[Photo Album]: Botanist Nature Photography

Oblong quarto measuring 10" x 7". Black leather over stiff paper boards. Contains 100 sepia-toned or black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 2" x 2" and 5" x 7" without captions. Very good album with worn edges and rubbing with near fine photographs. A photo album compiled by botanist Abel Joel Grout, often referred to as "A.J.", in the 1940s. The album features landscapes and nature scenes from Grout's travels. A few of the images bare his stamp on the verso and a short caption, though not many. One of these reads, "a vista over the mountain Summit." Grout includes images of animals he encountered such as small reptiles and deer, as well as close up images of plants he was studying. Many of the images are well-composed and were most likely used in publications of Grout's findings and for his scientific journal articles. Grout is seen in a few of the photos, one of which shows him picking fruit from a tree; in another he appears to be surveying a field. Many of these photos appear to be of Florida and show palms and plants native to the state. Later in the album Grout appears with a group of men on horses during a mountain trip. Of note are the images of mosses, Grout's primary area of expertise. According to a small pamphlet from the Torrey Botanical Club featured here, Grout was born in Vermont in 1867. His time in the Green Mountain region sparked his interest in plants, especially mosses. In 1890 he graduated from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor's of Philosophy and later received his Doctorate in Philosophy in 1897 from Columbia University. He went on to teach at various schools to earn money for furthering his plant studies. Eventually he studied the moss genus Brachythecium Elizabeth Gertrude Britton after switching from studies of marine algae. His love of mosses never ceased and he pursued the study of them "ambitiously," founding the Sullivant Moss Society with Britton and *The Bryologist* newsletter in 1898. Throughout his lifetime he wrote numerous books on the subject including *Mosses with a Hand-lens and Microscope*, *Mosses of North America and North of Mexico*, And *North American Flora*, among others. His organization appointments included a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, President of the Florida Botanical Garden Association, and Honorary Curator of Mosses at the New York Botanical Garden. Grout passed away in Florida 1947. An interesting collection of images taken by a prominent botanist in the 1940s.…