Gray gets stamp of approval
Legendary Harvard botanist Asa Gray will finally be traveling America regularly, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Service is honoring Gray, considered the father of American botany, with a first-class stamp, which was officially unveiled Wednesday (June 29) during a ceremony at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Gray spent a long and fruitful career at Harvard, describing many new species of plants and amassing collections that are housed today in the Harvard Herbaria. Though Gray traveled to Europe early in his career, making connections with prominent European naturalists, he didn’t get around the United States much until late in his career, according to Donald Pfister, the Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany. Pfister, along with Cambridge Postmaster Katherine Lydon and Gray biographer A. Hunter Dupree, unveiled the stamp. Donald Pfister (left), the Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany at Harvard, was joined by Cambridge Postmaster...