Walter Deane papers

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About

Walter Deane (1848-1930) engaged in a number of botanical activities during his lifetime, including serving as a founding member of the New England Botanical Club. He served on several botanical visiting committees for Harvard University. Deane helped on several floras including Maria Owen's “A Catalogue Plants Growing without Cultivation in the County of Nantucket, Mass.,” “Flora of Mt. Desert Island, Maine,” by Edward Rand and John Redfield, and Arthur Pease's of “Vascular Flora of Coos County, New Hampshire.” He also corresponded with a great number of botanists. He published short articles in a number of botanical journals, including the the “Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club” and “Rhodora.” He was also an inveterate collector, with collections ranging from a carefully constructed herbarium and autographs of botanists to stereopticon views and picture postcards of the bridges of Paris. Deane had many non-botanical interests as well. He was secretary of the Old Cambridge Shakespeare Association from 1883-1925 and was an active member of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. Deane was also interested in astronomy, and at one point he collected insects for J.H. Emerton and Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. The genus Deanea, a small group of Mexican Umbelliferae, was named for Walter Deane.

The Walter Deane papers include correspondence with about 500 botanists, botanical and ornithological organizations, and family members. Also contains diaries and journals (1882-1929) mostly concerning summers which Deane spent in Shelburne, N.H. and other biographical material. Botanical papers include manuscripts and records pertaining to Deane's botanical pursuits as well as notes on Flora of Blue Hills, plant records, indexes, and drafts of lectures and articles. The collection also contains about 350 original negatives including views of Sherburne and other New Hampshire towns, two photographic albums, and one photograph on metal that is thought to be Merritt Lyndon Fernald and Dr. Kennedy. Also contains Deane’s autograph collection with signatures of about 600 botanists and an autograph collection from an unknown collector.

Lists of bird species in the Walter Deane journals use symbols that are also included in the transcribed Journals of William Brewster. A key to the symbols used is available at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/45152876#page/73/mode/1up. Symbols should be replaced with bracketed text such as [in full song] when transcribing.

Works

Walter Deane (1848-1930) Papers; Journal, 1885-1886. Botany Libraries, Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, Mass.

Walter Deane (1848-1930) Papers; Journal, 1885-1886. Botany Libraries, Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, Mass.

Consists of a journal chiefly detailing Deane's plant collecting and mounting activities, February 23, 1885-November 30, 1886. Also includes two letters from Deane to his wife, dated April 27th and April 29th, 1886.

194 pages: 17% complete (100% transcribed, 82% needs review)
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