Internet Archive's in-browser bookreader "theater" requires JavaScript to be enabled. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature.

Charles Wright and John Torrey correspondence, 1849-1869

by: Wright, Charles, 1811-1885

Publication date: 1849

Topics: Botanical specimens, Wright, Charles, 1811-1885 -- Correspondence, Torrey, John, 1796-1873 -- Correspondence, Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873, Ascherson, Paul, 1834-1913, Babbitt, Edwin Burr, 1803-1881, Bailey, Jacob Whitman, 1811-1857, Baird, Spencer Fullerton, 1823-1887, Bartlett, John Russell, 1805-1886, Bigelow, John M. (John Milton), 1804-1878, Canby, William Marriott, 1831-1904, Carey, John, 1797-1880, Curtis, M. A. (Moses Ashley), 1808-1872, Emory, William H. (William Hemsley), 1811-1887, Engelmann, George, 1809-1884, Endlicher, Stephan, 1804-1849, Godet, Ch.-H (Charles-Henry), 1797-1879, Graham, J. D. (James Duncan), 1799-1865, Grant, S. Hastings (Seth Hastings), 1828-1910, Gray, Asa, 1810-1888, Gray, Asa, 1810-1888. Plantae Wrightianae Texano-Neo-Mexicanae, Gray, Jane Loring, 1821-1909, Grisebach, A. (August), 1814-1879, Guerineau, Louis, active 1873-1894, Henry, Joseph, 1797-1878, Lindheimer, Ferdinand, 1802-1879, Nees von Esenbeck, C. G. (Christian Gottfried), 1776-1858, Parry, C. C. (Charles Christopher), 1823-1890, Ringgold, Cadwalader, 1802-1867, Roezl, Benedict, 1824-1885, Short, Charles Wilkins, 1794-1863, Sullivant, William Starling, 1803-1873, Thurber, George, 1821-1890, Tuckerman, Edward, 1817-1886, Wallich, N. (Nathaniel), 1786-1854, Westermann, Bernt Wilhelm, 1781-1868, Smithsonian Institution, United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition (1853-1856)

Collection: nybgtorrey; biodiversity; NY_Botanical_Garden

Contributor: New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library

Language: English

1 (33

Correspondence from Charles Wright to John Torrey, dated 1849-1869, (bulk 1850-1853). Written from such disparate locations as Texas, Cuba, Massachusetts, and Hong Kong, Wright's letters are warm, plain-spoken, and candid. He reports on the difficulties of obtaining a position on the U.S.-Mexican Boundary Survey, and of the disorganization and apathy that plagued it. "The affairs of the Comission have been badly managed and I would not be surprised if all operations were suspended." (October 10, 1851) "I have no hope of receiving my salary for a long time to come ... The Commission is bankrupt and many useless members are retained here for want of money to pay them off preparatory to a discharge." (December 8, 1851) "I rode my own horse and worked with untiring zeal while others of the Commission with greater salaries were lounging about doing absolutely nothing." (January 24, 1852) Wright also suffers from the "neglect" of both Torrey and Asa Gray in not writing him more frequently. Included in the collection is a letter to Gray in which Wright confides "Not a word yet from Dr. Torrey. I am about ready to become mulish and not budge from here till he writes." And to Torrey he writes of a rebuke from Gray, "My opinion is that he don't [sic] like to be told by a simple collector that this or that is not in the Flora." Throughout his correspondence, however, Wright also voices frequent concern for his friends' health and for their families, and discusses the many plants he gathers from around the world. Obsolete plant names mentioned include Acacia lophantha, Algarabia glandulosa, Cymodocea manatorum, Elatine texana, Polypappus sericeus, and Populus monilifera

John Torrey Papers (PP), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden

Digitized under grant #PW-234827-16 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), with additional support from Carnegie Corporation of New York

Finding aid for the John Torrey papers available from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden and online

Abstract: Correspondence from Charles Wright to John Torrey, dated 1849-1869, (bulk 1850-1853). Written from such disparate locations as Texas, Cuba, Massachusetts, and Hong Kong, Wright's letters are warm, plain-spoken, and candid. He reports on the difficulties of obtaining a position on the U.S.-Mexican Boundary Survey, and of the disorganization and apathy that plagued it. 'The affairs of the Comission have been badly managed and I would not be surprised if all operations were suspended.' (October 10, 1851) 'I have no hope of receiving my salary for a long time to come ... The Commission is bankrupt and many useless members are retained here for want of money to pay them off preparatory to a discharge.' (December 8, 1851) 'I rode my own horse and worked with untiring zeal while others of the Commission with greater salaries were lounging about doing absolutely nothing.' (January 24, 1852) Wright also suffers from the 'neglect' of both Torrey and Asa Gray in not writing him more frequently. Included in the collection is a letter to Gray in which Wright confides 'Not a word yet from Dr. Torrey. I am about ready to become mulish and not budge from here till he writes.' And to Torrey he writes of a rebuke from Gray, 'My opinion is that he don't [sic] like to be told by a simple collector that this or that is not in the Flora.' Throughout his correspondence, however, Wright also voices frequent concern for his friends' health and for their families, and discusses the many plants he gathers from around the world. Obsolete plant names mentioned include Acacia lophantha, Algarabia glandulosa, Cymodocea manatorum, Elatine texana, Polypappus sericeus, and Populus monilifera.