In the 1940's, while many minds were focused on the events of World War II, Paul Hamilton Allen (1911 – 1963) was in the field studying tropical botany in Panama and Colombia. Passionate about Central America and tropical botany, Allen first managed the Missouri Botanical Garden's research station then later served as superintendent of the Canal Zone Experimental Station. This field book documents over 2,300 specimens he collected from 1941 through 1947. Please help us transcribe this set of his field notes.
Difficulty: medium. Some specimens listed by scientific name.
In the 1940's, while many minds were focused on the events of World War II, Paul Hamilton Allen (1911 – 1963) was in the field studying tropical botany in Panama and Colombia. Passionate about Central American botany, Allen first managed the Missouri Botanical Garden's research station then later served as superintendent of the Canal Zone Experimental Station. This field book documents over 2,300 specimens he collected from 1941 through 1947. Please help us transcribe this set of his field notes.
Difficulty: medium. Some specimens listed by scientific name.
Paul Hamilton Allen was born August 29, 1911 in Enid, Oklahoma. His interest in botany developed early. He was a student apprentice with the Missouri Botanical Garden and later a student assistant and botanical collector in Panama for staff members C. W. Dodge and Julian Steyermark. Allen spent much of his subsequent career living and working in Central America, first managing the Missouri Botanical Garden’s tropical research station, and later as the superintendent of the Canal Zone Experimental Station at Summit. He would go on to work for the United Fruit Company in several capacities including at their research department and as the director of their Lancetilla Experimental Station.
