George Hill Mathewson Lawrence, a native of Rhode Island, was for many years one of the preeminent botanists in the world. Born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island on June 19, 1910, he was the son of Dana and Anna (Mathewson) Lawrence. He attended local schools, graduating from Lockwood High School in Warwick in 1928. Remaining in his native state, Lawrence received both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the then Rhode Island State College in 1932 and 1933 respectively. He also received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from his Alma Mater in 1952.
In 1934, he married Miriam Boothby of Westbrook, Maine. After serving as Superintendent of Greenhouses and Grounds at Rhode Island State Hospital from 1934 to 1936, Lawrence left Rhode Island to study for his doctorate at Cornell University. There, as a student of the renowned botanist/ horticulturalist Liberty Hyde Bailey, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in botany in 1939. After receiving the doctorate, Lawrence remained as Bailey's assistant in the Bailey Hortorium until World War II military service interrupted his career in 1943. After the war, in 1946, Lawrence returned to Cornell and the Bailey Hortorium as a Professor of Botany. In 1951, he was named Director of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium and in that same year, he published his seminal botany textbook, Taxonomy of Vascular Plants. In 1954, he assumed the editorship of the Bailey Hortorium journal, Baileya.
After nearly twenty-one years as a student and staff member at the Bailey Hortorium, Lawrence left in 1960 to assume the position of director of the newly established Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library at the then Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University). With the collection of Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt (of the American Aluminum Company (Alcoa) Hunts) as a cornerstone, Lawrence developed the Hunt Botanical Library into one of the finest of its kind in the world. One of his major accomplishments was the acquisition for the Library of a 4000 item collection of Linnaeus materials from the private library of Dr. Birger Strandell of Sweden, a direct descendant of Linnaeus. In the ten years after its acquisition, the Linnaeana collection doubled in size.
Due in part to ill health, Lawrence stepped down as Director of the Hunt Botanical Library at the end of 1970 and returned to his native Rhode Island. He remained on the staff of the Hunt Botanical as a Research Associate and Consultant, however, in order to complete an annotated catalogue of its Linnaeus collection. Working with the donor of the collection, Dr. Birger Strandell, Lawrence devoted the remaining seven and one half years of his life to the completion of the Linnaeus Catalogue. Due to many problems, including several with its computer generated format, the Catalogue was never completed.
In addition to his lifelong interest in botany, Lawrence was also a student of local history and an avid bibliophile and collector of rare books. He combined his vocation and his avocations in accumulating a fine library of botanical works, general rare books, and books of Rhode Island history in his East Greenwich home. Many of these books, in particular those on Rhode Island history, were donated to the University of Rhode Island Library by his widow, Miriam Lawrence. This donation broadened both the Library's Rhode Island Collection and its rare book collection. George Lawrence died in East Greenwich on June 10, 1978.
Open for research.
Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
George H. M. Lawrence Papers, 1850-1982, Mss. Gr. 49, University of Rhode Island, University Archives and Special Collections.
The papers of George Hill Mathewson Lawrence were donated to the University of Rhode Island Library in 1984 and 1985 by Lawrence's widow, Miriam B. Lawrence. The bulk of the papers are from the period 1971 to 1978 when Lawrence was in semi-retirement at his hone in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Though still on the staff of the Hunt Botanical Library as a Research Associate and Consultant, his sole responsibility was editing the proposed catalogue of Linnaeana in the Hunt Botanical Library.
The papers contained in this manuscript group represent only a small fragment of those generated by Lawrence during his professional life. The bulk of his professional papers are housed in the Archives of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (formerly the Hunt Botanical Library) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and at the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
The papers were divided into six series as follows: Linnaeus Catalogue, Correspondence, Subject, Chronological File, the Lawrence Family , and the Ives Family: Household Receipts.
Series I, Linnaeus Catalogue, 1966-1982, contains records relating to Lawrence's work on the proposed catalogue describing the Linnaeus collection in the Hunt Botanical Library. Included are such materials as correspondence, annotated print-outs, lists, slides, and notes concerning the proposed catalogue.
Series II, Correspondence, 1950-1982, consists of Lawrence's professional and personal correspondence with botanists, bibliophiles, rare book dealers, and friends. Correspondence relating to the Linnaeus Catalogue can be found in Series I and some general correspondence can also be found in Series III, the Subject Series and Series IV, the Chronological File. Included in this series are a few items of correspondence of Miriam Lawrence with the same correspondents, mostly letters of condolence concerning the death of her husband.
