Mexican vegetation: 24 photographs by Cyrus Guernsey Pringle
Scope and Contents
One bound volume of 24 landscape photographs by Cyrus G. Pringle that features Mexican vegetation, including cacti, agave, yucca, and pine trees. There are also landscape views of the Santa Rita Mountains and Harts Butte in Arizona, as well as photographs of Pringle’s team, including Frank Stephens, while they were on their 1884 expedition in the Southwest. Some photographs do not have an exact written date but are most likely also from 1884. Detailed information that was found for some of the items is referenced from Kathryn Mauz's book C. G. Pringle: botanist, traveler, and the "Flora of the Pacific Slope" (1881-1884).
Dates
- Creation: 1884
Extent
1 Volume ; Photographs approximately 20 x 12 cm; mount boards 35 x 16 cmBiographical note
Cyrus Guernsey Pringle (Prindle) was born May 6, 1838, in Charlotte, Vermont, to parents George and Louisa (Harris) Prindle. He briefly attended University of Vermont in 1859 before dropping out to work on his family’s farm. He would later earn an honorary Sc.D. from the University of Vermont as well an honorary M.A. from Middlebury College. On February 25, 1863, Pringle married Almira L. Greene of Starksboro, Vermont; together they had one child, Annie Pringle Wright. They would later divorce in 1877.
By the late 1860s he had become an active member in the agricultural community of New England, and had experimented extensively on cross-breeding fruits and created new varieties, including the Snowflake potato. In 1871, Pringle was elected corresponding secretary of the Champlain Valley Horticultural Society, in Burlington, Vermont. He accepted a collecting job from George E. Davenport in 1872, and it was through Davenport and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, of which he became a member, that he met and began collecting for Asa Gray. He was appointed to the Vermont Board of Agriculture in 1874, which meant an itinerant agricultural professorship, and in 1878 he exhibited many Vermont specimens at the Paris Exposition.
In 1880, under the direction of Asa Gray and as an agent for the United States Census Department, supervised by Charles Sprague Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum, Pringle made his first trip to the Pacific Slope, west of the continental divide. He was then chosen, in 1884, to take a position in a Smithsonian Institution botanical survey of the north and northwestern portions of Arizona. He would go on to spend the rest of his life collecting specimens for Asa Gray and others in the Southwestern United States and Mexico. Cyrus G. Pringle died on May 25, 1911, at 73 years old.
Mauz K. 2018. C. G. Pringle : botanist, traveler, and the "Flora of the Pacific Slope" (1881-1884). New York: New York Botanical Garden.
Davis HB. 1936. “Life and Work of Cyrus Guernsey Pringle.” Burlington (VT): Free Press Printing Company.
Provenance
Provenance unknown.
Variant title
Collection formerly referred to as: Mexican vegetation : 24 photographs.
Processing Information
Finding aid and additional research updated from catalog record by Ashley Tooke, 2022 April.
- Title
- Pringle, Cyrus G. (Cyrus Guernsey), 1838-1911. Mexican vegetation: 24 photographs by Cyrus Guernsey Pringle, 1884: A Guide.
- Status
- in_progress
- Author
- Botany Libraries, Arnold Arboretum Library (Cambridge), Harvard University.
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- arn00027
Repository Details
Part of the Botany Libraries, Arnold Arboretum Library (Cambridge), Harvard University Repository
The Harvard University Herbaria houses five research libraries that are managed collectively as the Botany Libraries. The Arnold Arboretum Library in Cambridge specializes in the identification and classification of Old World plants with emphasis on Asia. The Archives of the Arnold Arboretum (Cambridge) houses unique resources, primarily field notes related to the plant specimens housed in Cambridge.
Harvard University Herbaria
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