The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. © 2005
This finding aid was produced in English.
Finding aid produced using NoteTab Pro
A.T. (Alfred Tennyson) Beals (1870-1955) was an amateur bryologist and a professional photographer. He recorded events and persons in the educational and civic worlds of New York City and New Jersey. He succeeded E. B. Chamberlain as Secretary-Treasurer of the Sullivant Moss Society in 1925 and was active in the organization through the early 1930s. He also belonged to the Torrey Botanical Club and the American Fern Society. He donated his personal herbarium of 2000 specimens to the New York Botanical Garden.
The name of the Sullivant Moss Society was changed to the American Bryological Society in 1948. Currently it is the American Bryological and Lichenological Society. Its collections were donated to the University of Pennsylvania.
Beals was born in Greenfield, MA in 1870. He attended the Massachusetts Agricultural College, graduating in 1892.
In 1897 he married Jessie Tarbox Beals who is known as the first female photojournalist. They traveled the country as peripatetic photographers. Jessie Tarbox Beals’ work is represented in many major photographic collections in the United States. A. T. and Jessie Tarbox Beals split up in the 1920’s. In her last years, she became known for her garden photography.
As a professional photographer Beals was known as A. Tennyson Beals. His studio was located at 2929 Broadway, New York City. His correspondence from the Sullivant Moss Society bears this address as well.
A. T. married again to Marie Victoria (M.V.) Beals. They had one daughter, Mrs. Henry Brainerd. They lived at 274 Summit Ave., Hackensack, N. J. In 1951 he won a special citation from the Union County (N.J.) Park Commission for his work in providing park museum exhibits. He died in November 1955.
The A. T. Beals collection consists of lists, manuscripts, correspondence, translations, photographs and one field notebook related to his position as Secretary-Treasurer of the Sullivant Moss Society, its publication The Bryologist and his collections of North American bryophytes. Much of the material originated with E. B. (Edward Blanchard ) Chamberlain who preceded Beals as Secretary-Treasurer of the Sullivant Moss Society and who was memorialized by Beals in The Bryologist, Vol. 23, July and September, 1925, p. 42-51. Photographs of Chamberlain, taken by Beals are found in the E. B. Chamberlain folder in the Vertical Files. Beals’ field notebook is no. 628 in the Field Collectors’ Notebooks Collection. The collection is arranged into five series.
This collection is open for research with permission from Mertz Library staff.
Requests for permission to publish material from the collection should be submitted in writing to the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden.
Indexing Terms |
||
| The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog. | ||
| Persons | ||
| Beals, A. Tennyson--Archives. | ||
| Chamberlain, Edwars B. (Edward Blanchard), 1878-1925. | ||
| Durand, Elias, 1794-1873. | ||
| Kane, Elisha Kent, 1820-1857. | ||
| Subjects | ||
| Botanical exploration--Polar regions. | ||
| Hepaticae--Canada. | ||
| Musci--Canada. | ||
| Musci--Massachusetts. | ||
| Organizations | ||
| Sullivant Moss Society--History--Sources. | ||
New York Botanical Garden
CFN Collector's Field Notebooks
PP Gladys P. Anderson Papers
Alfred Tennyson Beals (PP), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden.
This colletion was accessioned in 1982.
Originally processed by Laura Zelasnic, Project Archivist, July, 1999 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Converted to EAD in December 2005 by Kathleene Konkle under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) PA-50678-04.