{{More citations needed|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Coe Finch Austin |image = Coe Finch Austin.jpg |image_size = |caption = Coe Finch Austin |birth_date = {{birth date |1831|6|20}} |birth_place = Finchville, Orange County, New York |death_date = {{Death date and age|1880|3|18|1831|6|20}} |death_place = Closter, New Jersey |residence = |citizenship = American |nationality = |ethnicity = |field = bryology, botany |work_institutions = Columbia University |author_abbrev_bot = Austin }}
'''Coe Finch Austin''' (June 20, 1831 – March 18, 1880) was an educator, botanist and founding member of the Torrey Botanical Club. He was an expert on the mosses and liverworts of North America.
==Life== Austin was born in Finchville, Orange County, New York, the second of ten children to farmers James C. Austin and Elizabeth (Cortwright) Austin. He attended public school when he was young but also worked on his family farm. His interest in plant life also came at an early age and he was a constant companion to his mother in her flower garden.<ref name="SAD">Demarest, Sarah Austin (1918). [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31679938 "A sketch of the life of Coe Finch Austin".] ''Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club, 17''. Retrieved 2012-10-27.</ref>
In the early 1850s, Austin attended Rankin Classical School in Sussex County, New Jersey, where he dedicated himself to the study of botany thanks to the influence of Mrs. Rankin, who was a botanist of note at that time. During this period he developed a particular passion for mosses and lichens. Austin would go on to develop internationally renowned skills for naming and identifying bryophytes.<ref name="SAD" />
As a young man, Austin worked as a school teacher in Tappan, New York, where he met and married Hannah Campbell, the daughter of a New Jersey farmer. But it was through his acquaintance with John Torrey that he secured a position as curator of the Columbia College Herbarium from 1859 thru 1863.<ref name="TheClub">{{cite book|title=of the Torrey Botanical Club (volumes 16 - 17)|date=1921|publisher=New Era Printing Press|location=Lancaster, PA|page=33|url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=vl00AQAAMAAJ&rdid=book-vl00AQAAMAAJ&rdot=1|access-date=June 15, 2016}}</ref> In 1870, he published his most well-known work, ''Musci appalachiani'', which dealt with the mosses of the Eastern United States.<ref name="SAD" /> In the same year he edited and distributed the exsiccata ''Musci Appalachiani, Tickets of specimens of mosses collected mostly in the eastern part of North America by C. F. Austin'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Musci Appalachiani, Tickets of specimens of mosses collected mostly in the eastern part of North America by C. F. Austin: IndExs ExsiccataID=996598272 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=996598272 |access-date=27 June 2024}}</ref> followed by two other exsiccatae.<ref name="Triebel & Scholz 2001-2024">Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany.</ref>
He died in Closter, New Jersey, where he had lived most of his adult life. He was survived by his wife, one son, five daughters, and his parents.<ref name="SAD" />
==Legacy== The genus ''Austinia'' was named in his honor.<ref>[http://plants.jstor.org/person/bm000391314 "Coe Finch Austin"] (2012). JSTOR Plant Science. Retrieved 2012-10-27.</ref> {{botanist|Austin}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} {{Wikispecies}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Coe Finch Austin}} *View [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/30991 works by C.F. Austin] at Biodiversity Heritage Library. *Entry for [http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=1#page/129 C.F. Austin] in TL2 (Taxonomic Literature). *{{commons category-inline|Coe Finch Austin (botanist)}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Coe Finch}} Category:1831 births Category:1880 deaths Category:American bryologists Category:Botanists with author abbreviations Category:People from Mount Hope, New York Category:People from Closter, New Jersey Category:Columbia University people Category:Torrey Botanical Society members Category:People from Tappan, New York Category:Scientists from New York (state)