Marshall Avery Howe papers

Marshall Avery Howe was born in Newfane, Vermont on June 6th, 1867. The eldest of 5 children he was named after his father Marshall Otis Howe and his maternal grandfather Avery Joseph Dexter and was insistent on using his full name. Marshall Avery Howe graduated from the University of Vermont in 1890, where he was room mated with his life long friend Dr. Abel Grout. On leaving college, Howe taught for a year in the Brattleboro High School but left in the summer of 1891 to become an Instructor in Cryptogamic Botany at the University of California at Berkeley. At the end of the 1895-96 college year, Howe resigned to accept a fellowship at Columbia University where he studied Hepaticae with Lucien Underwood. He received his Ph.D from Columbia in 1898 and from 1898 to 1901 was Curator of the University Herbarium. During this time, the plans for the creation of the New York Botanical Garden were materializing and the Columbia University Herbarium was deposited at the NYBG. In 1901 Howe became a member of the NYBG scientific staff and in 1906 became curator. From 1901 until his death in 1936, Howe was associated with the NYBG being appointed Assistant Director in 1923 and Director in 1935 after the resignation of Elmer Drew Merrill.

During his 35 year association with the New York Botanical Garden, Marshall Avery Howe served as a plant collector, participating in numerous expeditions, he arranged exhibits, he distributed plant specimens primarily of algae and hepaticae, he was a taxonomist, a morphologist, an editor, an administrator as well as an expert on, and cultivator of dahlias and other ornamental plants. His work was done meticulously, with insight and thoroughness.

His home life was quiet and dignified. He made his home in Pleasantville, New York where he was an active member of the "Garden Club", and served as secretary and later President of the Board of Trustees of the Pleasantville Free Library. He lectured frequently at the local Men's club of Pleasantville and at numerous other venues. He married Edith Morton Packard in 1909 and had two children Gertrude Dexter Howe and Prentiss Mellen Howe.