Joseph Austin Holmes (1859-1915)
Joseph Austin Holmes' signature
Photograph by Susan Whitfield, Biology Departments,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Kindly supplied by William R. Burk, Botany Librarian of the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
William R. Burk, Botany Librarian of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, provided the following information to the University
of North Carolina Herbarium. The essay is taken from a chapter
on Joseph A. Homes that will be published in a book on the history
of botany at UNC-Chapel Hill, which Burk is writing.
Early Years and Scientific
Education
Born in the country village of Laurens, South Carolina, on November
23, 1859, Joseph Austin Holmes was the eighth of twelve children
of Nancy Catherine Nickles and Zelotes Lee Holmes, a Presbyterian
minister and teacher. Young Holmes attended Laurens Academy and
later the Holmes Academy, both in his home village. He worked
on the farm, gaining an interest in plants and agriculture. In
addition to hikes in the woods, out-door games, and horses, Holmes
enjoyed reading books. His father's library, which was particularly
strong in natural history, provided young Holmes "instruments
for the study of natural sciences" (Manning, 1915). At age
seventeen, he left home with a railway ticket and $15, heading
directly for Cornell University (Sykes, [1916]). He began his
studies there in January 1878 and worked his way through college.
At Cornell, Holmes pursued studies in agriculture, which allowed
him to enroll in a number of scientific disciplines. According
to archival records at Cornell, he chose courses in the following
subjects: agricultural chemistry, agriculture, botany, chemistry,
entomology, horticulture, math, and veterinary science. In botany,
he took courses in systematics, histology, fungi, and extra credit,
which probably consisted of original research. By July 1879, Holmes
was at the head of his class. In addition to his scholastic pursuits,
he enjoyed playing football and baseball. Holmes earned a Bachelor
of Agriculture degree in 1881
Teaching at the University
of North Carolina
Upon his graduation from college, Holmes was appointed professor
of Geology and Natural History at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. His instruction in botany spanned most of the
1880s. Holmes was the first professor at Chapel Hill to build
up a diverse curriculum in botany by offering several courses,
improving laboratories, and promoting field studies. At UNC, botany
indeed now offered practical utility, particularly in its application
to agriculture. Instruction involved lectures, recitations, lab
work, text-books, and field trips.
During his first year, in addition to a course in Physiological
Botany (General Botany), Holmes taught a course of lectures and
laboratory work on economic botany. In Holmes’s second year
of teaching, his botany class collected and mounted plants from
their field excursions, and these were most likely placed in the
growing herbarium. In the fall term of 1885, the University added
several new faculty positions, including one in zoology, which
was filled by George Francis Atkinson. Holmes could now devote
additional time instructing in geology and botany. The expanded
program in botany consisted of Elements of Botany; Advanced Botany,
which included two classes (Systematic and Applied Botany and
Agricultural Botany); and Horticulture.
In offering an expanded curriculum in natural history, Holmes
([1885]) explained how the courses, particularly in the plant
sciences, related to practical agriculture. Agricultural botany
included studies in several pertinent areas: fungi parasitic on
crops, grasses and forage plants and their cultivation and preservation,
and the growth and cultivation of plants. Horticulture featured
studies on soils and methods for improving them through such methods
as drainage and manuring; the management of orchards and forests
with instruction on planting, grafting, and pruning; and the basic
principles in cultivating garden and farm crops.
By the mid-1880s, the scientific laboratory experience was gaining
prominence at UNC as an educational experience. Different scientific
departments acquired additional specimens and learning aids for
illustration and instruction. The university was expanding its
resources to promote scientific instruction and the use of new
methodologies. Holmes became an active proponent of improving
laboratory facilities in his disciplines of responsibility. He
believed that the university should adopt laboratory practice
“as far as possible in place of the old style text book
system of instruction.” He explained: “Seeing and
examining an object gives a student a further understanding of
it than does reading about it. All advanced institutions are adopting
this plan” (BOT S-8: 158).
The progress made in increasing the faculty and expanding the
curriculum in botany (and other sciences) was short-lived. In
1885, the Legislature enacted the establishment of an Agricultural
and Mechanical College in Raleigh and transferred to it the Land
Grant allocation of $7,500 for instruction. The new institution
was to be called the North Carolina College of Agriculture and
Mechanic Arts (now North Carolina State University) and to be
located west of and near the city of Raleigh. George Atkinson
was one of the newly appointed faculty members of 1885 who was
let go in 1888.
