Frank Shipley Collins correspondence

Frank Shipley Collins was an American phycologist and algologist born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 6, 1848, to Joshua Cobb Collins and Elizabeth Ann Carter Collins. After graduating high school in 1863, rather than attending college, he began a business career which he continued until his retirement in 1913, completing his botanical work in his spare time. In 1875 he married Anna Lendrum Holmes, with whom he had two sons. His wife was the acquaintance of an ex-lighthouse keeper who was selling algae mounted on cards and labeled with the botanical name. Collins found the name system deficient and sought ways to improve it. He began exploring the beaches of New England, collecting and preparing algae specimens.

Utilizing local collectors, Collins was able to expand his own collection to include specimens from the Pacific coast, Minnesota, Florida, the Canary Islands, Jamaica, and other coastal locations. His own collecting was primarily within New England, later expanding to include the Atlantic coast, Bermuda, Jamaica, Vancouver Island, and the American Arctic. As well as being a collector, Collins arranged the collections of the Farlow Herbarium, the Boston Society of Natural History, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. His publications include The Green Algae of North America and Phycotheca Boreali-Americana, an exsiccatae of algae specimens. The latter was written with Isaac Holden and William A. Setchell and required preparing over 200,000 specimens.

He was a member of the Middlesex Institute, the Boston Society of Natural History, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, American Society of Naturalists, and the New England Botanical Club. He was president of the New England Botanical Club for 3 years from 1902-1905 and co-editor of their journal Rhodora, a corresponding fellow of the Torrey Botanical Club, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tufts granted him an honorary master's degree in 1910, and Harvard University appointed him as an associate in the University Museum. Collins died in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1920. His personal herbarium was purchased and presented to the New York Botanical Garden. Several species of algae were named for Collins, including Phaeosaccion collinsii Farlow and Collinsiella tuberculata Setchell & N. L.Gardner.

References:

Setchell, W. A. 1925. Frank Shipley Collins 1848-1920. Amer. J. Bot. 12(1):54-62.

Setchell, W. A. 1933. Frank Shipley Collins (1848-1920). Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts. 68(13):615-618

Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC). Social Networks and Archival Context Project. Website (https://snaccooperative.org/view/1924421#biography). Accessed 13 Sept 2022.