Edward Read Memminger was an avid botanist
and built his own house, “Tranquility,” just down
Little River Road from his parents’ home. Memminger married
Ella Drayton in 1888, and built Tranquility in 1890 as a wedding
present to her (1). Tranquility still stands today, and Edward
was living there when the Sandburgs bought the old family home
in 1945. Memminger gave Carl Sandburg an album filled with the
history of the home and the Memminger family – this album
is preserved in the collections of the Carl
Sandburg Home National Historic Site (2).
Edward Read Memminger and Ella Grimke-Drayton
Memminger (b. ?1853, d. 22 Feb. 1926) were married in 1888,
and had two children, Marjorie Drayton Memminger (b.1890, d.
1957) and Edward De Vere Memminger (b. 1897, d. 1899).
Most of Memminger’s specimens deposited
at NCU have scant location data – “Flat Rock, N.C.”
is most common. To date (with approximately 10% of the collection’s
750,000 specimens databased) about 170 specimens collected by
Edward Read Memminger have been found in the UNC Herbarium.
Most of Memminger's specimens deposited at NCU were collected
in North Carolina, though there are some from St. Andrew's Parish,
Charleston County, South Carolina.
Senecio memmingeri Britton ex
Small is named for Edward Read Memminger. Small writes in the
original description of the species:
In dry soil or on cliffs in
or near the mountains, North Carolina and Alabama. Spring
and summer.
Most closely related to Senecio millefolium, but
clearly distinguished by the coarse leaf-segments. The original
specimens of this species were collected in Henderson county,
North Carolina, by Mr. E. R. Memminger, in 1887. In 1891,
in company with Mr. A. A. Heller, I found the plant on Blowing
Rock Mountain in northwestern North Carolina. Prof. Underwood
and Prof. Earle have given me specimens almost identical with
the North Carolina plants from Auburn, Lee County, Alabama,
where they collected it on May 16, 1896.
John K. Small.
1898. Studies in the Botany of the Southern United States --
XIII. i. Species Hitherto Imperfectly Understood. Bulletin
of the Torrey Botanical Club 25(3): 147-148.
The Holotype of Senecio memmingeri
can be found at the New York Botanical Garden, J. K. Small’s
home institution. NCU
has a topotype.
The Charleston Museum was organized in
March, 1773, by the Charles Town Library Society. In 1850 it
was tranferred to the College of Charleston, and in 1907 a building
was provided by the City and the name was changed to The Charleston
Museum. Edward Read Memminger was very involved with the mycological
and botanical collections between the years of 1910 and 1914.
Memminger was listed on the Bulletin's masthead as an honorary
curator starting with Bulletin of the Charleston Museum,
Volume VI in 1910.
At a meeting of the Trustees [of the Charleston Museum]
on Friday, May 12th [1911], Mr. Edward R. Memminger was elected
Honorary Curator of Fungi. Mr. Memminger has been a student
of the botany of the southeast since 1882, devoting special
attention to the higher fungi. During the past three months
he has rearranged the Ravenel Herbarium and added to the biological
survey more than a thousand records for fungi, based upon the
work of the earlier botanists. This work will be continued with
a view to cataloging all the fungi known to occur in this state.
Bulletin of the Charleston Museum VII (5): 39. 1911.
The [Charleston] Museum has secured the assistance of Mr.
Ed. R. Memminger in a revision of the Henry W. Ravenel herbarium
and the preparation of a catalog of the fungi of South Carolina.
Bulletin of the Charleston Museum VII (3): 24. 1911.
Mr. Edward R. Memminger, honorary curator of fungi, has
returned to Charleston for the winter and is engaged in further
work on the Ravenel herbarium. In addition to its valuable fungi,
this herbarium contains a large series of flowering plants collected
during the summer in malarial swamps and inaccessible regions
where we should have great difficulty in collecting at the present
time. Furthermore, the prospect of extensive drainage operations
in the coastal region in the near future suggests that a few
years may bring extensive changes in ecological conditions.
All of this invests the Ravenel herbarium with special interest.
Bulletin of the Charleston Museum VII (8): 62.
Mr. Edward R. Memminger was appointed honorary curator of
fungi, and spent the greater part of two months revising the
fungi of the Henry W. Ravenel herbarium. Nearly nine hundred
South Carolina species were entered in the biological survey
records as a result of this work. Bulletin of the Charleston
Museum VIII (1): 4. 1912.
HERBARIA. A new case for the general
herbarium was built in the Muesum shop in the spring, and the
Henry W. Ravenel herbarium and other collections are in process
of revision and remounting. Mr. Memminger worked over the fungi
early in the year and is now engaged with the flowering plants.