Following Atkinson's departure, Holmes’s teaching responsibilities
were once again stretched to include all disciplines in natural
history. Courses offered in botany were reduced to Elements of
Botany and Systematic and Applied Botany. This was a very demanding
period in Holmes’s university career. His numerous teaching
responsibilities placed overwhelming pressure on him. In the fall
of 1890, Holmes (1891) taught six courses, requiring seventeen
hours per week: General Geology and Mineralogy, 18 students; Advanced
Geology, 4; Advanced Mineralogy, 4; Zoology, Physiology, and Botany,
40; Biology and Microscopic Technology, 20; and Advanced Botany,
4. In addition to heavy teaching loads during the fall and spring
terms and geological field work during many summers, Holmes lectured
on the geology of North Carolina in the Summer School sessions
in 1894-1896 and 1898-1901.
From 1882 to 1891, Holmes taught botany and horticulture to
nearly 335 students. Of these students, nearly twenty-five took
courses in horticulture and advanced botany. Among these young
men, two became noted botanists: William Willard Ashe, who became
particularly well known as a forester in the North Carolina Geological
Survey and later in the U.S. Forest Service, and John Simcox Holmes
(not directly related to Joseph Austin Holmes) who replaced Ashe
as North Carolina's state forester.
The University Museum,
Its Development and Service to Students and Citizens
In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Holmes was in charge
of the University Museum, which served as an important instructive
tool. His students could consult the herbarium of local plants
and native woods. According to Kemp Battle (2: 274), the natural
history collections contained over 3,000 specimens of rocks, ores,
minerals, and a growing assemblage of woods, as well as zoological
and botanical specimens illustrating the local fauna and flora.
Students were also expected to utilize specimens of a large collection
of seeds, grains, and fibers from numerous countries in their
experiments.
Botanical Investigations
Keeping current with the scientific literature and collecting
specimens for preservation and instruction were important aspects
of Holmes’s scientific studies. While a student at Cornell
University, he had begun frequently requesting publications from
the Smithsonian Institution. His contact with the institution
continued for at least the subsequent twenty years. His nearly
fifty letters housed in the Institution’s archives are concerned
with obtaining publications and sending or receiving natural history
specimens, among other topics. Of special note was his donation
of Cretaceous invertebrates collected in Wilmington, North Carolina.
His correspondence with scientists at the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) reveals distinct botanical research interests,
especially with grasses, in his early years at Chapel Hill. Geological
excursions and related research eclipsed Holmes’s botanical
investigations in later years.
Holmes had collected plants for scientific identification while
an undergraduate at Cornell. Among his botanical collections from
Ithaca, New York, were Aralia nudicaulis L., May 30,
1879, and Tussilago farfara L., May 17, 1887, of which
specimens are preserved in the UNC Herbarium. From his correspondence,
we further learn that Holmes (1881) studied the grasses of Chapel
Hill and environs soon after moving there. Holmes wanted to learn
about the economic value of grasses. Holmes (1886) pointed out
to George Vasey, a botanist at the USDA, that he was attempting
“to build up an herbarium with a small beginning,”
and he stated that any USDA duplicate specimens might be donated
to UNC. Today, selected specimens of North Carolina plants collected
by Holmes are archived at the UNC Herbarium, examples being Lycopodium
alopecuroides (L.) Cranfill and Woodwardia areolata,
both collected in Duplin County, North Carolina, October 10, 1885;
and Panax trifolius from Orange County, North Carolina,
April 25, 1888. For several years, Holmes spent his vacation time
conducting geological field work, often taking along his advanced
students.
The Elisha Mitchell Scientific
Society
Holmes's active role in scientific organizations at Cornell
probably influenced his interest in developing a learned scientific
society at Chapel Hill. Holmes and three of his science colleagues
(chemistry professor Francis P. Venable, mathematics professor
Ralph H. Graves, and physics professor Joshua W. Gore) were interested
in establishing a scientific society at the university. On September
24, 1883, they convened a meeting to discuss this issue at the
home of Holmes and Venable (Venable, 1916). They also invited
several other scholars (Kemp P. Battle, Thomas W. Harris, J. Manning,
William B. Phillips, and Emile A. de Schweinitz). The assembled
men chose the name “the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society”
for the newly formed association to honor the accomplishments
of that versatile scientist.
