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C. D. Marshall,
Corresponding Secretary, |
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C. D. Marshall, Corresponding Secretary, P.
M. Eckel, Editor, The George W. Clinton Papers Buffalo in the
1860's was a large and prosperous city on the western end of Lake Erie. It
was an important transshipment center for freight carried from and to ports
upstream on the lakes and downstream, primarily on the Erie Canal, eastward
across New York State to Albany, New York, thence down the Hudson River to
the port of the city of New York. When such an eminent community decided to
form a society for the promotion of the study of natural history, it was a
matter of some social importance to natural scientists in the young United
States and the associated territories of British Canada (in 1867 with passage
of the British North America Act, to become the Dominion of Canada), and to
Europeans. The burden of
communicating with the first members of this new society - the Buffalo
Society of Natural Sciences (BSNS) - fell upon the Corresponding Secretary.
The communications involved local affairs of a social and business nature as
they related to the new society, but also the secretary was charged with the
task of formulating a program for "corresponding members of the
society." These were individuals who agreed to assist in the development
and success of the new organization, members who would serve at a distance
and by mail. Among the criteria
used to establish a network of correspondents for the Society was the
significance of the contribution of the individual correspondent to the natural sciences. The more
distinguished the individual, the more important the interaction, be it by
the exchange of photographs, autographs (authentic samples of handwriting),
the content of the letters themselves (should an extensive series of letters
be generated between a principal of the Society and the corresponding
member), as well as the donation or exchange of specimens or seed money.
Corresponding Members were entitled to announcements of Society activities.
The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, for example, sponsored no less than four meetings of
the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in the decades after
the conclusion of the Civil War (1865). The first
Corresponding Secretary for the BSNS was
Samual Slade, to be replaced after one year by Charles De Angelis
Marshall. Not much is known of Mr. Slade and the following is a brief summary
of information relating to Mr. Marshall. As Mr. Marshall's name and/or office
appears scattered throughout the various letters to and from George Clinton
(see below), it was thought useful to prepare the present parenthetical note. Charles D. Marshall
first appears in Goodyear's history of the BSNS (Goodyear 1994) as being in
attendance at an early meeting (November 21, 1861) to organize the Buffalo
Society of Natural Sciences, along with: Albert T. Chester,
Charles S. Farnham, Leon F. Harvey, Theodore Howland, Coleman
T. Robinson, Charles F. Wadsworth, and Charles Winne. After another
meeting on December 5, 1861, the society's new constitution was read out. Of
the nine curators of collections from various departments of natural history,
Charles Marshall was designated Curator of Entomology, the Society's first
curator of insects. On January 23, 1863,
Charles D. Marshall signed the certificate of incorporation of the BSNS,
along with: Albert T. Chester,
George W. Clinton, David F. Day, Charles C. F. Gay, Leon F. Harvey, Theodore
Howland, Henry A. Richmond, Coleman T. Robinson, William W. Stewart, and
Hiram Ewers Tallmadge (Goodyear 1994: 17). Charles D. Marshall
was, then, the first Curator of Entomology, serving 1861 - 1862. He was also
an early member of the Board of Managers. Goodyear indicated that "From
the beginning, curatorships changed often, probably averaging four or five
each year. Many of them changed from one department to another and back
again, for example, the department of Ichthyology was removed from the joint
department of Herpetology and Ichthyology, both under one curator when
initiated in December 5, 1861 under Hiram Ewers Tallmadge, Lars G. Sellstedt
becoming Curator of Ichthyology early in 1863, either department only being
in existence one year. " (p. 15). Entomology was of general interest in
the 1860's, the physician and/or surgeon Leon F. Harvey, M. D. being one,
Otto Reinecke another. Henry S. Sprague was the third Curator of Entomology
(p. 175). Marshall is said to have contributed specimens to the society's
insect collections (p. 175). Charles D. Marshall
served on the Board of Managers from 1861 to 1871 in the formative years of
the society; 1874-1877 and 1879-1882. He died April 22, 1908. Among the
Corresponding Secretaries, Marshall served from 1863 to 1869. He was
Treasurer in 1882 (end of term apparently not known). He was a Charter Member
of the BSNS and a member "higher than life" beginning in 1866. George W. Clinton,
the primary corresondent of the BSNS, as its first president, was the
youngest son of the famous DeWitt Clinton, governor of the State of New York.
