View source for John Torrey

{{Short description|American botanist (1796–1873)}}
{{distinguish|John Tory}}
{{redirect|Torr.|other uses|Torr (disambiguation){{!}}Torr}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = John Torrey
| image             = John Torrey daguerreotype.jpeg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = [[Daguerreotype]] of John Torrey, 1840
| birth_date        = August 15, 1796
| birth_place       = [[New York City, New York]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1873|3|10|1796|8|15}}
| death_place       = [[New York City, New York]]
| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = [[United States|American]]
| ethnicity         = 
| field             = [[Botany]]<br/>[[Medicine]]<br/>[[Chemistry]]
| work_institutions = 
| alma_mater        = [[Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons]]
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = 
| author_abbrev_bot = Torr.
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| prizes            = [[United States Assay Commission]] Medal of 1874
| religion          = 
| footnotes         = 
| signature         = Appletons' Torrey John signature.png
}}
'''John Torrey''' (August 15, 1796 – March 10, 1873) was an American [[botany|botanist]], [[chemist]], and [[physician]]. Throughout much of his career, he was a teacher of chemistry, often at multiple universities, while he also pursued botanical work,<ref>Rodgers, Andrew Denny. "John Torrey: A Story of North American Botany." Princeton, 1942.</ref> focusing on the flora of North America. His most renowned works include studies of the New York flora, the Mexican Boundary, the Pacific railroad surveys, and the uncompleted ''Flora of North America''.

==Biography==
Torrey was born in [[New York City]] in 1796, the second child of Capt. William and Margaret (née Nichols) Torrey.<ref name=Robbins>Robbins, C. C. (1968). John Torrey (1796&ndash;1873), His Life & Times. ''Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club''. Vol. 95, No. Nov. 6&ndash;Dec. 1968, 515&ndash;645. Torrey Botanical Club, New York.</ref> He showed a fondness for mechanics, and at one time planned to become a machinist.<ref name=acab>{{Appletons'|wstitle=Torrey, John|year=1889|inline=1}}</ref> When he was 15 or 16, his father received an appointment to the state prison at [[Greenwich Village]], New York, where he was tutored by [[Amos Eaton]], then a prisoner and later a pioneer of [[natural history]] studies in America. He thus learned the elements of botany and something of [[mineralogy]] and [[chemistry]]. In 1815 he began studying [[medicine]] with [[Wright Post]], and qualified in 1818.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Torrey, John|volume=27|page=61}}</ref> He opened a medical practice in New York City, while devoting his leisure to botany and other scientific pursuits.<ref name=acab/>

[[File:John Torrey as a Young Man.jpg|thumb|John Torrey as a young man]]

In 1817, he became one of the founders of the New York Lyceum of Natural History (now the [[New York Academy of Science]]), and one of his first contributions to this body was his ''Catalogue of Plants growing spontaneously within Thirty Miles of the City of New York'' (Albany, 1819). Its publication gained for him the recognition of foreign and native botanists. In 1824 he issued the only volume of his ''Flora of the Northern and Middle States''.<ref name=acab/> This used John Lindley's system of classifying flora, a way of classifying that was not commonly used in the United States.

He found the medical profession uncongenial, and on August 5, 1824, he entered the [[United States Army]] as an assistant surgeon and became acting professor of chemistry and [[geology]] at [[United States Military Academy|West Point military academy]]. Three years later, he became professor of chemistry and botany in the [[College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York]] (the medical school of [[Columbia University]]), where he stayed until 1855, when he was made professor emeritus. He was also professor of chemistry at [[Princeton University|Princeton]] 1830–1854, and of chemistry, mineralogy, and botany at the [[University of the City of New York]] 1832/3. He resigned from his Army position on August 31, 1828.<ref name=acab/> In 1835, he was elected a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1835&year-max=1835&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-08|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

In 1836 he was appointed botanist to the state of New York and produced his ''Flora'' of that state in 1843; while from 1838 to 1843 he carried on the publication of the earlier portions of ''Flora of North America'', with the assistance of his pupil, [[Asa Gray]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Dupree|first=A. Hunter|year=1988|title=Asa Gray, American Botanist, Friend of Darwin|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore, MD|isbn=978-0-801-83741-8|pages=33–36}}</ref> From 1853 he was chief assayer to the United States assay office in New York City when that office was established, but he continued to take an interest in botanical teaching until his death.<ref name="EB1911"/> He was frequently consulted by the treasury department on matters pertaining to the coinage and currency, and was sent on special missions at various times to visit the different mints. He was elected an Associate Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1856.<ref name=acab/><ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter T|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterT.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=April 15, 2011}}</ref>

