Charles Arthur Hollick records

(Charles) Arthur Hollick (1857-1933) was a Paleobotanist. He served the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) as Assistant Curator of the Garden (1901-1913), Honorary Curator of Fossil Plants (1913-1921), Paleobotanist (1921-1932) and Research Associate in Paleobotany (1932-1933). Between 1913 and 1919 he served as Director of the Public Museum of the Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences (now the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences), an organization he was instrumental in founding in 1881. He graduated from Columbia College School of Mines in 1879 and received his Ph.D. from George Washington University in 1897. He made the first paleobotanical survey of Alaska (1903). His findings are published by the U. S. Geological Survey as Professional Papers 159 and 182. He collected for the Maryland Geological Survey in 1901. This work is published in the Pliocene and Pleistocene volume of the Maryland Geological Survey (1906). He collected in New England and New Jersey with E. C. Jeffrey, of Harvard University, another life long friend. He published on the Cretaceous floras of New England for the U. S. G. S. (Monograph 50, 1906). For the general public he produced articles on Palaeobotany for the New International Encyclopaedia (1903) and the Encylopaedia Americana (1904). An expert draughtsman , he created most of the illustrations for his own and J. S. Newberry's publications. N. L. Britton credits Hollick with producing or supervising the drawings for the first “Illustrated Flora of the Northern States and Canada”

Apart from his scientific activities Dr. Hollick participated in New York City politics and government. From 1886 to 1892 he was a member of the Board of Health of New Brighton, Staten Island where he established a sewerage system and abated the smoke nuisance caused by factories in Bayonne, N.J. He was on the Board of Park Commissioners for Richmond County from 1897-1904. He helped to organize the Richmond Borough branch of the Citizens Union and worked for the election of Seth Low, President of Columbia University , to mayor in 1901. He was a member of the New York City Board of Education from 1906 to 1910.

Hollick was born in New Brighton, Staten Island on February 6, 1857. Except for periods with the U. S. G. S. in Washington, D. C. and his field trips, he lived in Port Richmond all of his life. A lifelong friend of Nathaniel Lord and Elizabeth Britton, he and Nathaniel met in 1875 when both entered the School of Mines of Columbia College. Influenced by Professor John S. Newberry and his friend John J. Crooke, they joined the Torrey Botanical Club together in 1877. Hollick was Recording Secretary of the Club from 1883 to 1888 and an Associated Editor for many years. Hollick and Britton published A Catalogue of the Plants of Richmond County in 1879, the year both graduated from the School of Mines.

In 1881 Britton and Hollick and their colleague William T. Davis became original member of the Natural Science Association of Staten Island. The specimens they collected and those of Hollick's father Dr. Frederick Hollick, an amateur geologist, formed the basis of the natural history collections of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences.

After graduation, Hollick travelled to California to be Superintendent of the Mexican Mine in Mariposa County, California. In February, 1881 he was appointed Assistant Sanitary Engineer of the Board of Health of the City of New York. He was there for 10 years, during one of the periods of greatest growth and expansion of the City. At one time as many as one thousand unfinished buildings were on his inspection list. Some of the projects he oversaw were the original Madison Square Garden, the Mills Building and the Navarro Flats.

In 1882 he, N. L. Britton and W. T. Davis had collected fossil plants in Wyoming and Colorado for Professor J. S. Newberry of Columbia College. He continued his association with Newberry, serving as a private assistant and producing the drawings of fossil plants and fishes for many of Newberry’s publications. In 1890 Newberry became ill and Hollick was appointed to fulfill Newberry’s lecture schedule. This was the beginning of his active scientific career. In 1892 he was appointed Assistant in Geology. That year, at the Lake Superior mines, he conducted the first practical field geology course in the history of the School of Mines. In 1893 his title was changed to Tutor in Geology. He gave instructions in drawing to students in courses in geology and paleontology. In 1895 he produced, posthumously, Newberry's Flora of the Amboy Clays which he edited from notes and added illustrations.

When the paleobotanical collections of Columbia University were transferred to the New York Botanical Garden in 1901, Hollick was placed in charge of them as Assistant Curator.

He spent four months in Alaska under the auspices of the U.S. Geological Survey--Division of Alaskan Mineral Resources, Reclamation Service in 1903—the first Paleobotanist to do so. With Sidney Paige, he travelled 1000 miles down the Yukon River from Dawson to Anvik collecting materials which were to occupy him for the rest of his career. He wrote two reports on this material, The Upper Cretaceous flora of Alaska, 1930 (Professional Paper 159) and The Tertiary flora of Alaska, 1936 (Professional Paper 182). He did most of his own illustrations for both works.

Hollick and the Brittons collected in Jamaica 1908. Between 1913 and 1919, Hollick served as Director of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences; although he was associated with the New York Botanical Garden as Honorary Curator of Fossil Plants.

In 1921 he rejoined the New York Botanical Garden as Paleobotanist and in 1932 his title was changed to Research Associate in Paleontology. In 1926 he was part of the expedition to Porto Rico sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences and the Government of Porto Rico. His descriptions and illustrations are published in the 7th volume of the Scientific Survey of Porto Rico.

His last expedition was to Cuba, December, 1932-Jan., 1933 where, at the age of 76, in the company of Brother Leon, he collected in every province, travelling over 1000 miles by foot, horseback and primitive conveyances. Three months later, following a brief illness, he died on March 1, 1933. His work was taken up by E. W. Berry of Johns Hopkins University.