Frederick Andrews Walpole

Last updated
Frederick Andrews Walpole00.jpg
Lupinus minimus Lupinus minimus FAWalpole.jpg
Lupinus minimus

Frederick Andrews Walpole (17 January 1861 Port Douglas, Essex County, New York - 11 May 1904 California) was a botanical illustrator employed by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Walpole's documented life is fragmentary. In 1871 his family relocated to Chicago where Frederick studied under an artist named Sloan, possibly Junius R. Sloan (1827–1900), a landscape and portrait painter of the period. In 1882 Walpole left Chicago and journeyed by rail to Southern Oregon to acquire land for a homestead. One of his journals records that on arriving at Redding, California in the Sacramento Valley on 22 March, he found the stage fare of $36.00 to Jacksonville beyond his means. He accordingly freighted his luggage ahead and walked the 177 miles remaining. After combing the area, he settled on land near the present town of Trail in the Crater Lake region.

Walpole's known journals do not cover the period 1884 to 1899, but it is known that Walpole's family settled in Portland, Oregon. where, In 1886 Frederick found employment as illustrator at the Lewis & Dryden Printing Company. In 1891/2 he made the acquaintance of an English girl who was visiting in Oregon and duly married her in England in 1893. Their only child, Sidney, was born in 1894. In 1898 Walpole's wife was struck down by typhoid fever while in Washington, D.C., as was he in May 1904 in California. Walpole's work drew the attention of Frederick Vernon Coville (1867–1937) in 1896. Coville was a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) botanist and herbarium curator, who at that time was in Oregon documenting plants found useful by the Klamath Indians. Encouraged by Coville, Walpole applied for the position of artist at USDA's Division of Botany, and was duly appointed on 19 September. His journals record his going on botanical field trips, drawing, botanising, and collecting specimens of plants which he readily identified by their Latin names. In Walpole's obituary it is noted that the Victorian polymath John Ruskin (1819–1900) was a favorite author of his and quite likely inspired and influenced him. [1]

Walpole's workplace as a botanical illustrator was initially in Washington, D.C., at the USDA, and after November 1902 at the National Museum - he also went on field trips to the Northwest. His journals for the period 1900–1903 dealt with his work in Washington, D.C., and his expeditions across the country, as well as two trips to Alaska in 1900 and 1901. He also kept details of railroad timetables and shipping schedules, descriptions of terrain, weather reports, his movements and work carried out, and meticulous records of his finances, detailing the purchase of newspapers and magazines, even of toothpicks and a tip to an urchin of one cent.

He also kept notes on his lively social life, recording visits to family and friends, birthdays and holidays and attendance at science lectures, music recitals, frequent visits to Washington's Corcoran Gallery, the Congress and the Library of Congress, church (Unitarian, if available, but Greek Orthodox in Alaska). A span of the journals from November 1902 to January 1903 listed the following activities: two visits to Zoological Park; showing his own pictures (along with Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the famous bird artist, and Charles Robert Knight, the animal artist) at an American Ornithological Union meeting; lecture by Robert Peary on his arctic work; Jane Addams' lecture at Congregational Church; recital by Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink; Corcoran Gallery exhibition; visit to Library of Congress; lecture on wingless birds; another on protective coloring; another on Martinique; reading Owen Wister's The Virginian; meeting of the Folk Lore society; reception of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; music recital at Unitarian Church; Hagenbeck's Trained Animal Show; ping pong party across the street. Considering that he was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Geographic Society and the Biological Society of Washington, we might say that Frederick Walpole was a man firmly devoted to the American virtue of participation and self-improvement.

— Hunt Institute

His journal records on the Alaska trips painted quite a different picture: Walpole concentrating on his work, enjoying spectacles of glaciers and mountains, recording details of natives and fellow travelers, and affording an insight into the man.

Related Research Articles

Sam Keith (1921–2003) was an American author. His most notable work was the 1973 best seller One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey, in which he edited and expanded on the journals of his friend Richard Proenneke's solo experiences in Alaska to create an Alaskan classic. In 2014, Keith's formerly lost manuscript First Wilderness: My Quest in the Territory of Alaska was published.

Harriman Alaska expedition

The Harriman Alaska expedition explored the coast of Alaska for two months from Seattle to Alaska and Siberia and back again in 1899. It was organized by wealthy railroad magnate Edward Harriman. Harriman brought with him an elite community of scientists, artists, photographers, and naturalists to explore and document the Alaskan coast.

Samuel Freeman Miller

Samuel Freeman Miller was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court who served from 1862 to 1890. He was a physician and lawyer.

Corcoran School of the Arts and Design

The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC. Founded in 1878, the school is housed in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the oldest private cultural institution in Washington, located on The Ellipse, facing the White House. The Corcoran School is part of GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and was formerly an independent college, until 2014.