Holmes and a continuous lineage of future botanists at Chapel
Hill provided guidance and leadership for the society. Initially,
the society held meetings each month during the university’s
school year. At its first regular meeting on November 10, 1883,
Holmes recounted the results of his observations and his readings
on insectivorous plants, especially about the structure and habits
of the Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula (Anonymous, 1883a,
b). During the next several years, Holmes presented additional
papers (predominantly on geology) at the meetings of the society;
his botanical papers were on the geographical distribution of
North Carolina plants, the distribution of rhododendrons in North
Carolina, and the flora of Angola Bay, North Carolina. Concerning
the last topic, Holmes had spent the summer of 1884 conducting
field work on the plants and animals of the bay. At the October
18, 1884, meeting of the society, which included his paper on
Angola Bay, he exhibited specimens of the plants collected on
the trip (Anonymous, 1884). Some of the specimens survive in the
UNC Herbarium (NCU). In the society, Holmes served as vice president
(1883-1884, 1885-1886), president (1892-1893, 1898-1899), and
as a member of the Publication Committee (about 1885-1888).
Holmes encouraged his students to join the Mitchell Society
as associate members. Two young men who pursued advanced studies
in botany under Holmes's tutelage presented papers at the organization's
meetings. On April 12, 1887, Leander Williams Lynch reported on
the dates of flowering of nearly fifty plants growing in the region
of Chapel Hill (EMSS 1: 47). Gaston Battle presented a paper on
the "pea-nut plant" on April 21, 1891 (EMSS 1: 61).
He became a planter in Edgecombe County, North Carolina and was
subsequently associated with Sinclair Oil in Atlanta, Georgia.
After graduating from UNC in 1891, William W. Ashe, who had been
an avid student of botany under the direction of Holmes, also
presented papers at the society's monthly programs. Ashe prepared
a paper on the longleaf pine and its struggle for survival, which
Professor Venable read for him on October 10, 1894 (EMSS 1: 71).
The paper was subsequently published (Ashe, 1894). Ashe also gave
a presentation on the influence of high altitudes upon the growth
of plants on November 23, 1897, which he illustrated with specimens
from the Rockies (EMSS 1: 100).
Holmes resigned the professorship in natural history in 1891
to become the State Geologist with the North Carolina Geological
Survey.
Contributions to Public
Service
Holmes’s concerns for conservation extended to the forests
of North Carolina. At the Mitchell Society’s meeting of
May 14, 1895, he presented a paper about restocking burned-over
areas with longleaf pine (EMSS 1: ). Four years earlier, he had
suggested to American forester and conservationist Gifford Pinchot
his thoughts about establishing a forest reservation in the Southern
Appalachians (Smith, 1960). His interests in the state’s
forests continued while he served as the State Geologist of North
Carolina. Testimonials to Holmes’s efforts to conserve North
Carolina’s forests were given by forester William Willard
Ashe, who commemorated his mentor by naming two trees after him:
Hicorius holmesia (Ashe, 1896) and Crataegus holmesiana
(Ashe, [1900]). According to a resolution of the North Carolina
Forestry Association, Holmes was “the first to take up the
investigation of the forestry problems of North Carolina and started
the campaign of education looking toward the preservation and
conservation of our forest areas” (Gibboney, Cotten, and
Pratt, 1916).
Although geological themes, mainly those of economic importance,
were the focus of most of Holmes’s nearly eighty publications,
several of his early papers dealt with agricultural teaching in
North Carolina; with Abies [Tsuga] canadensis, Pinus strobus,
and Taxodium; and with plants in gardens and fields. He wrote
seven publications on botanical topics. He also served on the
Executive Committee of the North Carolina Agricultural Society.
Holmes’s horticultural interests were aimed at beautifying
the campus. According to the minutes of the June 1, 1885, faculty
meeting, he and Adolphus W. Mangum (Professor of Moral Philosophy,
History, and English Literature) were chosen as a committee on
the campus charged with planting shrubs and other plants. In October
1885, the group was called the Grounds Committee. It would seek
the counsel of the faculty on such matters as the advisability
of planting shrubs on the campus.
