John Torrey | |
|---|---|
 Daguerreotype of John Torrey, 1840 | |
| Born | August 15, 1796 |
| Died | March 10, 1873(1873-03-10) (aged 76) |
| Alma mater | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons |
| Awards | United States Assay Commission Medal of 1874 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany Medicine Chemistry |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Torr. |
| Signature | |
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John Torrey (August 15, 1796 – March 10, 1873) was an Americanbotanist,chemist, andphysician. Throughout much of his career, he was a teacher of chemistry, often at multiple universities, while he also pursued botanical work,[1] focusing on the flora of North America. His most renowned works include studies of the New York flora, the Mexican Boundary, the Pacific railroad surveys, and the uncompletedFlora of North America.
Torrey was born inNew York City in 1796, the second child of Capt. William and Margaret (née Nichols) Torrey.[2] He showed a fondness for mechanics, and at one time planned to become a machinist.[3] When he was 15 or 16, his father received an appointment to the state prison atGreenwich Village, New York, where he was tutored byAmos Eaton, then a prisoner and later a pioneer ofnatural history studies in America. He thus learned the elements of botany and something ofmineralogy andchemistry. In 1815 he began studyingmedicine withWright Post, and qualified in 1818.[4] He opened a medical practice in New York City, while devoting his leisure to botany and other scientific pursuits.[3]
In 1817, he became one of the founders of the New York Lyceum of Natural History (now theNew York Academy of Science), and one of his first contributions to this body was hisCatalogue of Plants growing spontaneously within Thirty Miles of the City of New York (Albany, 1819). Its publication gained for him the recognition of foreign and native botanists. In 1824 he issued the only volume of hisFlora of the Northern and Middle States.[3] This used John Lindley's system of classifying flora, a way of classifying that was not commonly used in the United States.
He found the medical profession uncongenial, and on August 5, 1824, he entered theUnited States Army as an assistant surgeon and became acting professor of chemistry andgeology atWest Point military academy. Three years later, he became professor of chemistry and botany in theCollege of Physicians and Surgeons, New York (the medical school ofColumbia University), where he stayed until 1855, when he was made professor emeritus. He was also professor of chemistry atPrinceton 1830–1854, and of chemistry, mineralogy, and botany at theUniversity of the City of New York 1832/3. He resigned from his Army position on August 31, 1828.[3] In 1835, he was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[5]
In 1836 he was appointed botanist to the state of New York and produced hisFlora of that state in 1843; while from 1838 to 1843 he carried on the publication of the earlier portions ofFlora of North America, with the assistance of his pupil,Asa Gray.[6] From 1853 he was chief assayer to the United States assay office in New York City when that office was established, but he continued to take an interest in botanical teaching until his death.[4] He was frequently consulted by the treasury department on matters pertaining to the coinage and currency, and was sent on special missions at various times to visit the different mints. He was elected an Associate Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1856.[3][7]
In 1856, Torrey was chosen a trustee ofColumbia College, and in 1860, having presented the college with his herbarium, numbering about 50,000 specimens, he was made emeritus professor of chemistry and botany. On the consolidation of theCollege of Physicians and Surgeons with Columbia in 1860, he was chosen one of its trustees. His advice was frequently sought on scientific subjects by various corporations.[3]
He was the first president of theTorrey Botanical Club in 1873.Besides being the last surviving charter member of the Lyceum of Natural History, he held its vice presidency for several years, and was president in 1824–26 and 1838, holding the same office in theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science in 1855, and he was one of the original members of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States, being named as such by act of theUnited States Congress in 1863. The degree ofA.M. was conferred on him byYale in 1823, and that ofLL.D. byAmherst in 1845.[3]
Torrey died at his home in New York City on March 10, 1873; he was buried in the family plot at Long Hill Cemetery,Stirling, New Jersey.[2]
Torrey married Eliza Shaw on April 20, 1824; they had three daughters and a son, Herbert, who became United States Assayer.[2]
Torrey's earliest publications in theAmerican Journal of Science are on mineralogy. In 1820, he undertook the examination of the plants that had been collected around the headwaters of the Mississippi byDavid B. Douglass. During the same year, he received the collections made byEdwin James while with the expedition that was sent out to theRocky Mountains under MajorStephen H. Long. His report was the earliest treatise of its kind in the United States that was arranged on the natural system. Torrey, in the meantime, had plannedA Flora of the Northern and Middle United States, or a Systematic Arrangement and Description of all the Plants heretofore discovered in the United States North of Virginia, and in 1824 began its publication in parts, but it was soon suspended owing to the general adoption of the natural system ofAntoine Laurent de Jussieu in place of that ofCarl Linnaeus. In 1836, on the organization of the geological survey of New York, he was appointed botanist, and required to prepare a flora of the state. His report, consisting of two quarto volumes, was issued in 1843, and was for a long time the most comprehensive for any state in the United States. In 1838, he began with Asa GrayThe Flora of North America, which was issued in numbers irregularly until 1843, when they had completed theCompositae, but new botanical material accumulated at such a rapid rate that it was deemed best to discontinue it.[3]
Subsequently, Torrey published reports on the plants that were collected byJohn C. Frémont in the expedition to the Rocky Mountains (1845), those gathered by MajorWilliam H. Emory on his reconnaissance fromFort Leavenworth, Kansas, toSan Diego, California (1848), the specimens secured by CaptainHoward Stansbury on his expedition to theGreat Salt Lake ofUtah (1852), the plants collected by John C. Frémont in California (1853), those brought back from theRed River ofLouisiana by CaptainRandolph B. Marcy (1853), and the botany of CaptainLorenzo Sitgreaves's expedition to theZuni andColorado Rivers (1854), also memoirs on the botany of the various expeditions for the purpose of determining the most practicable route for a Pacific Railroad (1855–1860).[3]
He reported on theBotany of the Mexican Boundary Survey (1859), that of the expedition upon theColorado River under LieutenantJoseph C. Ives (1861), and, in association with Asa Gray, the botanical collections of the Wilkes exploring expedition. The last was in his hands at the time of his death, its publication having been delayed by theCivil War.[3]
His bibliography is extensive, including contributions on botanical subjects to scientific periodicals and to the transactions of the societies of which he was a member.[3]
Torrey's name is commemorated in the smallconiferous genusTorreya, found in North America,China andJapan. Some species within this genus include:
P. torreyana an endangered species from southernCalifornia, is also named after the botanist. Torrey first described the carnivorous plantDarlingtonia californica, which he named after his friend Dr. William Darlington.[12] Torrey Canyon inVentura County, California,[3] was named for him, as wasTorreys Peak in Colorado, nearGrays Peak, named after his pupil and friendAsa Gray.[13]
A bronzebas-relief portrait of Torrey is mounted in the main building of the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory ofColumbia University, a former site of Dr. Torrey's summer home.[14] A similar portrait is owned by theBrooklyn Botanic Garden. In 2017, theTorrey Botanical Society, started by colleagues of John Torrey, celebrated its 150th birthday. It is the oldest botanical society in the Americas.
Torreys Peak, a fourteen thousand foot mountain in Colorado, was named for Torrey.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Torrey, John".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 61. Works by or aboutJohn Torrey atWikisource