Series III, Subject File, 1904-1979, consists of a variety of general records relating to activities and areas of interest to Lawrence. Included are correspondence, brochures, printed programs, photographs, course notes, speeches, honorary degrees, and a copy of Lawrence's doctoral dissertation submitted to Cornell in 1939. The Subject File also contains interesting photographs of botanist and plant explorer, David Fairchild (1869 - 1954) and philanthropist, Barbour Lathrop (1847-1927). There are two photographs which depict Lathrop with Alexander Graham Bell and one with Mrs. Bell. Dr. Fairchild was married to Bell's daughter, Marian Hubbard Bell. Most of the photographs appear Fairchild's book, The World Was My Garden, New York, C. Scribner's sons; London, C. Scribner's sons, ltd., 1938.
Series IV, Chronological File, 1970-1978, consists of carbon copies Lawrence's outgoing letters. Most of these letters are duplicated in one of the three preceding series.
Series V, Lawrence Family, 1794-1949, contains a variety of diaries, journals, ledgers, and account books of Lawrence's ancestors in Rhode Island. The materials were collected by Lawrence in anticipation of writing a family history.
Series VI, Ives Family Household Receipts, 1856-1873, consists entirely of receipts for household expenditures made by Moses and Anne Ives of Power Street in Providence. Whether Lawrence collected this material because of a family connection with the Ives or simply out of interest in a well to do nineteenth century Rhode Island family is unknown.
The collection is arranged into six series:
The papers of George Hill Mathewson Lawrence were donated to the University of Rhode Island Library in 1984 and 1985 by Lawrence's widow, Miriam B. Lawrence.
This Series consists of materials relating to the efforts of George Lawrence and Birger Strandell to compile for publication an annotated catalogue describing the Linnaeus collection of the Hunt Botanical Library (later the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation). Included in the series are correspondence, annotated print-outs, sample pages, slides, and lists concerning the proposed catalogue.
Of particular interest is Lawrence's correspondence with the principals involved in the production of the catalogue, his co-editor, Birger Strandell of Sweden and Gilbert Daniels, Lawrence's successor as Director of the Hunt Botanical Library. Lawrence's correspondence with Strandell, who donated the nucleus of the Linnaeus collection to the Hunt Botanical Library, reflects his urgency to get the catalogue completed and his frustration at delays caused by computer problems and his own ill health. The Daniels correspondence reveals Lawrence's anger and frustration with what he perceived as Daniels' less than enthusiastic support for the project. Both men held firm views strongly expressed. All of the correspondence relating to the catalogue has been grouped together in folders labeled "Correspondence" followed by the name of the correspondent.
Other items of interest include lists of pupils of Linnaeus, a typed copy of a keepsake prepared for a Linnaeus Symposium held at the Hunt Botanical in 1973, and a paper by Lawrence entitled, "A Catalogue of Linnaeana," in which he outlined the format and objectives of the proposed catalogue.
The series is arranged alphabetically by topic or type of record and chronologically by date within folders.
The Correspondence Series contains the personal and professional correspondence of George Lawrence with botanists, bibliophiles, rare book dealers, and friends. Also included in this series are a few items of correspondence of his wife Miriam, primarily letters of condolence on Lawrence's death and her responses to them. Correspondence relating specifically to the Linnaeus catalogue can be found in Series I. Some correspondents are represented in both series.
Particularly interesting is the correspondence with the renowned botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey, with whom Lawrence studied and for whom he worked as the Director of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. Also significant is the correspondence with members of the Hunt family, particularly Roy Hunt, Sr. and his son, Alfred Hunt. The Hunt family founded the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and the Hunt Foundation, which provided the funding for the establishment and operation of the Hunt Botanical Library. The Library was named after Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, wife of Roy Hunt, Sr. and an accomplished amateur botanist in her own right.
The series is arranged alphabetically by the name of the correspondent and chronologically by date within folders.
