A. S. Hitchcock

{{Infobox person | name = A.S. Hitchcock | image = A.S.Hitchcock ca 1888.gif | caption = A. S. Hitchcock in 1888. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1865|09|04}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1935|12|16|1865|09|04}} | alma_mater = Iowa Agricultural College | occupation = Botanist, agrostologist | employer = USDA | notable_works = Hitchcock-Chase Collection }}

'''Albert Spear Hitchcock''' (September 4, 1865 – December 16, 1935) was an American botanist and agrostologist.

== Biography == Hitchcock graduated from the Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) with bachelor's degree in 1884 and M.S. in 1886. From 1892 to 1901 he was a professor of botany at the Kansas State Agricultural College.<ref name="DCbio">{{cite journal|title=Hitchcock, Alfred Spear|journal=District of Columbia: Concise Biographical Dictionary of Its Prominent and Representative Contemporary Citizens|year=1908|page=226|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vjRMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA226|last1=MacFarland|first1=Henry Brown Floyd}}</ref>

Hitchcock joined the USDA in 1901 as Assistant Agrostologist under Frank Lamson-Scribner. In 1905 he was put in charge of the grass herbarium and became Systematic Agrostologist. After 1928, he held the title of Principal Biologist in charge of Systematic Agrostology of the Department of Agriculture and kept that title until his death in 1935. In 1912 he became Custodian of Grasses, Division of Plants, United States National Museum. Hitchcock remained Custodian without remuneration until his death. His field notebooks are archived in the Smithsonian Institution.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/albums/72157626380028651|title=Albert Spear Hitchcock Field Books|date=April 15, 2011}}</ref>

He was a professor of botany in the Kansas State Agricultural College and authored over 250 works during his lifetime.

== Works == {{botanist|Hitchc.|Hitchcock, Albert Spear}}[[File:Frailejones in northern Ecuador, 1923.jpg|thumb|right|A frailejones in Ecuador as photographed by Hitchcock, c. 1923–1924.]]The Hitchcock-Chase Collection consists of 2,707 drawings (mostly ink, but some pencil) of grasses, representing hundreds of genera, that were assembled by the Smithsonian Institution agrostologists Albert Spear Hitchcock (1865–1935) and Mary Agnes Chase (1869–1963). The collection is on indefinite loan to Hunt Institute<ref>{{cite web|url=http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Art/HitchcockChase.shtml |title=Hunt Institute Art: Hitchcock-Chase Collection |access-date=June 21, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109063034/http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Art/HitchcockChase.shtml |archive-date=November 9, 2013 }}</ref> from the Smithsonian.

Hitchcock edited and distributed two exsiccatae, namely ''Plants of Kansas<ref>{{cite web |title=Plants of Kansas |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=1195172351 |access-date=7 August 2024 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München}}</ref>'' and ''American grasses''.<ref>{{cite web |title=American grasses from the U. S. National Herbarium, Smithsonian Institution |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=661924480 |access-date=7 August 2024 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München}}</ref>

== Publications == * [https://archive.org/details/manualofgrasseso243hitc Manual of the Grasses of the West Indies] – Miscellaneous Publication #243, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington DC (1936) * [https://archive.org/details/manualofgrasseso200hitc Manual of the grasses of the United States] – Miscellaneous Publication #200, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington DC (1935) * [https://archive.org/details/amanualfarmgras00hitcgoog A Manual of Farm Grasses] (1921) * [https://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/sets/72157626380028651/ A.S. Hitchcock Field Books, a set on Flickr]

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == *{{wikisource author-inline}} *{{Commonscat-inline}} *{{Wikispecies-inline|Albert Spear Hitchcock}}

{{Presidents of the Botanical Society of America|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchcock, A. S.}} Category:American taxonomists Category:1865 births Category:1935 deaths Category:Agrostologists Category:Smithsonian Institution people Category:United States Department of Agriculture officials Category:Botanical Society of America Category:Kansas State University faculty Category:19th-century American botanists Category:20th-century American botanists Category:Iowa State University alumni