Per Rydberg

July 6, 1860 (age 71)

Odh, Västergötland, Sweden

Rydberg left Sweden for the United States in 1882. At this time he planned to become a mining engineer, but a serious accident suffered in an iron mine in Michigan soon put an end to this ambition, and he turned to teaching as a profession. For six years, 1884-90, he taught mathematics at Luther Academy, Wahoo, Nebraska, meanwhile entering the state university, where he graduated in 1891 and where he renewed his boyhood interest in botany. For the next four years he was actively engaged in the work of the botanical survey of Nebraska and spent the summers in botanical exploration in Nebraska and South Dakota for the United States Department of Agriculture, teaching at Luther Academy in the winter. His first two important botanical works, the Rosales (part of the projected "Flora of Nebraska") and the Flora of the Sand Hills of Nebraska, appeared in 1895. He spent the summer in Montana under the auspices of the United States Department of Agriculture, and then went to New York. While a student at Columbia University he was a professor at Upsala Institute in Brooklyn (which later became Upsala College, first at Kenilworth, then at East Orange, N. J. ) and continued his summer fieldwork in Montana. In 1899 he became a member of the scientific staff of the newly organized New York Botanical Garden, and it was to the work of this institution that he devoted the remaining thirty-two years of his life, studying plants in the herbarium and publishing the results of his studies. His field trips, though few, extended from New York to North Carolina and California; he revisited Sweden only once, in 1901. A member of various scientific societies, he was not particularly active in any of them except the Torrey Botanical Club of New York City; it was in publications of the Torrey Club that nearly two-thirds of his papers first appeared, the remainder being mostly in publications of the New York Botanical Garden. His health failed gradually for several months before his death, which occurred in New York, but he continued work on the proofs of his last book until the day before the end. Throughout his life in America he was active in Lutheran affairs, at first in churches of the Augustana Synod, later in a church of the Missouri Synod.

Back to Profile

Photos
Works

book

Flora of the Prairies and Plains of Central North America, In Two Volumes: Volume 1 (v. 1) by Rydberg, Per Axel (April 1, 1971) Paperback

Scandinavians Who Have Contributed to the Knowledge of the Flora of North America (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Scandinavians Who Have Contributed to the Kn...)

Flora of Rocky Mountains and Adjacent Plains

(Sm Quarto, 1954, PP.1143, Still Relavent Flora, Classic Text)

Flora of Colorado

(Flora of Colorado. 484 Pages.)

Key to the Rocky Mountain Flora: Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and British Columbia 1919

(Originally published in 1919. This volume from the Cornel...)

Catalogue of the flora of Montana and the Yellowstone National Park

(Catalogue of the flora of Montana and the Yellowstone Nat...)

Flora of the Prairies and Plains of Central North America, In Two Volumes: Volume 2 (v. 2)

(Rear cover notes: "Not only the first but the definitive ...)

Flora of the Black Hills of South Dakota - Primary Source Edition

(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Flora Of The Sand Hills Of Nebraska

( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Memories from the Department of Botany of Columbia University

(This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book publ...)

Per Axel Rydberg Edit Profile

Botanist

Background

Per Axel Rydberg was born in Odh, Västergötland, Sweden, the son of Adolf Fredrik and Thekla Elfrida (Otterstrom) Rydberg.

Education

He graduated from the royal gymnasium at Skara in 1881. In 1895 he received his master's degree from the University of Nebraska. Later he was registered as a graduate student at Columbia University. In 1898 he received from Columbia University the degree of Ph. D. , his dissertation being A Monograph of the North American Potentilleae, a large quarto volume.

Career

Rydberg left Sweden for the United States in 1882. At this time he planned to become a mining engineer, but a serious accident suffered in an iron mine in Michigan soon put an end to this ambition, and he turned to teaching as a profession.

For six years, 1884-90, he taught mathematics at Luther Academy, Wahoo, Nebraska, meanwhile entering the state university, where he graduated in 1891 and where he renewed his boyhood interest in botany. For the next four years he was actively engaged in the work of the botanical survey of Nebraska and spent the summers in botanical exploration in Nebraska and South Dakota for the United States Department of Agriculture, teaching at Luther Academy in the winter.

His first two important botanical works, the Rosales (part of the projected "Flora of Nebraska") and the Flora of the Sand Hills of Nebraska, appeared in 1895. He spent the summer in Montana under the auspices of the United States Department of Agriculture, and then went to New York. While a student at Columbia University he was a professor at Upsala Institute in Brooklyn (which later became Upsala College, first at Kenilworth, then at East Orange, N. J. ) and continued his summer fieldwork in Montana.

In 1899 he became a member of the scientific staff of the newly organized New York Botanical Garden, and it was to the work of this institution that he devoted the remaining thirty-two years of his life, studying plants in the herbarium and publishing the results of his studies. His field trips, though few, extended from New York to North Carolina and California; he revisited Sweden only once, in 1901.

A member of various scientific societies, he was not particularly active in any of them except the Torrey Botanical Club of New York City; it was in publications of the Torrey Club that nearly two-thirds of his papers first appeared, the remainder being mostly in publications of the New York Botanical Garden.

His health failed gradually for several months before his death, which occurred in New York, but he continued work on the proofs of his last book until the day before the end. Throughout his life in America he was active in Lutheran affairs, at first in churches of the Augustana Synod, later in a church of the Missouri Synod.

Achievements

The total number of his contributions to botanical science exceeds one hundred and sixty. His most important books are "Catalogue of the Flora of Montana and the Yellowstone National Park" (1900), "Flora of Colorado" (1906), "Flora of the Rocky Mountains" (1917; second edition, 1922), and the posthumously published "Flora of the Prairies and Plains" (1932). In the course of his studies on the flowering plants of North America, he described as new at least a hundred genera and seventeen hundred species. His work was done in such a painstaking and conscientious manner, however, that later generations of botanists may reasonably be expected to appreciate it even more than his contemporaries. In his lifetime two genera (Rydbergia and Rydbergiella) and various species were dedicated to him.