more than thirty years he ished work of Gray and Watson. With several was the painstaking editor-in-chief of Rhodora, collaborators, he edited and completed their man- the journal of the New England Botanical Club. uscripts to bring out an additional volume of He died of a rare disease, a thickening of the Gray's Synoptical Flora of North America (vol. infundibula of the lungs, in the progress and pt. I, fascicles i-ii, 1895-97). Much of his prede- symptoms of which he took a scientist's interest cessors' attention had been given to the study of almost to the end. His death occurred in Jaf- pioneer collections of plants from the southwest- frey, N. H. ern United States and Mexico; this work he [Autobiog. MS. at the Gray Herbarium reports carried on, largely from the especially discrimi- of the president of Harvard Univ., 1893-1935; "The Gray Herbarium," Harvard Alumni Bull., May 1929 nating and finely prepared collections of C. G. M. L. Fernald, in Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. Pringle [q.v.] in Mexico. It resulted in numer- LXXI (1937), and Nat. Acad. Sci. Biog. Memoirs, vol. XVII (1937), with bibliog. E. D. Merrill, in ous short taxonomic articles and monographs. Re- Science, Aug. 16, 1935; H. W. Odum, ed., Am. Masters ceipt of a large collection from the Galapagos of Social Sci. (1927) Boston Transcript, July 29, 1935.] was the occasion for his Flora of the Galapagos C. A. WEATHERBY Islands (1902), one of the important documents ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON relating to the natural history of that peculiar (Dec. 22, 1869-Apr. 6, 1935), poet, was born at and much-discussed region. In collaboration with Head Tide, Me., third and youngest of the three 32 Library of the Gray Herbarium Page 1 of 3 Note: See E.L. Rand file for memorial essay by B.L. Robinson Library of the Gray Herbarium BENJAMIN LINCOLN ROBINSON (1864-1935) PAPERS Biography: Benjamin Lincoln Robinson was born on Nov.8 1864, in Bloomington, Ill., the youngest of eight children. He received his early education at home and then attended public schools and Illinois Normal School. He entered Williams College in 1883, but was dissatisfied with the school and left after three months. The following Fall he entered Harvard, graduating in 1887. Shortly after graduation he married Margaret Louise Casson, and they traveled to Europe together in the summer of 1887. They settled in Strassburg, where Robinson began graduate studies in Oct. 1887. Robinson received he Ph.D. in Strassburg in 1889 and in 1890 returned to Cambridge, where he become Sereno Watson's assistant at the Gray Herbarium. Upon the death of Watson in 1892, Robinson took over as curator, a post he retained for most of his life. After becoming curator, much of Robinson's energies were directed toward completing work begun by his predecessors and toward improving the physical plant of the herbarium. Robinson took up Watson's work on Gray's Synoptical Flora of North America and had the first two fascicles published in 1895 and 1897, respectively. He continued to work for a while on a third fascicle, but it was never published. With she collaboration of M.L. Fernald, Robinson prepared a revised edition of Gray's Manual, which was published in 1908. From about 1900 to 1909 Robinson tried to have a new herbarium building constructed in the general location of the current herbarium; eventually he settled for reconstructing the building at the Botanic Garden. Robinson did much of the design work himself, and the rebuilding took place from 1909-1915. Robinson's main personal research interest was the Eupatorium tribe of the Compositae. Robinson worked on a treatment of the Eupatoriums for Engler's Pflanzenreich, possibly in response to a Dec. 5, 1904, letter from Engler (see Gray Herbarium, Administrative Correspondence File under Engler) requesting a "Tüchtigen Systematiker" at Harvard to work on Eupatorium. The work was never published, as either Robinson or Engler decided that more work had to be done on certain areas of Eupatorium before a satisfactory treatment could be prepared, and monographing Eupatoriums dominated Robinson's research for the rest of his life. Earlier research work included a Flora of the Galapagos Islands, published in 1902, based on the collections of the Hopkins-Standford Expedition. Robinson made a collection trip to Newfoundland in 1894 and collected plants near his summer home in Jaffrey, N.H., but otherwise did not do much collecting. Although he was appointed Asa Gray Professor in 1899, Robinson was not active in teaching. http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/ROBINSON.html 8/2/2004 Library of the Gray Herbarium Page 2 of 3 Robinson was involved in a number of scientific organizations, was a founding member of the New England Botanic Club, and served as editor of Rhodora for many years. He took an active role in the discussions of nomenclature that were being carried out in the International Botanical Congresses, and he participated in at least two Congresses that took place in Europe (1905 in Vienna, 1910 in Brussels). He traveled to Europe a half-dozen times, visiting herbaria, making notes and taking photos of specimens, especially of Eupatorium. Robinson spent to last few years of his life in poor health and died on July 27,1935, at Jaffrey, N.H. Reference: Fernald, M.L. "Benjamin Lincoln Robinson." Proc. Amer. Acad. 71: 539-542. Fernald, M.L. "Biographical Memoir of Benjamin Lincoln Robinson." National Academy of Science 17: 305-330 (1936), followed by bibliography Merrill, E.D. "Benjamin Lincoln Robinson." Science 82: 142-143 Scope and Content: The Robinson papers consist of a half-dozen notebooks containing notes on herbaria visited by robinson, some notes on plants collected by Robinson, an assortment of unpublished manuscripts, and miscellaneous notes, correspondence, certificates, etc. The notebooks mostly cover visits to European herbaria in 1905, 1910 and 1927-1928; one notebook has notes on U.S. herbaria visited in 1916. There are some records of photographs made. The plant notes consist of a ledger book list of plants collected in southern New Hampshire and southern Vermont, and a book containing labels for Robinson's 1894 collections in Newfoundland. The manuscripts give the impression of having been carefully gone through by Robinson, and many have notes added by him indicating why they were saved. Manuscripts for published works do not appear to have been preserved. There are notes on Leguminosae for the unpublished 3rd fascicle