Harold E. Moore

Harold E. Moore
Born	(1917-07-07)July 7, 1917 Massachusetts
Died	October 17, 1980(1980-10-17)(aged 63) Ithaca, New York
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Massachusetts State College Harvard University
Scientific career
Institutions	L. H. Bailey Hortorium,Cornell University
Author abbrev. (botany)	H.E.Moore

Harold Emery Moore,Jr. (July 7, 1917 – October 27, 1980) was an Americanbotanistespecially known for his work on thesystematicsof thepalm family.He served as Director of theL. H. Bailey HortoriumatCornell University,and was appointedLiberty Hyde BaileyProfessor of Botany in 1978. He was an important contributor toHortus Thirdand was editor ofPrincipes(nowPalms), the journal of theInternational Palm Society.He also editedGentes Herbarumand provided the foundation for the first edition ofGenera Palmarum,a seminal work on palm taxonomy which was later completed byNatalie UhlandJohn Dransfield.

Early life and education

Moore was born inMassachusettsin 1917. He received hisB.S.fromMassachusetts State Collegein 1939. He then moved toHarvard Universitywhere he obtained hisM.S.in 1940 andPh.D.in 1942.After graduating, he served in theUnited States Armyfrom 1942 to 1946.

Career

In 1947, he joined the staff of theGray Herbariumat Harvard. In 1948 he moved to the L. H. Bailey Hortorium at Cornell as an Assistant Professor of Botany. He was appointed Associate Professor in 1951 and full Professor in 1960. Between 1960 and 1969 he served as director of the herbarium, and was elected Bailey Professor of Botany in 1978.Although best known for his work on palms, Moore also made notable contributions to the study of theGesneriaceae,theGeraniaceae,theAmaryllidaceae,theCucurbitaceaeand theCommelinaceae.

Moore began his work on palms in 1948 with the encouragement of Bailey himself, who was then 90 years old. Bailey had wanted to create aGenera Palmarum,a proper delineation of the palm family and all the genera within it. When Bailey died in 1954, the job was left to Moore. Moore visited the major historic collections of palms in United States and Europe and learned that existing collections often lacked the features that were needed to understand the evolutionary relationships among the genera. This led to a worldwide effort on his part to see and collect as many palm genera as he could. By the time of his death in 1980 he had traveled to many remote locations and had collected all but 18 of the approximately 200 genera of palms. These exploits earned him membership inThe Explorers Club.

In 1973 Moore wrote a paper,The Major Groups of Palms and Their Distribution,which presented the outline of his classification of the family. He continued to build on this, and in 1980 was finally ready to devote three years to the production ofGenera Palmarum.He died the same year, leaving the work of completing the work to Natalie Uhl and John Dransfield.

Moore was the author of nearly 300 publications.He scientifically described and named the genusDandya(in honor ofJames Edgar Dandy).

Awards and fellowships

Moore receivedGuggenheim Fellowshipsin 1946–47 and 1955–56. He also received the Founder's Medal of theFairchild Tropical Gardenin 1954.

He was made an Honorary Life Member of theAmerican Gloxinia and Gesneriad Societyin 1958.