William T. Stearn

William Thomas Stearn
Born 16 April 1911
Cambridge
Died 9 May 2001 (2001-05-10) (aged 90)
London
Institutions Lindley Library, Natural History Museum
Education Cambridge High School for Boys
Known for Botanical taxonomy, History of botany, Botanical Latin
Notable awards Linnean Society Gold Medal (1976), Commander of the Swedish Order of the Star of the North (1980), Engler gold medal (1993), CBE (1997), Asa Gray Award (2000)
Spouse Eldwyth Ruth Alford

William Thomas Stearn CBE (/stɜːrn/; 16 April 1911 – 8 May 2001) was a British botanist known for his expertise on the history of botany and in the classical languages. His work is widely read, with his etymological dictionary of Latin names of garden plants likely the best-known of the works appearing under his own name. Among botanists his Botanical Latin, now in its fourth edition (1992), is a standard reference.

Life

William Stearn was born at 37 Springfield Road, Chesterton, Cambridge, England on April 16, 1911, the eldest of four sons, to Thomas Stearn (1871/2–1922), a coachman, and Ellen (Nellie) his wife (née Kiddy 1886–1986) of West Suffolk.[1] Despite lacking any family background in biology he developed a keen interest in natural history and books at an early age. He attended Cambridge High School for Boys, and while there managed to obtain a position as a part-time research assistant at the Department of Botany, Cambridge University. However, he was largely self-educated, his widowed mother being unable to afford a university education for him. He attended evening classes to develop his linguistic skills, particularly the classics and obtained his first employment at the age of 18 as an apprentice antiquarian bookseller at Bowes & Bowes bookstore in Cambridge.[2] In 1940 he married Eldwyth Ruth Alford, by whom he had a son and two daughters, and who collaborted with him on some of his work. He died in London on May 9, 2001[3][4]

Work

Entrance to Linnean Society

While working at the bookstore he continued his research, visiting the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in 1930, at the age of 19 to study Epimedium, the subject of a later publication, a monograph of the genus (1938).[5][6] By then he had already published his first paper in 1929, on Campanula pusilla (Campanula cochleariifolia).[7]

He became the Librarian at the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library in London from 1933–1952, having been "discovered" at the Cambridge bookstore by the horticulturalist E. A. Bowles at the age of 22.[8] The only break from this employment was the war years 1941–1946, when he served with the Royal Air Force both in England and in Asia. From the Lindley Library, he moved to the British Museum of Natural History and when he retired in 1976, he was the Senior Principal Scientific Officer at the Department of Botany there. Following his retirement he continued to work, both at the Museum and at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.[2][4] Just before his death he completed a revision of his original Epimedium monograph.[9]

He was the author of over 480 publications.[7][10][lower-alpha 1] While his genus monographs largely concentrated on Mediterranean flora, he was also the author of species articles both popular and technical as well as a number of classical treatises.[4] While his output covered a wide range of topics, he is best known for his contributions to botanical history and the publication of his Botanical Latin (4 editions 1966–1992).[11] The latter has been described as akin to the bible of taxonomists.[4] One of his best known contributions to the history of botany is his extensive introduction to the Ray Society's edition of Linnaeus' Species plantarum (1957)[12] and his introductions and commentaries on many classic botanical texts.[13] He also had an interest in the history of botanical illustration, collaborating with the art historian Wilfrid Blunt and summarised in their 1950 Art of Botanical Illustration.[14][15][16][17] He collaborated with his wife in translating German botanical history into English.[18]

He was a member of the Linnean Society (named after the 18th-century Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus) for many years, becoming a fellow as early as 1934, serving on the Council 1959–1963 and as Vice-President 1961–1962 and President 1979–1982.[7][2]

Awards

William Stearn received three honorary doctorates during his lifetime, from Cambridge, Leiden and Uppsala. In 1976 the Linnean Society awarded him their gold medal (now the Linnean medal) for his work on Linnaeus, and the made a Commander of the Swedish Order of the Star of the North (Polar Star) in 1980. In 1993 he received the Engler gold medal. In 2000 he received the Asa Gray Award, the highest honor of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.[4] He was appointed CBE in 1997.[3]

Legacy

Stearn is considered amongst the most eminent British botanists, and has been compared to botanists of the past including Robert Brown, Darwin, the Hookers (William and Joseph),[3] and described as "the modern Linnaeus".[8] Amongst other epithets, Stearn has been described as "The Complete Naturalist".[19][20]

407 taxa bear his name as a botanical authority.[21] In the light of his work on Epimedium, the RHS has named a cultivar after him, Epimedium 'William Stearn'.[22][6]

Selected publications

Books

Articles

Notes

  1. Publications are numbered consecutively from 1 (1929) to 437 (1991), a further list from 1992–1997 exists only as a typed manuscript[4]
  2. Notes on the flowers represented in the plates, by P. M. Synge, The romance of the flower book, by S. Sitwell, The illustrators of the great flower books, by W. Blunt, An introduction to the bibliography, by P. M. Synge, The bibliography, by W. T. Stearn, Sabine Wilson, and Handasyde Buchanan, with a foreword by S. Dillon Ripley [23]
  3. About the Natural History Museum, London

References

Bibliography

Stearn bibliography

Works by Stearn

External links

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