Why does George Post Matter?

As a student of the Middle Eastern flora, I had long been aware of Post's contribution to the botany and ecology of the region. But it was only after spending a semester working in the Post Herbarium while a visiting professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB) that I began to gain an understanding of this remarkable man. As a result of this interest, I am gathering data on his education and personal life. Because Post was accountable to a mission board, documentation of his activity as a missionary and as a faculty member at a mission college, The Syrian Protestant College (modern day American University of Beirut), is available through the archives of AUB. Other data is more difficult to obtain. Until I study his letters, examine his university records, and obtain other data I cannot produce a meaningful biography.

In the meantime, here are a few additional facts about Post:

1. In 1877, he wrote Edmond Boissier, the great botanist at Geneva, to ask his help in preparing a flora of the Holy Land. Boissier was the author of Flora Orientalis, a multi-volume work on the flora of western Asia. Post's copy of Flora Orientalis was heavily used and contains numerous notes and comments. The collaboration with Geneva continued until about 1900 when there was apparently a falling out between Post and Eugene Autran.

2. Post's links with Geneva, the city of the great Reformer John Calvin, are all the more interesting because of Post's ecclesiastical position as a Calvinist in the American Puritan Presbyterian tradition.

3. Toward the end of his life, his Puritanical side was ameliorated. While at a health spa in Germany in 1899 he writes glowingly of the shops, dress, and music he was enjoyingBnot typical fare in a Calvinist diet.

4. Post's botanical activities were of necessity subordinate to his responsibilities as a Professor of Surgery at Beirut, devotion to church activities, and in his role as a fund raiser for the college. It was therefore important for him to seek counsel from established botanists.

5. Voucher specimens of the species he described are deposited mainly in Beirut and Geneva with a few at the British Museum. Several taxa were drawn by Post but these survive only in the herbaria at Geneva and Beirut.

6. In addition to Latin, Post was fluent in Arabic and corresponded with botanists at Geneva in both English and French. He apparently also knew German. I am preparing an index of his letters at Geneva.

7. Generally regarded by those who describe his teaching style as autocratic and impatient, Post shows a compassionate side in a letter to William Barbey (son-in-law of Boissier and also a botanist in Geneva) when Barbey's daughter died.

8. Post was a chaplain for the 15th Regiment of New York Volunteers for two years.

9. Many of the specimens in the Post Herbarium were obtained through an exchange program administered by Horace Mann, Jr (1844-1868). Mann, son of Horace Mann the famous founder of American education, was a student of Asa Gray at Harvard University. He wrote his bachelor's thesis on the flora of the Hawaiian Islands. Mann apparently carried on an extensive correspondence with prominent North American botanists although I have not yet located Horace Mann, Jr's correspondence. Specimens from these botanists are frequently found in the Post Herbarium.

So What is Significant About Post?

From the standpoint of Christianity, Post is an important figure as he came of age during the Second Great Awakening that had a profound influence in his home city of New York. This may have been the impetus of his life long desire to be a missionary.

He took this calling in the sense of service, not just in conversion. This is consonant with the teachings of the Old School Presbyterians of his day and obviously had a great influence on the way he viewed his work. Theology of this sort teaches that all the activities of the person contribute to the furthering of the Kingdom of God, not just those which may outwardly appear Christian. For example, as a steward of the earth it is important to understand the living things that God has placed on His earth.

Botanically, Post bridges the period from Flora Orientalis to the present. Modern day botanists would look askance at his typological philosophy based, like Boissier, on rejecting the Darwinian hypothesis. Perhaps for this reason Post thought many taxa were new to science because they presented morphological discontinuity from other taxa. Many of his specimens are marked ASp. novum@ but when these were examined in Geneva many were culled and never described as unique because the Genevese botanists had access to a large herbarium with specimens exhibiting variation.

26 November 2003