Citizenship American Fields Botany | Name Bassett Maguire Spouse Celia Kramer Thesis 1938 | |
Born August 4, 1904
Gadsden, Alabama ( 1904-08-04 ) Institutions New York Botanical Garden Alma mater University of Georgia, Cornell University Died February 6, 1991, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences, US & Canada Books The Botany of the Guayana, The Botany of the Guayana, The Botany of the Guayana, Memoirs of the New York Bota | ||
Education Cornell University (1938) | ||
Bassett Maguire (August 4, 1904 – February 6, 1991) was an American botanist, head curator of the New York Botanical Garden, and a leader of scientific expeditions to the Guyana Highlands in Brazil and Venezuela.
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Life
Maguire was born in Gadsden, Alabama, on August 4, 1904. He obtained his doctorate from Cornell University in 1938. After a spell teaching biology and botany at various colleges, he got a job at the Botanical Garden in New York in 1943. He was to become head curator, director of botany and senior scientist.
He led several expeditions to the Guyana Highlands, bringing back thousands of samples. In 1954 he discovered the botanically rich Cerro de la Neblina ("Mountain of the Clouds"). He retired in 1978.
In 1990, when he was 85, New York Botanical Garden published a Festschrift in his honour: The Bassett Maguire Festschrift: A Tribute to the Man and His Deeds, edited by William R. Buck, Brian M. Boom, Richard A. Howard (Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden Vol. 64).
He died of kidney failure in Doctors Hospital (Manhattan, New York) on February 6, 1991.