DeWitt Clinton was known throughout the United States for his efforts to
conceptualize, politically promote, and effectuate the Erie Canal, a marvel
in its time of public will and civil engineering, when the young United
States was a federation of once
independent government (colonial)
bodies. The states were exceptionally jealous of their own fiscal
autonomy. The fervent gratitude to DeWitt of the people of New York State, of
the people of the Great Lakes and New England regions for the extraordinary
propulsion forward of their economic, political and social well-being due to
this one canal, solely financed by the State, devolved upon his son George.
George W. Clinton's prestige as well as his person, accounted for much of the
enthusiasm by which distinguished botanists in correspondence with him sought
contact and exchange. George was also apparently quite willing to facilitate
introductions and the exchange of specimens between these colleagues. He
promoted the distribution of the annual report of the Regents of the State of
New York in which the equivalent of research publications of the scientific
survey of the State were disseminated at home and abroad, for Clinton sought
also to develop the natural history collections of the State in Albany, the
State's capitol, as well as in Buffalo. Clinton had a long and distinguished
career as a member of this Board of Regents. It was through the
efforts of the various Corresponding Secretaries of the BSNS that Clinton
communicated with the Society's corresponding membership, who assiduously
donated important books and other publications fundamental to the study of
natural history, a photograph collection of the correspondents, and specimens
that form the substance of the botanical collections of the present Buffalo
Society of Natural Sciences (Buffalo Museum of Science) and important
components of its documentary archival collection. The Society's herbarium
was later named the Clinton Herbarium (BUF) in George W. Clinton's honor. To have been invited
to become a Corresponding Member of the new Society of Natural Sciences in
Buffalo was both an honor and a responsibility. Throughout the collected
correspondence of George Clinton in the Research Library of the Buffalo
Museum of Science, references are made to such contact. A preserved example
of Marshall's formal invitation to become, not a Corresponding, but an
Honorary Member of the BSNS, and the printed stationary on which the
invitation was hand-written, is preserved in the George Engelmann Papers of
the Missouri Botanical Garden (MO) in St. Louis, Missouri. Note that in the
original BSNS constitution there were four membership classes: Member
(unqualified), Corresponding Member, Honorary Member, and Life Member.
"... Corresponding membership was granted to those non-residents of the
local area who were interested in the goals of the BSNS and usually engaged
in some scientific endeavor. Honorary membership, a somewhat higher class of
membership than corresponding membership, was granted to those who were
eminent in some branch of science. Both classes were acted upon by the
Executive Board, many more for corresponding than for honorary. Members of
both classes often gave scientific material, both specimens and publications,
to the BSNS." (Goodyear 1994: 15). Clinton first made
contact with Dr. George Engelmann of St. Louis by a letter on March 15, 1862,
a few months after the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences was organized, and
when Clinton was its President. He was invited to contact Engelmann by his
friend Robert Buchanan of Cincinnati, who furnished "the names of a few
gentlemen of the West whom he regards as able and willing to aid us by
correspondence and exchanges, and specifies yourself [i.e. Engelmann] among
them." Engelmann was
collaborating with Asa Gray in revising the next edition of the Gray's
Manual of Botany. Engelmann had
worked earlier with Gray and John Torrey on two railway reports sponsored by
the United States government, treating the Cactaceae. He provided the treatments of Callitriche, Cuscuta, Euphorbia, Juncus, Isoetes, Pinus, and Sagittaria to the Fifth Edition of
Gray's Manual of 1867. Clinton would regularly send specimens of these genera
to St. Louis. Through the
generosity and digital expertise of the Missouri Botanical Garden archivist, Andrew
Colligan, Curator of the George Engelmann Papers, the following transcription
of the Marshall letter to Engelmann and a digital image of it is here
presented as part of the editorial preparation of the Clinton Correspondence
at the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York. Transcription of the
Marshall letter (one sheet, two-sided image): --- [Top of sheet:
'Ansd' [?, Engelmann's handwriting?] [Engelmann's
handwriting:] Recd Aug. 28' Ans Aug. 29 [Marshall's
handwriting:] Buffalo N.Y. August
22d 1863, Dr. George Engleman
[sic] St. Louis Mo. Sir: In looking over
the papers & c. left by the former Corresponding Secretary of the Buffalo