of the Synoptical Flora of North America; drafts on Eupatorium intended for Pflanzenreich: notes on the flora of Cocos Island, possibly intended to expand Robinson's Flora of the Galapagos Islands, including a hand-drawn map of the island by Henry Pittier and a portion of manuscript by W.G. Farlow; a draft of a talk given to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, winter 1918-1919; and a number of keys and other manuscripts pertaining to Eupatorium. The miscellaneous materials consist of letters and notes pertaining to corrections of Gray's Manual, 7th ed.; letters announcing the awarding memberships, diplomas, etc. to Robinson; and a collection of diplomas and membership certificates. http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/ROBINSON.htm 8/2/2004 Library of the Gray Herbarium Page 3 of 3 There are also portions of Robinson manuscripts in two other collections in the archives. The Fernald papers include a draft of a revision of Gray's Field, forest and Garden Botany that was worked on by Fernald and Robinson but not published. The Weatherby papers include notes by Robinson and Weatherby on corrections of the fern section for the eighth edition of Gray's Manual. The Fernald papers also include some bibliographic notes for Gray's Manual, 7th ed. in Robinson's hand. The Gray Herbarium, Administrative Correspondence Files contain some 380 letters from Robinson, many of which were written during the summers in Jaffrey, N.H., and during the trips to Europe. There are also a few letters from Robinson in the Historic Letters File and in the collections of Weatherby, G.G. Kennedy and others. Note: A good portion of the Administrative Correspondence files could be considered Robinson's correspondence. It would take a great deal of work to estimate how many letters in this file were directed to him. Provenance: The bulk of the Robinson papers in the archives appear to have been specifically set aside by Robinson as historical records. No formal written record of provenance has been found. Container List Gray Herbarium Archives Home Page | | Botany Libraries Home Page | Harvard University Herbaria Home Page http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/ROBINSON.html 8/2/2004 CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 28.- Dr. Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, former curator of the Gray Her- barium at Harvard and Asa Gray NYT July 29, 1935 p 15, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Botany at the university, died last night at his Summer home in Jaf- frey, N. H. He was 70 years old. Professor Robinson, under whose guidance the Gray Herbarium, Har- vard's botanic garden, had grown from a small laboratory until it had one of the largest botanical collec- tions in the world, had been suf- fering for the last few months from an obscure lung ailment. He retired from both positions in March and received the title of professor emeritus. Professor Robinson, who had served on the Harvard faculty for forty-five years, was an authority on the flora of the United States, Mexico, tropical America and the Galapagos Islands. He had written many papers on his specialty. In 1929 the centen- nial gold medal of the Massachu- setts Horticultural Society was awarded to him for "eminent ser- vice to botany." Benjamin Lincoln Robinson was born in Bloomington, Ill., on Nov. 8, 1864, the son of James Harvey Robinson and the former Latricia Maria Drake. He was graduated from Harvard in 1887 and received a Ph. D. degree from the Univer- sity of Strasbourg two years later. He started his career at Harvard in 1890. For two years (1890-1892) he was assistant in the Gray Herb- arium, and in 1892 he was appoint- ed curator. From 1891 to 1894 he was instruc- tor in German, and since 1899 had held the Asa Gray Professorship of Botany. Dr. Robinson was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sei- ences and of the American Associ- ation for the Advancement of Sri- ence. He was a member of the New England Botanical Club and from 1906 to 1908 its president, and he belonged also to the Washing- ton Academy of Sciences and Phl Beta Kappa society. He also was corresponding mem- ber of the Massachusetts Horticul- tural Society, the Horticultural So- ciety of Rhode Island, the Czecho- Slovakian Botanical Society, Bota- nischer Verein der Provinz Brand- enburg, Deutsche Botanische Ge- sellschaft and Institut Genévois. Among other organizations of which he was honorary or foreign member were the Linnean Society of London, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Chilean Society of Natural History. In 1904 he received a bronze med- al at the St. Louis Exposition. Professor Robinson was editor of Synoptical Flora of North America from 1892 to 1897, and editor of Rhodora, the journal of the New England Botanical Club, from 1899 to 1928. He also edited the seventh edition of Gray's New Manual of Botany. He married in 1887 Margaret Louise Casson of Hennepin, Ill. Mrs. Robinson died three years ago. Dr. James Harvey Robinson, New York author, formerly a history professor at Columbia University, is Professor Robinson's brother and nearest surviving relative. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission GRAY HEREPRIUM ARCH VES For study only. Written author must be Commonwealth Avenue. obtait ed for cil other uses. April 24th, 1905. Dear Mr Robinson, Please excuse an invitation by typewriter, but I have got to go down to Bar Harbor tonight to look after the spring planting at my Nurseries. I am going to have scrue colored lantern slides of the Canadian Rocky wild-flowers, shown at the Tavern Club on Monday evening, May first, after its annual meeting. And I am allowed to ask in a faw guests of my own to see them. If you will be one of these and will come at quarter past nine to the Club house in Boylston Place, it will give me great pleasure to welcome you there. The coloring of the flowers has been unusually well done, from notes taken when the flowers them- selvas were photographed, and the slides, which are not my own, of course, give one a really good idea, I think, of the flowers and plants themselves as one sees them growing in the mountains. Hoping you may come, I am Dea the Robindon, Sincerely yours, The the pechales they Seen If that and I think their this should would he an, In in the Department not you Slide an have diew interest being R. ward when you you think if Height also like Wtu item will fr Benjamin L. Rchinson, Esq. his also this his will yp GBW- 2 please effend We avilation W