The University of North Carolina Herbarium has
catalogued approximately 280 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 booklet, 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):
Peattie, Donald Culross (1927) Trillium in North and South Carolina: A Critical
Systematic Reconnaissance. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific
Society 42: 193-206.
Peattie, Donald Culross (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.
Peattie, Donald Culross (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.
Peattie, Donald Culross (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.
Peattie, Donald Culross (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.
Peattie, Donald Culross (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.
Peattie, Donald Culross (ca. 1930) Natural
History of Pearson’s Falls. Garden
Club of Tryon, North Carolina.
Peattie, Donald Culross (1937) Additions, Corrections, and Deletions for
the Flora of the Tryon Region. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific
Society 53: 311-323.
Peattie, Donald Culross (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
