Help Dating this Handwritten Botany Notebook

[DaftCharlie]

Hi everyone!

I found this gorgeous handwritten botany notebook on Long Island, though it's not necessarily from there. It appears to be a child's school book, but I'm just guessing (the name on the front seems to be "Mattie. R. Harrison").

I'd love to find out around when this was made but my book research skills are still pretty limited. I read it front to back and couldn't find a single date, unfortunately. Any help at all would be immensely appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

 

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[CreakyDigger]

The label on the front is most likely from Samuel Ward Company, a stationary firm active in Boston from 1868 to 1913, when their name was changed to Samuel Ward Mfg. Company. I would place that notebook 1880-1900.

 

[DaftCharlie]

Thank you so much for this info! Try as I might, I could NOT find out what "S. W. Co." was. VERY helpful!

 

[Red-Coat]

Welcome to Tnet

Nice thing to have. Just to support that dating, the text at the bottom of the left-hand page in your fourth picture uses the botanical term “Haustoria” (for which the singular is “haustorium”) in reference to parasitic roots.

I think it was first coined around 1837, didn’t really begin appearing in anything other than highly specialised scientific research literature until about 1875 and certainly wasn’t in common use (even among botany scholars) until the very late 1890s/early 1900s.

 

[DaftCharlie]

Welcome to Tnet

Nice thing to have. Just to support that dating, the text at the bottom of the left-hand page in your fourth picture uses the botanical term “Haustoria” (for which the singular is “haustorium”) in reference to parasitic roots.

I think it was first coined around 1837, didn’t really begin appearing in anything other than highly specialised scientific research literature until about 1875 and certainly wasn’t in common use (even among botany scholars) until the very late 1890s/early 1900s.

OH WOW! What an amazing and informative response! I can't thank you enough for this! I was actually in the process of trying to search for information just like this but I am such an amateur when it comes to Botany that I had no idea where to start.

Thank you SO much. Fascinating, helpful, and I learned so much!

Both posts here got me more information than I could have hoped for. Thanks, guys!!

 

[Red-Coat]

You're welcome. When it comes to dating things, there's always more than one way to skin a cat. This is from the "educalingo" website:

 

[DaftCharlie]

I've also been looking into the particular plants to see where they would have been native and find a common denominator. I don't know how accurate that would be but might give me some hints.

Also wanted to share a fun find from my morning research. Of course, this could just be a wild coincidence but a fun find nonetheless! This newspaper article is from 15 JUL 1881, Kansas. I also went back to check if there was a "Mattie R. Harrison" (the name on the book) in Kansas at the time and there was. Fun! Who knows!