Captain Edmund Kirby Smith (1824-1893) was born on May 16, 1824, and was an American soldier who served in the Mexican-American War and later in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Smith developed an interest in plant collecting during the U.S.-Mexico Boundary Survey when soldiers were urged to assist field naturalists. From 1852 until 1855, Smith collected plants with the survey under botanist and naturalist George Thurber. He later became involved in the telegraph business. From 1866-1868 he was president of the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company. He also became president of the Western Military Academy in Tennessee, then chancellor of the University of Nashville from 1870-1875. Finally, he was a professor of mathematics at the University of the South at Sewanee from 1875-1893. He died on March 28, 1893.
Source:
Library of Congress. NACO. Control Number: n 91011017
Smith, Edmund Kirby (1824-1893). In JStor Plant Science. Accessed April 9, 2012 at http://plants.jstor.org/person/bm000036722
Related entities:
University of the South: He was a professor of mathematics at the University of the South at Sewanee from 1875-1893.
