William Alphonso Murrill Records (RG4)

The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. © 2005-2018

This finding aid was produced in English.

Finding aid produced using NoteTab Pro

Biography of William Alphonso Murrill

William Alphonso Murrill (1869-1957) was a mycologist, taxonomist, writer, and authority on the fleshy fungi (Basidiomycetes). Born 13 October 1869 near Lynchburg, Virginia, he gained a B.S. degree (1887) from the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College; B.S. (1889), B.A. (1890), and M.A. (1891) degrees from Randolph Macon College; and Ph.D. (1897) from Cornell University. He taught biology for four years at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City and in 1904 began his career with the New York Botanical Garden as Assistant Curator, succeeding Franklin S. Earle as staff mycologist. From 1909 to 1919 he acted as Assistant Director and became Curator and Supervisor of Public Instruction from 1919 to 1924.

Murrill collected over 70,000 specimens of fungi in North and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, of which the NYBG cryptogamic herbarium holds about 14,000 specimens, including more than 1700 type specimens. Using the American Code of nomenclature he identified and described many new genera and species and made nomenclatural revisions of existing taxa that were variously criticized and praised by American mycologists. On at least four occasions Murrill traveled to England, France, Italy, Germany, and Sweden to study type specimens in European herbaria. He identified the pathogenic fungus Diaporthe [Cryphonectria] parasitica that causes Chestnut blight disease.

Murrill published important monographs on hymenomycetes and over five hundred scientific articles on a wide range of botanical subjects. His major works include a series on the Polyporaceae in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club (1902-06) and five monographs on the Boletaceae and Polyporaceae in 1914-15. He lectured widely and wrote autobiographical pieces and popular books on natural science for young adults. Murrill founded and served as editor of Mycologia (1909-1924) and the Journal of the NYBG (1906-1908), and was a contributor to the North American Flora. In 1924 he retired both from the NYBG and from professional life altogether. During the 1930s he became associated with the University of Florida in Gainesville where he resumed mycological study and publication until his death in 1957.

Scope and Content

The William A. Murrill collection consists of correspondence, notebooks, research papers, photographs, negatives, and watercolor illustrations of mushrooms covering portions of his career at the NYBG and at the University of Florida. The artwork has been separated and removed to the NYBG Art & Illustration Collection.

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

ART-- W. A. Murrill Collection

PP-- Norman Taylor Papers

RG4-- Nathaniel Lord Britton Records

RG4-- Franklin Sumner Earle Records

RG4-- Fred J. Seaver Records

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Field Notes, Florida, 1939-1940.

University of South Carolina, South Carolina Library (Columbia)

William Chambers Coker Papers

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

William Alphonso Murrill Records (RG4), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden.

Acquisition Information

Research Papers and Notebooks were transferred from the NYBG herbarium by William R. Buck (Curator, Institute of Systematic Botany, NYBG) in November 1999. The University of Florida materials were donated by Professor James Kimbrough, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, in January 2000.

Processing Information

This collection was originally processed by David Rose in November 1999 (revised January 2000) with grant funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH-PA 23141-98) and the Harriet Ford Dickenson Foundation. Converted to EAD in June 2006 by Kathleene Konkle under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH-PA 50678-04.

Container List