John Jeffrey was a Scottish botanist and plant-hunter active in the United States.

José Mariano Mociño Suárez Lozano, or simply José Mariano Mociño, was a naturalist from New Spain.

Frederick Vernon Coville American botanist

Frederick Vernon Coville was an American botanist who participated in the Death Valley Expedition (1890-1891), was honorary curator of the United States National Herbarium (1893-1937), worked at then was Chief botanist of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and was the first director of the United States National Arboretum. He made contribution to economic botany and helped shape American scientific policy of the time on plant and exploration research.

George Vasey (botanist)

George S. Vasey was an English-born American botanist who collected a lot in Illinois before integrating the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he became Chief Botanist and curator of the greatly expanded National Herbarium.

John Bernhard Leiberg

John Bernhard Leiberg was a Swedish-American botanical explorer, forester, and bryologist. He was aself-taught naturalist who worked in the northwestern United States.

<i>Sagittaria cuneata</i> Species of aquatic plant

Sagittaria cuneata is a species of flowering plant in the water plantain family known by the common name arumleaf arrowhead or duck potato. Like some other Sagittaria species, it may be called wapato. It is native to much of North America, including most of Canada as well as the western and northeastern United States.

Mary Agnes Chase American botanist and botanical illustrator

Mary Agnes Chase (1869–1963) was an American botanist who specialized in agrostology, the study of grasses. Although lacking formal education past elementary school, Chase was able to rise through the ranks as a botanist at the United States Department of Agriculture, beginning as an illustrator under the tutelage of Albert Spear Hitchcock and eventually becoming a senior botanist, overseeing the USDA's Systematic Agrostology department. Chase conducted fieldwork abroad in Europe and South America and published several books, including the First Book of Grasses: The Structure of Grasses Explained for Beginners, which was later translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Additionally, Chase was recognized for her work as an agrostologist with numerous awards, including a Certificate of Merit issued by the Botanical Society of America in 1956. Chase was also an active suffragist and took part in demonstrations organized by the Silent Sentinels, a group established by members of the National Woman's Party. Although Chase's participation in this movement was not always well-received by her peers in the scientific community, she nevertheless remained committed to the cause of women's suffrage.

Elmer Ivan Applegate was an American botanist. The standard author abbreviation Applegate is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

Harold Frederick Comber ALS was an English horticulturist and plant collector who was to specialise in the study of lilies Lilium sp. The eldest child of three, and only son of James and Ethel Comber, he was born at Nymans, Staplefield, Sussex, where his father was Head Gardener. He was educated at Handcross Council School until aged 12, when he entered Ardingly College for two years. He did not excel academically, failing his Oxford Local examinations, but was noted for his keen powers of observation and a retentive memory.

May Wilson Preston

Mary (May) Wilson Watkins Preston was an American illustrator of books and magazines and an impressionist painter. She had an interest in art beginning in her teenage years, but her parents sent her to Oberlin College hoping that she would develop another interest. After three years, and at the urging of one of her teachers, Preston's parents allowed her to return to New York and attend the Art Students League. She then studied in Paris with James Whistler and next at the New York School of Art with William Merritt Chase.

James Marion Shull (1872–1948) was an American botanist known for his iris and daylily cultivars and botanical illustrations.

Deborah Griscom Passmore American botanical illustrator

Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840–1911) was a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who specialized in paintings of fruit. Her work is now preserved in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection, and she has been called the best of the early USDA artists. She rose to lead the USDA staff artists, and she became the most prolific of the group, contributing one-fifth of the 7500 paintings in the Pomological Watercolor Collection.

Elsie Lower Pomeroy American painter

Elsie Lower Pomeroy (1882-1971) was an artist most closely associated with the American Scene Painting movement and specifically California Regionalism or California Scene Painting. She was also one of a small group of botanical illustrators who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the early 20th century.

Regina Olson Hughes (1895–1993) was an American scientific illustrator in Botanical Art. Born February 1, 1895 in Herman, Nebraska, she became fascinated with the world of plants and flowers. Her parents were Gilbert and Johanna (Sullivan) Olson. At age 10, she contracted scarlet fever and her hearing slowly diminished until she became fully deaf at age 14. In order for her to communicate with her peers, she relied on lip reading and written notes for business work. Hughes retained her speech skills and continued to speak fluently throughout her adulthood. She became proficient in American Sign Language when she enrolled in Gallaudet University.

David Griffiths (1867–1935) was an early 20th century American agronomist and botanist who was a specialist on fungi and on seed-producing plants, especially cacti.

Mary Daisy Arnold

Mary Daisy Arnold was a botanical artist who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for over thirty-five years, painting watercolors of a wide variety of fruits. She is one of the three most prolific artists whose work is now preserved in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.