Romeyn Beck Hough was an American physician and botanist best known for creating The American Woods, a 14-volume collection of wood samples from across North America.
Background
Hough acquired an interest in forestry and natural history from his father, Franklin B. Hough, a physician and botanist, who spent much time with his son in the outdoors. He attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and studied medicine, later qualifying as a physician like his father.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Cornell, 1881. M. Anna Maria Galloway, January 19, 1892. Invented a process of making and preparing sections of wood to be used (in lieu of pictures) for illustrating the various species in a publication on American woods.
Awarded gold medals or grand prizes on the above work at the international expns. of Paris, Chicago, Buffalo, Saint Louis, Seattle and San Francisco.
Also special Elliott Cresson gold medal of Franklin Institute (Philadelphia).
Career
However, he is best known for his contributions to North American botany. Between 1888 and 1913, published thirteen volumes of The American Woods: exhibited by actual specimens and with copious explanatory text, a collection of wood samples from North American trees, presented as paper-thin cross-sectional slices. To each tree he dedicated a cardboard plate which contained three slices—transverse, radial, and tangential—of the wood, accompanied by information about its botany, habitat and medicinal and commercial uses.
The specimens were prepared using a slicing machine that designed himself and patented in 1886. had originally planned to publish fifteen volumes, which would include samples of all of the important trees found in North America, but he died in 1924 before the full set was completed.
In total, each volume contained at least 25 plates and the complete 14-volume collection comprises 1,056 slices representing 354 tree species. "s botanical work was widely acclaimed in his time.
Reviews of American Woods described it as "one of the most valuable contributions to the literature of forestry" and "absolutely without rival". In 2002, it was republished by Taschen under the title The Woodbook, compiled by Klaus Ulrich Leistikow including a selection of lithographs of some trees" leaves and berries by Charles Sprague Sargent.