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

Correspondence from Ebenezer Emmons to John Torrey, dated 1828-1846. Emmons' earlier letters-- while touching on issues of interest in mineralogy, geology, ornithology and other natural sciences-- often concern themselves with the problems of finding a paying position in the sciences that would allow him to stop practicing medicine altogether. He completes his first book, the Manual of Mineralogy, and he and Torrey engage in a lively exchange of animal and vegetable specimens. With Emmons' appointment to the New York State Geological Survey in 1836, however, the letters become more hastily written and single-minded, and the bulk of the correspondence from then on is occupied with his new project and the production of its subsequent publications. This overwhelming concern, however, does not prevent Emmons from corresponding with other scientists, or offering advice to his friend when Torrey receives some discouraging criticism of his manuscript for The Flora of the State of New-York. "I do think you are over anxious about your work & that you will work it over too much," he gently observes, after reassuring Torrey that he in no way agrees with the unidentified critic. In the last letter, dated 1846, Emmons assures Torrey that pay for his work on the survey's botanical section is indeed forthcoming, however slowly

Digitized under grant #PW-234827-16 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

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

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