Society of Natural Sciences, (Our Samuel Slade) I do not find any
acknowledgment from you of the rec'pt of the notification of your election as
an ['Corresp' crossed out] Honorary Member of the Society. I am therefore led
to infer, either that Mr. Slade omitted sending such notice, or that the
letter, if sent, mis-carried, and in either case esteem it a duty to
communicate the fact to you. You
were elected an Honorary Member, on nomination of Hon. G. W. Clinton at a
regular meeting of the Society held on the 3d day of April 1862, Respectfully Yours, Chas D. Marshall Corresponding
Secretary --- On the reverse of
the hand-written letter is a printed notice: --- THE BUFFALO SOCIETY
OF NATURAL SCIENCES Organized December
5th, 1861. - Incorporated January 28th, 1863 The object of this
Society is the promotion and study of the Natural Sciences, through the
formation of a Museum and Library, the procurement of Lectures and the use of
such other means as shall be found effective. Its primary duties
and objects, are the collection and preservation of specimens of every
vegetable, and of every animated being, (other than man and the domestic
animals,) indigenous to Buffalo and its vicinity, and of every rock, fossil,
and mineral of the surrounding country; to classify, arrange, and make
catalogues of them; to send catalogues of them to its correspondents, and to
all lovers of natural science, who may desire them; to observe, record and
diffuse a knowledge of all facts illustrative of the nature and habits of
such animals and plants; and, so far as it can, to supply the desiderata of
its friends and correspondents. By a reciprocation
of the services it desires to render others, as well as by such purchases as
it may be able to make, and the gifts of our liberal citizens, its collection
will soon represent far more than the local natural history; and it hopes and
expects that its rooms will be attractive and useful to naturalists, as well
as gratifying to the instructed admirers of God's wonderful works. OFFICERS OF THE
SOCIETY FOR 1862-63 |
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HON. GEORGE W.
CLINTON, President REV. A. T. CHESTER, 1st
Vice-President. HENRY A. RICHMOND,
2nd Vice President. THEODORE HOWLAND,
Recording Secretary. CHARLES D. MARSHALL,
Corresponding Secretary LEON F. HARVEY,
M.D., Treasurer. R. K. NOYE,
Librarian. PROF. GEORGE HADLEY,
M.D., Curator of Ornithology. PROF. WM. S.
VANDUZEE, Curator of Zoology. W. W. STEWART,
Curator of Crustacea and Radiata |
H. EWERS TALMADGE
[sic], Curator of Herpetology. L. G. SELLSTEDT, Curator of Icthyology. AUG. R. GROTE,
Curator of Entomology. COLEMAN T. ROBINSON,
Curator of Conchology. C.F.GAY, M.D.,
Curator of Botany. ALBERT H. CHESTER,
Curator of Minerology. THEODORE HOWLAND,
Curator of Geology. DAVID F. DAY,
Curator of Paleontology. CHARLES WINNE, M.D.,
Curator of Ethnology and Comparative Anatomy" |
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[Stamp in red:
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN GEORGE ENGELMANN PAPERS] --- Note that for
comparative purposes, the roster of original elected officers and curators at
the December 5 meeting in 1861 was as follows (Goodyear 1994 p. 14), individuals
with asterisks before their names were replaced in the list of officers for
1862-3 printed above: |
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GEORGE W. CLINTON,
President ALBERT T. CHESTER,
1st Vice President *CHARLES WINNE, 2ND
Vice President *SAMUEL SLADE,
Corresponding Secretary THEODORE HOWLAND,
Recording Secretary LEON F. HARVEY,
Treasurer RICHARD K. NOYE,
Librarian David F. DAY,
Curator of Paleontology |
*WILLIAM S.
VANDUZEE, Curator of Ornithology *HIRAM EWERS
TALLMADGE, Curator of Herpetology and Ichthyology CHARLES D. MARSHALL,
Curator of Entomology COLEMAN T. ROBINSON,
Curator of Conchology CHARLES C. F. GAY,
Curator of Botany *CHARLES S. FARNHAM,
Curator of Geology *CHARLES F.
WADSWORTH, Curator of Minerology *GEORGE E. HAYES,
Curator of General Zoology |
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In George Clinton's
botanical collecting diary, Clinton wrote in 1862: 'Friday,
May 16. With C. T. Robinson and C. D. Marshall, walked the first wood beyond
the Tollgate in the right of the Williamsville Road, perhaps 1/3 mile from it.
This is part of "The [Buffalo] Plains," in which, everywhere, the
flinty limestone comes to or very near, the surface.'] For August 26-30: Aug.
26: 'Went to Meadville, Pa. with Coleman L. Robinson and Charles Marshall, to
see the remains of a Mammoth found about 8 miles from that place. Were hospitably received by our
correspondent, A. B. Richmond, Esqu., at whose house we stayed.' Goodyear, George F. 1994. Society and Museum, A History of the
Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 1861-1993 and the Buffalo Museum of
Science 1928-1993. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 34. |
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Images courtesy of Missouri
Botanical Garden Archives