Alphonso Wood (1810 – January 4, 1881) 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 ...

and theology instructor. He was the author of several works on botany that were popularly used as instructional texts in the 19th century.

Career

Wood studied at both

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

and

Andover Theological Seminary Andover Theological Seminary (1807–1965) was a Congregationalist seminary founded in 1807 and originally located in Andover, Massachusetts on the campus of Phillips Academy. From 1908 to 1931, it was located at Harvard University in Cambrid ...

. He started his teaching career as the Latin and natural science instructor at

Kimball Union Academy Kimball Union Academy is a private boarding school located in New Hampshire. Founded in 1813, it is the 22nd oldest boarding school in the United States. It is located in the upper Connecticut River Valley village of Meriden, New Hampshire. Th ...

Meriden, New Hampshire Meriden is an unincorporated community in the eastern part of the town of Plainfield in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the location of Kimball Union Academy, a private boarding school. New Hampshire Route 120 passes throu ...

. Later he served as the President of the Female Seminary of

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, Principal of the Clinton Female Seminary in Brooklyn, and professor of botany at Terre Haute Female College in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. He retired from his instructional work in 1867 and lived the remainder of his life in West Farms, New York. In an obituary in ''The Gardener's Monthly and Horticulturist'', Wood was described as performing the important task of taking the progressive scientific research of botanists and making their "knowledge widely distributed" through "universal" textbooks."Prof. Alphonso Wood"
(1881). ''The Gardener's monthly and horticulturist, 23''. Retrieved 2012-10-28.

References

External links

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View works by Alphonso Wood
at

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Alphonso 1810 births 1881 deaths American botanical writers American male non-fiction writers American Christian theologians American educators Botanists with author abbreviations Dartmouth College alumni Andover Newton Theological School alumni