George Vasey was born on February 28, 1822, near Scarborough, England, of English parents, who removed the year following to Central New York, settling at Oriskany.
He was the fourth of ten children and, the family being in humble circumstances, had to quit school at twelve to work in a village store.
Already deeply interested in plants, he devoted his spare time to their analysis and was fortunate in making the acquaintance of Dr. P. D. Knieskern, under whose stimulating guidance he became familiar with the rich local flora and was put in touch with John Torrey, Asa Gray, and other botanists. After graduation from the Oneida Institute, he began the study of medicine at the age of twenty-one, attending the Berkshire Medical Institute, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Vasey began the practice of medicine at Dexter, New York. In 1848, he removed to northern Illinois, where, at Elgin and Ringwood, he spent eighteen years in professional practice. During this period, he continued his botanical studies, collected extensively the unspoiled prairie flora of the region, and extended widely his botanical contacts through correspondence.
He helped organize the Illinois Natural History Society and was its first president. In the latter half of 1868, he accompanied his friend Maj. John Wesley Powell on an exploring expedition to Colorado, as a botanist. Shortly after his return, he was made curator of the natural history museum of the State Normal University of Illinois, and in 1870 was associated with Prof. Charles V. Riley in the editorship of the American Entomologist and Botanist.
On April 1, 1872, he was appointed botanist of the United States Department of Agriculture, in Washington, D. C. , and put in charge of the United States National Herbarium, which had been transferred from the Smithsonian Institution in 1868. Up to this time Vasey had published little, and that of a popular nature. The task of organizing thoroughly the National Herbarium, of identifying and arranging the material that had long accumulated, largely from voyages and transcontinental railroad surveys under government auspices, was a difficult undertaking which occupied him closely for several years and was carried through with notable success.
His next work of general interest was the preparation of an exhibit of the woods of American forest trees, accompanied by herbarium specimens, for the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. As a guide to this exhibit, he published A Catalogue of the Forest Trees of the United States Which Usually Attain a Height of Sixteen Feet or More (1876).
But grasses now claimed his attention and upon this difficult group, in which he became a distinguished specialist, he published voluminously to the end of his life. Under his direction, also, experimental studies of grasses and other forage plants suited to arid regions of the West were initiated. Of gentle dignity and kindly disposition, Vasey was beloved by a wide circle of friends. He died at his home in Washington from acute peritonitis.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultura...)
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Vasey was a quiet and dignified gentleman of most kindly feeling and pleasing address. Those connected with him in his work speak with the warmth of the pleasant relations he sustained with them. While conscientiously efficient and firm in his duties, his sweetness of disposition made him loved by all. To the narrowing circle of the older botanists who have so long known him and cherished his friendship, his loss comes with peculiar force.
Toward the last of the year 1846, Vasey married a Miss Scott, of Oriskany. Early in 1866, his wife's failing health led him to remove to the southern part of the state, where, however, she soon died. Late in 1867, he married Mrs. John W. Cameron, daughter of Dr. Isaac Barber, of New York. He had six children.