The herbarium already contains 1397 sheets, of which 839 are
from South Carolina. In addition, 840 sheets, including 711
from South Carolina, are nearly ready for filing.
The Museum is indebted for assistance in mounting specimens
to the Misses Isabel O'Neill, Ida Colson, Marion McDonald, Anita
Pollitzer, and Priscilla Branford.
The first fascicle of Ravenel's rare Fungi Caroliniani exsiccati
was given by Dr. C.W. Kollock and has proved of much value in
Mr. Memminger's work.
A set of European plants, chiefly mosses, has been given by
Miss Henrietta A. Kelly. Bulletin of the Charleston
MuseumVIII (1): 10-11. 1912.
For the first time it has been possible
to run all departments of the Museum at their full capacity
and to utilize our full equipment for the production and use
of exhibits. Thus, while cases have been built or refinished
in the carpenter shop, specimens and copy for labels have been
prepared by Miss [Laura M.] Bragg [Curator of Books and Public
Instruction], Dr. [Daniel S.]Martin [Honorary Curator of Minerology],
and Mr. Memminger, and the Museum press has been busy printing
labels... On the evenings of February 20 and 26 the Museum was
opened to public inspection in all departments and personally
conducted parties of from fifteen to thirty followed each other
at intervals of fifteen minutes about the building... they learned
the importance of the biological survey and how its records
are filed and indexed. The preparation of herbarium specimens
in all its stages was demonstrated with the assistance of young
ladies of the Natural History Society, who have been mounting
specimens while the data have been prepared by Mr. Memminger
and Miss Bragg... The work of Mr. Memminger and his assistants
has resulted in making practically all the herbaria accessible
and properly recorded. Dr. Martin has cataloged the entire Booth
collection of invertebrate fossils and has broughtt all the
records of his department up to date. Bulletin of the
Charleston Museum VIII (4): 35-37. 1912.
Mr. E. R. Memminger, honorary curator
of fungi, has returned to the city and has plans to continue
his work on the herbarium during the winter. Bulletin
of the Charleston Museum VIII
(7): 65. 1912.
In July and August Miss Bragg collected
plants at Sumter, in the region about Keowee, and at Caesar's
Head. When the material obtained in this way has been worked
up it may be expected to yield results of importance for the
survey. Miss Bragg also visited a number of colleges which possess
herbaria, and arranged plans for co-operation in extending the
records of the flora of the state.
Mr. Memminger has continued his revision of the nomenclature
of the Ravenel herbarium and has written survey cards for a
large number of species. It is intended to include in the records
of the survey all specimens from South Carolina in our own collection
or known to be in other collections, all properly established
records for species observed but not preserved, and all published
references to local fauna and flora. To facilitate these entries,
a stock of publication record forms has been printed and a start
has been made in filling these in for some of the early floral
lists, such as Bachman's catalog of the plants of Charleston.
Several months could profitably be devoted to this wrok, and
in time these records will become of the highest importance.
Bulletin of the Charleston Museum IX:
9-10. 1913.
Mr. E. R. Memminger completed the
revision of the Ravenel herbarium while in Charleston. He is
now in Beaufort where it is expected he will secure numberous
plant records for the survey. Mr Memminger's generous assistance
has been of the utmost value of the Museum. Without it the herbarium
could not possibly have reached its present stage of accessibility
nor the survey have been extended to any considerable limits.
While nominally honorary curator of fungi, Mr. Memminger has
devoted his time to building up the herbarium in all lines.
Bulletin of the Charleston Museum IX: 23.1913.
LOCAL FLORA. Mr. E. R. Memminger
has recently presented to the Museum a small collection of pressed
plants gathered at Beaufort, S.C. and at the Charleston Navy
Yard.
Pressed plants collected at Barnwell, S. S., and near Darlington
have been received from Mrs. Thomas Frost.
Miss Emma Gibbes has completed the work of transferring to the
local survey records the data of South Carolina specimens in
the collection of the late Professor Lewis R. Gibbes, and is
now kindly assisting with the plant survey records.
Miss Frances Dill has also done valuable work on the plant survey
records.
About three hundred plants have been mounted by members of the
Natural History Society and added to the herbarium.
Miss Bragg has been collecting extensively about Charleston
and also in the neighborhood of Chicora Wood, on the Pee Dee,
the home of Mrs. J.J. Pringle. As a result a large amount of
local material is now ready for the herbarium. Bulletin
of the Charleston Museum IX: 46. 1913.
BOTANY. In the development of the
collections the greatest progress has been made in the department
of botany. This is due primarily to the work of Miss Bragg and
Mr. Edawrd R. Memminger, aided by many volunteer assistants.
