The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Thurber, George

THURBER, George, American naturalist and writer: b. Providence, R. I., 2 Sept. 1821; d. Passaic, N. J., 2 April 1890. He was educated at the classical and engineering school at Providence; he became a pharmacist and a lecturer on chemistry, finally securing an appointment (1850) with the commission to settle the boundary between the United States and Mexico. He made an important collection of plants and on his return to Providence was given the degree of A.M. by Brown University. He secured an appointment in the Assay Office in New York, lectured on botany in Cooper Institute and on botany and materia medica in The New York College of Pharmacy. Later he occupied the chair of botany and horticulture in the Michigan College of Agriculture but returned again to New York and to lecture at the College of Pharmacy and finally became editor of the American Agriculturist for 24 years. In 1880 he visited Europe. He was life member of the Royal Horticultural Society, life member of the American Pomological Society, an active member of the New York Academy of Sciences and corresponding member of the Philadelphia Academy. His collection of Western plants is in the Gray Herbarium at Harvard.