Marshall Avery Howe Papers (PP)

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Biography of Marshall Avery Howe

Marshall Avery Howe was born in Newfane, Vermont on June 6th, 1867. The eldest of 5 children he was named after his father Marshall Otis Howe and his maternal grandfather Avery Joseph Dexter and was insistent on using his full name. Marshall Avery Howe graduated from the University of Vermont in 1890, where he was room mated with his life long friend Dr. Abel Grout. On leaving college, Howe taught for a year in the Brattleboro High School but left in the summer of 1891 to become an Instructor in Cryptogamic Botany at the University of California at Berkeley. At the end of the 1895-96 college year, Howe resigned to accept a fellowship at Columbia University where he studied Hepaticae with Lucien Underwood. He received his Ph.D from Columbia in 1898 and from 1898 to 1901 was Curator of the University Herbarium. During this time, the plans for the creation of the New York Botanical Garden were materializing and the Columbia University Herbarium was deposited at the NYBG. In 1901 Howe became a member of the NYBG scientific staff and in 1906 became curator. From 1901 until his death in 1936, Howe was associated with the NYBG being appointed Assistant Director in 1923 and Director in 1935 after the resignation of Elmer Drew Merrill.

During his 35 year association with the New York Botanical Garden, Marshall Avery Howe served as a plant collector, participating in numerous expeditions, he arranged exhibits, he distributed plant specimens primarily of algae and hepaticae, he was a taxonomist, a morphologist, an editor, an administrator as well as an expert on, and cultivator of dahlias and other ornamental plants. His work was done meticulously, with insight and thoroughness.

His home life was quiet and dignified. He made his home in Pleasantville, New York where he was an active member of the "Garden Club", and served as secretary and later President of the Board of Trustees of the Pleasantville Free Library. He lectured frequently at the local Men's club of Pleasantville and at numerous other venues. He married Edith Morton Packard in 1909 and had two children Gertrude Dexter Howe and Prentiss Mellen Howe.

Scope and Content

The M.A. Howe papers documents his domestic and pubic life outside NYBG; including newspaper clippings of his botanical and administrative activities. It contains correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, lecture notes, manuscripts and photographs. The collection is arranged in four series.

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

RG4-- Marshall Avery Howe Records

RG3-- Records of the Chief Executive Officer

VF-- Howe, Marshall Avery

VF-- Reprints

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Marshall Avery Howe Papers (PP), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden.

Acquisition Information

This material was donated to the NYBG by Mrs. Gertrude Howe, M.A. Howe's daughter and transferred to the Garden by Dr. Frans Stafleu, and Pat and Noel Holmgren, in 1987.

Processing Information

Originally processed by Susan Fraser, NYBG Archivist, March 1999, with grant funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH-PA-23141). Converted into EAD in June 2006 by Kathleene Konkle under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) PA-50678-04.

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