Amos Arthur Heller (March 21, 1867 – May 19, 1944) was an American

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Early life

Heller was born in Danville,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. In 1892, Heller received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from

Franklin & Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1787 as Franklin College and later merged with Marshall College in 1853, it is one of the oldest colleges in the United St ...

. In 1897, he received a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Botany from

. Starting with 1892, he issued at least 14 specimen series with printed labels which resemble exsiccatae, among others ''Plants of Porto Rico'' and ''Plants of the Hawaiian Islands''. Emily Gertrude Halbach ( Emily Gertrude Heller) curated and co-edited at least eight of these series, e.g., ''Flora of Central Pennsylvania''.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany.

Career

From 1896 to 1898, Heller was a professor of Botany at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. From 1898 to 1899, Heller worked on the Vanderbilt Expedition to Puerto Rico under the auspices of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

. Starting in 1905, Heller was a professor of Botany at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

in San Francisco, California. After moving to California, Heller and his wife, Emily Gertrude Heller, founded the botanical journal ''Muhlenbergia'' and Heller continued to edit that journal until 1915. He also obtained an impressive collection from

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

Personal life

In 1896, Heller married Emily Gertrude Heller (née Halbach). She frequently collaborated with him both in the collection of specimens as well as illustrating his numerous publications.

Botanist author abbreviation

References

External links

Amos Arthur Heller papers, 1898-1940
at

University of Washington Libraries The University of Washington Libraries (UW Libraries) is the academic library system of the University of Washington, based in Seattle, Washington, United States. It serves the Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell campuses of the University of Wash ...

American taxonomists 1867 births 1944 deaths Botanists active in California Botanists active in the Caribbean People from Chico, California People from Los Gatos, California Biologists from California 19th-century American botanists 20th-century American botanists {{US-botanist-stub