View source for Charles Edwin Bessey

{{Short description|American botanist (1845–1915)}}
{{redirect|Charles Bessey|the American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient|Charles A. Bessey}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Charles Edwin Bessey
|image             =Charles Edwin Bessey.jpg
|image_size       =
|caption           = 
|birth_date        = 21 May 1845
|birth_place       = [[Milton Township, Wayne County, Ohio|Milton]], [[Ohio]]
|death_date        = {{death date and age|1915|2|25|1845|5|21|df=yes}}
|death_place       = 
|residence         = 
|citizenship       = 
|nationality       = [[United States|American]]
|ethnicity         = 
|field             = [[botany|botanist]]
|work_institutions = [[Iowa State University|Iowa Agricultural College]]
|alma_mater        = [[Michigan State University|Michigan State Agricultural College]]
|doctoral_advisor  = [[Asa Gray]]
|doctoral_students = 
|known_for         = [[Bessey system]]
|author_abbrev_bot = Bessey
|author_abbrev_zoo = 
|influences        = 
|influenced        = 
|prizes            = [[Nebraska Hall of Fame]]
|religion          = 
|footnotes         = 
|signature         =
}}

'''Charles Edwin Bessey''' (21 May 1845 – 25 February 1915) was an American [[botany|botanist]].

==Biography==
He was born at [[Milton Township, Wayne County, Ohio|Milton]], [[Wayne County, Ohio]].  He graduated in 1869 at the [[Michigan State University|Michigan State Agricultural College]].  Bessey also studied at [[Harvard University]] under [[Asa Gray]], in 1872 and in 1875–76. He was [[professor]] of botany at the [[Iowa State University|Iowa Agricultural College]], today known as Iowa State University from 1870 to 1884.  In 1884, he was appointed professor of botany at the [[University of Nebraska–Lincoln|University of Nebraska]] and became head [[Dean (education)|dean]] there in 1909. He also served as Chancellor of the University of Nebraska from 1888 to 1891 and again from 1899 to 1900.<ref>[http://www.unl.edu/libr/libs/spec/university.shtml RG05, Chancellor records] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528041258/http://www.unl.edu/libr/libs/spec/university.shtml |date=May 28, 2010 }}, UNL Archives and Special Collections. Retrieved on July 10, 2009.</ref>  He served as [[President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science|president]] of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] in 1911.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Charles Edwin Bessey. The New President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science|author=Benjamin, Marcus|author-link=Marcus Benjamin|date=December 30, 1911|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/charles-edwin-bessey/|journal=[[Scientific American]] }}</ref> Bessey's son, [[Ernst Bessey]] was Professor of Mycology and Botany at [[Michigan State University]]. His other two sons, Edward and Carl, specialized in electrical engineering.

== Selected publications==
{{refbegin}}

=== Books ===
* ''The Geography of Iowa'' (Cincinnati, 1878)
* ''Botany for High Schools and Colleges'' (New York, 1880)<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fx0irw9WIIC&pg=PA796| pages=796–797|title=''Review of'' Botany for High Schools and Colleges ''by Charles E. Bessey''|journal=The American Naturalist | date=November 1880 | volume=14 |publisher=University of Chicago Press | doi=10.1086/272701| s2cid=222326871| url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* revision of [[William Ramsay McNab|McNab]]'s ''Botany'' (1881)
* ''The Essentials of Botany'' (1884); {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QVQAAAAAYAAJ| title=6th edition | last1=Bessey | first1=Charles Edwin | year=1896 }}<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=163zAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA375|pages=375–376|title=''Review of'' The Essentials of Botany, ''6th edition, by Charles E. Bessey''|journal=Botanical Gazette | date=June 1896 | volume=21 |publisher=University of Chicago Press }}</ref>
* ''Elementary Botany'' (1904)
* ''Plant Migration Studies'' (1905)
* ''Synopsis of Plant Phyla'' (1907)
* ''Outlines of Plant Phyla'' (1909)
*  written with others, ''New Elementary [[Agriculture]]'' (ninth edition, 1911)

=== Articles ===
*{{cite journal|last=Bessey|first=Charles|title=Phylogeny and Taxonomy of the Angiosperms|journal=Botanical Gazette|date=September 1897|volume=XXIV|issue=3|pages=145–178|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/bioscisystematics/9/|access-date=13 February 2014|doi=10.1086/327577|pmid=17816268|s2cid=88268600}}
*{{cite journal|author = Charles E. Bessey|year = 1915|title = The phylogenetic taxonomy of flowering plants|journal = Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden|volume =  2|pages = 109–164|doi = 10.2307/2990030|jstor = 2990030|issue = 1/2|publisher = Missouri Botanical Garden Press| url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/17811 |author-link = Charles E. Bessey}}
{{refend}}

==Legacy==
[[File:Charles Edwin Bessey bust.jpg|thumb|left|Bust of Bessey created by Littleton Alston in 2009 for the [[Nebraska Hall of Fame]].]]

His arrangement of [[flowering plant]]s [[taxa]], with focus on the evolutionary divergence of primitive forms, is considered by many as the system most likely to form the basis of a modern, comprehensive taxonomy of the plant kingdom.

In 1967, Iowa State University built a Plant Industry Building, which was named after Bessey. Today the building is used by departments in the biological sciences.

In 2007 he was inducted into the [[Nebraska Hall of Fame]].

==See also==
*[[Bessey system]], his [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomic]] plant system.
*[[Nebraska National Forest]]

{{Botanist|Bessey|Bessey}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
*{{cite journal
|pmid= 17792492
|last1=Spaulding
|publication-date=Mar 19, 1915
|year=1915
|volume=41
|issue=1055
|periodical=[[Science (journal)|Science]]
|pages=420–421
|doi = 10.1126/science.41.1055.420
|first1= P.
|title=Charles Edwin Bessey
|bibcode=1915Sci....41..420S
|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448163
}}
* {{DSB
|first=Joseph
|last=Ewan
|title=Bessey, Charles Edwin
|volume=2
|pages=102–104
}}
*Overfield, Richard A. ''Science With Practice: Charles E. Bessey and the Maturing of American Botany''.  Iowa State University Press Series in the History of Technology and Science. Iowa State Press, 1993. ({{ISBN|0-8138-1822-2}})
*Pool, Raymond J. [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=bioscisystematics ''A brief sketch of the life and work of Charles Edwin Bessey'']. Botanical Society of America, 1915.
*Tobey, Ronald C. 1981. Saving the Prairies: The Life Cycle of the Founding School of American Plant Ecology, 1895-1955. Berkeley: University of California Press. ({{ISBN|0-5200-4352-9}})
*{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Bessey, Charles Edwin|year=1891}}
{{refend}}

== External links==
{{commons category}}
*{{Internet Archive author|sname=Charles Edwin Bessey}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090714203542/http://www.lib.iastate.edu/arch/rgrp/13-5-11.html Charles Bessey papers] at the [[Iowa State University]] Library. Retrieved on July 10, 2009.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304232249/http://unllib.unl.edu/archon/index.php?p=collections%2Fcontrolcard&id=626 Charles Bessey papers] at the [[University of Nebraska-Lincoln]]. Retrieved on October 13, 2009.
{{NIE}}

{{Presidents of the Botanical Society of America|state=collapsed}}
{{Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science}}
{{University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bessey, Charles Edwin}}
[[Category:1845 births]]
[[Category:1915 deaths]]
[[Category:American science writers]]
[[Category:American botanists]]
[[Category:American botanical writers]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Michigan State University alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Iowa State University faculty]]
[[Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty]]
[[Category:People from Wayne County, Ohio]]
[[Category:Chancellors of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science]]