This Series consists of a variety of materials relating to activities and areas of interest to Lawrence. Also included are materials relating to his death in folders labeled "Memorial Service" and "Obituaries". Of particular interest are the papers concerning his European research trips in 1950-51 and 1962. Correspondence with European botanists reveal the particular research interests and concerns of Lawrence at these times. Also of interest are the folders containing records relating to professional botany and horticultural organizations of which Lawrence was a member or in which he had an interest. Represented in this series are the American Horticultural Society, Garden History Society, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and the Planting Fields Foundation.
To gain some insight into Lawrence as a student, one can peruse the notes he took as a student in a Cornell taxonomy course in 1936 and read his dissertation completed in 1939. Both are contained in this series and both reflect his meticulous approach to his work. That same attention to detail is evident in the notes and syllabus for a seminar in Tropical Botany which Lawrence taught in 1971 at the University of Miami, Florida.
The Subject File also contains interesting photographs of botanist and plant explorer, David Fairchild (1869 - 1954) and philanthropist, Barbour Lathrop (1847 - 1927). There are two photographs which depict Lathrop with Alexander Graham Bell and one with Mrs. Bell. Dr. Fairchild was married to Bell's daughter, Marian Hubbard Bell. Most of the photographs appear Fairchild's book, The World Was My Garden, New York, C. Scribner's sons; London, C. Scribner's sons, ltd., 1938.
The Series is arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically by date within folders. The last two boxes in this Series are located at the end of the entire collection and are enumerated to reflect this.
The Chronological File consists of carbon copies of Lawrence's outgoing letters. Copies of most, if not all, of these letters can also be found in Series I-III. This Series is arranged chronologically by the date of the letter.
George Lawrence's interest in local history most certainly extended to the history of his own family, an interest reflected in the materials contained in this Series. In apparent anticipation of writing a family history, Lawrence gathered together the sources of his family history in the form of diaries, ledgers, estate and business inventories, genealogical notes, and miscellaneous research notes.
Of particular interest in this series are the diaries of Anna M. Mathewson, Lawrence's mother. In addition to daily observations about the weather, her diaries recorded the daily activities of a fairly well-to-do family in turn of the century Rhode Island. It is also clear from the diaries that prior to the age of radio and television the principal form of leisure activity was visiting neighbors and socializing.
Also of interest are the estate inventories and appraisals of the businesses and homes of the Thurston family compiled in the first third of the nineteenth century. The Thurstons, Lawrence's ancestors and apparently owners of a dry goods/general store, left extensive inventories of their businesses and homes which Lawrence preserved. These inventories and appraisals reflect the diversity and value of items sold in a store of this type in the 1820's and 1830's. The estate inventory of the Thurston family home indicates the amount and type of household furnishings possessed by a fairly wealthy family in the early nineteenth century.
The Series is arranged alphabetically by name of the person or business or by type of record.
George Lawrence's interest in local history is also reflected in this Series which contains receipts for household expenditures of Moses B. and Anne A. Ives of 37 and, later, 66 Power Street on Providence's East Side. Moses Ives, a merchant, co-owned the apparently successful Brown and Ives business on South Main Street in Providence, Rhode Island.
Although Moses Ives died in 1857, the business continued to support his widow, Anne, in the manner to which she had become accustomed for the remaining twenty-seven years of her life. The Ives were wealthy by the standards of any age, and particularly so by the standards of the late nineteenth century. In 1856 and 1857, they spent nearly ten thousand dollars to refurnish their home at 37 Power Street. The receipts for that project can be found in the first folder of this Series. Even after Moses died, Anne Ives continued to spend large sums of money on oriental carpets, imported china, mahogany furniture, and silver tea services. Other expenditures which appear regularly over the eighteen year span represented are those for fine clothing, wine by the cask, imported champagne, ($15 a bottle in 1862), rare books, and fine jewelry. The Ives' library, for example, was extensive enough for Mrs. Ives to pay one R. A. Guild to organize it and prepare a catalogue for it in 1861. Yet another interesting receipt is one for a silver snuff box, purported to have belonged to Roger Williams, which Mrs. Ives purchased for $25 on June 19, 1860 from William's descendant Sarah Congdon.
The receipts are arranged by the date of payment which is recorded on the back of the receipt, along with the name of the payee and the type of purchase. The receipts for the 1856-1857 remodeling of the 37 Power Street home are grouped together in chronological order at the beginning of the Series.