Collection ID: 1982.0008

Collection context

Summary

Date:
undated, 1910-1980
Abstract:
George Safford Torrey was born 14 March 1891 in Boston, Massachusetts. Torrey was hired in 1915 as an instructor of Botany at the Connecticut Agricultural College and in 1928 received tenure and was appointed Head of the Botany Department. Torrey retired from the University in 1953 and died in 1977.
Extent:
7.3 Linear Feet
Language:
English

Background

Acquisition information:
The collection was transferred from the Botany Department.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Scope and Content:

The collection contains the personal and professional papers of G. Safford Torrey,> longtime professor of Botany at the University. Materials in the collection include notebooks, correspondence, memoranda, administrative (department) records, reports, photographs, and various types of slides, and filmstrips.

Biographical / Historical:

George Safford Torrey was born 14 March 1891 in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1913 with a B.A. degree and continued his study in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University (1915, M.A. in Botany) and diplome d'Etudes Superieures (Botanique, University of Paris, 1919).

Prior to his employment in Storrs, Torrey had worked at Gray Herbarium (Harvard) and the Department of Agriculture (Newfoundland). Torrey was hired in 1915 as an instructor of Botany at the Connecticut Agricultural College. He received tenure in 1928 and was appointed Head of the Botany Department. Torrey served as the secretary of the Faculty, Registrar and chairman of the Committee on Scholastic Standing, in addition to guest performances on the organ and bassoon at off campus events.

Torrey retired from the University in 1953 but continued to assist in the revision of the Connecticut Catalog of Flowering Plants and Ferns.

G. Safford Torrey died in 1977. Soon after his death, the University of Connecticut named the building housing the Life Sciences departments in his honor.

Arrangement:

Series I: Subject Files (1910-1980) is arranged alphabetically and contains Torrey's personal notebooks, correspondence, office memoranda, department records, reports, history, staff information and course descriptions. The series also includes correspondence, promotional literature and research materials concerning the nation-wide Oak Wilt control activities.

Series II: Teaching materials (undated) is arranged by format and includes photographs, stereographs, lantern slides, filmstrips and two stereoscopes. Microfilm copies of articles from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Library have been deaccessioned.

Series III: Botanical Abstracts (undated) is arranged numerically. Abstracts include citations and/or notes from publications or lectures and bibliographical information. A list of missing pages can be found in Box 11, ff #74.

Series IV: American Association of University Professors (AAUP) (1936-1961) contains annual reports and correspondence, arranged chronologically.

Series V: University Senate (1923-1956) includes institutional reports and policies concerning tenure, comprehensive examinations, absence and similar issues. The series is arranged alphabetically.

Series VI: Audiovisual materials (1969).

Access

LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
405 Babbidge Road
Unit 1205
Storrs, CT 06269-1205, USA
Link to repository site
CONTACT:
860.486.2524
archives@uconn.edu