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Arthur Johnson Eames was a great influence on the botanical world, mainly through his efforts to encourage the development of comparative morphology. |
| Arthur J. Eames was born on October 10, 1881 in South Framingham,
Massachusetts. He worked for five years after high school for a group of civil
engineers building an aqueduct to service Boston. Later he attended Harvard
University and received a bachelor's degree in 1908, a master's degree in 1910, and a
Ph.D. in 1912. After graduation, Eames began a position at Cornell University.
He started in the College of Arts and Sciences but a year later was convinced by
Karl Wiegand to take a position in the College of Agriculture within its new Department of
Botany. His career at Cornell would span 37 years of teaching and 20 years as
professor emeritus. Having taught anatomy and morphology for years, it was not a surprise that Eames would focus his work on the vascular anatomy of the flower and its implications for analyzing relationships of angiosperms. To further this idea, Eames was able periodically to take time off from teaching to travel and collect. He spent much time travelling to various parts of the world. Several trips coincided with the International Botanical Congresses at which he often presented papers. Much of his plant collecting gave him evidence to propose his many theories on plant classifications and in which groups various plants belonged. In addition to his teaching and travelling, Eames authored and co-authored books of substantial importance. In 1925, Eames published The Flora of the Cayuga Lake Basin with Karl Wiegand as co-author, a work of significant value to botany courses taught within the region. Next came An Introduction to Plant Anatomy, co-authored by Lawrence H. MacDaniels, also published in 1925. This became a ground-breaking work for both teaching and research. In addition to these publications, Eames wrote the Morphology of Angiosperms in 1961, the crowning touch to a lifetime of work.
For further information please see: Wilde, Mary H. 1970. Arthur Johnson Eames, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 67-72.
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