Harry Norton Patterson (February 15, 1853 – May 22, 1919) was an American

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James Printer (1640 ...

and

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 ...

. Patterson was born on February 15, 1853. His father was Edwin H. N. "Sniktau" Patterson, the namesake of

Mount Sniktau Mount Sniktau is a Elevation, high mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located in Arapaho National Forest, northeast (Absolute bearing, bearing 48°) of Loveland Pass in Clear Creek Cou ...

. He started his career as an apprentice to his grandfather, the publisher of the ''Oquawka Spectator'' newspaper. At the age of 19, he published his first botanical paper, which was a catalog of plants collected around his hometown of

Oquawka, Illinois Oquawka is a village and the county seat of Henderson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,134 at the 2020 census. Oquawka is part of the Burlington micropolitan area. Geography According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, O ...

Merritt Lyndon Fernald Merritt Lyndon Fernald (October 5, 1873 – September 22, 1950) was an American botanist. He was a respected scholar of the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and phytogeography of the vascular plant flora of temperate eastern North America. During his ...

remarked on the thoroughness of this text. He began to study the flora of Colorado sporadically between 1880 and 1895, with his early trips focused on the

Gore Range The Gore Range (elevation approximately 12,000 ft) is a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of north central Colorado in the United States. The native Ute name was the Shining Mountains. Geography The range runs for approximately 60 mile ...

. He issued the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

series ''Colorado Flora''. In 1884, Patterson took control of the ''Spectator''. He often collaborated with botanists such as

Michael Schuck Bebb Michael Schuck Bebb (December 23, 1833 – December 5, 1895) was an American systematic botanist in the 19th century with a reputation as the leading salicologist in both America and Europe. His extensive work on the genus ''Salix'' led to several ...

Cyrus Pringle Cyrus Guernsey Pringle (May 6, 1838 – May 25, 1911) was an American botanist who spent a career of 35 years cataloguing the plants of North America. He was a prolific collector and accomplished botanical explorer. Early life He was born on May ...

Edward Lee Greene Edward Lee Greene (August 20, 1843–November 10, 1915) was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part ''Landmarks of Botanical History'' and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American W ...

William Marriott Canby William Marriott Canby Sr. (1831–1904) was an American banker, business executive, philanthropist and botanist. He is famous as a leading expert on the flora of Delaware and the "eastern shore" region of Maryland and as an epistolary corresponde ...

, and

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botany, botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' (1876) was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessaril ...

, and exchanged printed

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

s with his contemporaries. He also published works by other botanists, including

John Donnell Smith Captain John Donnell Smith (June 5, 1829 – December 2, 1928) of Baltimore, Maryland was an American biologist and taxonomist. He was also an officer in the Confederate army. He was a graduate of Yale in 1847, where he was a member of Skull and ...

's catalog of Guatemalan plants. His wife Florence Beaty also collected botanical specimens.

Legacy

'' Stylisma pickeringii var. pattersonii'', known as Patterson's bindweed, is named for Patterson. '' Artemesia pattersonii'', '' Astragalus pattersonii'', '' Cryptantha pattersonii'', and '' Machaeranthera pattersonii'' were named for Patterson by Asa Gray. '' Poa pattersonii'' was named for him by George Vasey. His personal herbarium is now housed at the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

Select publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Harry Norton 1853 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American botanists Scientists from Illinois