Anna Murray Vail papers
Scope and Contents
The Anna Murray Vail Papers document the botanical career of Ms. Vail, especially as it pertained to her research in the Asclepiadaceae and Leguminosae families. The collection contains some correspondence, research papers, manuscripts and field notebooks. The papers are arranged in three series.
Dates
- 1892-1905
Biographical / Historical
Anna Murray Vail (1863-1955) was born 1863 in New York City. She was educated in Europe and later became a student of Nathaniel Lord Britton. In 1896 she donated her Herbarium which consisted of 3000 specimens, mostly from Eastern United States, to the New York Botanical Garden. Ms. Vail was a member of the Torrey Botanical club and was active in the movement to found the New York Botanical Garden. She studied the taxonomy of Leguminosae and Asclepiadaceae.
In 1900 she became the first Librarian of NYBG where she stayed until 1907. After resigning her post she went to France where she lived through two World Wars. She was active in The American Fund for French Wounded (1915-1919) which was founded to further the relief efforts of American women during WWI.
While in France, she had acquired a house in Hericy and remained active in Library work until her health failed her. By 1952 she had become blind and she died in 1955 at the age of 92.
Extent
0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)
Language of Materials
English
Other Finding Aids
Separated Materials
Field Notebooks have been removed from the main collection.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Susan Fraser
- Date
- July 1999
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Originally processed by Susan Fraser, NYBG Archivist, July 1999, with grant funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities. (NEH-PA 23141-98). Converted to EAD in July 2006 by Kathleene Konkle under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH-PA 50678-04).
Revision Statements
- July 2006: Converted to EAD by Kathleene Konkle.
Repository Details
Part of the New York Botanical Garden, Mertz Archives Repository
New York Botanical Garden, Mertz Library
2900 Southern Boulevard
Bronx NY 10458 United States
ssinon@nybg.org