Annette [Hochberg] Hervey Records (RG5)

The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. © 2005

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Biography of Annette [Hochberg] Hervey

Annette [Hochberg] Hervey was born in New York City on April 20, 1920. As a child she lived in the Bronx, and attended Evander Childs High School where she graduated first in her class in 1936. While at Evander Child she was placed in Dr. Leon Hervey’s biology class. Dr. Hervey encouraged Annette’s interest in biology and he became a mentor and friend. In December of 1939, they were married. After high school she was accepted into Barnard College where she majored in botany and took classes in bacteriology. She submitted her thesis The Morphological and Physiological Effects of Bacteria on Plants, in 1940 graduated Phi Beta Kappa in June 1940.

Further encouraged by Dr. Hervey, Annette entered Smith College in the Fall of 1940 for her Master’ s Degree. At Smith she held an appointment as a teaching fellow and became acquainted with Dr. Harold Rickett of the New York Botanical Garden. At Smith Annette pursued Mycological and Horticultural studies. In 1942, she was awarded her Master’s Degree submitting a thesis entitled Methods of Separating the Mycelium of Phycomyces blakesleeanus from the Liquid and Solid Media in the Assay of Thiamin (Vitamin B1).

Upon her return to New York, Annette entered Columbia University, to begin her doctoral work, where she requested permission to be Dr. Robbins graduate student. Dr William Robbins was the Director of the New York Botanical Garden and Chairman of the Department of Botany at Columbia.

While at work on her own dissertation, Annette published with Dr. Robbins, four scientific papers. Her thesis, A Survey of Basidiomycetes for Anti-bacterial Activity, was published in 1947 in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. She was appointed Research Associate in 1947 and three years later she transferred to the Rockefeller fund at Columbia University. In 1961 she was promoted to Senior Research Associate.

When Dr. Robbins left the Garden in 1961 to become the Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation’s International Science Activities division, Rockefeller University had offered him Laboratory facilities. Annette received permission from Dr. Steere, Director of the Garden at the time, to spend a day or two a week at Rockefeller University, to continue the research initiated by Dr. Robbins at the Garden. Dr. Hervey was a member of the adjunct faculty of Rockefeller University (1979). The partnership proved beneficial to both institutions.

Her interests encompassed studies of antibiotic substances from basidiomycetous fungi, studies of nutritional and development characteristics of certain fungi and higher plants, and studies with plant tissue culture and orchids. She also studied and evaluated the use of mineral oil for preserving the Garden’s stock culture collection of microorganisims.

During her 37 years at the NYBG, Dr. Hervey’s involvement included teaching adult education courses, lecturing to garden clubs, science clubs and college biology students. In 1971 she become the Coordinator of Special Programs in the Education department.

She belonged to the AAAS (Fellow), AIBS, The Mycological Society of American, The Society of Protozoology, The American Society of Microbiology, the Society for Industrial Microbiology, the Tissue Culture Association. She was a life long member of Torrey Botanical Club and their corresponding secretary for 20 year. She was elected President of the club in 1978 and served in 1979.

On December 9th, 1979, Dr. Annette Hervey was admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, where she died on January 28th, 1980.

Scope and Content

Dr. Hervey carried on research on natural growth substances in several fungi. Her research includes tissue culture experiments and the anti-bacterial action and nutritional requirements of fungi. Her work included the evaluation of the mineral oil technique in preserving the stock culture collection of microorganisms and proved to be a successful method of long term preservation. She collaborated with Dr. Wm. Robbins until his death in 1978 so their correspondence and research notebooks are mingled. The correspondence files include scientific correspondence as a Research Associate as well as administrative correspondence as the Coordinator of Special Programs for the Education Department. Records include her Laboratory notebooks from 1945-1947 before her appointment as research assistant, and her thesis dated 1947 although the bulk of her records represent her work as an employee at the NYBG from 1947 until her death.

Restrictions

Access restrictions

This collection is open for research with permission from Mertz Library staff.

Copyright

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.

Related Material

New York Botanical Garden Archives.

RG5--Records of Dr. William Robbins.

RG5--Records of Alma Barksdale.

RG3--Records of the Director in Chief- Wm. Robbins.

NYBG Reprint files

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Annette [Hochberg] Hervey Records (RG5), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden.

Acquisition Information

This collection was transferred from the Laboratory to the archives by Bernice (Bunny) Winkler, Dr. Hervey’s secretary.

Processing Information

Originally processed by Susan Fraser, Head, Information Services/NYBG Archivist, January 1999. Converted to EAD in August 2006 by Kathleene Konkle under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH-PA 50678-04).

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