Per Axel Rydberg
Per Axel Rydberg ( born July 6, 1860 in Od, Västergötland, † July 25, 1931 in New York City ) was a Swedish botanist and the first curator of the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Rydb. ".
Life
Per Axel Rydberg was born in the Swedish Od on July 6, 1860, son of Ernest Adolf Fredrik and Thekla Elfrida ( born Otterström ) Rydberg. He attended the Royal Grammar School in Skara.
1882 Rydberg migrated from Sweden to the United States to initially working in Michigan in iron ore mines. His goal is to get through this work a job as an engineer in the mining industry, he could not reach due to a serious accident. In 1884 he started studying at the University of Nebraska, at the same time he also taught mathematics at the Luther Academy in Wahoo. During this time he developed under the influence of Professor Charles Edwin Bessey his interest in botany.
Shortly after 1891, he received his bachelor 's degree, he explored with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture to the West Nebraska, followed by further expeditions to the Black Hills in South Dakota ( 1892) and the Sandhills of Nebraska in the West (1893 ). In 1895 he received from the University of Nebraska his degree as master. Another expedition, this time in Montana and the publication of a monograph on the rose -like ( Rosales ) for the Flora of Nebraska were the last activities at this university.
From the autumn of 1895 Rydberg worked at Columbia University in New York under the direction of Nathaniel Lord Britton on his dissertation. Other expeditions have taken him to that time again to Montana and in Yellowstone National Park; Authority here was the New York Botanical Garden. The doctorate was awarded Rydberg 1898, the title of his dissertation is Monograph of the North American Potentilleae.
Beginning of 1899, when he edited the herbarium specimens collected during his recent expeditions, presented the botanical garden at his first nine permanent employees, including Rydberg belonged. First, his job was designated as assistant curator, from 1908 until his death he was the curator of the herbarium. Even as an employee of the Botanical Garden, he participated in a number of expeditions to the botanical exploration of the United States, including in southeastern Colorado, Utah, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and South and North Dakota. An expedition in 1929, which should lead him to Kansas and Minnesota, had to be canceled due to an illness.
Rydberg married his wife Alfrida Amanda on November 11, 1903 in New York, and together they had four children: Arthur, Alfred, Elsa Margreta, Lilly Irene and Linea Astrid. Rydberg died on July 25, 1931 in New York.
Awards and Affiliations
Rydberg was elected in 1896 as Member of the Torrey Botanical Club. Since 1900 he was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the following year he was elected a Fellow of that organization. The Botanical Society of America appointed him in 1901 to Associate. In 1907 he became a member of the American Geographical Society and the Ecological Society of America.