The Patricia and Noel Holmgren Collection (RG4)

The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. © 2005-2017.

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Biography of Pat and Noel Holmgren

Pat and Noel Holmgren were married on November 25, 1969 in Yonkers, New York. The pair spent the entirety of their careers at The New York Botanical Garden and are prominent figures in the plant systematics community. Their work resulted in a large volume of scientific work and the publication of Index Herbarium, the Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist's Manual, and Intermountain Flora. After retirement, the Holmgrens continue to volunteer at NYBG where they both enjoy curatorial Emeritus status.

Patricia Kern was born in Athens, Indiana in 1940 to Robert and Ruth Kern. The oldest of three children, Pat was exposed to the outdoors early on when her father started a Christmas tree farm in the 1940s. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology with an emphasis in botany from Indiana University in 1962.

She continued her studies in botany at the University of Washington, earning her MS degree in 1964 and a PhD in 1968. Upon completing her PhD, Pat began working at The New York Botanical Garden as a Herbarium Specialist. She became involved with the administration of the herbarium in 1969 and by 1975 had become Head Curator. In 1981 Pat was elevated to the position of Director of the Herbarium and served in that capacity until retiring in 2000.

During her time at The New York Botanical Garden, Pat has taken on many different roles and projects. She was instrumental in the expansion and restoration of the historic Library Building with the construction of The International Plant Science Center at The New York Botanical Garden, a move that benefited not only the herbarium, but the library as well. As the Director of the Herbarium, Pat was known as an efficient and effective administrator who worked to maintain and grow the Garden's herbarium into the largest in the Americas and the third largest in the world.

In addition to being Director of the Herbarium, Pat was the Assistant Vice President for Science for a decade and filled in as the Acting Vice President for Science twice. Throughout her career at NYBG, Pat was involved in multiple professional associations and served as the President of the American Society for Plant Taxonomists and President of the Botanical Society of America. Pat's awards include New York Botanical Garden's Distinguished Service Award (1988); Botanical Society of America Merit Award (1991); Botanical Society of America Centennial Award (2006); Botanical Society of America plaque for lifetime commitment to the Society (2013); and Association of Systematics Collections Award for Service (1995). In 2013, Thomas and Anne Hubbard endowed and named the Patricia K. Holmgren Director of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium of The New York Botanical Garden in Pat's honor.

The first six editions of Index Herbariorum were published by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy in the Netherlands (1952-1974). Pat served as co-editor of edition 6, and subsequently became the senior editor. She oversaw the compilation of hard copy volumes 7 and 8, and with Noel Holmgren, oversaw the development of the Index Herbariorum database, which became available on-line in 1997. She also serves as co-director and author of the Intermountain Flora project with Noel Holmgren. Intermountain Flora is the preeminent botanical initiative to document plant diversity between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. It is a widely used reference for scientists, policymakers, land use managers, and others interested in the study and conservation of plant diversity in the American West.

Noel Holmgren was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1937 to Doris and Arthur Holmgren. The second of four children, Noel was introduced to the outdoors and plants at an early age by his father, a professor of botany at Utah State University. He ended up studying botany at Utah State University as a student of his father and earned his bachelor of science degree in 1962.

After graduating from Utah State, he moved to New York to pursue a PhD in botany at Columbia University, focusing his dissertation on the study of the genus Castilleja of the Scrophulariaceae family. His studies were tied to the collections of The New York Botanical Garden, and he began working there as a graduate student. After completing his PhD studies, Noel continued working at NYBG and was an Associate Curator by 1969. He continued his curatorial work and rose through the ranks becoming Curator in 1974, Senior Curator in 1984 and later the Mary Flagler Cary Curator of Botany in 1995. He was appointed Senior Curator of Botany Emeritus in 2004 and retired in 2005.

Concurrently with his research and curatorial duties, Noel for fourteen years served as editor-in chief of the journal Brittonia. His specialties are the taxonomy of the Scrophulariaceae and the floristics of Western North America. Since 1969, his primary research has been directed towards the Intermountain Flora project. He contributed major parts of each of the six volumes, gaining in-depth knowledge of a wide range of families, from Apocynaceae to Violaceae. He was also lead editor on An Illustrated companion to Gleason and Cronquist's manual of vascular plants, which was published in 1998. In addition to his fieldwork in the American west from 1961 through 2009, Noel has also done field work in Surinam, Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador and Argentina.

Noel also served as Chairman of The New York Botanical Garden Scientific Publications Committee, Managing Editor of Economic Botany, a member of the Editorial Committee of The American Journal of Botany, a member of the Editorial Board for Great Basin Naturalist, a member of the Revision Committee for the CBE Style Manual and Editor of the English language translation of the Scrophulariaceae section for the Flora of China.

Noel was a recipient of The New York Botanical Garden's Distinguished Service Award in 1988, the Edgar T. Wherry Award of the North American Rock Garden Society in 1994, The Association of American Publishers 1998 award for best book in the biological sciences (Illustrated Companion to Gleason & Cronquist's Manual) and the 2007 Myrtle Hebert Award from the American Penstemon Society.

Pat and Noel jointly received the American Society of Plant Taxonomists 2012 Asa Gray Award and the New York Botanical Garden's Gold Medal Award (2013), the highest honor conferred by The New York Botanical Garden. In 2013, they were honored with a Festschrift, Harmony and Grit, papers celebrating their completion of Intermountain Flora.

Scope and Content

The Pat and Noel Holmgren Collection documents the careers of Patricia (Pat) and Noel Holmgren. It includes correspondence, material from their work at The New York Botanical Garden and with professional organizations, documentation of their work on publications such as Intermountain Flora and the Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist's Manual, and a large set of botanical illustrations.

Restrictions

Access restrictions

This collection is open for research with permission from Mertz Library staff.

Copyright

Requests for permission to publish material from the collection should be submitted in writing to the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden.

Related Material

New York Botanical Garden

RG4--Records of the Herbarium Office

RG4--Arthur Cronquist Records

RG4--Rupert Charles Barneby Records

PP--Jeanne R. Janish Papers

RG10--Scientific Publications: Intermountain Flora

Botanical Art and Illustration Collection number 67 (Intermountain Flora) and 69 (Illustrated Companion)

RA--Records of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists

Separated Material

Artwork has been removed to the NYBG Art and Illustrations collection.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

The Patricia and Noel Holmgren Collection, Archives, The New York Botanical Garden.

Acquisition Information

This collection was transferred to the NYBG Archives.

Processing Information

Originally processed by Theo Roth, Project Archivist, 2014, with grant funding from Patricia and Noel Holmgren. Converted to EAD in March 2017 by Lisa Studier.

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