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. 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
Franklin & Marshall College.
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.
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, 1898-1940at
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
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