William James Beal
William James Beal (March 11, 1833 – May 12, 1924) was an American botanist.
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[edit] Biography
Beal was born in Adrian, Michigan, to William and Rachel (Comstock) Beal, and he married Hannah Proud in 1863. He attended the University of Michigan, which gave him an A.B. degree in 1859 and an A.M. degree in 1862; he also received an S.B. degree from Harvard University, 1865, an M.S. degree from the University of Chicago, 1875, and a number of honorary degrees.
He served as professor of botany at the University of Chicago in 1868-70, then went on to Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University), where he was a professor of botany (1871-1910), and curator of the museum (1882-1903). He also served as director of the state Forestry Commission (1889-1892).
Beal was the founder of MSU's W. J. Beal Botanical Garden, the oldest continuously operated botanical garden in the United States. He was one of the pioneers in the development of hybrid corn. He was the author of The New Botany, Grasses of North America, and History of Michigan Agricultural College. In1879 he started one of the most long running experiments in botany. He filled 20 bottles with a mix of sand and seeds with each bottle containing 50 seeds from 21 species of plant. Then the bottles were buried, their necks pointing down so that water wouldn't get in. The idea was that the bottles should be dug up at fixed intervals, and the seeds planted to see how many of them would sprout. This experiment is still running, with the next bottle due to be dug up in 2020, with the end of the study due in 2100. The goal is to see how long we can keep seeds before they will not grow.
In 1887, he and Professor Rolla C. Carpenter created "Collegeville", the first neighborhood in what later became East Lansing.
He retired to Amherst, Massachusetts, and died there in 1924.
[edit] Quotation
Merely learning the name of a plant or parts of a plant can no longer be palmed off as valuable training.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Photo of W.J. Beal (circa 1920)
- William James Beal Society (for donors of at least $10,000 to Michigan State University)
- William J. Beal and the Botanical Garden
- Cowles House (home of W. J. Beal, now the MSU president's house)
