Nathaniel Lord Britton and the Making of the Scientific Survey of Puerto Rico

Nathaniel Lord Britton, founding Director-in-Chief of The New York Botanical Garden, was the major catalytic and organizing force in The Scientific Survey of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.  Begun in 1913 under the auspices of The New York Academy of Sciences, this monumental survey of the physical and natural history of these islands spanned four and a half decades and it resulted in the publication of nineteen volumes.  N. L. Britton’s own research focused naturally on plants, and together with his bryologist wife Elizabeth G. Britton, and building on their research expeditions begun in Puerto Rico in 1906, and on those expeditions of their predecessors, by 1933 the Brittons had made sixteen expeditions to Puerto Rico, resulting in more than 10,000 plant collections that resulted in at least 38 species new to science.  As central as N.L. Britton was to documenting the plants of these islands, his even greater legacy with respect to the Survey was as a master organizer, persuader, fundraiser, diplomat, and bio-politician.   Thus, this paper will not only consider N.L. Britton’s botanical legacy regarding the Survey, but also the key individuals he inspired and recruited to the effort from natural science disciplines including zoology, geology, paleontology, ecology, mycology, and archaeology.  Finally, the paper will conclude with an assessment of the significance of the Survey in the history of natural science exploration and discovery in the 20th century.