William Francis Ganong

William Francis Ganong, 1895

William Francis Ganong (born February 19, 1864 in Carleton , New Brunswick (now Saint John ), † September 7, 1941 in Saint John ) was a Canadian botanist at Smith College and director of the local botanical garden . In addition to this activity, he excelled as a (regional) historian , cartographer and linguist .

Live and act

Ganong earned a bachelor's degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1884 and a master's degree from Harvard University in 1887 . In Munich he received his doctorate in biology in 1894 .

Ganong was Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanical Gardens at Smith College in Northampton , Massachusetts from 1895 until his retirement in 1932 . From 1918 to 1939, William Francis Ganong served on the board of directors of the family business Ganong Bros. , Canada's oldest confectionery manufacturer.

Ganong published several textbooks on botany and its didactics. He spent most of his summers canoeing through his native New Brunswick, drawing maps of the waterways and recording the stories of the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet Indians, whose languages he also learned (in basics). Ganong studied the (Indian) place names ( toponyms ) in New Brunswick and the other two maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and published several seminal essays and monographs on them. Ganong gave the highest point in the maritime provinces, Mount Carleton , his name. He also made a contribution to the reopening of the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, to which he bequeathed his records.

In 1903 Ganong was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1898 and 1920 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of New Brunswick, and in 1898 a Ph.D. and an LL. D. In 1901 a mountain in New Brunswick ( Mount Ganong , 647 m) was named after him. At the University of New Brunswick, a building in his honor bears the name of Ganongs.

Web links

William Francis Ganong ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
William Francis Ganong (1864–1941) in Who Was Who in North America Name Study (binghampton.edu)
Department of Botany Records, 1892–1966 at Five Colleges Archives & Manuscript Collections (fivecolleges.edu)

Individual evidence

^ Past and Present Directors of the Botanic Garden - The Botanic Garden of Smith College. In: smith.edu. Retrieved February 3, 2017 .
↑ Book of Members 1780 – present (PDF, 1.1 MB) of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org); Retrieved February 3, 2017.
↑ Mount Ganong. In: peakery.com. Retrieved March 24, 2018 .
^ William Ganong Hall - Archives and Special Collections. In: unbhistory.lib.unb.ca. Retrieved February 4, 2017 .

personal data
SURNAME	Ganong, William Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ganong, William F.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Canadian botanist, cartographer and regional historian
DATE OF BIRTH	February 19, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saint John (New Brunswick)
DATE OF DEATH	September 7, 1941
Place of death	Saint John (New Brunswick)

[smith-Past_and-1] Past and Present Directors of the Botanic Garden - The Botanic Garden of Smith College. In: smith.edu. Retrieved February 3, 2017 .

[2] Book of Members 1780 – present (PDF, 1.1 MB) of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org); Retrieved February 3, 2017.

[peakery-Mount_Ga-3] Mount Ganong. In: peakery.com. Retrieved March 24, 2018 .

[unb-William-4] William Ganong Hall - Archives and Special Collections. In: unbhistory.lib.unb.ca. Retrieved February 4, 2017 .