In addition to her duties as curator of books and public instruction,
Miss Bragg has found time to increase the number of specimens
in the herbarium 30 per cent, and to do a large amount of other
work in connection with the botanical survey. In this she has
had the able cooperation of Mr Memminger. As honorary curator
in the botanical department, Mr. Memminger has given generously
of his time and skill in the revision of the old herbaria and
the extension of the botanical records of the Museum. His special
knowlege of the flora of North and South Carolina, combined
with his cheerfulness in work which is often tedious, has been
largely responsible for the steady and gratifying growth of
the herbarium and for the accuracy of its data... Herbarium
specimens have been presented by Mr. Memminger from the vicinity
of Beaufort, S.C., and by Miss A. L. Sloan from Pendleton, S.C.
Miss Bragg has also collected in the coastal region of the state.
Miss Pauline Dill, as a volunteer assistant, is engaged in rearranging
the Elliott Herbarium in systematic order. Miss Susie Allan,
Miss Isabel O'Neill, and Messrs. Alexander Sprunt, Jr. and James
Sprunt have mounted herbarium specimens. Bulletin of
the Charleston Museum X (1): 7-8.1914.
It seems that there was a massive financial
re-structuring of the Museum (or perhaps a personal falling-out
between Memminger and Paul Rea, Museum Director?), for suddenly
in 1914, resources are withdrawn from the biological survey.
After years of lauding his work, Memminger is not mentioned
in the Bulletin after the January 1914 issue, and botany
is mentioned little except for Miss Laura Bragg's efforts.
BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. It is to be regretted
that the Muesum [sic] is not in a position to make any provision
for regular work on the biological survey. The records of the
survey are for the most part incidental to other work and the
value of the data obtained under these diffucult conditions
is an indication of the results which might be accomplished
with some special effort. .. The greatest progess of the year
has been in the section of plants. There have been added 19
species of pteridophytes and 788 species of spermatophytes not
previously recorded in the survey. The total number of species
of South Carolina plants now listed is 2033. Dr. B. L. Robinson,
curator of the Gray Herbarium, has kindly furnished recrods
for over 600 specimens representing 317 species of South Carolina
plants in the Gray Herbarium and also complete data for all
plants which he collected on his visit to this state in 1912.
Dr. Robinson has thus given material assistance to the Museum
in the difficult task of obtaining records of South Carolina
plants in the herbaria of other institutions. Survey cards have
been prepared under Miss Bragg's direction for all plants in
the Museum herbaria, exclusive of the Elliott herbarium, and
of 215 specimens of cryptogams.
Miss Emma Gibbes has rendered valuable volunteer service by
preparing survey cards for all published or otherwise available
records of the collection of her father, Professor Lewis R.
Gibbes. Miss Elizabeth P. Ravenel and Miss Frances Dill have
also acted as volunteer assistants in preparing survey cards.
It is of interest to note that the number of species already
recorded in the survey exceeds those cataloged by Dr. Bachman
for the vicinity of Charleston. Bulletin of the Charleston
Museum X (1): 11-12. 1914.
Memminger continued as Honorary Curator of Fungi until April,
1915 when, it appears the Museum went through substantial changes
in organizational structure, and no "honorary curators"
are listed on the Bulletin's masthead. Museum Director
Paul Rea left in the early 1920's and by 1923 Laura Bragg is
both the Director of Scientific Staff and Editor of the Charleston
Museum Quarterly, the publication which replaced the Bulletin.
Honorary Curators, including Edward Read Memminger as Honorary
Curator of Fungi, are back on the masthead of short-lived Quarterly,
which published Volume 1 (1) in 1923 and Volume 1(2) in 1925.
Memminger travelled widely. In August 1905 Memminger sailed
on the S. S. Zeeland from Antwerp, Belgium to New York; his
occupation/calling is listed as "insurance" on the
passenger list. In May 1909, 52 year old Memminger, his 56 year
old wife, Ella, and 18 year old daughter, Marjorie, were passengers
on the S. S. Moltke which sailed from Genoa, Italy to New York.
Memminger is listed as a passenger on the S.S. President Polk
from Manila, Philippines to New York in 1934. Memminger died
in Henderson County, North Carolina on 15 June 1949 at the age
of 92. (3)
Albert Sanders, Curator of the Charleston
Museum Herbarium (CHARL) reports that museum staff and volunteers
have spent many years mounting plant specimens that Miss Bragg
collected in the early 1900's, and work to catalog these specimens
continues. He is not aware of any specimens in CHARL that bear
Edward Read Memminger's name nor any that bear Memminger's distinctive
printed label.
