Bessey, Charles Edwin

Bessey, Charles Edwin

(1845–1915) botanist; born in Milton Township, Ohio. After growing up on a farm, he founded curricula in botany and horticulture at the Iowa Agricultural College (1870–84), then joined the University of Nebraska (1884–1915), where he became a respected educator and administrator, holding deanships and serving as an officer in many professional botanical and agricultural associations. He was a pioneer in the taxonomy and evolution of angiosperms (flowering plants having enclosed seeds). A dedicated and popular educator, he wrote a series of high school and college textbooks, and introduced the laboratory method (including microscopy) to augment his lectures.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.