John Kunkel Small

For other people named John Small, see John Small (disambiguation).

John Kunkel Small
circa. 1900
Born	(1869-01-31)January 31, 1869
Died	January 20, 1938(1938-01-20) (aged 68)
Alma mater	Franklin & Marshall College Columbia University
Scientific career
Fields	Botany
Institutions	New York Botanical Garden
Author abbrev. (botany)	Small

John Kunkel Small (January 31, 1869 – January 20, 1938) was an American botanist. He studied plants in the southeastern United States and wrote a book about the deterioration of habitats in Florida.

Born on January 31, 1869, in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Small studied botany at Franklin & Marshall College and Columbia University.

Family of John Kunkel Small in the Florida Everglades near Lake Okeechobee aboard the boat "Lida", 1913. Small frequently brought his family with him on his botanical and ethnographic excursions. From left to right: George K. Small, Kathryn Wheeler Small, Elizabeth Wheeler Small, Elizabeth Small, and John Wheeler Small.

He was the first Curator of Museums at The New York Botanical Garden, a post in which he served from 1898 until 1906. It was mainly at that time of his life when he issued several exsiccatae, among others the series Mosses of the Southern United States, distributed from the Herbarium of Columbia College by John K. Small (1897). From 1906 to 1934 he was Head Curator, and then from 1934 until his death, he was Chief Research Associate and Curator. Small's doctoral dissertation, published as Flora of the Southeastern United States in 1903, and revised in 1913 and 1933, is a detailed floristic reference for much of the South. Assisted by the patronage of Charles Deering, Small traveled extensively around Florida recording plants and land formations.

Small was an early botanical explorer of Florida, documenting many species for the first time, although the flora and fauna were well known to the local Seminole Indians. His first trip to the region was in 1901. Over the next 37 years, Small visited many times "to collect specimens, to study the natural history of the region, and to photograph natural landscapes, tropical plants, Seminoles and other local folk". Small explored by both car and boat, often bringing along his wife Elizabeth, and their two boys and two girls.

"Small's botanical research was recorded in 450 published works, mostly articles, and numerous unpublished typescripts. Among his most well-known publications is the book From Eden to Sahara: Florida's Tragedy, which received acclaim in 1929 for documenting the severe deterioration of south Florida's botanical resources that he had observed up to that time."

References

Citations

Sources

• Core, Earl L. (1938), "John Kunkel Small", Castanea, 3:27-28.
• Austin, Daniel F. et al. The Florida of John Kunkel Small. Bronx, NY: The New York Botanical Garden, 1987. ISBN 0-89327-318-X.

Bibliography

• Small, John Kunkel (1903). Flora of the Southeastern United States. New York: The author. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
• Small, John Kunkel (1913). Flora of the Southeastern United States (2nd ed.). New York: The author. Retrieved 3 March 2023.

External links

• John K. Small Collection: 2,135 images of South Florida 1901-1938