# Horace Mann Jr.

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**Horace Mann Jr.** (February 25, 1844 – November 11, 1868) was an American [botanist](/source/Botany), son of [Horace Mann](/source/Horace_Mann). His mother was one of the famous Peabody Sisters [Mary Tyler Peabody Mann](/source/Mary_Tyler_Peabody_Mann). Mentored in [botany](/source/Botany) by [Henry David Thoreau](/source/Henry_David_Thoreau), whom he accompanied on an expedition to [Minnesota](/source/Minnesota), Mann took classes in [zoology](/source/Zoology) with [Louis Agassiz](/source/Louis_Agassiz) and assisted [William Tufts Brigham](/source/William_Tufts_Brigham) on a botanical survey of the [Hawaiian Islands](/source/Hawaiian_Islands). Mann was to have headed the botanical garden at [Harvard](/source/Harvard), but died of [tuberculosis](/source/Tuberculosis) at age twenty-four. His own herbarium was purchased by [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University) and became the basis of that university's collection. He is credited with the discovery of more than 100 species.

## Early years

Horace Mann Jr. was born in [Boston](/source/Boston) on February 25, 1844. He was the eldest of three sons of education reformer [Horace Mann](/source/Horace_Mann) and his second wife, [Mary Tyler Peabody Mann](/source/Mary_Tyler_Peabody_Mann), and the grandson of [Nathaniel Peabody](/source/Nathaniel_Peabody_(Boston)). Mann was educated by his parents, who believed in teaching through hands-on study, at home in [West Newton, Massachusetts](/source/West_Newton,_Massachusetts). In 1853, the family moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where the elder Horace Mann established [Antioch College](/source/Antioch_College). Although not old enough for college enrollment when first they arrived, young Horace had an inquisitive mind and was exposed to state of the art scientific learning.[1]

As a youth, Horace's interests ran to science, exploration and travel. After completing his first year of college at Antioch in 1859, Mann spent several weeks in the [Boston](/source/Boston_Massachusetts) home of [Samuel Gridley](/source/Samuel_Gridley_Howe) and [Julia Ward Howe](/source/Julia_Ward_Howe).[2]

Upon his father's death due to [typhoid fever](/source/Typhoid_fever) in 1859, the family returned to their mother's home-state of Massachusetts and the village of [Concord](/source/Concord,_Massachusetts), renting for a time the home of Mann's aunt and uncle, [Nathaniel](/source/Nathaniel_Hawthorne) and [Sophia Hawthorne](/source/Sophia_Hawthorne), known as [The Wayside](/source/The_Wayside).[3]

## Education and scientific studies

In 1861, Mann accompanied [Henry David Thoreau](/source/Henry_David_Thoreau) on a journey of exploration and discovery that took them to [Minnesota](/source/Minnesota), where it was believed the climate would benefit Thoreau's [tuberculosis](/source/Tuberculosis).[4] Thoreau had been one of the young man's mentors in examination of the natural world. The pair left Concord, Massachusetts on May 11, 1861 and arrived at [St. Paul](/source/Saint_Paul,_Minnesota) on May 26. Thoreau's health continued to decline, however, and they returned to Concord on July 11.[5]

That fall, Mann began studies at [Lawrence Scientific School](/source/Harvard_School_of_Engineering_and_Applied_Sciences) at [Harvard College](/source/Harvard_College),[6] taking lessons in zoology with [Louis Agassiz](/source/Louis_Agassiz). Mann studied and taught botany under [Asa Gray](/source/Asa_Gray).[7] Gray was grooming Mann to replace him as Harvard's botany professor until Mann died.[8]

In 1864, Horace Mann accompanied [William Tufts Brigham](/source/William_Tufts_Brigham) on a botanical survey of the [Hawaiian Islands](/source/Hawaiian_Islands), where they discovered more than 100 plant taxa new to science, including *[Cyanea lobata](/source/Cyanea_lobata)* or the genera *[Platydesma](/source/Platydesma)* and *[Alsinidendron](/source/Alsinidendron)*. The Hawaiian fern *[Diellia mannii](/source/Diellia_mannii)* is named in Mann's honor.[9] Mann graduated Harvard in 1867, writing his thesis on the topic of Hawaiian flora; titled *Enumeratio of Hawaiian Plants*, it was published in 1867.[7]

## Death and legacy

It was Asa Gray's hope that Horace Mann become his successor at the botanical garden and in the botany department at Harvard University in 1868,[8] but Mann died of tuberculosis on November 11, the same day that he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10] He left unfinished his *Flora of the Hawaiian Islands.* Mann's personal herbarium of ca.12,500 sheets was purchased in 1869 by [Andrew Dickson White](/source/Andrew_Dickson_White); it was the first accession into the [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University) Herbarium and forms the original nucleus around which the Cornell University herbarium grew.[11] In addition to *Enumeratio of Hawaiian Plants*, Horace Mann, Jr., wrote other works in regard to Hawaiian flora, including *Flora of the Hawaiian Islands* and *Analysis of the Hawaiian Flora*, which was finished by William Tufts Brigham and published after Mann's death.

## References

1. Smith, Corinne Hosfeld, *Westward I Go Free: Tracing Thoreau's Last Journey*, Green Frigate Books, Winnipeg, Manitoba and Sheffield, Vermont, 2012, pp. 14-15

1. Smith, Corinne Hosfeld, *Westward I Go Free: Tracing Thoreau's Last Journey*, Green Frigate Books, Winnipeg, Manitoba and Sheffield, Vermont, 2012, pp. 16-17

1. Smith, Corinne Hosfeld, *Westward I Go Free: Traching Thoreau's Last Journey*, Green Frigate Books, Winnipeg, Manitoba and Sheffield, Vermont, 2012, p.17

1. [John T. Flanagan](/source/John_T._Flanagan), *Thoreau in Minnesota*, *Minnesota History* 16 (March 1935): 35--46

1. Harding, Walter, *The Days of Henry Thoreau*, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1965, pp. 445-451.

1. Harding, Walter, *The Days of Henry Thoreau*, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1965, p. 451.

1. Cornell University, Herbarium of the L.H. Bailey Hortorium, *Horace Mann*, is on line at [\[1\]](https://www.bhort.bh.cornell.edu/mann.htm)

1. Dupree, A. Hunter (1988). *Asa Gray, American Botanist, Friend of Darwin*. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 326, 337, 341–342. ISBN 978-0-801-83741-8.

1. Stafleu, Frans A. and Cowan, Richard S, *Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition, vol. 3*, 1981, pp.278-279

1. Hastings, Emiko, Biography in Finding Aid for Horace Mann, Jr., Papers, Manuscripts Division, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, 2008, is available on line at [\[2\]](http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsmss/umich-wcl-M-470man?view=text)

1. ["Horace Mann Papers, Library of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University"](https://web.archive.org/web/20020226182503/http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/Libraries/). Archived from [the original](http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/Libraries) on 2002-02-26. Retrieved 2013-10-16.

- [Mann, Horace, 1844-1868. Manuscripts by Horace Mann, 1860?-1868: A Guide](http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~gra00039)

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