Holmes’s other scientific accomplishments and leadership
deserve mention. In 1903, he was appointed Director, Department
of Mines and Metallurgy of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at
the St. Louis World’s Fair held in 1904. He was influential
in getting a bill passed by Congress to found a marine biological
laboratory at Beaufort, North Carolina, for the U.S. Fish Commission.
He became the chief of the U. S. Geological Survey laboratories
for testing fuels and structural materials at St. Louis (1905-1907)
and then at Pittsburgh (beginning 1908). When the U. S. Bureau
of Mines was established in 1910, he served as its first director,
remaining in this position until his retirement in 1915.
Holmes was keenly interested in improving the safety of miners.
He discovered that dust from bituminous coal was a greater danger
to miners than was firedamp.
Legacy and Honors
In addition to his contributions as a professor of geology and
natural history, a geologist, a conservationist, and an administrator,
Holmes earned several honors. He was a fellow and charter member
of the Geological Society of America and a fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a member of
the Academies of Science in Washington, D.C., Raleigh, North Carolina,
and St. Louis, Missouri; the American Forestry Association; the
American Institute of Mining Engineers; the American Society for
Testing Materials; and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
In honorary societies, he was elected to Sigma Xi and Tau Beta
Pi. Memberships in other organizations included the Cosmos Club
(Washington, D.C.), the St. Louis Club, and the Engineer’s
Club (New York). A recipient of two honorary degrees in 1909,
Holmes was awarded the LL.D. from UNC and the D.Sc. from the University
of Pittsburgh. In conferring on Holmes the doctor of law degree
at UNC, Dr. C. Alphonso Smith aptly described him as “A
man of seasoned common sense, of winning personality, and of practical
efficiency in all that he [undertook]” (Cobb, 1910).
Holmes and his wife Jeanie had two daughters (Jean Dalziel and
Margaret Catherine) and two sons (Joseph Austin, Jr., and James
Sprunt). Holmes’s personal commitment to his wife was steadfast.
When he retired in 1915, his health had been declining. In 1915,
he entered a sanitarium in New Mexico and died on July 12 (at
age fifty-five) from pulmonary tuberculosis in Denver, Colorado,
according to his certificate of death. Joseph Holmes is buried
in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Sources on Joseph A. Holmes
Not Cited in the Text.
Archival Collections.
Cornell University Archives, Carl A. Kroch Library, Division of
Rare and Manuscript Collections, Ithaca, New York.
Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of
North Carolina. Joseph Austin Holmes Papers #3866. (includes numerous
newspaper clippings) see also entry under UNC (They appear to
be the same.)
Obituaries and Biographical Sketches.
AMC. American Mining Congress. 1915. Joseph Austin Holmes 1859-1915.
Washington, DC, American Mining Congress. 80 pp. (“A record
of tributes paid at the Memorial Exercises held at San Francisco,
Tuesday, September 21, 1915, under the auspices of the American
Mining Congress.” Also includes tributes from correspondents.)
(p. 80).
Anonymous. 1906. Joseph Austin Holmes, p. 100. in Prominent People
of North Carolina, Brief Biographies of Leading People for Ready
Reference Purposes. Evening News Publishing Company, Asheville,
NC. 128 pp.
Anonymous. 1915. J. A. Holmes dies–martyr to miners. New
York Times 64(20,990): 9, Tuesday, July 14, 1915.
Anonymous. 1933. Holmes, Joseph Austin, pp. 104-105. in The National
Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Being the History of the United
States, vol. 23. James T. White & Company, New York. (portrait).
Battle, Kemp P. 1916. Dr. Joseph Austin Holmes at the University
of North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society
32: 20-23.
M[cDonald], P[hilip] B. 1932. Holmes, Joseph Austin, pp. 167-168.
in Dumas Malone (ed.), Dictionary of American Biography, vol.
9. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
Pratt, Joseph Hyde. 1916. Memorial sketch of Dr. Joseph Austin
Holmes. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 32:
1-15. (portrait and bibliography). ("Read at the annual meeting
of the Geological Society of America, Washington, DC, December
28, 1915.")
Vinson, Frank Bedingfield. 1988. Holmes, Joseph Austin, pp. 177-178.
in William S. Powell (ed.), Dictionary of North Carolina Biography,
vol. 3. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. (sources
cited)
