The University of North Carolina Herbarium
has catalogued approximately 140 specimens collected by Donald
Culross Peattie. Most specimens are from Polk County, North Carolina.
As cataloguing continues, no doubt more specimens will be found.
According to the Harvard Herbaria database of botanists, other
herbaria that hold Peattie specimens include the Field Museum
(F; Chicago, Illinois), Gray Herbarium (GH; Cambridge, Massachusetts)
and the New York Botanical Garden (NY; Bronx, New York). Though
the Charleston Museum (CHARL; South Carolina) is also listed as
holding specimens collected by Peattie, Curator Albert Sanders
says he has never encountered any in the collection.
Since the Field Museum of Natural History
published Peattie’s 1930 book, Flora of the Indiana
Dunes: A Handbook of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Lake
Michigan Coast of Indiana and of the Calumet District,
it is likely that specimens collected for that project are deposited
with F.
Donald Peattie was born to Robert and Elia
Peattie in Chicago in 1898. Both of his parents were journalists.
By 1930, Robert (age 72) and Elia (age 67) had retired and were
residents of Tryon in Polk County, North Carolina.
It appears that Donald Peattie’s
herbarium specimens were collected while visiting his parents.
1921 was a particularly botanically productive year for Peattie:
he collected specimens April through early September that year.
It seems that he visited his parents annually, usually in April,
as we have catalogued specimens from that month in 1922, 1923,
and 1937. It seems he had several extended visits with his parents
in 1926, as we have specimens collected in May, October and November
that year. There is a hiatus in his North Carolina specimens,
coinciding with his time living abroad. His collecting and visits
to North Carolina resumed by 1936 (October and December) and 1937
(April and May).
Donald Peattie married Louise Redfield
in 1923. Her childhood home, The Grove, was located in Glenview,
Illinois. The
Grove and its 124 surrounding acres are now owned by the Glenview
Park District, and is a National Historic Landmark.
From 1928 to 1933, the Peatties and their
three sons lived in France. The family settled at The Grove upon
their return to the United States. Donald Peattie achieved literary
and financial success with the 1935 publication of An
Almanac for Moderns, a collection of his observations
of the natural world around the Grove.
Louise and Donald Peattie moved to Santa
Barbara, California, and it was there that he wrote A
Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America
(1950) and A Natural History of Western Trees
(1953).
Selected bibliography (with special attention
to those pertaining to North and South Carolina):
Donald Culross Peattie (1927) Trillium
in North and South Carolina: A Critical Systematic Reconnaissance.
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 42: 193-206.
Donald Culross Peattie (1928) Flora
of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously
in Polk County, North Carolina, ad Adjacent Parts of South Carolina,
in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part I. Introduction:
Soils, Cilmate, Etc., Ferns and Conifers (Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae).
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 44(1): 95-125.
Donald Culross Peattie (1929) Flora
of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously
in Polk County, North Carolina, ad Adjacent Parts of South Carolina,
in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part II. Cat-tail Family
to Orchid Family (Typhaceae to Orchidaceae) and Part III. Willow
Family to Rose Family (Salicaceae to Rosaceae). Journal of
the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 44(2): 141-229.
Donald Culross Peattie (1929) Flora
of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously
in Polk County, North Carolina, ad Adjacent Parts of South Carolina,
in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part IV. Mimosa Family
to Dogwood Family (Mimosaceae to Cornaceae). Journal of the
Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 45(1): 59-100.
Donald Culross Peattie (1930) Flora
of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously
in Polk County, North Carolina, and Adjacent Parts of South Carolina,
in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part V: Wintergreen Family
to Lobelia Family (Pyrolaceae to Lobeliaceae). Journal of
the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 45(2): 245-290.
Donald Culross Peattie (1931) Flora
of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously
in Polk County, North Carolina, ad Adjacent Parts of South Carolina,
in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part VI: Daisy Family
(Compositae). List of New Names Pubished. Errata. Summary. Journal
of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 56(2): 129-160.
Donald Culross Peattie (1937) Additions,
Corrections, and Deletions for the Flora of the Tryon Region.
Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 53: 311-323.
Donald Culross Peattie (1946) The use --
and uselessness -- of local floras. Castanea 11(2): 63-65.
Sources:
Peter Friederici (2000) Donald
Culross Peattie: Remembering an Early Prophet in Chicago Wilderness.
Chicago Wilderness Magazine, Fall 2000.
For an excellent list of other Donald Culross Peattie and Louise
Redfield Peattie resources, see http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/fall2000/peattieresources.html