In 1856, Torrey was chosen a trustee of [[Columbia College of Columbia University|Columbia College]], and in 1860, having presented the college with his herbarium, numbering about 50,000 specimens, he was made emeritus professor of chemistry and botany. On the consolidation of the [[New York College of Physicians and Surgeons|College of Physicians and Surgeons]] with Columbia in 1860, he was chosen one of its trustees. His advice was frequently sought on scientific subjects by various corporations.<ref name=acab/>

He was the first president of the [[Torrey Botanical Society|Torrey Botanical Club]] in 1873.
Besides being the last surviving charter member of the Lyceum of Natural History, he held its vice presidency for several years, and was president in 1824–26 and 1838, holding the same office in the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] in 1855, and he was one of the original members of the [[National Academy of Sciences]] of the United States, being named as such by act of the [[United States Congress]] in 1863. The degree of [[Master of Arts|A.M.]] was conferred on him by [[Yale University|Yale]] in 1823, and that of [[LL.D.]] by [[Amherst College|Amherst]] in 1845.<ref name=acab/>

[[File:John Torrey 1869.jpg|thumb|John Torrey in 1869]]

Torrey died at his home in New York City on March 10, 1873; he was buried in the family plot at Long Hill Cemetery, [[Stirling, New Jersey]].<ref name=Robbins/>

===Private life===
Torrey married Eliza Shaw on April 20, 1824; they had three daughters and a son, Herbert, who became United States Assayer.<ref name=Robbins/>

==Publications==
Torrey's earliest publications in the ''[[American Journal of Science]]'' are on mineralogy. In 1820, he undertook the examination of the plants that had been collected around the headwaters of the Mississippi by [[David Bates Douglass|David B. Douglass]]. During the same year, he received the collections made by [[Edwin James (scientist)|Edwin James]] while with the expedition that was sent out to the [[Rocky Mountains]] under Major [[Stephen H. Long]]. His report was the earliest treatise of its kind in the United States that was arranged on the natural system. Torrey, in the meantime, had planned ''A Flora of the Northern and Middle United States, or a Systematic Arrangement and Description of all the Plants heretofore discovered in the United States North of Virginia'', and in 1824 began its publication in parts, but it was soon suspended owing to the general adoption of the natural system of [[Antoine Laurent de Jussieu]] in place of that of [[Carl Linnaeus]]. In 1836, on the organization of the geological survey of New York, he was appointed botanist, and required to prepare a flora of the state. His report, consisting of two quarto volumes, was issued in 1843, and was for a long time the most comprehensive for any state in the United States. In 1838, he began with Asa Gray ''The Flora of North America'', which was issued in numbers irregularly until 1843, when they had completed the ''[[Compositae]]'', but new botanical material accumulated at such a rapid rate that it was deemed best to discontinue it.<ref name=acab/>

Subsequently, Torrey published reports on the plants that were collected by [[John C. Frémont]] in the expedition to the Rocky Mountains (1845), those gathered by Major [[William H. Emory]] on his reconnaissance from [[Fort Leavenworth, Kansas]], to [[San Diego, California]] (1848), the specimens secured by Captain [[Howard Stansbury]] on his expedition to the [[Great Salt Lake]] of [[Utah]] (1852), the plants collected by John C. Frémont in California (1853), those brought back from the [[Red River of the South|Red River]] of [[Louisiana]] by Captain [[Randolph B. Marcy]] (1853), and the botany of Captain [[Lorenzo Sitgreaves]]'s expedition to the [[Zuni River|Zuni]] and [[Colorado River]]s (1854), also memoirs on the botany of the various expeditions for the purpose of determining the most practicable route for a Pacific Railroad (1855–1860).<ref name=acab/>

He reported on the ''Botany of the Mexican Boundary Survey'' (1859), that of the expedition upon the [[Colorado River]] under Lieutenant [[Joseph C. Ives]] (1861), and, in association with Asa Gray, the botanical collections of the Wilkes exploring expedition. The last was in his hands at the time of his death, its publication having been delayed by the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref name=acab/>

His bibliography is extensive, including contributions on botanical subjects to scientific periodicals and to the transactions of the societies of which he was a member.<ref name=acab/>

==Plant taxa named by Torrey==
{{Main|Category: Taxa named by John Torrey}}
{{botanist|Torr.|Torrey, John}}

==Legacy==

[[File:John Torrey Bas Relief.jpg|thumb|Bas relief portrait of John Torrey]]

Torrey's name is commemorated in the small [[coniferous]] genus ''[[Torreya]]'', found in North America, [[China]] and [[Japan]]. Some species within this genus include:
* [[Torreya taxifolia|''T. taxifolia'']], a native of [[Florida]], is known as the '''Florida torreya''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile?symbol=TOTA|title = USDA Plants Database}}</ref> or '''stinking-cedar'''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usbg.gov/plants/stinking-cedar|title=Stinking cedar &#124; United States Botanic Garden|access-date=June 15, 2016|archive-date=April 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417172921/https://www.usbg.gov/plants/stinking-cedar|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Torreya californica|''T. californica'']], also known as '''California nutmeg'''<ref>{{PLANTS|id=TOCA|taxon=Torreya californica|access-date=December 11, 2015}}</ref> or '''California torreya''' (although not closely related to true [[nutmeg]]). 
* [[Torreya nucifera|''T. nucifera'']], a [[Pinophyta|coniferous]] [[tree]] native to southern [[Japan]] and to [[South Korea]]'s [[Jeju Island]]
* [[Torreya grandis|''T. grandis'']], a conifer endemic to eastern and south-eastern China.

[[Torrey Pine|''P. torreyana'']] an endangered species from southern [[California]], is also named after the botanist. Torrey first described the carnivorous plant ''[[Darlingtonia californica]]'', which he named after his friend Dr. William Darlington.<ref>"An Obituary Notice of Dr. William Darlington." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 9.70 (1863): 330-42. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/982152]</ref> Torrey Canyon in [[Ventura County]], California,[http://california.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,1,fid,274168,n,torrey%20canyon.cfm] was named for him, as was [[Torreys Peak]] in Colorado, near [[Grays Peak]], named after his pupil and friend [[Asa Gray]].<ref name="peaks">{{cite book|pages=142, 302|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yL8nAAAAYAAJ&q=gray+peak+new+york+name+for+asa+gray&pg=RA2-PA142|publisher=United States Geological Survey|location=Washington, DC|last=Gannett|first=Henry|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|volume=258|edition=2|year=1905}}</ref>

A bronze [[Relief|bas-relief]] portrait of Torrey is mounted in the main building of the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of [[Columbia University]], a former site of Dr. Torrey's summer home.<ref>"John Torrey (1796-1873) His Life and Times." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 95.6 (1968): 515-645. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2483657]</ref> A similar portrait is owned by the [[Brooklyn Botanic Garden]]. In 2017, the [[Torrey Botanical Society]], started by colleagues of John Torrey, celebrated its 150th birthday. It is the oldest botanical society in the Americas.

[[Torreys Peak]], a fourteen thousand foot mountain in Colorado, was named for Torrey.

==References==
{{Reflist|26em}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* {{wikisource author-inline}}
{{commons category|John Torrey|A Flora of the State of New York}}
* Torrey, John. [http://purl.org/net/nysl/nysdocs/35836564 A Flora of the State of New-York, comprising full descriptions of all the indigenous and naturalized plants hitherto discovered in the State; with remarks on their economical and medicinal properties.] Albany: Carroll and Cook, Printers to the Assembly, 1843. A two-volume set with color plates, digitized by the [[New York State Library]].
*The [http://www.nybg.org/library/finding_guide/archv/torrey_ppb.html#a3 John Torrey Papers] at the [http://www.nybg.org/library/archives.php Archive of the New York Botanical Garden] (includes correspondence, letters, manuscripts and artwork) 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110716220940/http://via.lib.harvard.edu/via/deliver/deepLinkItem?recordId=olvwork96162&componentId=FMUS:27519 1840 Photograph of Torrey] @ Harvard University Library
* {{Find a Grave|8306740}}

==Additional publications online==
*''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/27667 Botanic contributions relating to the flora of western North America] &#91;by&#93; Gray, Engelmann, Torrey &#91;and&#93; Frémont'' (1843–53)
*[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/27716 ''A compendium of the flora of the northern and middle states, containing generic and specific descriptions of all the plants, exclusive of the cryptogamia, hitherto found in the United States, north of the Potomac''] (1826)
*''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/5810 A flora of North America :containing abridged descriptions of all the known indigenous and naturalized plants growing north of Mexico, arranged according to the natural system] by John Torrey and Asa Gray'' (1838–1843) Two volumes.
*[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/31948 ''An introduction to the natural system of botany''] (1831) With John Lindley.
*[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/15291 ''On the Darlingtonia californica, a new pitcher-plant from northern California''] by John Torrey (1853)
*''Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey: made under the direction of the secretary of the Interior'' by William H. Emory, major First Cavalry, and United States commissioner (1857–1859) [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/6064 Part 1] / [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/44522 Part 2] Torrey et al.

{{Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science}}
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[[Category:American taxonomists]]
[[Category:1796 births]]
[[Category:1873 deaths]]
[[Category:American mycologists]]
[[Category:American bryologists]]
[[Category:American pteridologists]]
[[Category:Botanists active in California]]
[[Category:Botanists active in North America]]
[[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations]]
[[Category:Torrey Botanical Society members|.]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Columbia University people]]
[[Category:United States Military Academy faculty]]
[[Category:19th-century American botanists]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science]]